Fractal Design Node 605 Case Review: Is Fractal Design Ready for Primetime?

Conclusion: Every Family Has One

Like many of you I've been a pretty big fan of Fractal Design's cases up to this point. Some of their designs underperformed a little, but the Define series have continued to be solid options for users looking to build a silent, decently-performing system. The smaller of the two Node cases, the 304, positively bristles with potential and offers solid thermals and acoustics to match. So what happened with the 605?

First, we'll start with what Fractal Design got right. The aluminum fascia and overall build quality is frankly top notch. This is a beautiful case and it feels very sturdy, so it at least looks like it belongs in your entertainment center. I'm also happy to see the integrated card reader, and though the FireWire port is bound to be mystifying to some users, I can see where they were going with it. Hiding the slimline optical drive bay behind that door in the front was also a great choice; many of these cases forget that the activity light on an optical drive will blink regularly while you're watching a DVD or blu-ray, and being able to hide that is a surprisingly important convenience.

The Node 605 is also incredibly simple to assemble. It may not be toolless, but it's not too complicated to put together, and I never had to look at the instruction manual during testing.

So where did Fractal Design go wrong? Even their weakest cases have typically been at least solid and usable, but the thermals of the Node 605 start off mediocre and get progressively worse, taking acoustics right along with them.

Interestingly, I think you can trace a decent amount of the problem to the price tag. Asking $159 for this case is ridiculous. This is actually the most expensive Fractal Design case on NewEgg by $40; they typically offer good value but that value is sorely lacking here. Even before you take thermals and acoustics into account, Fractal Design has priced themselves out of competition, so the fact that the fan intake next to the CPU is empty is inexcusable. To provide halfway decent performance, this case is going to need that fan.

Competing cases with comparable or superior performance (not to mention build quality) can be had closer to the $100 mark, and this is a territory SilverStone has staked out and served well. What Fractal Design needs to do to at least get the Node 605 competitive is to add that third fan, probably replace all of the fans with more efficient models (or at least figure out why these ones are underperforming as much as they are), and drop the price to $129 tops. At that point, you could make a convincing argument for the Node 605. As it stands, this is unfortunately the first real disappointment I've seen from Fractal Design, and can't be recommended.