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

by Dustin Sklavos on January 1, 2013 12:01 AM EST

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Assembling the Fractal Design Node 605

The Fractal Design Node 605, when opened up, looks like it's going to be pretty easy to assemble a system inside. Thankfully that turned out to be true; the Node 605 is probably the easiest media center case I've ever built. What absolutely must be kept in mind is something I mentioned earlier: the Node 605 supports a lot of different hardware, but it does not necessarily support it all at once. So while you can definitely mount an ATX motherboard in the Node 605, the heatsink on our ATX/MicroATX testbed wouldn't fit, so as with the SilverStone Grandia GD07 I elected to go with the mITX testbed. That turned out to be absolutely the right choice when testing came around.

Fractal Design doesn't have any studs or standoffs pre-installed, so you'll have to put those in for your motherboard yourself. This is a convenience I've been starting to see on less and less expensive cases, and given the high price of the Node 605 I'm tempted to ding them at least a little for not including it. Getting the motherboard in and everything hooked up was fairly simple, though, but note that cable management is basically non-existent in this case.

Installing the power supply was easy, too, but where things got heady was when I installed the GeForce GTX 560 Ti. To install a video card, it's best practice to remove the bar in the center of the case with the two drive cages so you have more room. Where things got dicey was when I had to reinstall the bar: the top-mounted power leads for the 560 Ti actually conflicted with the bar. You can see in the photo how clearance became an issue.

The drive cages themselves are easy enough to use, as Fractal Design carried over the design from the Node 304. What I said about the Node 605 supporting a lot of hardware but not necessarily simultaneously comes up again here; take a look at the clearance issues potentially posed by the placement of the drive cages.

Gallery: Fractal Design Node 605 Assembly

Wiring the Node 605 up was easy, but as I said there's virtually no allowance made for cable management. You can see that the leads from the power supply run in front of the fan and circle around to the motherboard. Some zip-ties could certainly go some of the way towards cleaning up cabling, but there's just nowhere to put the cables themselves. What I'd really like to see is an HTPC enclosure that has space beneath the motherboard tray for routing cables.

Putting the Node 605 together resulted in a couple of hiccups but nothing serious. Just because the case can fit a full ATX motherboard doesn't mean you should, though; the mITX board looks roughly the right size and I'd hesitate to install anything bigger than a Micro-ATX board. It's true that using a Micro-ATX or ATX board with the PCIe x16 slot one space down might alleviate clearance issues with the center retaining bar, but remember that you then have to contend with the drive cages, and in my assembly I'm already working with one of them missing.

In and Around the Fractal Design Node 605 Testing Methodology

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Gigantopithecus - Tuesday, January 01, 2013 - link
The 605 I have came with both its case fans mounted in the two anterior spaces. This was puzzling as it meant the air flowed from one side to the other at the front of the case, and not directly over the board and CPU. Moving the fan on the CPU side to the rear mount, thus putting it in a better spot to exhaust CPU-heated air, greatly mitigates the concerns noted in the review. Reply
randinspace - Tuesday, January 01, 2013 - link
I've given up hoping that AT's reviewers will bother experimenting with fan placement/optimization so that we won't have to... but it SURE WOULD be nice, wouldn't it? Reply
kevith - Tuesday, January 01, 2013 - link
I suggested that once, and recieved a sligtly angry answer, that everybody will have a different fan as their favourite, and so the comments would flow over with remarks like "Why that fan and not this, it´s much better" etc.

I can see their point, but is it that hard? Pick out a fan in three different sizes and say: "THESE are the fans that WE use, period! Now we gave you a pretty good idea, how the case performs with all fan mounts in use, and especially the DIFFERENCE in performance from the stock number of fans. If YOU feel other fans are better, go ahead and use them."

In this case, it COULD make a huge difference, as Dustin also points out. And what´s the review worth then?:

"Here is a case. It has a lot of empty/blinded fan mounts, that, if used, probably will have a huge impact on heat and noise. We won´t use them, though. So you´l have to buy the case and perform your own review, to get the picture of this enclosures actual performance..."

With that said, I´d never abandon neither AT nor Dustin´s reviews over this, though, it´s still one of the very best places to search for knowledge on new products.

And the guys over at SPCR has dedicated themselves to very thorough case reviews with a heavy emphasis on heat/noise and different fans and fan placement. If a case shows potential to be both quiet and effective, there will surely be a review of it there in near future.

SO, thanks for all the reviews in 2012, Dustin, look forward to more great stuff in 2013.

Happy New Year! Reply
TokamakH3 - Tuesday, January 01, 2013 - link
A $159 case should come with all the fans necessary to achieve optimal performance, period. If I'm going bargain basement, it makes sense to have to play around with fans. At this price point, it's inexcusable. Reply
Talion83 - Wednesday, January 02, 2013 - link
I agree. Yes everyone could argue that Dustin could spend more time putting different fans in and adjusting their position etc...but, and especially at the price point, that should be Fractual's job - not his.

He is reviewing the quality of the enclosure that was sent to him, as it was sent to him, by the company. There are other websites that specialize in customizing your rig, this isn't one of them. Reply
Tech-Curious - Wednesday, January 02, 2013 - link
Yup. At least Dustin notes, quite clearly, that there are extra fan mounts and that filling them would (almost certainly) fix the cooling problem. If I were in the market for an HTPC case that accepts ATX boards, I might be willing to pony up the ~$200 it would likely cost to buy the case and extra/better fans.

But it's well worth emphasizing that the case is not a good value at the $160 price point -- scarcely adequate in its stock configuration, in fact. Exhaustive testing of aftermarket cooling configurations might distract from that crucial message in the review. Reply
Aikouka - Wednesday, January 02, 2013 - link
So, you want Anandtech to stop testing a product as it comes and start modifying it prior, which throws off the results for any person wishing to actually purchase and use it out of the box? While this case might warrant further research into Fractal's poor placement, I do NOT think that modifying the case setup from stock is a good idea at all. Reply
Hemi345 - Wednesday, January 02, 2013 - link
I think what Randinspace meant was, maybe Dustin could try moving the fans it ships with around to the different locations. The Silverstone case that houses my HTPC only came with 2 fans for the 4 positions available. I moved one of them to intake next to the CPU for no extra cost and about 8C improvement on temps. I think anyone that buys or builds in a case like this would be willing to move/experiment with the included components.

But like has been mentioned by others... on a case this expensive, it should have included all the fans anyway. Reply
Aikouka - Tuesday, January 01, 2013 - link
It makes you wonder if they were trying to compete with Lian-Li as if I remember correctly, $150 is pretty much Lian-Li's price point for their tall HTPC case offerings. Although, aren't Lian-Li's cases typically ALL aluminum, which usually lets people justify a higher price tag? Reply
ypsylon - Tuesday, January 01, 2013 - link
Compared to Lian-Li this thing is a joke. Build quality cannot be compared to LL. Steel HTPC/Desktop case which cost 160$$$?! Somebody hold me before I explode with laughter.

:runningaroundincircleslaughinglikemad:

It has pretty much only one Pro: it can hold full ATX board which many of HTPC cases can't. Still LL or Silverstone have cases which can do same thing with far superior quality and features. Reply