Fractal Design Node 605 HTPC Case Review
Introduction and Technical Specification
Published: 2nd January 2013 | Source: Fractal Design | Price: £139 |
Introduction
Swedish company Fractal Design have already embedded themselves firmly into the extremely competitive world of PC components and in particular PC cases. With products such as the Arc, Core and Define (now in it's 4th iteration), their designs leaning heavily towards sleek and understated, with a firm "less is more" underpinning the company mission statement. With the groundwork already completed and their ability to produce strong silent high quality cases it is then perhaps not surprising to see them add an HTPC case to their product line up. The Node 605 is able to accept Micro and Mini ITX along with DTX and more importantly ATX boards. It's also able to accept GPUs up to 290mm so there should be no problem finding a home for all but the very largest graphics cards. With those two boxes ticked it looks very likely that although the Node 605 is aimed at the HTPC market, it may well be able to house a pretty powerful system, perhaps enabling Hi-Res Living room gaming on a system that will please "She who wears the trousers"
Technical Specification.
We're seen that the Node doesn't limit us too much with regards to our choice of Motherboard and GPU, but what about the rest of the features? Well we're please to say the good news continues.
| motherboard compatibility | ATX, microATX, Mini ITX, DTX |
| expansion slots | 7 |
| HDD / SSD | 4 - supports either 2.5" or 3.5" |
| Optical storage | 1 slim-line ODD (only supported with mATX or smaller motherboards) |
| Case dimensions | (W x H x D): 445 x 164 x 349 mm |
| Net weight | 6,0 kg |
| Cooling / ventilation | 5 (3 - 120mm + 2 - 80mm) 2 – 120mm Silent Series R2 fans included |
PSU compatibility:
180 mm (including any modular connectors) with both hard drive cages mounted or 190 mm (excluding cables and any modular connectors) with one hard drive cage mounted
CPU cooler compatibility:
Approx 125mm with side-mounted fans - For coolers with top-mounted fans, Fractal Design recommends that you add at least 30 mm clearance for decent airflow
Graphics card compatibility:
290 mm in the top two ATX expansion card slots with two hard drive cages mounted
280 mm in the top four ATX expansion card slots with one hard drive cage mounted, containing one 3.5" HDD and one 2.5" SSD
Features
Removable air filters for side fans and PSU
Integrated three-channel fan controller
Front interface
2 - USB 3.0
1 - FireWire (IEEE 1394)
1 - 3.5mm audio in (microphone)
1 - 3.5mm audio out (headphone)
Power button with LED
HDD LED
Most Recent Comments
This might be a nice case for my dads pc that I'll be building in a few months... he wants something really compact. I'll have to read through this once I get home!
Any idea if a h100 could fit along the left hand side ?
(edit)
I guess it should looking at the specs - 164mm height and the h100 rad is 120mm, might need a bit of modding though...
Who the heck has a VHS now days?
But it does look like a nice clean and functional/preforming case.
Not often you get them all together you either have looks or air flow.
Nice review.
the case just looks amazing, it would be ideal for a htpc
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Originally Posted by elarchidos
I really would be interested whether space between Mobo and inner-side of the case is wide enough to fit 27mm deep radiator for water AIO cooling. I would place a fan outside with dust filter on top of It. I did write to Fractal Design, unfortunately no response. Would reviewer be so kind to measure It for us? posible
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If you wanted to you could easiy mod the side of the case to accept both the rad and the fan externally, or even round the back by modding one of the 80mm fan grills.
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Originally Posted by G-Dubs
Hi. A pleasure to help but the news is not good I'm afraid. The gap is actually 26mm with the motherboard I have used. Just enough room for a fan and a tiny gap to the edge of the mobo. a 27mm deep rad is probably a no go unless you were prepared to shave a bit of the edge of your mobo. Even if the distance were great enough you'd still have to factor in the lugs on the ports of the rad which tend to stock out a bit more than the rest of the body. Youcan see the size of the gap betweeen the 25mm thick fan and the mobo on the first 2 images of page 5 of the review.
If you wanted to you could easiy mod the side of the case to accept both the rad and the fan externally, or even round the back by modding one of the 80mm fan grills. |
You could perhaps argue that a lot depends in this case as to whether you're going to be running a toasty GPU in the case. If you are i'd have the fans sucking cool air in as it won't heat up too much coming over the rad and will extracted along with the hot air from the gpu on the other side. If you're not running a hot GPU then i'd be tempted to go for blowing air out from inside as the air going over the rad won't be too hot.
Love the reason for buying the case
Hand luggage,not heard that one before
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