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The top cover is removable and it also acts as exhaust ventilation. Between the mesh and those “angled air vent blades” is a foam-like filter that prevents dust from coming in. Or I could be wrong, and it’s actually a noise dampening foam that keeps the system nice and quiet. The Node 804 features a clean and elegant looking aluminum brushed front cover with mesh for air ventilation at the lower portion. Only the motherboard chamber is windowed, I wish they also made the storage/PSU chamber windowed as well.
TO BE USED FOR A NAS
Fractal Design Node 304 review bit-tech.net - bit-tech.net
Fractal Design Node 304 review bit-tech.net.
Posted: Wed, 19 Sep 2012 07:00:00 GMT [source]
These are excellent for holding up to eight hard drives (four in each), but there's no support for hot-swapping. To remove a hard drive, you need to extract the bracket as a whole. The front panel can be easily removed by pulling it away from the main chassis to reveal the four fan mounts and dual dust filter setup. The two side panels are secured to the Node 804 using screws, and once those are extracted, you have unobstructed access to pretty much everywhere inside the case. You might be wondering why those two SSDs are installed in a vertical position. Well, you can install two SSD or HDD on the base of the motherboard chamber.
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Interestingly, when throwing a PC together inside the Node 804, careful planning of cable management needs to occur to avoid creating a hot mess. Having the PSU and main storage array located behind the motherboard and other components helps keep everything simple. The side panels are easy to remove and Fractal Design provides ample space for installing a full-size ATX power supply, as well as up to 10 drives in the two removable drive trays.
Water cooling compatible
Choosing the best PC case for your DIY NAS can be a little daunting at first. There are so many PC cases out there, yet so few come with more than a handful of drive bays. Enter the Fractal Design Node 804 with its mightily impressive 10 drive bays.
So if you're wanting to create your own server at home (or for the office), read on to find out why I recommend you purchase one of these for your next build.
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You can install a motherboard up to a Micro ATX size, and Fractal Design includes pretty much everything you’ll need to install everything. Moving onto the interior of Node 804 and there’s plenty of space to use for building your dream NAS. Like the outer shell of the case, all inside panels and components are painted black for a sleek finish.
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So long as you’re planning to install such an array of hard drives, this case could be the ideal pick. This showcases how the inside of the Fractal Design Node 804 is sectioned as we’ll get into shortly. The left-side panel has an acrylic window and underneath the chassis, you’ll locate two additional dust filters. With all fans installed, the case will have negative pressure. There are actually several things that I like about the Fractal Design Node 804.
Max height CPU fan
When I say flexible, you can use this case to build an HTPC, a NAS system, a compact gaming PC, or a custom water cooled PC. ’s excellent Shadow Rock 3 is used to keep the processor in check and a total of six fans were installed for use and benchmarking. TrueNAS SCALE was installed on a PCIe 4.0 NVME SSD and we tried out 2.5-inch SSDs as well as 3.5-inch mechanical drives to try out the various supported applications.
Not sure why they decide not to include the reset button; but come to think of it, I didn’t use the reset button even with my other cases. All of these cube cases support microATX motherboards and larger GPUs, so it largely comes down to price, storage requirements, and design. This is more of a niche category, much like a small form factor chassis. Thermaltake's Core V21 is another fine cube case that would also make for a good NAS box or gaming PC case, but it doesn't support as many 3.5-inch drives as the Node 804 from Fractal Design. Something to bear in mind with the Fractal Design Node 804 is the nature of the HDD cages.
Above are photos of the front (with the front panel removed) and rear view of the case. Both left and right chambers are protected by dust filters in front of the case. On the rear side, the rear exhaust of the storage/PSU chamber supports 120mm or 140mm fans, while the other chamber only supports 120mm fan exhaust. This isn't a super-compact chassis, measuring in at 307mm x 344mm x 389mm with an internal volume of 40 liters. This does allow one to install plenty of hard drives, which will be immediately apparent as soon as the side window panel is removed.
The Node 804 supports water cooling solution as well, both AIO closed loop and custom water cooling. I used a Corsair Hydro H105 to demonstrate the areas where you can install the radiator. You can install a 240mm radiator on top or in front of the motherboard chamber. One limiting factor when installing the radiator with fan on top of the case is the heatsink of your memory. If you are using a memory with tall heatsink, it might interfere with the fan or radiator. If that is the case, you will need to place the radiator and fan in other location.
However the dust filter for the PSU can only be removed towards to opposite direction. Again, above are the top and bottom view of the Node 804 with hardware installed. Oh, almost forgot to mention this, there is an HDD white led indicator located in the bottom portion of the front panel.
AnandTech has reviewed several Fractal Design cases in the past, from ITX cases to super-tower behemoths. A loyal reader would find it hard not to notice the striking visual similarity between the Node 304 and the Node 804, but these two cases however are nothing alike. The Node 804 is designed to house a powerful Micro-ATX gaming system, placing it in direct confrontation with cases such as the Corsair Carbide 240 Air. Is the Swedish minimalistic design that retails for $92 capable of facing the competition in the North American market? The Fractal Design Node 804 retails for about $125, which is a fair price to pay for a premium setup. The chassis may show its age in areas, being almost a decade old (hence the availability of a CD ROM bay), but it’s still worth considering even in 2022.
It’s secured, but thankfully Fractal opted not to use those pesky plugs often found in older (or more affordable cases) that can be a real pain. At the end of the day, a PC case like the Node 804 is really a matter of personal preference and will also depend on the type of setup that you want to build. There’s no “one size fits all” in terms of PC case and you can’t benchmark it like a graphics card or solid state drive. But when it comes to cube type cases that are currently in the market, I would definitely choose the Node 804. The dust filter underneath the motherboard area is easy to remove, since you only need to pull it towards the rear.
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