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Cooling 2 x 92mm front fan mounts (fan supplied), 1 x 120/140mm rear fan mount (140mm fan supplied) Fractal Design's Node 304 is in many ways a surprising jump forward in case design. We've seen SilverStone, BitFenix, Lian Li, and Cooler Master all try their hands at mITX cases with varying degrees of success, but there's just no set design language when you get down this small. The conventions we take for granted in ATX case design don't really apply here, but Fractal Design has tried for something fairly different with the Node 304, even by mITX standards. yyrkoon - Tuesday, November 27, 2012 - link May as well call it 300W peak after adding a HDD, and optical drive. a Tad more with an SSD in addition.
Product Sheet - Fractal Design
But, with clever placement, this PC case can blend into almost any living room. It might even fit into your entertainment center, though it’s quite a bit taller than most components. Still, it’s not much bigger than it needs to be. Conclusion
GLASS CPUs ARE COMING.
The PSU is installed on its side and the one thing to note is that the case supports PSUs up to 160mm total depth for non-modular designs; for modular designs, you need to find units of a maximum of 140mm deep. CPU Cooler: Intel heatsink from combo OR CoolerMaster V4 GTS (Optional) - I've it already from old PC Inside - undo the four thumbscrews and remove the cover - are three white drive cages each holding two drives in either 3.5 or 2.5-inch formats. Yes, that's right, an ITX case that can support six hard drives. The 3.5-inch drive mounts have rubber grommets fitted to help dampen down any noise. Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central (Image credit: Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central) You should buy this if ...
Fractal Design Node 304 White Mini ITX Case - Scan Fractal Design Node 304 White Mini ITX Case - Scan
Besides general file serving duties, primary use is to store older Photoshop / RAW files from my Lightroom catalog. Most of my photo editing work is done on my MacBook Pro (i.e. from high speed SSD), but with only 500 GB on the MBP, I have to move off older photos, which will get edited over the LAN from time to time. Media server duties will be modest - only occasional transcoding, and [almost] never to more than one device at a time. Some very light duty MySQL / web serving duties also. Whether you're looking to build your very own NAS or a more compact cube PC, the Fractal Design Node 804 is a solid choice. It has excellent cooling performance thanks to its array of vents and countless fan mounts. The ability to install up to 10 3.5-inch drives is also a highlight feature, especially for servers with a lot of data to hold. We've said it before but it bears repeating: desktop systems are getting smaller. ATX is becoming less and less necessary, and mini-ITX-based machines more and more offer the same performance and features that their bigger brothers do. That's just the direction of the technology industry as a whole, cramming everything we need into a space half as large. What's specific to cases is their own evolution running parallel with the technology we're putting into them. Against other mini-ITX cases housing our four drive server configuration, the Node 304 measured the loudest but the difference was small compared to the BitFenix Phenom and Chenbro SR30169, and the Node 304’s noise increase from the one to four drive configuration was modest. Also, vibration effects were substantially worse with the Lian Li PC-Q18 and BitFenix Phenom, to the point where this factor was more annoying than the airborne acoustics. The Node 304 also boasted the second lowest hard drive temperatures.I want to build with 6 HDDs, but I am concerned that the 304 is too small and the passively cooled C27540D4I may not get sufficient airflow with all 6 drives installed. I'm also interested in any comments on typical power consumption for this build.
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