| Fractal Design Node 304 Mini-ITX Case |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Cases | |
| Written by Tom Jaskulka | |
| Wednesday, 26 December 2012 | |
Fractal Design Node 304 Mini-ITX Case
Manufacturer: Fractal Design Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by Fractal Design. Everything is getting smaller. With today's emphasis on efficiency and mobility, and processors that do even more with much less power consumption, it is a trend that will probably continue. With the success of enclosures such as the BitFenix Prodigy and Coolermaster's Elite 120 Advanced, it is great to see other manufacturers embrace this trend and put their own innovations and ideas into the small form factor market. Choices are always a good thing for a customer, and Fractal Design brings their own blend of ITX with the Node 304. In the following pages, Benchmark Reviews will take a closer look at the ideas featured in the Fractal Design Node 304 FD-CA-NODE-304-BL Mini-ITX tower computer case. ITX and small form factor cases have always intrigued me. It is fascinating to watch different manufacturers take on different thermal and layout challenges that are always a result of cramming lots of performance into a very small space. The question for me (and for most enthusiasts) becomes "how much power can I cram in this thing?" While Fractal Design imagines the Node 304's purpose to be a file server, HTPC or powerful gaming system, my first question when looking at SFF enclosures is "what's the biggest graphics card I can fit in that thing?" followed quickly by "will it keep everything cool enough?" Given my experience with a Silverstone FT03 Mini, I can say I'm already excited by the big open filtered intake on the side and its benefits for cooling a powerful GPU. Let's take a closer look at what else can fit in the Node 304.
Although many reviews for small form factor systems cover thermals and features quite well, I'll only touch on those - my main focus on this particular review will be what can actually fit in the Node 304 and the lessons I learned building a system into this chassis. Node 304 Features
Node 304 SpecificationsTechnical specifications
Cooling / ventilation
Front interface
Source: Fractal Design Closer Look: Node 304Let's take a closer look: the first thing that struck me as I opened the packaging for the Node 304 (other than the box didn't take up the entire doorframe like the deceptively large Rosewill Thor V2 box) was the quality and texture of the paint covering the enclosure. I have a Fractal Design Core 3000 at home as well, and appreciated the rougher texture they use for the exterior of their cases. I can't say for sure if their other cases follow suit, but it's different enough from other cases I've owned to notice. While it makes it more difficult to quickly wipe off dust and fingerprints, it also hides dust and fingerprints much better, while giving the case a character all it's own - or perhaps I just prefer matte finishes. It is a texture that is hard to capture in pictures, and was one of the things I noticed first when I saw a Fractal Design case in person. I've mentioned before I'm a secret fan of glowy and shiny things. While I enjoy professional and sophisticated enclosures as well, most of the time they're just too "boring" for me. (That Rosewill Thor v2? The actuating fins at the top are my favorite feature.) Not so with the Node 304. I can't say for sure if it's the simple lines, the brushed aluminum look to the front panel, the contrast with white fans and other accessories, or the mesh patterns for the GPU intake and front fans that are so well blended into the frame, but the Node 304 is an eye-catching enclosure. There's a definite style at work here, and it isn't as boring as it may seem for what essentially amounts to a rectangular box. I'm not a graphic designer, so I'd welcome other perspectives on what does or does not catch the attention of the human eye - but all I can say is the Node 304 is one of those cases that looks better in person.
Taking a look inside, we can see Fractal Design has come up with a different and unique solution to the "ITX problem." With two 92mm fans up front, and a nice big 140mm fan for exhaust, this chassis should experience some decent airflow. Losing the optical drive frees up quite a bit of space, and is a design decision I absolutely welcome in small enclosures. Everyone uses a computer for different reasons, so some may lament this omission, but there's always USB external optical drives... In my opinion, what Fractal Design has done with the layout here more than justifies the loss of an external 5.25" bay.
Looking from the top of the enclosure, the white hard drive "hangers" are easily viewable, but their function is better understood by looking from the side. Those thumbscrews that secure the rear portion of the hard drive hangars to the frame do not need to be fully removed (only loosened) to detach the hangars - which is a welcome design choice. You'll see a pattern to these little choices when working in the Node 304 - it seems people that actually build systems helped design much of the layout. Each of the three hangers can mount two 3.5" or 2.5" drives. I don't have six 3.5" drives to mount in this enclosure on hand, which is something I really wanted to get a picture of, but I'll talk about that scenario later. You can see the hangers hang down to the top of the PSU bracket, which makes running cables across the top only possible if they sit right behind those 92mm fans. As you'll have to mount the full size ATX PSU so it exhausts out the right side, the cables will end up facing the left. If you have to get some of those cables back over to the right side of the motherboard, there isn't a route you can easily take. An extra 10mm of space in front of the PSU or between the PSU and motherboard would have done wonders, but as the ATX connector and 4-pin CPU connector are probably the only cables this would apply to, perhaps it isn't such a big deal.
Below, we see again the rear 140mm R2 series "Silent Series" hydraulic bearing fan. Notice the extra space on the left of motherboard, which does provide a nice channel to route those ATX and CPU power cables back to the PSU, with tie down points located along the top rail (a nice addition). On the top right of the picture, you can see the mechanism to secure PCI slots and the integrated 3 speed fan controller switch.
There are four thumbscrews for the top cover which is one piece. Some of these one piece covers are an exercise in frustration to get every edge to line up and latch correctly, and I'm happy to report this cover was one of the best of it's type I've seen. For those that install a machine and leave it, it isn't an issue - but for those who tinker constantly it's an important box to check (I live in fear of having to change a component in my Silverstone SG09, almost entirely because of the one piece, three sided top cover...). Node 304 Detailed Features - GPUsFractal Design recommends PSUs no longer than 160mm. This presents a unique tradeoff, as a case this small begs for a modular power supply to avoid having to find a place to stash those excess cables. However, most 160mm modular power supplies are going to start to encroach on the graphics card slot, so a 140mm modular PSU might be the best option. It seems that makes a high-output AND short PSU much more difficult to find - not impossible, it just means you have to do a little more research. Really, what this means is you are forced to make a choice - high output or modular connectors? If you want both, you'll be spending some money. Keep in mind that space "behind" the PSU is about the only place to stash extra cables, and depending on the video card, you won't be left with much. Add those 6 HDDs, along with a big graphics card, and you will probably be frustrated. Doable, manageable, but frustrating nonetheless. To be fair, if you want to "have it all," you probably aren't looking at ITX enclosures. What I'm trying to say here is you'll probably just have to choose if you want a high-powered gaming rig or a file server - which shouldn't be a hard choice. Now for the fun part - let's take a look and see what we can cram in this ITX machine:
First up - a Radeon 7770. The numbers are somewhat hard to read on that ruler, but this card extends about 17 cm into the case. The picture below depicts the tie down points and the small space between the motherboard and PSU pretty well.
While a 7770 or similar card is a great match for most ITX enclosures and builds, to truly build a gaming rig you'll want something a little more powerful. That brings us to a Radeon 7850, a "sweet-spot" card that will generate great performance for the power and heat it produces. The Node 304 has no problem fitting a card in this category as well, and it extends approximately 21cm into the chassis. Notice there is still quite a bit of room for leftover cables from the PSU with a card this size, although now you'll have to give up one of the hard drive hangers - reducing your capacity to four hard drives.
Here's where Fractal Design really surprised me with their Node 304 - it fits a Radeon 7970! At almost 30cm in length for this particular iteration of the high-end AMD GPU, you shouldn't experience any problems physically fitting a high-end card in this enclosure. A reference GTX 680 is ~27 cm, while a GTX 690 is closer to 29 cm. As you can see, there's still some room for length, so unless you get a card with a triple-wide slot, it'll probably fit just fine in the Node 304.
Powering and cooling the card you choose is a slightly different matter - while the intake on the side does a remarkable job of keeping cards cool, most power supplies that can accomodate the current draw for an overclocked Radeon 7970 don't fit into the 140mm short PSU category. Take a look at the final picture on this page - the gap between the 140mm Corsair CX430 and the Radeon 7970 doesn't leave you a lot of room to stash cables. It can be done, but plan your components carefully...
Here again you see the space for cables is limited. Read the specifications, there are some good tips there for choosing power supplies! Once again, you'll need to remove a HDD hanger as one side would descend directly into the middle of the GPU. Below you can see what it looks like with two hangers installed - there's still a pretty clear path for that 92mm fan to provide some cool air to the rest of the installed components without any hard drives in the way. 
The side vent for the GPU will provide most of the cool air to the graphics card, but the front-to-back airflow does a great job of speeding the exit of the warmer air generated by a larger graphics card. Node 304 Detailed Features: CPU CoolersOne of the major advantages this ITX enclosure provides in my opinion is the capacity for tower coolers. Fractal Design has done a great job allowing for a variety of coolers - while low power server builds would probably perform just fine with a stock CPU cooler, the ability to fit a large graphics card just begs for overclocking some components and squeezing as much performance as possible out of them. The Node 304 will handle those chores admirably for such a small enclosure - I chose an AM3 based ITX motherboard, as I could generate more heat with an unlocked Phenom II than with the other ITX motherboard I had on hand (an 1155 socket / H61 chipset). While it isn't surprising that there are far more 1155 boards available right now than AM3+ or FM2 socket ITX boards given the amount of power needed to be provided to the respective processors in such a small area, most Intel builds aren't going to require a tower cooler until you get up to the Z77 chipsets and unlocked CPUs. The spec sheet for the Node 304 says there's enough room for coolers up to 165mm in height, and my measurements say there's almost 180mm from top of CPU to the top of the frame. Of course, this is merely a height measurement, depending on the cooler and orientation of the socket on the motherboard you still might run into some clearance issues. Still, it's nice to know the chassis supports it, and the main restriction is going to come from the motherboard itself and where the socket is positioned in relation to the PCI-E slot. The crossbar for the hard drive hangers is sitting on top of the frame in this picture, so that 165mm spec is really to fit underneath the crossbar as well.
So what do some coolers look like in this enclosure? First up, a common design (Xigmatek Dark Knight II): the 120mm tower cooler. There's enough room in all directions for this type of cooler, and even enough to fit another 120mm fan for a push-pull configuration if desired. To be honest, that 140mm fan might be close enough to the tower to render it redundant, but it's nice to know (again) that Fractal Design's Node 304 will accomodate it if necessary.
Obviously, this front-to-back airflow would be ideal, but for this particular motherboard the socket is actually at a 90-degree angle to the ideal, resulting in the configuration in the second picture below. Again, it's nice to know this type of cooler will fit sideways as well, but you may start to run into some clearance issues with SATA power and data connectors to the hard drives.
Here is another type of cooler, a Thermaltake SpinQ with an 80mm "squirrel cage" type fan. The outside diameter is about 120mm, so it shows that even bulkier coolers can fit surprisingly well. Again, your main limitation here might end up being your motherboard and socket placement. Of course, with an all-in-one liquid cooler, you wouldn't run into any clearance issues on the motherboard...
And just for another example, the 135mm Zalman CNPS9900MAX-B CPU cooler.
This is one of those cases where a larger CPU cooler would not fit facing side to side. Although front to back airflow would obviously be ideal anyway, a side to side orientation might be the only way it would fit depending on the motherboard you choose.
Testing & ResultsTesting MethodologyMost of my testing was for clearances and the types of components you could fit in a chassis this size. I hope some of these pictures were helpful, and would welcome any comments for additional items or concentrations the readers of Benchmark Reviews would like to see. I hesitate to run any sound or temperature comparisons, as it would only apply to the exact system I have settled on building into this enclosure - I can compare subjectively to the other ITX enclosures I have experience with however, mainly the Silverstone FT03 Mini, as the two are roughly the same in volume. Take a look at a quick size comparison: 
Test System
ResultsIt was fascinating for me to see the different approaches each manufacturer took to design their respective ITX enclosures. While somewhat similar in build quality and volume, they couldn't be more different in layout and features. One features a stack effect cooling method, using a singular fan - the other, multiple vents, intakes, and three fans paired with a fan controller. One accomodates an ATX PSU, the other a SFF PSU. While one could place a Radeon 7850 into the FT03 Mini, that enclosure struggled a bit supplying cool air to the graphics card - although Silverstone does mention it recommends blower-type cards instead of the cooler commonly seen on the 7850. Running the 7770 in both enclosures at full power consumption (while mining bitcoin), the Node 304 managed to keep an overclocked 7770 almost 10C cooler than the FT03 Mini in the same room. I could substantially decrease the temperature of the video card by popping off the front panel of the FT03, where the temperatures would again be comparable between the two cases. This leads me to believe that GPU intake vent on the Node 304 is a welcome addition to anyone that wants to place a powerful GPU into a small case. It was my experience that it didn't appreciably increase noise either, as the fans on the graphics card did not need to spin as fast to keep the GPU cool. While this isn't a case comparison article, sometimes the best way to illustrate features is to compare with the other products in the market. Again, keep in mind the temperatures I experienced might vary from others - using a different PSU and CPU cooler (the FT03 doesn't have space for anything other than low-profile, stock, or liquid AIO coolers) between two different enclosures might have been enough to skew the results. I would have to create a standardized test system to more effectively draw any conclusions, but subjectively the Node 304 provides a cool running environment for whatever components you should choose. It is quiet as well - the loudest component in the final build pictured on the next page was the SpinQ CPU cooler. With a PWM fan attached to a 120mm CPU cooler, and the chassis fans on low the Node 304 is one of the quieter enclosures as well - no small feat considering how many heat generating components you can fit inside. Mini-ATX Final ThoughtsOverall, I came away very impressed with the Fractal Design Node 304. In addition to the great looking design aesthetic, the enclosure itself is arranged well and can accomodate a surprising variety of high-end components - some of which would struggle to fit in some micro or mid-tower ATX enclosures. While you'll probably have to choose between a gaming rig and a six HDD file server, I can't imagine there are too many buyers looking for an enclosure that can accomodate both of those roles equally well - at the same time. The Node 304 certainly excels at the roles mentioned by Fractal Design: turn the fans to low using the built-in fan controller, and you can easily cool six hard drives and have that quiet-running file server or HTPC. Turn up the fans, install a tower CPU cooler and a full-length enthusiast class GPU, and you can have a high-powered gaming rig as well. The many tie-down points along the top rails of the frame, with the tie down areas by the GPU help maintain the inevitable cable clutter you'll experience while building in a small enclosure. I could wish for a little more space between the motherboard and PSU for routing cables, but the way the ATX and 4-pin CPU cables are routed currently don't impede airflow or really get in the way whatsoever.
Fractal Design Node 304 ConclusionThe Node 304 performs incredibly well for such a small enclosure. I wouldn't hesitate to build a high-end gaming system into this case, with all the heat that such a build commonly produces. During my testing, temperatures stayed well within component limits - it was difficult to get past 65C for the 7850 at full load, and 48C for the CPU with the SpinQ cooler and fans set to high. It would be nice to have some direct airflow to the GPU (ability to mount fans on the side), but the combination of 92/140mm fans and filtered intakes do a wonderful job regardless. Using a full-size ATX power supply really allows for some flexibility, and makes it a simpler task to choose a unit capable of powering the wide range of components you can fit in the Node 304. Fractal Design really won me over with their approach to design. I can't quite put my finger on it - I love the way they've integrated the mesh intakes, and rounded the front panel ever so slightly. The power LED is done right - it won't blind you, and the HDD activity light is actually a white LED that points down, located under the "Fractal Design" logo seen in the picture above. The effect is stylish, unique, and well executed. The paint is good quality and a great texture, and the contrasting white accents are eye-catching. This is by far the least "exciting" chassis I have used, yet it is quickly becoming one of my favorites to look at. It truly is stylish enough to display, yet unobtrusive enough to blend in with almost any decor. The best part of ITX cases are their small size, making them easier to transport if necessary. The Node 304 is constructed very well - I've picked it up and carried it to a couple different places, and it feels solid and unyielding. I found it easy to bump the bottom-mounted removable PSU filter out of place (which, to be fair, is the point of a removable filter...) when carrying the Node 304, but that was the only part of the chassis that felt remotely unsecure. Even fully loaded with components, there was zero flex or give to any part of the case. There is no doubt working with this case that it is constructed well. ITX cases have previously been somewhat of a compromise. There weren't many options that fit full size GPUs or more than two hard drives - functionally the Node 304 is a unique solution to the thermal and layout problems that challenge small cases. While you still can't have it all, the number of roles this case will perform (and perform well) are a testament to the functionality available with the Node 304. Normally, the lack of an external 5.25" bay should detract from the functionality - but as many manufacturers are winding down their production of optical drives, and the Node 304 already includes a fan controller, I maintain that omitting this bay and making better use of the space is a good and forward-thinking decision. As of December 2012, the Fractal Design Node 304 is selling for $85.97 Amazon / $89.99 NewEgg. This is a fair price, considering the functionality and versatility of this enclosure. While mini-ITX is still by nature a niche market, it is beginning to catch on - and we have cases like the Bitfenix Prodigy and Node 304 to thank for that. However, you'll still pay a premium for mini-ITX components, so even though the amount of materials may be less than a full size ATX case you may pay more for overcoming those design and thermal challenges present in smaller cases. If I needed the smallest case possible to fit a gaming build, I feel the Node 304 would be a stylish solution. The Prodigy still takes the prize for a truly enthusiast capable build, due to it's space for watercooling and larger fans, but the case itself is also much larger. The FT03 Mini is a stylish performer as well, and takes up even less desktop real-estate due to its tower design, but it won't fit the types of components you can cram in the Node. Overall, the value for the price is right where I would expect it to be. I respect what Fractal Design has accomplished with the Node 304. The overall quality and the astonishing amount of space for high-end components really impressed me compared to many other enthusiast-class ITX enclosures on the market. If you like the style, it looks even better in person. In its category, and especially due to the types of builds this case will accomodate well, I feel Fractal Design deserves the Golden Tachometer award for their Node 304. Pros:
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Comments
So you would recommend the Zalman CNPS9900MAX-B as the best CPU cooler for this case? Not going to be doing any O/Cing
My planned setup:
Asrock Z77E-ITX MB
i7 3770
16gb RAM
ATI7850 XFX dual fan black edition
Zalman CNPS9900MAX-B cooler
Want to use for XBMC/Hyperspin so needs power but needs to be cool and quiet too....
Thanks!
I could certainly recommend the CNPS9900MAX as a CPU cooler, but "best for this case" depends on the orientation of the socket on the motherboard you choose - ideally, you'd want to keep the front-to-back airflow. The Zalman cooler has been tested to perform at or better than many of the top air coolers, so it's a great product in and of itself (there's a review on this site if you're willing to search for it). If you aren't going to overclock, and you're on the LGA1155 socket/platform, honestly I don't see much of a reason to use anything other than the stock cooler, unless the noise penalty is worth the price to you to go aftermarket.
With the motherboard you listed, you'll probably be forced to install the cooler "sideways," and I'm not certain you'd have the clearance for a 135mm fan in that direction. Again, each motherboard is diff! erent, so see if you can measure or borrow one from a friend if possible to make sure it'll fit.
The motherboard i'm not too concerned about as long as it has a CIR header so i can setup an IR remote to turn the system on/off as a HTPC. Is there anyway i can check which way the socket faces by looking at the MB before I buy one?