Fractal Design Node 304 Mini-ITX Case Review

1. Introduction2. Fractal Design Node 304: Packaging and Bundle3. Fractal Design Node 304: Exterior4. Fractal Design Node 304: Interior and Installation5. Testing Methodology and Performance6. Closing Thoughts7. View All Pages

Today we are going to look at the Fractal Design Node 304, one of the companies first attempts at a small-form factor case.  It boasts an impressive feature set which includes support for six hard drives and an ATX power supply   There is also a fair amount of headroom for CPU coolers, making the Node 304 an ideal candidate for those looking to build a compact gaming system or powerful home-theatre PC.

Fractal Design have become well established in the case market over the past few years, after releasing a series of critically-acclaimed products including the impressive Define R4.  They are renowned for producing quiet running cases that also offer good cooling performance and excellent build quality.

Features

• Compact, modular interior.
• Minimalistic design with an elegant aluminum front panel.
• Unique new modular mounting system that accommodates up to 6 hard drives.
• Accommodates tower CPU coolers and single-fan water cooling systems.
• Filtered air intakes ensure a dust-free environment for internal components.
• Three Silent Series R2 hydraulic bearing fans included.
• Excellent cooling for all components.
• Accommodates ATX power supplies.
• Fan controller for all fans included.
• USB 3.0 for fast file transfers.

Specifications

• Mini ITX, DTX motherboard compatibility.
• 2 expansion slots.
• 6 – supports either 3.5″ or 2.5″ HDD / SSD.
• ATX PSUs, up to 160mm in length (To fit in combination with a long graphics card, PSUs with modular connectors on the back typically need to be shorter than 160 mm).
• Graphics cards, up to 310mm in length, when 2 HDD brackets are removed (Graphics cards longer than 170 mm will conflict with PSUs longer than 160mm).
• Tower CPU coolers, up to 165 mm tall.
• Case dimensions (W x H x D): 250 x 210 x 374 mm.
• Case volume: 19,5 Liters.
• Net weight: 4,9 kg.

The Node 304 is supplied in a relatively compact brown cardboard box which is decorated in a simple black livery.  There is a large picture of the case on the front of the box.

Turning the box around reveals a list of key features alongside a diagram illustrating them.  The box itself feels good quality and should provide a good deal of protection for the case in transit.

Inside the box, we find all the screws required for installation, alongside a comprehensive installation guide and a warranty notice.

The case itself occupies a rather unusual form factor.  It is slightly wider than a normal mid-tower case but is only around 25 cm tall.  This makes it ideal for those who want to build a home theatre PC that will fit next to their entertainment center.

Fractal Design have chosen to use a minimalistic brushed aluminium panel to finish the front of the case which features no vents or buttons.  This further contributes to our opinion that the Node 304 would make an excellent HTPC.

We find the front panel connections on the right side of the front panel at the bottom.  The basics are catered for, with two USB3.0 ports and headphone and microphone jacks.  The power button is also located here.

There is a large vent along the top edge of the case, which feeds the front intake fans with cool air.  There are also large vents in both the left and right sides of the case to supply the power supply and graphics card with plenty of airflow.  On the underside of the case, there is an additional vent to cool the power supply.

Around the back of the case there is a 140 mm exhaust fan vent which is populated with a Fractal Design branded fan running at 1,000 RPM.  There are also two expansion slots alongside the rear I/O connector, allowing this case to accommodate dual-slot graphic cards.

Accessing the inside of the Node 304 is a little different to how you open a standard mid-tower case as the sides and top of the case are all formed from one panel.  Once it's removed, you have full access to the insides.

When the case has been opened, the most obvious elements of the case are the hard drive caddies.  There are three in total which can take up to six 2.5″ or 3.5″ drives.  They can also be removed if required.

In the front of the case, there are two Fractal Design branded 92 mm intake fans which spin at 1,400 RPM.  These suck in cool air from the top of the case and blow it through the hard drive caddies.

In the rear of the case there is a 140 mm fan vent which would be ideal to fit a 120 mm or 140 mm factory-filled water cooling unit like the Corsair H80i or NZXT Kraken X40.

There isn't a lot of space to work with in the Node 304 so installation can be a bit tricky.  The components are packed so tightly together and can conflict with each other if not selected correctly.  For example, if you have a modular power supply, it will need to be less than 160 mm in length so that it doesn't conflict with the graphics card.

First of all we installed the ASRock Z77E-ITX motherboard into the system, followed by the Arctic Freezer 7 Pro CPU cooler and Kingston HyperX Genesis RAM.  Please note that most CPU coolers will need to be installed onto the motherboard before putting the motherboard into the system as there isn't a cut-out to install a backplate.  The Freezer 7 Pro secures using push-pins, though, so this isn't necessary.

We decided to use our Corsair GS800 power supply in this system which is a non-modular unit.  We initially tried to fit a Corsair HX850W but this conflicted with the graphics card, not leaving enough room for the cables to be plugged in.

Then we installed the AMD Radeon HD 7950 graphics card into the system.  This required us to cram it in next to the myriad of cables protruding from the back of the power supply.

There was just enough room for this model but any longer graphics card would probably encounter issues.

Finally we attached our solid state drive to one of the hard drive caddies and set about organising the mess of cables.

Cable routing can be quite difficult in this case as it hasn't really been designed to accommodate all the surplus cables of a non-modular power supply, even though it's difficult to fit a modular unit in.

We decided to bunch them together within one of the hard drive caddies to hold them in place.

For our tests we will be using an Intel Reference Cooler to cool the Intel Core i7 3770K CPU.  Our test system also features an AMD Radeon HD 7950 graphics card.  We overclocked the system to 4.4 GHZ for our tests using a voltage of 1.25V.

Test System:

• Processor: Intel Core i7 3770K
• Motherboard: ASRock Z77E-ITX
• Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
• Thermal Paste: Arctic Cooling MX-2
• Memory: 4GB (2x 2GB) Kingston HyperX Genesis
• Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 7950
• Power Supply: Corsair GS800
• System Drive: Kingston HyperX 3K 240 GB
• Monitor: Viewsonic VX2260WM
• Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

• CPUID Hardware Monitor
• Prime95 64-bit
• Furmark V1.9.2

To test the thermal performance of the Fractal Design Node 304 we loaded our test system for 15 minutes using Prime95 and Furmark and recorded the maximum temperatures reached using CPUID Hardware Monitor.  We then restarted the system and left it for 15 minutes before recording idle temperatures.

Room temperature was maintained at 16 degrees C for the duration of our tests.

The temperatures recorded are fairly impressive, especially considering the limited room for airflow within the chassis.

To conduct our noise level tests, we replaced the graphics card in our system with a AMD Radeon HD 5550 Silence which was passively cooled.  We also momentarily disconnected the fans on the CPU cooler so we were only taking into account the noise generated by the fans in the case.

As expected, the Fractal Design Node 304 is fairly quiet.  It's not quite as close to silent as the noise-deadened Define R4 but this isn't really surprising.

Overall we have generally positive feelings about the Fractal Design Node 304, however there are a few issues with the case which will need to be carefully considered before you buy.

The Node 304 oozes similar minimalistic style to the Define Range, making it ideal for use as a home theatre PC.  The low noise level of the case also makes it ideal for this purpose. Additionally, there is also room for a performance liquid CPU cooler meaning that there is plenty of potential for overclocking.

Our main issue with the case is the internal design which makes component choice quite difficult. More specifically, there isn't enough room for modular power supplies when using a long graphics card, making cable management quite difficult. Not all non-modular power supplies would be compatible either, depending on the location of the cables protruding from the back.

The Fractal Design Node 304 is also quite expensive, costing £80 from CCL Online.

The Silverstone Sugo SG09 that we reviewed recently had most of the benefits of the Node 304 with none of the drawbacks and only cost £10 more.  The form factor isn't quite as well suited to HTPC users, though.  We would like to see the price falling to around £60 before we would award it a wholehearted ‘worth buying' award.

EDIT: 13th February 2013 – Fractal Design informed us that the price of the Node 304 has dropped to £70, and is available now from Ebuyer. You can buy it over here.

Pros

• Attractive design.
• Well built.
• Quiet running.

Cons

• Limited choice of compatible power supplies.
• Expensive.

KitGuru says: A good first attempt at an ITX case from Fractal Design but it needs some tweaking before we would recommend it hands down.

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