Table Of Content
Beneath the power supply is an air ventilation with a removable dust filter. There are no drive bays, but you can install a slim-line slot load optical drive. For its front panel I/O ports, it has mic in and audio out, two USB 3.0 ports and a power button.
Cooling
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.
Fractal Design Node 804 Case Build
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.
Fractal Design Node 804 Specifications
If you don't plan on using AIO solutions, the Node 804 will easily handle CPU coolers up to 160mm tall. Regardless of which route you decide to take, you won't have any problems keeping the Fractal Design Node 804 adequately cooled, even with an AMD Ryzen X installed. Without installing additional fans, the three blowers included with the case are more than enough for a powerful NAS server or gaming PC.
Fractal Design Node 804 Review bit-tech.net - bit-tech.net
Fractal Design Node 804 Review bit-tech.net.
Posted: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 07:00:00 GMT [source]
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.
Great box to build a storage server
The Fractal Design 804 is actually a fairly old PC case at this point, but I'm reviewing it more as a NAS or server chassis than a PC, though you can absolutely set up a gaming PC using this thing. In fact, after removing the HDD cages, you could even go all out with some custom water-cooling, should you be feeling particularly adventurous. Surely there are some other PC cases that are worth considering for a server or NAS build? There are but they’re few and far between when it comes to packing the case full of drives. Fractal Design has the smaller Node 304 if you don’t need as many bays. Building a NAS inside the Fractal Design Node 804 is just like putting together a PC in any other chassis.
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.
More Los Angeles architecture stories
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.
In terms of cooling solution, you can install up to 8x 120mm or 140mm fans (or more), and all air intake areas are protected with removable dust filters. The Node 804 supports both air and water cooling, and even custom water cooling as well. Fractal Design has also included a fan controller near the motherboard/CPU area that could control 3 fans in low/medium/high speeds. But there are also things that I think Fractal Design should improve if ever they decide to make another similar case in the future. One thing that I did not like about the Node 804 is its drive cages. Yes, it has anti vibration rubber mounting and it looks organized, but it’s not tool-less.
It doesn’t need to be removed to clean them out, but you will need to gain access here for managing the SSD bay and fan/radiator mounts. Up to four 120mm fans can be installed up front, as well as up to two 240mm radiators for enhanced cooling capacity. Above are photos of the motherboard chamber and storage chamber without the front cover.
No comments:
Post a Comment