Fractal Design Node 304 - Black - Mini Cube Compact Computer Case - Small form factor - Mini ITX – mITX - High Airflow - Modular interior - 3x Fractal Design Silent R2 120mm Fans Included - USB 3.0

Product Information

But I am amassing lots of old 640GB (have 4) and 500GB (have 4) drives and I use 4x128GB samsung 830s in raid0 as my boot.

Node 304 cooling upgrade - Cooling - Linus Tech Tips Node 304 cooling upgrade - Cooling - Linus Tech Tips

The Node 304 has all the build quality and attention to detail that we've come to expect from Fractal, to get the best out of it though, you need to pay attention to those limits on PSU and graphic card length. Our technical advice has been featured on publications such as: New York Times, O’Reilly, PCMag, Popular Mechanics, Forbes, etc.Where the Fractal Node 304 lacks in terms of cable management or other niceties, it makes up for by just getting out of the way—both internally and in external style. This does allow one to install plenty of hard drives, which will be immediately apparent as soon as the side window panel is removed. I need space for a GPU as well so that discounts some of the other options that require you to pick between HDD space or a GPU. This is where the concern over power supply length comes into play: Had that PSU extended much farther, or had I used a modular PSU, there might not have been enough room for this card—or a larger card, should I decide to upgrade in the future. This allows the motherboard to have free-reign at the back, giving it ample headroom to take tall CPU coolers.

node 804 and 304? - Linus Tech Tips Difference between node 804 and 304? - Linus Tech Tips

But, this case has no windows, and I don’t plan to show off the internals—just the opposite, in fact, because I plan to make the whole thing as invisible as possible. But, you’ll need to keep an eye on this thing, especially if you plan on transporting this case to LAN parties and suchlike: The filter is retained by just a pair of shallow bumps stamped into the metal, and the plastic flexes enough to easily jar it loose with bumps or vibration during transit.

You may not have noticed that there's also no reset button; HDD activity and power are both handled by the same single blue front LED. Thicker models, such as the Noctua NH-U12P we used, may interfere with the SATA data/power cables connecting the drives. It's compact enough to fit inside a TV stand but has more than enough internal space for a capable media PC. This one's a fairly standard looking cube-style mini-ITX case, the likes of which we've seen plenty of in the past from Lian Li, SilverStone and a host of budget/re-branded models besides.