Fractal Design Node 304 - New ITX case - Page 2

this , who uses a cdrom? i havent in years , if i needed to i use a temp one. there has not been one in my case for atleast 9 years. its noisy and wastes space.

u can use virtual cdrom program , there are many free out there that work great.



NICE case love the simplicity of lay out and how the back fan is almost made for water cooling. i wonder how "sturdy" or solid the case actually is . that would be a seller for me if it the frame feels solid
Edited by aCe_eXtreME - 6/6/12 at 4:10am

dont get the front dual 92mm. They have space for a 120 or even 140

The Array doesn't have 5.25" bays either, which is, AFAIK, Fractal's oldest case. This new case actually seems like a replacement for the Array - a little larger and some layout improvements, but overall very similar.


Actually, they don't: the PSU sits in the front, with the exhaust to the side - much like the SG07/08. That's 87mm of the 210mm height of the case, leaving just 123mm. Add in structural bits and material thickness and 92mm is the largest standard size fan that will fit.


As for fitting a dual 92mm rad in front - you'd lose all the HDD bays and you'd be limited to a video card with a shorter PCB. But it seems doable.

It's a nice case, if a little on the larger side for ITX. Aesthetically, probably the best 'shoebox' style case yet. I'd take this over the SG07/08.

Wow that is so gorgeous!

Actually, word on the street is this will be available august. As a potential future build, Iv'e done a fair bit of snooping and I like what I see. Some less obvious characteristics: It will fit tall coolers(even the d14 with a few mm to spare), airflow looks fantastic, it comes with fractal silent r2 fans(pretty quality stuff), it comes with dust filters for the intake, psu, AND VGA, will retail about $90, comes with a 3 speed fan controller(at the back), and most importantly(;D) amazing gpu ventilation.

Now for my only niggle, psu placement. Dont get me wrong, I agree with the front mounted psu, its the only way to keep an itx form factor with adequate cpu cooler space(I myself prolly gonna stick a havik 140 in there). The problem lies in power cable pass through. Because of this, the psu back cannot sit plush with the left side panel. In pushing the psu towards the middle of the case, gpu clearance will be an issue with power supply cables with psus greater than 160mm in length. I almost think I would have prefered the psu sit plush with the side panel and have a cutout for the power cable pass through to come outside the case. In doing this, or having cutout plates enabling this to be done, they could either allow larger psus or (a greater point)they could keep the 160mm maximum but cut the width of the entire case.

Regardless of my suggestions for this one small niggle, I still think this is a sexy sexy case and should be considered an alternative to the bitfenix prodigy if you want to keep things aircooled.

NO 5,25'' ...that saves a lot of space and keeps the front clean.

The Array is ment to be an...an Array. It was somehow natural for it to leave out the optical.
It first came out without the support of dual-slot cards. Because it most likely only needed to fit a RAID card...

This case however is for your main PC. With tower cooler, big PSU and long graphicscard.

I really dont think the Array would be replaced by that.

But there was loads of room under the HDD cage in the Array to squeeze an optical drive in, my PSU sits under there in mine. Allows me space for my H70 cooler.

dunx

P.S. Don't need another, but like the addition of USB sockets

I really love the design of this case. I've been planning on doing a SFF build and this will definitely be the case I'll be using. I googled it and found more pics at anandtech. Link---- [=http://www.anandtech.com/Gallery/Album/2033][/]

Just as I was about to buy the bitfenix, I saw this thread. Def opting for this instead. Thanks for the post!

A little large for an ITX case, but it's interesting. I prefer ones that use SFX PSUs now that Silverstone is rockin' out the nice 450w units. At least it isn't a gargantuan "SFF" case