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So too is the top panel if you were to ignore the fact that there’s a massive section of perforated holes to vent out and exhaust hot air from four 140mm fans. The rear houses the usual I/O slot for the motherboard, as well as a mount for the ATX PSU, but there are two fans located here instead of just one. The front panel itself can be extracted by lightly pulling on it.
Fractal Design Node 804 Specifications
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.
Number of front fan(s) slots
I have installed an Asus Maximus VI Impact with Noctua NH-D14 CPU cooler. The Node 804 supports large CPU heatsinks, however I haven’t tried Cryorig’s R1 Ultimate yet. The Fractal Design Node 804 is packaged well, as is the case with most of the company's products. Included with the chassis are a few accessories, including cable ties to help with the installation of a PC. Much like its packaging, the Node 804 is designed with a minimalist brief, resulting in a sleek black cube PC case. The Fractal Design Node 804 is a gem of a PC case, designed with gamers in mind and with a focus on efficient component cooling.
Building a NAS
But you will have to remove the front cover for you to do this. Unlike other micro ATX case, you would be surprise to find out that the Fractal Design Node 804 can be configured in several different ways. It features a dual chamber layout, where the motherboard section is separated from the PSU and storage drives. Speaking of storage drives, you can actually install a total of up to 12 HDD/SSD drives (8 x 3.5″, 4 x 2.5” or up to 10 x 3.5”, 2 x 2.5″) inside this case.
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.
Water cooling
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.
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It may be showing its age slightly, but Fractal hasn’t yet seen the need to refresh it and we agree with this stance. Fractal Design’s Node 804 is a mid-tower PC case with support for up to 12 drives. That’s plenty of capacity for NAS use, allowing for up to 240TB if using 20TB drives. You’d assume the case would be on the large size, but Fractal Design managed to make good use of the available internal space to keep the dimensions down. Excellent water cooling support with space for up to four radiators simultaneously. The front panel dust filters can be easily removed by sliding it downwards.
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One section is the usual PC inside affair with the motherboard tray. The front panel has some ventilation and the I/O is located to the right, alongside the power button and cut-out for the slot-loaded ROM drive bay. Ports-wise, it’s not too bad, rocking two USB-A 3.0 ports and two 3.5mm audio jacks. There’s a window present, but it’s an all-black affair with little in the form of styling. The Fractal Design Node 804 is one of the company’s smaller cases with full support for server deployment.
Fractal Design Node 804 Micro-ATX Chassis Review - eTeknix
Fractal Design Node 804 Micro-ATX Chassis Review.
Posted: Sun, 07 May 2017 17:59:35 GMT [source]
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I would have loved Fractal Design to alter the design of the HDD cages to allow the removal and installation of drives without needing to take them out of the case, but this is a minor complaint. The Fractal Design Node 804 is one of the best PC cases for putting together your own NAS. There are also some good gaming motherboards in this segment that will make for great PC foundations. Upfront is a removable cover rocking a brush aluminum effect finish. The lower section of this panel features a grill for the four fans to draw in cool air.
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.
If you notice there are straps underneath, those are actually for cable management from the inside. From the top, you can see four large openings, two on each chamber. You can install additional exhaust fans or radiators on those locations.
Once everything is installed and ready to go, making necessary changes to the internals is also a breeze, so long as some cable management is performed. Building a compact PC with a microATX motherboard for a streaming box or running a server requires a small form factor chassis that supports the installation of more than a few hard drives. That's precisely where the Fractal Design Node 804 comes into play. It's compact enough to fit inside a TV stand but has more than enough internal space for a capable media PC.
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.
The unit we have in for review is finished in black, which is the only color option available. These cages can support 4 HDD or SSD each cage and comes with anti-vibration rubber pads. You need to screw each drive, and I think Fractal Design could further improve this area and make it tool-free installation instead. It’s not also easy to install or remove a hard drive, because you have to disconnect all drives and remove the whole cage just to add or remove a drive. Underneath the Node 804 are four rubber feet, and additional ventilation with removable dust filters as well.
Mainly, I'm building this as my current NAS is full and I have no spare drive bays. The only other potential use is for a Hackintosh as I have an OSX VM in another system in my homelab that is currently without a GPU so is mostly useless. The Fractal Design Node 804 is affordable, has plenty of internal space for numerous fans and drives, and performs well when the system is full and under load.
Being a cube design, you can get away with additional airflow through the rear panel whilst having room for an ATX power supply to be fitted. Was originally looking at Jonsbo N1 case but worried about poor thermals. Fractal node 804 looks to have better cooling options with more airflow, but it’s a rather old case with outdated front I/O panel, optical drive slot etc.
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