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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.
Looks like quite a nice case, fair review.
I was hoping to get one since it was released last year, but they are near impossible to find.
I think it’s good to see more micro cases supporting your standard ATX PSU – I have yet to see a PC which has actually had more than 3 HDDs at a time.
I bought one of these and have a couple notes to make: I put in a GS600 and it has to be fitted upside-down, there is virtually no room for the cables, screws on the back are not the same as screws for the HDD trays, the big fan at the back makes more noise than my laptop, and it looks extremely awesome next to my subwoofer!
It is one headache to put together.