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Overall we are suitably impressed with the Fractal Design Node 605. The exterior of the case has an elegant visage which reflects Fractal's usual combination of a sturdy steel chassis hidden behind a pretty brushed aluminium faceplate.
We love the way that Fractal has hidden all of the front panel connections behind a flap on the front of the case so they are only visible when needed. Also, the inclusion of a card reader gives the Node 605 an advantage over most of the competition.
It's clear that Fractal has taken inspiration from other home theatre PC cases on the market with regards to the internal design which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It reminds us a little of Lian Li's PC-C50A which is one of the best HTPC cases on the market. There are a few issues though, including the power supply fouling some of the drive bays, reducing the drive capacity to two.
The installation process is always a little complicated with HTPC cases as they are engineered with a low profile design and acoustics ahead of ease of use. Most users will leave their HTPC alone after building it, though, unlike enthusiasts who will often switch out the components in a regular PC. If you have a few hours to dedicate to building a system in the Node 605, you will be able to route the cables very neatly so they don't restrict air flow much at all.
At a price of around £107 at Lambdatek, we feel that the Node 605 is a little overpriced. This is only £20 less than the excellent Lian Li PC-C50A which is, in our opinion, a superior chassis. If the price of the Node 605 was to fall to below the £100 mark, it would be winning our ‘Must Have' award.
Pros:
- Pretty quiet.
- Sleek design.
- Fairly spacious
- Inbuilt card reader.
Cons:
- Internal design could be better implemented.
- A little expensive.
KitGuru says: Another impressive case from Fractal Design, although it's a little overpriced in our opinion.
excellent, I love the appearance of this case, looks fantastic.
I always wanted to build a system like this to fit inside my hifi rack for connection to the tv and fast enough to handle anything, even some gaming.
This looks like a good option. need to work out the cost now.
Very very sexy. im sold.
shame it wasnt all aluminum, id pay extra for that. so much lighter too.
Just a note on the video card situation, i’ve got a matx board in the case and am able to stick a powercolor 6970 inside without the hard drive bays being a hindrance and i’ve still got room to run cables, etc in front of the video card.
I don’t think I’d be able to crossfire the 6970s (don’t know who would want to in an htpc case) there is room between the card and the hard drives (if you mount the hdd facing the other way) but considering the width of the card i dont think 2 could fit
Second, The fan controller in the case has 3 Fan connectors but they only fit 3pin connectors (i bought 3, 4pin fans -_-)
I know Fractal includes 2 Fractal fans but even at high speed they’re only pulling 40cfm (they’re the FD Silent R2 fans) and that wasn’t enough imo so I replaced them with some Cougar Vortex fans.
I contacted Fractal Designs about the 3pin connectors and I must say their customer service is amazing, they sent me a step by step email including pictures on how i could cut the 3pin fan connector to accommodate a 4pin fan which they said would work with the fan controller as they’ve tested it.
Instead of going that route though I found some 4 to 3 pin fan connectors online, even 3pin extension cables that could support a 4pin connector.
Also the molex connector for the fan controller, in my case, was loose so it was a big hassle getting it connected to the power supplies female molex
Third, The slim optical disc drive, Fractal supplies a mounting kit but no slimline sata connection to power your drive you’ll have to buy that yourself you can find them online for as low as a dollar.
The mounting kit is a bit difficult to install, it was for me anyway, since i left it for the last thing to install -_- and because the screws supplied were larger than the holes on the mounting kit (ever so slightly) so I really had to use some force to screw it in
Fourth, CPU cooling, There is not much height to the case to attach a large heatsink, Fractal recommends no higher than 125mm if the fans are attached on the sides; this was difficult for me to find a suitable cooling unit,, hydro cooling units won’t fit btw there’s no room to mount the rad+fan unless you do some modding like having it stick part way out of the case. I was fortunately able to find the Noctua NH-U9B SE2 which fit perfectly inside the case with both fans mounted.
Lastly areas for improvement:
I wish that there was a fan on top of the case to help suck air out (like silverstone does, i believe) I’m not sure on what my temps will be like since I haven’t gotten it up and running yet but it would certainly ease my mind as that whole right side of the case is really congested with hard drives the gpu and psu and there’s only that 1 fan blowing in on the right side but its completely restricted with the grill/the hard drives and the cables; again I don’t know what my temps will be like but it would certainly ease the mind and there is certainly room for a fan in that area.
There’s also room, believe it or not, to stick more hard drives in the case and it would be nice if Fractal had included mounting brackets for this but I can understand why not. I bought a pci expansion slot hard drive mount to mount my SSD and a 2.5″ drive and there’s still plenty of room; there’s even room for a 3.5″
Also the aforementioned lack of a slimline sata cable, it would be nice if Fractal had included this considering the price of the case and Fractal needs to improve Quality Control (the loose molex and mounting holes)
Overall though I’m impressed with the build quality and the looks of the case and I can’t wait to start using it, but i’ve been very frugal in my build using hand me down parts and waiting for all my cables/parts from different vendors.