Reddit reviews Fractal Design Node 804 case, Window
We found 16 Reddit comments about Fractal Design Node 804 case, Window. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
The Node 304 may be small in size, but it is big on options.The intelligent design allows for hybrid functionality. Three fully removable drive caddies support two drives each, either HDDs or SSDs. If you are looking to build a cool-running file server or stylish home theater PC, you have plenty of drive mounts.The included two 92mm Silent Series R2 intake fans and 140mm Silent Series R2 exhaust fan, the Node 304 provides high performance cooling right out of the box!The Node 304 offers a small footprint while still allowing you the room you need to work inside your case.If you are looking to build a cool-running file server or stylish home theater PC, you have plenty of drive mounts. If you want a powerful gaming system, you can mount up to a 12.2" graphics card and still have room for 4 HDDs or SSDsIf you want to push the extremes even further the Node 304 can support single-fan liquid cooling systems or high-performance Tower-style CPU heat sinks (up to 165mm)
If you plan to use an ITX board, the Fractal Design Node 304 is quite small and gives you more options for expansion. If you want something that's insanely future proof, you can go with a Silverstone DS380B. Again, I'm assuming you are using an ITX board.
>My main gripe with the shield TV is it has a fan.
LOL. I literally had no idea. I just looked up and realized you're right. I've certainly never heard it, but I do despise the moving parts.
>Care to share more details of your setup?
MB Combo + RAM + case + power supply was less than $200, so it was cheaper and more powerful than any of those NAS boxes sold commercially. As a test I recently had the OS HD fail (it was an old HD I had laying around). I had the server up and running after reinstalling the OS, remounting the array (Linux command line scary!), and setting up the network shares in less than a few hours.
Here's a picture of it sitting under a table in my guest bedroom under the router and modem. It serves files over Samba shares to my Windows computers (laptop and gaming), ShieldTV, etc. Using Kodi (Plex was originally a fork of this) on the Shield with my movie and tv library is fucking amazing.
The Fractal Node 304 is available at a cheaper price of $49.99 at Newegg and Amazon. Its a great alternative to the Prodigy if you're looking at something more compact since the Prodigy is rather large (~mATX sized).
The only downside is that the Node 304 doesn't have a 5.25" slot.
I got it just before haswell and the gtx 7 series dropped :( But it plays everything I throw it on ultra at 1080p... So I can't complain. And I love the case too looks so nice on the desk. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009LHF4FO/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I'd say if you are going with an A-series processor, stick with the A8 or A10. They are quite weak to start with, so you might as well go with a quad core. You're probably talking about a difference of $30 or something. To me, it's not worth skimping that much on the main workhorse of your computer.
Do you have a microcenter near you? You can get an i3+motherboard for about the same price as this A10 combo. If you're not gaming you'll probably be better off with an i3 than an A10. (Though I'm not sure if microcenter has any mini-ITX)
$105 looks too expensive for that 128gb SSD. You can probably find something cheaper on sale. The 840 evo is coming out soon, I'd look at that.
As for cases, I think that's the hardest part of building these. So far the Wesena line looks the most interesting to me.
Maybe one of these?
Wesena ITX-1
Wesena ITX-2
There are a bunch of variants. Be sure to check for USB3 headers though, since a lot of these have only USB 2 I think.
This Silverstone SG05 seems quite popular and cheap
Fractal Node 304 - fractal has a good reputation, but I think this is a bit bigger than others
ECC RAM 16GB: http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-DDR3L-1600MT-PC3-12800-CT2KIT102472BD160B-CT2CP102472BD160B/dp/B008EMA5VU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1452264155&sr=8-2&keywords=ecc+ram
SSD 128GB for the FreeNAS will be valuable if you are going to have lots of traffic in your home server. Then the SSD will act as cache, increasing the speed of the transfer.
Mobo: http://www.amazon.com/Asrockrack-Motherboard-Mini-DDR3-E3C224D2I/dp/B00G9U6FIQ/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1452264276&sr=8-3&keywords=asrock+rack
I have this mobo. It works well. But I'm facing some issues with the IPMI (simply is dead), so I cannot remote power on the server. Now it is 100% powered on all the time. not an (big) issue.
Case (came with all fans needed): http://www.amazon.com/Fractal-Design-Mini-ITX-Computer-FD-CA-NODE-304-BL/dp/B009LHF4FO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452264378&sr=8-1&keywords=fractal+design+node+304
This is my server setup. Bought the itens in USA when I was on vacation there.
For the HDDs a little tip: Buy all same sizes (does not matter the brand).
Security tip for paranoic: buy same hdds sizes, different brands, and different batchs.
If you use the HDD same size, you can setup the storage in RAIDZ. Get full features that ZFS can bring.
Suggest the video of a webinar shown yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJa94v_PKWA
Awesome Looking ITX cases that I know of offhand:
6 Drive: http://www.amazon.com/Fractal-Design-Mini-ITX-Computer-FD-CA-NODE-304-BL/dp/B009LHF4FO
8 Drive: http://www.u-nas.com/xcart/product.php?productid=17617&cat=249&page=1
Just glancing at that link, it seems they are very similar cases in terms of function. The difference is in looks/industrial design, where my tastes lean more towards the Fractal Design side of things than Cooler Master.
FWIW, the first reviewer here says they compared the two cases and picked the Node because of more room and a better cooling system.
Currently, I have a massive tower PC. Its served me well for 3 years thus far and can easily go another 3 as it seems the rate of CPU/GPU improvement has slowed.
I don't know what my next computer will be, but I know it won't be a full-sized tower. I am considering a Mini-itx build, something like this
The case I'm looking at for a NAS I will soon be building advertises 6, but I think I can get 10 into it. It's the Fractal Design Node 304 Mini-ITX Case. Probably not the smallest, it an interesting case that meets my requirements.
What are you intending to do with this build? You can probably sacrifice the room for a graphics card and other bits if you are going for as small as you can get. Or if all you really care about is putting your drives into something, you could go [this] (http://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-Backplane-Removable-3-5-Inches-RC3400101A/dp/B004G8QES4/ref=sr_1_12?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1376851991&sr=1-12&keywords=4+bay+hard+drive+enclosure) direction.
I was choosing the 'L' CPUs not really for power consumption but rather for cooling needed as I would expect to be able to run with less noisy fans with those. Does that make sense or heat generated wouldn't change for the use cases mentioned above (prob CPU not running very high load).
What other cases do you have mind that would fit a nice little NAS? I looked as well at this SilverStone Mini-ITXcase or this Fractal Node 304
Based on the comments on this thread, looking into a e5 whitebox, but definitely not the e5-2640 - expensive CPUs even 2nd hand!
You can get a "hybrid mini" case which is one of the smallest cases that can fit a full size graphics card in addition to many HDDs and CD Drives.
I'm actually saving up for a build like this.
In terms of cases that are wider than they are tall, look good in a home theatre, but can also equip components fit for gaming the pickings are a bit slim. A lot of HTPC cases are designed for pretty low intensity components because they usually are built just for streaming. If you want to game on it, you probably have to make some compromises, but I am not entirely in the loop with all HTPC cases. Options I can think of are:
The Sugo SG08 comes pretty close to fitting the bill. It is the larger brother of the SG05 and just a tiny tad smaller than the Node 304. It has a very clean, minimalistic look. It has a disc drive slot and ships with a custom small form factor PSU of 600W. It will take an ITX board and otherwise most standard components. Lots of high end gaming builds around, just google your parts to see that everything fits. Quite expensive.
Thanks for the quick reply! I think I'd be content for awhile with a 6 bay solution. Plex transcoding is definitely a requirement. I really like your CPU/Mobo choice, so I'm looking at the Fractal Design Node 304 and wondering if it'll fit. This is my first PC build and I'm excited and a bit overwhelmed.
Then this case might fit your needs. Fractal Design Node 304. Can support 6x 3.5" HDDs. Slim and sleek design, no space wasted.
http://www.amazon.com/Fractal-Design-Mini-ITX-Computer-FD-CA-NODE-304-BL/dp/B009LHF4FO
K when I get home il send a pick of what I think it looks like. Then we can compare.
edit: Third image from the top. (It just doesn't look like it fits)
https://www.amazon.com/Fractal-Design-Mini-ITX-Computer-FD-CA-NODE-304-BL/dp/B009LHF4FO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485041142&sr=8-1&keywords=node+304