Fractal Design Node 304 Mini-ITX PC Chassis Review
Peter Donnell / 12 years ago
The front of the chassis comes fitted with a stunning aluminium panel that really makes the Node 304 stand out, but also gives it a sleek stealth look. The chassis doesn’t feature any kind of optical drive bays, which is something you may need to take into consideration when purchasing, but this does leave the front panel unspoiled and personally I rarely require an optical drive these days. The only things you will notice on the front panel are the ventilation area across the top of it, the Fractal logo and the power LED in the bottom right corner.
The side of the chassis is where you will find your headset and microphone sockets, a pair of USB 3.0 compatible ports and the power button. Further along this side of the chassis we have a ventilated area which will act as the exhaust for the PSU.
The top, left and right side of the chassis are a single U-shaped panel that is attached with 4 quick release thumb screws.
Around the back of the chassis we see the white 140mm Fractal fan, one of the three pre-installed fans on the Node 304 all of which are Silent Series R2 hydraulic bearing fans, which are of a really nice build quality, their low RPM keeps things whisper quiet but still gives great cooling capabilities to the chassis.
Hiding away in the top right of this picture you can just about see a 3 way switch, this is the Node 304s built in fan controller. Sure its nothing fancy but it does the job perfectly, giving you some control over both the overall airflow and noise output from the chassis.
Further down from there we have a pair of expansion slot covers, the motherboard backplate cutout and a 3 pin power cable port. The chassis doesn’t come fitted with a PSU, this power socket connects to an extension cable within the chassis as the PSU is mounted toward the front of the chassis.
The left side of the chassis comes with a long ventilated panel, this is to provide your graphics cards fans with plenty of airflow, which is very important in any chassis, even more so in such a compact chassis such as the Node 304.
The underside of the chassis features 4 rubber grip feet and a bottom air intake. The bottom air intake is fitted with a dust filter that provides clean airflow to the front mounted PSU. It’s also quick and easy to remove the filter, which should help keep any maintenance time to a minimum.
