Fractal Design Node 804 Micro-ATX Chassis Review

Peter Donnell / 10 years ago

Final Thoughts

Pricing

Fractal Design is well known for their premium quality products, as such they’re able to command premium price tags to match. The Node 804 is priced around £80 from most major retailers, and when you consider the number of component and mounting options included, it’s fairly competitive. It’s also backed up by a standard 2-year manufacturer’s warranty.

Overview

I love what Fractal Design have done with the Node 804, it’s certainly one of my favourite chassis’ right now. As usual the build quality is on par with the best of the best; although I wouldn’t have expected it to be anything less from Fractal Design. The frame of the chassis feels rigid and durable, the side panels are heavy and rattle free, the front panel is finished with beautiful black brushed aluminium and there is a nice and clear side panel window.

The Node 804 is full of small details that make it incredibly versatile for almost any kind of build. If you want a high performance gaming build, you’ll find there is room for two high-end graphics cards and enough fan mounts to provide airflow to them, as well as room for a CPU water cooler, a high-end PSU, hard drives, and much more.

If you want a HTPC style build or NAS-style system, then you can take advantage of ten hard drive mounts. This allows you to cram an insane amount of storage into this chassis, as well as a plenty of low RPM fans to help keep it cool and quiet.

Finally those who are eager to push the limits of their system with water cooling can fit a range of radiators throughout the chassis. This could mean you need shorter graphics cards, although that’s dependant on which radiators (if any) you install in the front of the chassis.

The Node 804’s design lends well to both gaming builds and HTPC style builds. It has enough flair to look exciting, but still manages to be somewhat understated; especially when viewed from the front. It looks every bit like a premium quality chassis and with features such as the side panel window, modular storage, dust filters, cable management and more, it performs like a premium quality chassis too.

Pros

Superb build quality
Huge range of features
Lots of storage space
Dual chamber design
Clear side panel window
Sleek front panel design
Slot-loading ODD compatible
Extensive range of washable dust-filters

Cons

4+4 pin cable routing could be improved
Fitting cables for hard drives may be tricky when installing lots of drives
Fan control cables not fully sleeved

“The Fractal Design Node 804 is extremely versatile and while it may require the hand of a more experienced system builder to utilise its full potential, it’s certainly worth the effort. A great chassis for a compact gaming build, HTPC, NAS or even desktop use; with the premium build quality and style we’ve come to love about Fractal Design”