fractal design's Node Series HTPC Chassis at Computex 2012
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 5, 2012 1:58 AM ESTFractal design just launched two new cases at Computex under the Node family brand. The Node 304 is a mini-ITX chassis with aluminum face priced at $90. Internally there are six drive bays, which can accommodate both 2.5" and 3.5" drives. Two of the drive bays are removable, enabling the use of longer discrete graphics cards. The 304 supports standard ATX power supplies.
The Node 605, priced at $160, is a standard ATX chassis that can also serve as an HTPC case although it isn't rack mountable. There are similar removable drive bays in the 605, although you only get four of them. There's slim optical drive bay hidden behind a flip-down panel on the front of the chassis as well. The removable top features integrated sound deadening material.
All of fractal's cases come stock with their own quiet fans. Both the 304 and 605 will be available this Aug
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
7 Comments
View All Comments
EnzoFX - Tuesday, June 5, 2012 - link
It's a great design, glad to see ITX getting some attention. Except now I want something new hah. I'm liking the ft-03 mini and some of the lian-li's because they stand vertically. Horizontally, I find them a little annoying to place because of the larger footprint.Oh and love Fractal's usually lower price, plus the silencing features, it usually puts them over the top for me.
Operandi - Tuesday, June 5, 2012 - link
These are both really nice looking cases (in all aspects really, beyond just looks) but the huge logo on the full sized ATX case would make it an instant no go for me. The iTX case isn't so bad but I'd still much prefer it logoless.xxtypersxx - Tuesday, June 5, 2012 - link
Without an optical drive these are really just fancy enclosures for playback. Even if you have backed up all your BD's to storage, you would have to keep a separate BD player around for company bringing a movie with them etc. No thanks.LB-ID - Tuesday, June 5, 2012 - link
Yeah, not sure what they were thinking, there. #1 use of these things would be as a media center, and with no BD-ROM, what's the point?Tegeril - Wednesday, July 11, 2012 - link
A great many people, myself included, feel that Windows is not the best interface experience for Blu-ray playback. I can see the desire to unify to a single system, but I have blu-ray in my current media center and still always play them via my PS3.Planning on picking up the ITX case as soon as it's released to do a much needed hardware upgrade on the HTPC.
Smudgeous - Monday, October 29, 2012 - link
This.Mine should be arriving today. Can't wait to cram my HTPC/Home Server into the new shoebox :D
Ancillas - Thursday, June 7, 2012 - link
I hardly use my optical drive as it is, and I don't archive my movies, so I don't care much about not being able to install a BD-ROM, however, the case is so big because it can accommodate so many drives, which are really only necessary if you're digitizing a large physical media library. They seem confused on which group of users they're targeting.