Fractal Design’s take on a desktop media PC case, the Node 605 is a sturdy, elegant chassis focused on limiting noise, vibration, and dust build-up. It offers ATX board compatibility in a surprisingly small footprint, but usability is far better with a mATX board.
March 7, 2013 by Lawrence Lee
| Product | Fractal Design Node 605 microATX Case |
| Manufacturer | |
| Street Price | US$150 |
Since bursting onto the scene three years ago, Fractal Design has primarily focused on improving the vertical tower style case design used by the majority of PC enthusiasts. The Core and Arc are fairly popular amongst noise conscious users but the Define series remains their most well-known, their bread and butter, having gone through several iterations over the years in the quest for perfection.
The Node line hopes to translate their previous success into smaller, more niche form factors. The Node 304 is a Shuttle-style mini-ITX breadbox while the Node 605 we’re looking at today is Fractal’s take on the classic desktop media center. It’s a case type that’s been around for a long time but every model we’ve encountered has been lacking in one way or another. It will be interesting to see what Swedish engineering can do for the genre.
| Fractal Design Node 605: Product Details (from the product web page) | |
| Key Features | |
| Solid aluminum front panel | |
| Supports full ATX motherboards | |
| Noise-dampening material | |
| 4 HDD/SSD slots | |
| Integrated card reader | |
| Two Silent Series R2 hydraulic bearing fans included | |
| Supports graphic cards up to 280mm in length (180mm with all hard drives in place) | |
| USB 3.0 and FireWire front connectors | |
| Technical specifications | |
| ATX, microATX, Mini ITX, DTX motherboard compatibility | |
| 7 expansion slots | |
| 4 – supports either 2.5″ or 3.5″ HDD / SSD | |
| 1 slim-line ODD (only supported with mATX or smaller motherboards) | |
| PSU compatibility: 180 mm (including any modular connectors) with both hard drive cages mounted or 190 mm (excluding cables and any modular connectors) with one hard drive cage mounted | |
| CPU cooler compatibility: Approx 125mm with side-mounted fans – For coolers with top-mounted fans, Fractal Design recommends that you add at least 30 mm clearance for decent airflow | |
| Case dimensions (W x H x D): 445 x 164 x 349 mm (excluding front panel – 440 x 162 x 341 mm) | |
| Net weight: 6,0 kg | |
| Cooling / ventilation | |
| ATX, microATX, Mini ITX, DTX motherboard compatibility | |
| 5 (3 – 120mm + 2 – 80mm) | |
| 2 – 120mm Silent Series R2 fans included | |
| Removable air filters for side fans and PSU | |
| Integrated three-channel fan controller | |
| Graphics card compatibility | |
| 180 mm with both hard drive cages mounted | |
| 255 mm with one hard drive cage mounted | |
| 290 mm in the top two ATX expansion card slots with two hard drive cages mounted | |
| 280 mm in the top four ATX expansion card slots with one hard drive cage mounted, containing one 3.5″ HDD and one 2.5″ SSD | |
| Front interface | |
| 2 – USB 3.0 | |
| 1 – FireWire (IEEE 1394) | |
| 1 – 3.5mm audio in (microphone) | |
| 1 – 3.5mm audio out (headphone) | |
| Power button with LED | |
| HDD LED |
The Node 605 weighs 6.0 kg or 13.2 lb and measures 44.5 x 16.4 x 34.9 cm or 17.5 x 6.5 x 13.7 inches (W x H x D). Its footprint wouldn’t be out of place in a typical home theater cabinet but it is rather tall, equivalent to 2 or 3 cable/satellite receivers or Blu-ray/DVD players stacked on top of one another. The 605 is an ATX case but with a total case volume of only 25.5 liters, it’s quite compact. It’s even a bit undersized compared to a typical microATX tower.
 The Node 605. |
The boxy shape and brush aluminum face is reminiscent of SilverStone’s Grandia series though the exterior has a more attractive design, taking minimalism to heart even further. A discrete flap at the bottom hides the front ports and optical drive bay; when closed, the only things visible on the bezel are the power button/LED and the pleasing Fractal branding underneath. 120 mm fan grills are found on either side, two on the right and one on the left, while the top of the enclosure is completely featureless. Usually some form of ventilation is found on the case ceiling with this type of chassis.
 Accessories. |
The accessory box contains the usual assortment of zip-ties, screws, and standoffs, as well as mounting brackets for the slim optical drive bay. The user manual is surprisingly brief, only listing all the contents and a diagram of how it all goes together with no extraneous descriptions or notes. It’s a far cry from the manual from the recently reviewed Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 which had full-sized color pictures and text espousing the benefit of each and every feature and design element.
PHYSICAL DETAILS
The Node 605 is a black steel enclosure with an aluminum front panel, measuring 44.5 x 16.4 x 34.9 cm or 17.5 x 6.5 x 13.7 inches (W x H x D) for a total volume of 25.5 liters, substantially less than most microATX towers.
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INTERIOR & ASSEMBLY
The interior of the Node 605 has a solidly constructed steel frame but is incredibly cramped for use with an ATX motherboard with almost no clearance above/below the edges of the board; in fact using an ATX board makes the slim optical drive bay unusuable. It’s really better suited as a microATX case.
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TESTING
System Configuration:
- Intel
Core i5-750 processor – 2.66 GHz, 45nm, 95W - Noctua NH-C12P
CPU cooler – Nexus 120 mm - ASUS P7H55D-M EVO
motherboard – Intel Express H55 chipset - ASUS Radeon EAH6850 DirectCU
graphics card - Corsair
XMS3 memory – 2x2GB, DDR3-1600 - Samsung EcoGreen F3 hard drive – 2TB, 5400 RPM
- Cooler Master
Silent Pro M700 – 700W modular ATX power supply - Microsoft
Windows 7 operating system – Ultimate, 64-bit - ATI
Catalyst 10.12 graphics driver
Measurement and Analysis Tools
- Prime95
processor stress software. - FurMark
stability test to stress the integrated GPU. - GPU-Z to
monitor GPU temperatures and fan speed. - SpeedFan
to monitor system temperatures. - Seasonic
Power Angel AC power meter, used to measure the power consumption
of the system. - Custom-built, four-channel variable DC power supply, used to regulate
fan speeds during testing. - PC-based spectrum analyzer:
SpectraPlus with ACO Pacific mic and M-Audio digitalaudio interfaces. - Anechoic chamber
with ambient level of 11 dBA or lower - Various other tools for testing fans, as documented in our
standard fan testing methodology.
System temperatures and noise levels were recorded with SpeedFan and GPU-Z
at idle and on load using Prime95 (large FFTs setting) and FurMark, an OpenGL
benchmarking and stability testing utility.
Stock Fan Noise
The Node 605 ships with a pair of 120 mm, 1200 RPM fans, similar to those found in the Define Mini, however we found that the 605’s fans generated a greater level of noise. The Mini has the advantage of being a tower case with a door blocking out some of the noise while the 605’s fans are directly exposed to the environment.
| Baseline Noise Level | |
| Fan Voltage | |
| 12V | 30 dBA |
| 9V | 24~25 dBA |
| 7V | 19~20 dBA |
| 5V | 13~14 dBA |
| Measuring mic positioned 1m at diagonal angle left/top of case. | |
At full speed the stock fans emitted 30 [email protected], 3~4 dB higher than the Define Mini. Its range was fairly good, dropping down to close to inaudible levels at 5V, which is one of the available settings on the included fan controller. The controller is powered by a 4-pin molex connector and can switch between 5V, 7V, and 12V for up to three 3-pin fans.
While the overall noise level was fairly high for 1200 RPM models, we don’t have much to complain about with regards to sound quality. The fans’ acoustic profile was almost entirely broadband and neither our mic or our ears picked up any notable tones. They have a very smooth and innocuous sound.
TEST RESULTS:
| System Measurements (ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU) | |||
| System State | Idle | CPU + GPU Load | |
| Fan Speeds (CPU / System) | 9V / 5V | 12V / 7V | 12V / 12V |
| GPU Fan Speed | 1660 RPM | 4040 RPM* | 3350 RPM* |
| CPU Temp | 34°C | 92°C | 88°C |
| HD Temp | 39°C | 41°C | 38°C |
| GPU Temp | 44°C | 91°C | 90°C |
| GPU VRM Temp | 50°C | 99°C | 96°C |
| 19~20 dBA | 37 dBA | 35 dBA | |
| System Power | 59W | 285W | 282W |
| *set as low as possible to maintain a GPU temperature of ~90°C on load. Ambient temperature: 22°C. | |||
Our test system, consisting of a Core i5-750 quad core CPU and a Radeon HD 6850 GPU, was sufficiently quiet in its idle state, measuring 19~20 [email protected] with the CPU fan at 9V and case fans at 5V. There was also a distinct lack of hard drive related noise; the thick top cover fit very snugly on the chassis so it wasn’t prone to shaking and the hanging drive mounting system with grommets neutralized most of the side-to-side vibration. However, the CPU and GPU temperatures were more than 10°C higher than we’re used to seeing for this configuration in a typical microATX tower.
On full synthetic CPU + GPU load, the Node 605’s underwhelming thermal performance was further exposed. The GPU fan had to be set to above 4000 RPM in order to keep the GPU at ~90°C and the CPU was equally toasty. Pumping up the case fans at full speed helped alleviate the load on the GPU fan, allowing it to spin down by 700 RPM, but noise level was still an earsplitting 35 [email protected]. The CPU heated up close to throttling temperature so its fan was also cranked up to 12V (we normally leave it at 9V).
It seems that the components simply produced more heat than could be expelled by the case’s cooling system. With the way the fans were arranged from the factory, both the CPU and GPU lacked direct airflow. In addition, our HD 6850, like many video cards on the market, uses a cooler that blows toward the PCB rather than an exhaust style, so much of the hot air built up above the GPU as the top of the enclosure doesn’t have any ventilation points. The positive pressure airflow produced by the stock fans simply wasn’t enough.
| ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU Test System: Comparison (Load) | ||||
| Case | SS Temjin TJ08-E | SS Precision PS07 | Lian Li PC-V354* | Fractal Node 605* |
| System Fans | low/10V | 2 x 9V | 3 x 9V (2 x exhausts) | 2 x 12V |
| GPU Fan | 2330 RPM | 2300 RPM | 1740 RPM | 3350 RPM |
| CPU | 59°C | 71°C | 60°C | 88°C** |
| HD | 25°C | 30°C | 26°C | 38°C |
| GPU | 89°C | 90°C | 89°C | 90°C |
| GPU VRM | 87°C | 88°C | 76°C | 96°C |
| 24~25 dBA | 25 dBA | 26 dBA | 35 dBA | |
| *Tested with Noctua NH-C12P heatsink rather than the NH-U12P (due to incompatibility). **CPU fan set to 12V rather than 9V. Ambient temperature: 22°C. | ||||
The Node 605’s temperatures and noise levels were significantly higher than previously tested microATX towers. From a thermal and acoustic perspective, it doesn’t even come close to remotely stacking up. Desktop style enclosures are inherently at a disadvantage due to CPU heatsink restrictions and fan positioning limitations and the restrictive nature of the Node 605’s design doesn’t do it any favors.
AUDIO RECORDINGS
These recordings were made with a high resolution, lab quality, digital recording
system inside SPCR’s own 11 dBA ambient anechoic chamber, then converted to
LAME 128kbps encoded MP3s. We’ve listened long and hard to ensure there is no
audible degradation from the original WAV files to these MP3s. They represent
a quick snapshot of what we heard during the review.
Each recording starts with ambient noise, then 10 second segments of product
at various states. For the most realistic results,
set the volume so that the starting ambient level is just barely audible, then
don’t change the volume setting again while comparing all the sound files.
- Fractal Design Node 605 – Baseline – stock fans at 1m
— 5V (13~14 [email protected])
— 7V (19~20 [email protected])
— 9V (24~25 [email protected])— 12V (30 [email protected])
- Fractal Design Node 605 – ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU test system at 1m
— idle, CPU fan at 9V, stock fans at 5V, GPU fan at 1660 RPM (19~20 [email protected])
— load, CPU and stock fans at 12V, GPU fan at 3350 RPM (35 [email protected])
FINAL THOUGHTS
The Fractal Design Node 605’s design places most of its focus on limiting dust and noise. The very fine mesh fan grills keeps larger particulate out of the case, as does the positive pressure airflow scheme. The stock fans have a nice sound and if they’re too loud can be dropped down to 7V or 5V via the included controller. The noise absorbent mat on the top panel helps with standing waves and weighs it down, providing additional stability. The dampened hard drive trays do a wonderful job eliminating drive vibration, though they make it difficult to access motherboard connectors.
What you won’t get out of the Node 605 is cooling proficiency. As a performance case with a high powered CPU and/or GPU, it’s completely out of its element. The enclosure is cramped given its total volume of just 25.5 L and without any ceiling vents, the stock fans have a heck of a time pushing out all that hot air. Our thermal/acoustic load results were abysmal compared to larger, tower style cases. Thankfully, the primary intended purpose of desktop style cases is for media center PCs which have less demanding requirements and workloads. The Node 605 is infinitely better suited for this application.
The Node 605 is retailing for around US$150, which is on the high side for this genre of case. Aside from the memory card reader and fan controller, it doesn’t offer any extra functionally over similar, lower cost cases, but it does deliver almost premium build quality. The chassis and panels are solidly constructed and of course nothing screams quality like a thick aluminum front bezel. You’d also be hard pressed to find a more attractive desktop chassis; the brush aluminum face, minimal adornment, and hidden ports combine to form a striking look that doesn’t scream for attention.
Our thanks to Fractal Design for the Node 605 case sample.
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Articles of Related Interest
HDPLEX H5.TODD Fanless HTPC Case
Nanoxia Deep Silence 1
SilverStone Sugo SG09: SFF microATX Case
Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced Mini-ITX Case
SilverStone Precision PS07: Budget MicroATX Tower
Fractal Design Define Mini MicroATX Tower
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