Review: Fractal Design Node 605

Final Thoughts and Rating

For anyone who still sees value in having a full-blown PC in the living room, the Node 605 will happily accept most existing ATX builds and it'll do so while looking sleek and stylish.

Fractal is new to the HTPC arena, yet the Node 605 is a laudable first attempt. For anyone who still sees value in having a full-blown PC in the living room, the Node 605 will happily accept most existing ATX builds and it'll do so while looking sleek and stylish.

Being able to use high-end components is a real plus point - why shouldn't your HTPC double as a gaming rig? - and the Node 605 manages to impress with good cooling performance for truly powerful builds. A built-in fan controller makes it easy to strike a balance between quiet operation and high performance, and the neatly-hidden I/O panel is well-stocked, too.

This is almost everything we'd want from a high-end HTPC chassis, but there are issues, as the space constraints that apply to most home-theatre enclosures have resulted in a couple of usability quirks that lessen the Node 605's appeal. The most pressing concern is that the slimline optical bay can only be used with micro-ATX boards (or smaller); use a standard ATX board and you'll have to forego the optical bay entirely. On top of that, the presence of an extra-long graphics card may force you to give up one, if not both, of the hard-disk mounts.

These are trade-offs you need to be aware of before contemplating the Node 605 as a viable solution, but considering the £115 asking price, perhaps these trade-offs shouldn't exist at all. Planning on building a HTPC with a slimline Blu-ray drive and a micro-ATX board? Then the Node 605 comes highly recommended.

The Good

Stylish design
Well-stocked I/O panel
Can house high-end components
Decent cooling performance
Runs nice and quiet

The Bad

Optical bay only usable with M-ATX boards
Storage bays can get obstructed by graphics cards

HEXUS Rating

Fractal Design Node 605

HEXUS Awards

Fractal Design Node 605

HEXUS Where2Buy

The Fractal Design Node 605 chassis is available to purchase from Ebuyer.

HEXUS Right2Reply

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Nice looking case, but too pricey to be mainstream. I suspect most HTPC builds these days are going mini-itx with pico-psus and the likes?

wasabi: mini-itx and pico-psu is more than sufficient for an HTPC. In fact a passively cooled case (wesena or HDplex are both good). IGP from both Intel and AMD are easily good enough (AMD is slightly better IMO). The only issues are whether to have a separate sound card or TV tuner card.

Just do not make my mistake and instal Windows 8 it is dreadful as an HTPC even though the interface ought to work (TV cards do not work, Lovefilm only works in desktop mode as it uses Silverlight, no DVD or Blu ray support, and if you store media on a NAS, libraries are a pain)

cjs150
Just do not make my mistake and instal Windows 8 it is dreadful as an HTPC even though the interface ought to work (TV cards do not work, Lovefilm only works in desktop mode as it uses Silverlight, no DVD or Blu ray support, and if you store media on a NAS, libraries are a pain)

TV tuners work fine, however Windows Media Center isn't included as standard. It is currently available for free for Windows 8 Pro and adds DVD support.

Alternatively there are 3rd-party TV tuners such as Media Portal.

I wouldn't want a htpc so big, with that mine is based on a micro atx board and A8-3870k in an antec micro fusion 350 which is just the right size for me.

AS much as the mini-itx stuff can be upto the job mine is a full on media server to so a little bigger makes sense.

Meh, too big for a living room PC it's pretty much just a desktop tower on its side. Big woop.