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Building a NAS inside the Fractal Design Node 804 is just like putting together a PC in any other chassis. It’s not some special server form factor. You can install a motherboard up to a Micro ATX size, and Fractal Design includes pretty much everything you’ll need to install everything. Certain cases can support hot-swappable bays, meaning you can take a hard drive out and/or put a hard drive in while the device is running. Having a look inside from the main chamber and there is plenty of room and options to make sure users are getting the most out of the Node 804 and have an enjoyable experience. If you look closely you can see room for up to 5x fans in the main chamber alone! There is also a nice cutout to help make switching CPU coolers/installation a bit easier and plenty of room to pass cables from the front chamber to the rear and vice versa.
Power cable length for the fan controller – because its so short, you have to run a sata power cable all the way around the mobo for just for it. It should have been long enough to reach the drive bays. The biggest downside of this case is the ITX motherboard that’s required (as they’re generally limited compared to ATX/mATX options), but if you want a small form factor case that actually looks like a traditional prebuilt NAS, this is the one. As we can see both chambers can house 2x fans on the front and come with separate dust filters per chamber. Fractal Design did not cut any corners when it came to making sure the Node 804 offered optimal airflow and cooling features. This showcases how the inside of the Fractal Design Node 804 is sectioned as we’ll get into shortly. The left-side panel has an acrylic window and underneath the chassis, you’ll locate two additional dust filters. With all fans installed, the case will have negative pressure.What I did personally was take off both side panels, the front and top as well as removed the hard drive cages. Getting the Node 804 down to the bare frame was the easiest way I could imagine to do things and it worked out great. Even things like installing the Corsair H80i, which can be a pain in some bigger cases were easy enough to do like this, overall a very enjoyable experience.
When you’re looking to build a NAS, you really have to try and understand what your goals are first. Network-attached storage cases can have special features like hot-swappable bays, small form factors (mATX or ITX), or even tons of hard drive bays. We’ll focus on the best NAS cases to use in this article. The main difference between them is that NAS cases are designed to hold multiple hard drives. Since NASs run different types of operating systems (TrueNAS, Unraid, OpenMediaVault), they’re designed to hold large numbers of hard drives for RAID arrays.Overall, it’s one of my favorite NAS cases that you can use because of the hard drive storage options (with 8 drives being more than enough for most) and the relatively small form factor. Highly effective dual chamber case layout for best possible cooling. Minimalistic design with an elegant brushed aluminum front panel Three Fractal Design Silent Series R2 fans included All intakes feature removable dust filters providing a dust-free interior. Featuring a window side panel to show off your set up in style. Fan controller included. Five expansion slots that allows for multiple GPU setups.
Getting to the fun part and it’s time to start taking things apart. This is a look at the top without the vented panel attached. As you can see there is room for a 240mm radiator in either chamber, though if you want to put it in the second chamber you will need to remove the hard drive cages which is easily enough done. If water cooling isn’t your thing you could also just add some fans for a bit better airflow throughout the case. Fractal Design is a company that manufactures PC cases, fans, power supplies and water-cooled CPU coolers. With their headquarters in Sweden, they pride themselves on listening to their customer base and are always striving to reach their goal of providing functional, efficient and sleek Scandinavian-designed products. They refer to themselves as similar to the IKEA of the PC world and even go on to say “ In the world of computer components, there is only one name you should know, Fractal Design.” The next thing to take into consideration is the networking you’d like to use. For most NAS devices, you’ll either use 1GbE (standard on most Motherboards), 2.5GbE, or 10GbE. Depending on the NIC the Motherboard comes with, you might need to ensure the case can handle a networking card in the event that you’d like to increase the networking speeds of the device.It might also be what pre-built NAS devices have done to people’s perception, but when you use the Node 804 to build a NAS, it feels like you’re building a NAS. Nothing against more traditional cases, but the Node 804 is large enough to provide the hard drives needed for a NAS, and small enough to throw in the corner and not think about. I love this case. There is an access hole in the inner case frame which makes bringing in the 8 pin 12v EPS cable to the top of the motherboard much easier. Nice touch, Fractal. The most common types of Motherboards are ATX, though Micro-ATX (mATX) and Mini-ITX (mITX) motherboards are extremely common as well. In rare cases, E-ATX Motherboards are used as well, but they’re generally less common than ATX, mATX, or mITX. Whether you're looking to build your very own NAS or a more compact cube PC, the Fractal Design Node 804 is a solid choice. It has excellent cooling performance thanks to its array of vents and countless fan mounts. The ability to install up to 10 3.5-inch drives is also a highlight feature, especially for servers with a lot of data to hold. It needs to be an inch taller. In the hard drive compartement using a standard 800ish Watt ATX power supply with hard drives (seagate 8tb ironwolves) installed, there’s hardly any room for hard drive data and power connectors. This is even worse if you’re using a sas card with break out cables. You really need right angle connectors in here.
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