Anyone using a Node 804?

Tephnos

Tephnos

Tephnos

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Joined
20 May 2011
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Aberdeen, Scotland
After I built in the Define S a couple of months ago I've been feeling very meh about it - and after looking at some sweet mATX builds I've been really thinking that was a good way to go. Case is still gonna sit under the desk, but since I don't ever SLI or use any in PCI slots other than the GPU, I figure that a smaller case is probably what I should be going for.

Been eyeing up the Corsair 240 air for a while, but I'd need to consider GPU choices very carefully as there are quite a few design niggles with it.

Then I came across the Node 804, and it looks great. Sure, not having grommets on the part where the cables come out is a huge pain, but otherwise it looks perfect. Just wondering if anyone here has used it and can comment on it?

Would definitely like to mount a 280mm AIO in the back, thermally isolating the front to GPU cooling only sounds awesome.

What I'm mainly interested in is silence as well, heard a few people saying this case is virtually silent and with all the good airflow options it certainly seems to be the case.
 
I use a Node 804 for my home server case. Not really comparable hardware but I run an m-atx board with 7 HDD's in there.

I chose it mostly because of the dimensions and having a lot of HDD space. It is extremely quiet and I had no problems putting my build into it. I'm a bit of a nightmare with cable management and the ability to stuff them all into an unseen chamber is quite a bonus.

Not a lot more I can add other than I certainly don't regret buying it.
 
Fair enough. I've heard that because the top chamber is mostly foam, it can be a pain for getting dust out of/airflow.

What's your experience with that? Also, where do you keep the case if you don't mind me asking?
 
I have one for my home server too, it lives in my cellar, where it is cool and I don't care about the noise. The house is over 500 years old so it's quite dusty and can be a bit damp down there.

I've found airflow to be pretty good in it, but I have every fan on max as I don't care about noise down there!

There was a previous post where someone was trying to build a water loop in one...

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18687638
 
I've bought a node 804 to replace my corsair 540 a few weeks ago and really enjoyed building in it. It certainly is a bit of a challenge as you need to plan your cable routing early on to avoid removing things over and over.

My vapor x 290 seriously pushes the boundaries on card size. I think the longest card this case will take is 295mm long with a front 120mm fan installed or 315mm without. My card is 305mm long so i mounted a 120mm fan in the bottom of the case using velcro discs for some extra airflow.

Temp wise, my 540 certainly was better but thats a sacrifice you have to make with smaller cases if you arent going full custom water (i will be in the future). The foam certainly causes temps to increase slightly but i just adjusted my sloppy CPU overclock of 4.7ghz @ 1.38v to 4.5ghz @ 1.32v and now i never go over 67c whereas i was getting 75c at 1.38v.

If you keep positive fan pressure (or negative, cant remember :))you shouldnt have a problem with dust in the top foam as the pressure should keep the majority of the dust out. The foam can be washed anyway or removed if you so wish.

The back side of the case with take a 280mm AIO but i have seen a few reports online about corsairs AIO using a different hold pitch or something so the rad mounting holes dont align up but dont quote me on that.

Any other questions fire away, i asked about this case on here before i bought mine but no one really seemed to have a 804 as a gaming rig.

Heres some pics of my setup.

http://imgur.com/a/V4YL3
 
Good stuff on there mate, and cheers for the foam question. I'm guessing you mean positive pressure then. :p

As for the AIO, it depends on the fan screw spacing I think. Is it 15mm or 20mm? The GT versions use 20mm, and the GTX use 15mm, so I think one of them would at least fit.

I don't really think you need to sacrifice cooling however - depending on how you used a bigger case, pushing almost the same cfm through a smaller volume will actually move air better and cause better temperatures. However, you did use the air 540 which does excel at that at the expense of other things.

As for removing the foam, is that possible without damaging it? I'd rather have dust protection on the top than nothing. It's a bloody nightmare when cases have big vents on them with nothing stopping dust getting in!
 
Under the top meshed panel there are folded over tabs of mesh holding it together. If you bend them up 90 degrees you can pop the foam out and it shouldnt break anything. Obviously the more you bend the tabs over they get weaker so only do it a few times at most.

Good point on the smaller volume moving air better, i think that foam just makes airflow harder for top mounted AIO's. Maybe push pull would be better for this situation?

Check this link for hole spacing http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/755045-Corsair-H110-(280mm)-in-a-m-atx-Fractal-Node-804

Also, if you look at this picture you can see said tabs, 16 of them in total. http://imgur.com/wnnPhpx
 
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Ah, so whilst the H110GTX won't fit, the H110GT will.

Interesting about the tabs, though. Deciding on a new case really is bloody difficult, especially when you get to mATX size!
 
If you're not afraid of a little DIY you could always just drill some holes for a H110GTX? The tabs are metal so they should be up to a little bending. My other matx case (aerocool dead silence) also had those kind of tabs to hold the foam in the top mesh. I bent those and removed it and they were fine.
 
Well, even if I can only screw it with half the total screws, it should still hold up just fine. Currently doing that in my Define S anyway as the GTX didn't want to fit properly on the front. :p
 
I think i saw a thread you made on you having issues with hole spacing a while ago :) My h100i is only held in by 4 screws. Gotta love rebuilding then losing half the screws or having spares left over!!
 
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