A Closer Look: Exterior
The first impression I get from the Node 304 is that the design is very simple, yet very modern. This chassis is smooth and clean enough to set in the corner as a simple fileserver, yet appealing and curvy enough for your living room as an HTPC or gaming box. The front face is slightly curved with rounded edges at the sides; and only has a small Fractal logo and LED in the bottom right. There is a small intake vent located along the top of the front panel and the top of the chassis looks just as smooth. I cannot overstate what a smooth and clean appearance this chassis has.
The left side of the Node 304 does not have a window. It does, however, have a vented side panel that will aid the graphics card inhale cool air through the filtered removable vent. Speaking of filtered vent; the bottom side of the Node 304 has a filtered intake vent for the power supply as we will see later. As expected, there are also four rubber feet situated on the bottom of the chassis as well. The difference here is that these feet are textured to further prevent sliding or other movement due to vibration.
The right side of the Node 304 is home to an additional filtered vent that serves as an outlet for the power supply as we will see later in this review. Also visible here on the side of the front panel are the headphone and microphone ports coupled with two USB 3.0 ports.
The rear side of the Node 304 reveals a large vent for the preinstalled Silent Series R2 140mm fan. Take note here that the side panel is actually all one piece akin to the chassis of elder lore. The side panel is fastened to the chassis via four thumbscrews that are easily removed and replaced. The other thing that caught my attention was the power supple plug near the bottom left. Since the power supply is to be mounted inside near the front panel, Fractal has preinstalled an extension to aid users for this situation. The Node also has two available expansion slots which is great news for dual-slot graphics cards.
Now that we have examined the exterior of the Node 304, let us take a closer look at the interior!
