Joined in 2023 
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63 About this deal
No sharp edges, perfectly fitting holes and a generally high-quality impression - as I am used to from this manufacturer. Dust filters line all the main vents and for extra cooling, and twin 120 mm fans can be installed next to the graphics card. You can’t see it now, but behind the cloth mesh is a subtle white Power LED that is shaped like a regtangle, I’ll share that picture a little later in the article. I dusted my venerable GTX1080 and gave it a try in the setup with the replacement riser (used DDU before installing nvidia drivers) and no-go, same story.
The Node 202 is supposed to be a compact case that can handle a gaming system but how well it performs in this regard depends heavily on the power requirements of the video card, and the type of cooler employed. If you wanted to simplify access to the internal components, I would recommend removing the captive screws on the side panels as these will perform just fine. It covers the ventilation slots in the lower part of the GPU chamber as shown below, so the air is "trapped" and forced into the upper chamber.
The GPU support bar that the PCI riser card is fastened to needs to be removed when installing the motherboard but the process is mindnumbingly simple.
The 2060 is not a top tier card but even with plenty of ventilation holes cut in the cover of the 202, the gpu was still constantly thermally throttling. My next steps would be to install an intake fan in gpu slot (silent one too), replace the CPU fan, put some dust filters on the top of the case and above the cpu, replace the GPU. I don't get why people are hyping this ancient piece of Powersupply that has been introduced in 2010 and been around ever since without any noticable change - welll, except that they corrected their wrong Power Label. Looking at community builds regarding the Node 202 can best showcase (pun totally intended) what this case is capable of doing in the most peculiar of circumstances.My goal is to make it the PC as silent as possible while maintaining acceptable temperatures for computer parts. Ok, so this part is probably the hardest for me to review, even though it's the specific part that I designed this entire build around. Some owners of the Node 202 seem to have problems aligning their graphics cards correctly with the screw holes in the PCI slot. Second is the GPU cooling, and you shouldn't overlook this too quickly, especially in something designed for the living room as a hotter GPU means a louder one.
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