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There is not a lot of room to work within the area behind the front cover, and fully populating it with drives will be somewhat difficult due to all the cable routing. 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.
On one side of the box, we can see the product specifications as well as some info about all of the cooling system options. On the other side is a nice image of the hard drive cages and their unique place in the case.
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Both chambers are configurable to run with up to two 120mm front intake fans (four total). The motherboard side will accommodate a 120mm exhaust, while the drive cage side can have up to a 140mm exhaust. You’ll want to note that the easiest intake path is from the lower 1/3 along the front, while the fans ship in the “high” position where the hottest components will likely reside in the case. We might find that as an issue when we heat it up during testing. I used this case to build a NAS earlier this year and found that it’s not up to the normal Fractal design standard. Having built my last computer in a Define R5, the Node 804 seems to have some badly thought out features. 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. It doesn’t need to be removed to clean them out, but you will need to gain access here for managing the SSD bay and fan/radiator mounts. Up to four 120mm fans can be installed up front, as well as up to two 240mm radiators for enhanced cooling capacity. Side inside view of the Fractal Design Node 804. (Source: NAS Master) After testing tons of different cases, these are the best NAS cases you can use in my opinion. Overall, NAS cases are unique in the sense that each user will have different requirements depending on the RAID array size you’ll be using. The obvious requirement for most people is to determine how many total hard drives you’ll need first.
Rear: 1 - 120mm fan slots (included is 1 hydraulic bearing 120mm Silent Series R2 fan, 1000 RPM speed) 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.From that perspective, the JONSBO N2 isn’t a great value, but from the perspective of offering the overall best form factor you can buy, potentially being a low-powered unit (depending on the other components), and looking and functioning like a rebuilt NAS, the JONSBO N2 is an awesome option. Maximum radiator configuration: 1x240mm, 1x280mm and 2x120mm radiators simultaneously. Front interface
The JONSBO D500 is an ITX/mATX/ATX/E-ATX monster of a case. It supports ten total hard drives and even supports huge GPUs (in case you’d like to use a GPU for hardware transcoding, etc). It’s not the best case from a budget perspective, but in my opinion, it offers a ton in a relatively small form factor (for what it’s offering). In terms of performance, I was surely not let down at all. The Node 804 comes with 3x fans pre-installed as standard which offer a decent amount of airflow to help and keeps thing inside cool. This is also where the dual chamber design comes into play a bit, having the PSU and hard drives in the second chamber not only relieves some of the heat from those components it also helps with the airflow as there is less in the way of the fans. With my test system installed airflow was not a problem at all and if it was, there is plenty enough room to mount a couple more fans to add a helping hand in bringing the temperature down a bit. On the front of the main chamber is space for 2x fans, 1 of which comes pre-installed. Also removing the front panel will give access to the dust filter when it comes time to clean it. 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.
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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. Taking a look at the Node 804 itself from the front and it features a nice brushed aluminium design, which goes over great with me. Users will also note the Fractal Design logo on the right-hand side and the nice big vented area across the bottom to make sure users are taking advantage of all the great cooling features. While the total hard drive storage locations are ultimately the most important factor of any good case, there are other key things that must be taken into consideration. First, you need to determine the type of motherboard you’ll be using before actually buying a case. The JONSBO D500 is a great mix between a massive case like the Define 7 XL, and a more traditional, PC case that simply holds 4-5 hard drives. I have a love/hate relationship with Mini-ITX cases. On one hand, they provide the smallest form factor you can realistically build. On the other, they’re extremely expensive in comparison to just about anything else, as the motherboard and power supply will provide fewer total connections (SATA, USB, etc), but cost more.
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