Final Thoughts
When you are looking at cases for a home theater system one of the biggest things is if it can support a full sized ATX motherboard. Since home theater system do not need to be all that powerful many people repurpose older systems. So in most cases people will be using a normal ATX motherboard. The Node 605 supports both ATX and mATX motherboards so you are set there. The second thing people look for when selecting a HTPC case is how many hard drives it can support. Of course where are you going to store all of your media? The Node 605 supports 4 hard drives, which should be more than enough for most people.
This case is going to be in your home theater so you want it to look good. The brushed aluminum front panel looks great and there are no drives or anything else showing that would actually let anyone know it is a computer. The front panel connections are hidden behind a small pull-down door. These connections include two USB 3.0 ports, Firewire, audio connections and a card reader. This way you can easily view media from flash drives or storage cards.
When it came to installation things were pretty simple. Once you remove the two hard drive cages and support beam there is quite a lot of room inside to work with. Since the hard drive cages are out of the case you can install your hard drive cages with ease. You do want to make sure your video card and power supply are appropriate sizes to fit inside of this case. Fractal Design provides you with the exact specifications for such components. The only real issue you might have with installation is putting the hard drive cages back in. Once you have your power supply in and all of your cables run it is going to take a bit to arrange the cables so you can get the cages back in.
At the end of the day this case does its job and will get you a home theater PC setup in no time. The only other issue is that you will not be able to use the slim-line optical drive if you are using a full sized ATX motherboard. Since many people are getting away from optical media this really should not be a big deal for most people. If you are looking to build a HTPC system this is a great case for it. Right now you can pick it up at my favorite online retailer for $150. Overall ThinkComputers gives the Fractal Design Node 605 HTPC Case a 9 out of 10 score and our Recommended Award!
Pros:
– Sleek design
– Supports full sized ATX motherboards and power supplies
– Easy installation
– Fan controller
Cons:
– You need to take time with your cabling
– Slim-line optical drive can only be used when using a mATX motherboard
