Fractal Design Node 202

[Dawelio]

Hello guys,

So I recently saw J2C's video on the Fractal Design Node 202 and I fell in love.

It may not be the best "entusiast" or "gaming" case, but it's very modern looking and nice in my opinion.

Now, I'm wondering though, maybe a stupid question, since on Fractal's website they say max length for SFX PSUs are 130mm.
But the height etc then?... So my question is, would this 600W SFX from Silverstone work or be too big?:

http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=524

Lastly, CPU coolers are limited in this case... Do you guys know/could recommend any good coolers that is compatible with this case?. The only one I've come across, that looks okay and is from a respectable brand, is the Noctua NH-L9i:

http://noctua.at/en/products/cpu-cooler-retail/nh-l9i.html

Thanks,
Chrazey

 

[Wraith]

You'll be fine with the Silverstone SFX 600W it's only 125mm in length, as for coolers you should look at the Scythe Shuriken 2 or the Noctua NH-L9i, it's going to be tight in there but those coolers are really low profile.

 

[AlienALX]

http://www.hardwareluxx.de/images/s...esign_Node_202/Fractal_Design_Node_202_13.jpg

That cooler looks very similar to the Noctua you are eyeing up. Should be OK

 

[Dawelio]

Cool, thanks guys... Apologies for the late reply.

I've actually taken a look at the Noctua NH-L9i... my only concern is how will it really perform, on top of an i7 4790K, at stock speeds?... It won't be as good as my H100i, but will it be terrible you guys think?...

I've also heard of the Corsair SF600, anyone that has any info on it?... I'm pretty sure that there aren't any sort of short cables for that kind of PSU? Like Silverstone has with their PP05-E kit.

 

[JR23]

The 600W SFX Strider and L9i are as good as it gets in SFF kit. Don't hesitate to go with either, we must have 6 or more of those PSU's at work and they are epic. Easier than anything Corsair will ever do to make or buy cables for as well.

JR

 

[Dawelio]

The 600W SFX Strider and L9i are as good as it gets in SFF kit. Don't hesitate to go with either, we must have 6 or more of those PSU's at work and they are epic. Easier than anything Corsair will ever do to make or buy cables for as well.

JR

Thanks JR for your reply, as always.

Cool, so the L9i will be adequate then? Specially for this case?... Since I read on Noctua's own site, that the TDP of the i7 4790K were too high for the L9i and they didn't really recommend it on my CPU

- http://noctua.at/en/nh_l9i_tdp_guidelines

Not entirely sure what "SSF" stands for, but assuming it means regarding the size of this category of cases. Somewhat.

Well you read my mind JR, I did actually just hesitate after reading that page on Noctua's site regarding the cooler.
And also hesitated on the PSU, as Corsair had shown their SFX PSU... But not short cables for it, which Silverstone provides WITH their SFX PSU.

May I ask why you must have 6 or more of those PSUs at work?...

 

[JR23]

Thanks JR for your reply, as always.

Cool, so the L9i will be adequate then? Specially for this case?... Since I read on Noctua's own site, that the TDP of the i7 4790K were too high for the L9i and they didn't really recommend it on my CPU

- http://noctua.at/en/nh_l9i_tdp_guidelines

Not entirely sure what "SSF" stands for, but assuming it means regarding the size of this category of cases. Somewhat.

Well you read my mind JR, I did actually just hesitate after reading that page on Noctua's site regarding the cooler.
And also hesitated on the PSU, as Corsair had shown their SFX PSU... But not short cables for it, which Silverstone provides WITH their SFX PSU.

May I ask why you must have 6 or more of those PSUs at work?...

SFF - Small Form Factor.

The L9i is basically the biggest cooler which can fit inside the 202 and i'm sure it's significantly better than the stock intel cooler in all situations so I don't think it will be terrible. You would have room to fit a full size 92x25mm fan (NF-A9 PWM) so I would definitely do that. It's not ideal but with iGPU disabled and the CPU set up accordingly i'd think it would be adequate. Not for sitting rendering at 100% utilization 24/7 but for gaming no doubt. That's just a sacrifice you have to make for the case.

Chocolate Box, Green MSI X1.0, MATE, SENESCENTIS, ITX Parvum prototype all have SFX Silverstones.

JR

 

[Dawelio]

SFF - Small Form Factor.

The L9i is basically the biggest cooler which can fit inside the 202 and i'm sure it's significantly better than the stock intel cooler in all situations so I don't think it will be terrible. You would have room to fit a full size 92x25mm fan (NF-A9 PWM) so I would definitely do that. It's not ideal but with iGPU disabled and the CPU set up accordingly i'd think it would be adequate. Not for sitting rendering at 100% utilization 24/7 but for gaming no doubt. That's just a sacrifice you have to make for the case.

Chocolate Box, Green MSI X1.0, MATE, SENESCENTIS, ITX Parvum prototype all have SFX Silverstones.

JR

Ahh haha, okay... I actually Googled "SFF", but that didn't come up in plain text, but in terms of form factors. So I assumed it was that.

Okay, so I'll get that fan as well then... I assume it's "static pressure optimized", for it's size?... As I don't think I can fit a 120 on it hehe

Not sure what you mean with iGPU and to set up the CPU accordingly?... As I've used it straight out of the box, stock, since day 1.

Yeah, I know that... I don't render at all and gaming is barely any these days. But do occasionally. Mostly just browsing the web, streaming movies and Youtube. So I'm sure it can handle that without any hassle, yes?

Ohhh okay... I didn't know Chocolate Box used one of those. Are they all using the SX600W unit?. How do you find it then? Does it run quiet or is it noisy when ramping up etc, due to it's size?...

 

[AlienALX]

Yeah plus one for the Silverstone. I had one in my pocket rockit and it was awesome.

 

[JR23]

Ahh haha, okay... I actually Googled "SFF", but that didn't come up in plain text, but in terms of form factors. So I assumed it was that.

Okay, so I'll get that fan as well then... I assume it's "static pressure optimized", for it's size?... As I don't think I can fit a 120 on it hehe

Not sure what you mean with iGPU and to set up the CPU accordingly?... As I've used it straight out of the box, stock, since day 1.

Yeah, I know that... I don't render at all and gaming is barely any these days. But do occasionally. Mostly just browsing the web, streaming movies and Youtube. So I'm sure it can handle that without any hassle, yes?

Ohhh okay... I didn't know Chocolate Box used one of those. Are they all using the SX600W unit?. How do you find it then? Does it run quiet or is it noisy when ramping up etc, due to it's size?...

120mm fans are really big at the side of an ITX motherboard! The NF-A9 has 40% more static pressure and 56% more airflow at full chat so it should make quite a difference compared with the bundled low profile NF-A9x14.

As you'll be using a graphics card the integrated CPU graphics will be disabled making the TDP just a little bit lower and it's probably worth taking the time to set up a static voltage rather than the boards auto-voltage. Could potentially help temperatures without having an affect on performance. Or as Noctua suggest disabling turbo multipliers might be advisable. Personally I would just keep an eye on it during your worst case gaming scenario's and go from there, it will be way more than adequate for your daily tasks.

All Parvum X1.0's use SFX power supplies. We have some 450W and 600W, they are incredible for their size and still operate passively when idle. Mine runs an i5-4690k and overclocked watercooled 290X with no troubles at all. It can't manage to run passively under load like a big PSU but it isn't really loud when the fan comes on, I would expect that your GPU and CPU fans will probably be the main concern in the 202 in terms of noise under load.

JR

 

[Dawelio]

120mm fans are really big at the side of an ITX motherboard! The NF-A9 has 40% more static pressure and 56% more airflow at full chat so it should make quite a difference compared with the bundled low profile NF-A9x14.

As you'll be using a graphics card the integrated CPU graphics will be disabled making the TDP just a little bit lower and it's probably worth taking the time to set up a static voltage rather than the boards auto-voltage. Could potentially help temperatures without having an affect on performance. Or as Noctua suggest disabling turbo multipliers might be advisable. Personally I would just keep an eye on it during your worst case gaming scenario's and go from there, it will be way more than adequate for your daily tasks.

All Parvum X1.0's use SFX power supplies. We have some 450W and 600W, they are incredible for their size and still operate passively when idle. Mine runs an i5-4690k and overclocked watercooled 290X with no troubles at all. It can't manage to run passively under load like a big PSU but it isn't really loud when the fan comes on, I would expect that your GPU and CPU fans will probably be the main concern in the 202 in terms of noise under load.

JR

Ohh yeah, now that you mention it, they are quite huge ...

Okay, so I'll get an NF-A9 with the cooler and PSU then . Thanks!

Well as I'm not that into all of those disabling, voltage thingys etc, I'm not all that comfortable touching any of that to be honest... I'd rather to what you mentioned later on. To keep an eye out on things and take it from there.

But when you say that it "will be way more than adequate for your daily tasks", then I'm pretty sure on the cooler itself.

Alright, as I'll go with the MSI 980Ti 6G Gaming GPU and an stock i7 4790K.
I've thought of populating the 2 fan slots infont of the GPU to help with some cooling.

Thinking of some of Noctua's industrial PPC ones, the 2000 RPM PWM version.
I used to have those and when turning on the system, they were loud as hell, going full blast. The original NF-F12's were very quiet during that period.

Have you noticed anything similar with all of your Noctua PPC's?... Specially the CPU cooler one in Chocolate Box?.

 

[JR23]

Alright, as I'll go with the MSI 980Ti 6G Gaming GPU and an stock i7 4790K.
I've thought of populating the 2 fan slots infont of the GPU to help with some cooling.

Thinking of some of Noctua's industrial PPC ones, the 2000 RPM PWM version.
I used to have those and when turning on the system, they were loud as hell, going full blast. The original NF-F12's were very quiet during that period.

Have you noticed anything similar with all of your Noctua PPC's?... Specially the CPU cooler one in Chocolate Box?.

Do you already have the CPU and GPU? Are you sure that the MSI card will fit in the 202?

How the fans behave depends entirely on the controller and how that's set up. Most motherboards will give fans full 12v 100% PWM signal while posting and then slow them down to the right speed after the BIOS splash screen.

Both the EVGA Stinger I have in Chocolate Box and the Aquaero 6 I use in Lightning are configured to run the fans at a static speed. They both apply their settings immediately so the fans spin up to the set speed and never change which is especially unusual for a motherboard. The Aquaero can be configured to do literally anything.

JR

 

[Dawelio]

Do you already have the CPU and GPU? Are you sure that the MSI card will fit in the 202?

How the fans behave depends entirely on the controller and how that's set up. Most motherboards will give fans full 12v 100% PWM signal while posting and then slow them down to the right speed after the BIOS splash screen.

Both the EVGA Stinger I have in Chocolate Box and the Aquaero 6 I use in Lightning are configured to run the fans at a static speed. They both apply their settings immediately so the fans spin up to the set speed and never change which is especially unusual for a motherboard. The Aquaero can be configured to do literally anything.

JR

The i7 4790K CPU is already in my current PC and the MSI is on it's way for testing.

Ohh right, it was that easy... So my cpu cooler then maxed the fans out on full speed, I assume.

It's seems difficult to find an EVGA Stinger today, out of stock everywhere. Any ideas if possible to get hold off one, if possible?. Or is it outdated?.