[section_title title=Closer Look – Exterior]
Closer Look – Exterior
Starting with the front of the chassis, we can see that Fractal Design have decided to use a high quality brushed aluminium finish. On the bottom right hand side of the front panel you can see that there is the Fractal Design logo and just above it the power button. You will notice that the part which the Fractal Design logo is on is a separate piece of material to the rest of the front panel. This is because it is a little flap which covers up the front IO panel to keep a nice clean aesthetic to it. I like this design from Fractal as this is primarily going to be used as a HTPC case in someones lounge so minimalist good looks are always going to be a positive.
Moving the flap down reveals the front IO Panel. This IO consists of, from left to right, a bay cover for a slim slot optical device, one firewire port, a pair of 3.5mm jacks for headphones and a microphone, a pair of USB 3.0 ports wired to an internal header, a recessed reset button and finally a multi-card reader.
Both sides of the Node 605 look like this. Both are meshed air intakes which are capable of securing 120mm fans to them only. Whilst there is no dust filtering the mesh is so fins that it should stop the majority of the dust from getting into the system. Even though there are four of these panels, two on each side, it is worth noting that when a power supply is mounted into the chassis, one of these intakes is then used as the air intake by the power supply itself.
Moving round to the back of the case it is a pretty standard affair for an ATX chassis. We have the motherboard cut out on the left hand side which then has dual 80mm fan mounts above it. These are only 80mm for the obvious reason of the case being low profile, I am sure that Fractal Design would have fitted 120mm fans if they felt it necessary, but looking at the amount of 120mm intake you can already have, this seems adequate. To the right of that we have seven PCIe expansion slots, these are all the typical Fractal Design white, to tie in with their white and black colour scheme. The PCIe slot covers themselves, along with any devices that you would install, are held in place by a hold down plate, this is secured by a screw that you can see towards the roof of the chassis. Lastly, on the right hand side we have the cut out for the power supply.
Last but not least we have the roof panel. This panel is held on with the clips and the front and is secured by two screws at the rear. Whilst this may not sound like a lot to hold it in place, there was no rattle from it at all during testing and the panel itself is of a strong construction and has practically no flex in it at all. You can also see that Fractal Design have adorned the panel with a considerable amount of sound proofing, this is a Bitumen kind which is better and more expensive than the foam that we saw in the Antec P100.
