The Node: A Powerhouse for Custom Builds

As a power user of computers, I've always been on the lookout for components that can help me push the limits of my system. Recently, I had the opportunity to try out the Fractal Design North case, which promised to deliver impressive performance and aesthetics. In this review, I'll delve into the features and capabilities of this powerhouse case.

The Node: A Case Worth Considering

My journey with the Fractal Design North began with a visit to my local computer store, where I picked up the case and set it aside for future use. As I waited for the perfect moment to build my system, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and anticipation. Would this case live up to its promise of delivering exceptional performance?

Building My System

The first step in using the Fractal Design North was to start building my system. The process was straightforward, with clear instructions and easy-to-follow diagrams. As I began installing my components, including the CPU cooler, hard drives, and motherboard, I couldn't help but notice the well-thought-out design of the case.

One of the standout features of the Fractal Design North is its use of wooden slats on the front panel. Not only do these slats add a touch of elegance to the case, but they also provide excellent airflow and improve overall cooling performance.

Cooling Performance

With my system complete, I turned my attention to testing its cooling performance. The Fractal Design North boasts a range of features designed to keep your components running smoothly, including 240mm and 280mm radiators, as well as a built-in fan controller.

In my tests, the case performed admirably, with temperatures staying within a healthy range throughout even the most demanding applications. I was particularly impressed by the performance of the deep cool cooler, which was able to maintain a consistent temperature despite the demands placed upon it.

Cable Management

One of the things that sets the Fractal Design North apart from other cases is its ease of cable management. The case comes with four zip ties, but as I soon discovered, these were not enough to keep all my cables tidy and organized.

To overcome this limitation, I resorted to using additional zip ties and cable management accessories. While it may have been a bit more work than necessary, the end result was well worth the effort, as my case now looks like a thing of beauty.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Fractal Design North is a powerhouse case that delivers exceptional performance and aesthetics. With its innovative use of wooden slats, impressive cooling capabilities, and easy-to-use design, it's an excellent choice for anyone looking to build a high-performance system.

While there were some minor drawbacks, including the limited number of zip ties provided with the case, these were easily overcome through creative problem-solving and additional accessories. Overall, I'm thoroughly impressed with the Fractal Design North, and I have no hesitation in recommending it to anyone in the market for a top-notch case.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis slightly Dusty PC that features on thechannel semi-regularly oh I mean it's notthat bad is my personal gaming system andin today's video I'm gonna use it as a guineapig for a fancy new case transplant but firsttoday's video is sponsored by the node whichis slowly being absorbed by Akamai to formthe most powerful Linux based cloud computingservice the world has ever seen kinda likeit already is just look at this long listof Linux based Cloud Computing Services theyoffer I can tell you're impressed and thiscombined with their competitive pricing andaward-winning customer support makes lenoda no-brainer Choice sign up using the linkin the video description to get a 60-day hundreddollar free creditthank youfirst things first for those of youthat haven't seen it let's have a quick lookat the specs of this systemnow aside from my personal dust collectionin the system we have an RTX 3080 that I MacGyverthe liquid cooler onto an 11 900k and a bunchof motherboard stuff but actually with thatlet's de-case the system so we can get a closerlook at the other components foreignboy in a second but first I want to get thewhole motherboard out because it's kind ofrelevant to the storyoh this front dust filter actually isn't quiteas Dusty as I was expecting it to be althoughit's only been like three or four months soit makes sense that it's not that badagain the front fans aren't that bad eitherI was kind of expecting the Govi desert tohave thrown up on them yeah you see it's oneof the problems with modern motherboards andthis armor that they all have on them it makesit really difficult for you to get the clipsand thingsnow we must face the nightmare ofair cooler CPU power cable undoing inthe Midtownyeah I'm gonna have to undo the fan foreignI guess the top air filter receivedthe brunt of the Dust punishment and in thefinal thing before we take a look at the motherboardis to just remove the power supply and thenI think we've got everything we need fromthis case power supply wise I'm suresome of you are outraged to see me using thisrm750x to power an RTX 3080 but it's beenmore than enough and after removing a crossthread standoff I decided to give my motherboarda quick blow oh okay my office is now 70 lastyear may not have been a great idea probablycould have removed the fans first I'm gonnareplace them anyway so I didn't need to blowtheir dust all over my office but other thanyou learn now the motherboard in questionis this amazing looking gigabyte z590 aorusMaster which despite being one of the topdog z590 gigabyte boards I bought new forlike 200 US dollars six or seven months afterlaunch because I guess no one bought thisgeneration of Intel CPU and they just neededto get rid of the stock now some of you mayquite rightly Be Wondering David why do youuse a cheap gigabit Ethernet card with a motherboardthat has the rear i o equivalent of Brad Pittnot young Brad Pitt but Brad Pitt nonethelesswhich is a reasonable question consideringthat we have 10 gigabit Ethernet on this motherboardthe problem is the 10 gigabit Ethernet witha lot of these fancier motherboards they addthis feature using an acquaintia 10 gigabitEthernet chip which in my experience on allthe motherboards I've interacted with it onthis chip is complete ass and after monthsof trying different drivers and still gettingseveral Network dropouts mid online gamingsession a day I just decided screw it I'mgonna buy a cheap gigabit Ethernet card offof Amazon and I haven't had a single problemsince some motherboard manufacturers if you'regoing to insist on using this chip to bragabout 10 gigabit Ethernet on your motherboardsat this price point at least give me redundantethernet using a chip that we know Works aquentiamore like a quent ass am I right anyway ranover let's check out the new caselook at that so exciting that is somePrimo soft foam packaging very niceand in case you've been living undera rock for the last three months this is thefractal design North a bit of a weird nameI probably would have called it the wood myselfbut you know this is just me the standoutfeature of course being the the wooden slatson the front uh now having seen it in personI will say that I I actually think the blackone with the front Oak would look better butI bought the white one because I haven't donethe whole white case thing in a while andit still looks really nice I just feel likethe black and the dark wood would match abit better but that's just my opinion it'sgot a solid front i o of course the most importantthing is we need to test the power buttonwhich oh it's got some real resistance toit there's a teeny bit of springiness to itbut I like the resistance the wood slats doseem quite porous in the front here for airflowwhich is very good and then the inside ofthe case next to this this little pleatherpool is actually painted this gunmetal colorwhich I quite like I think it looks goodoh it does kind of sit in like that and thenyou you take it off okay that's a decent sidepanel Mount the insides of the case just lookslike a good modern case interior it comeswith 240 millimeter fans out of the box mountedto this front 360 mil radiator Mount and thenon the top we've got a 280 mil radiator mountwith a dust filter so lots of fan mountingto go around but for my system we're justgonna have the 240 mil GPU Radiator in thefront which I'm thinking of using push pullon that just to increase the amount of airbeing pulled into the case but I'll see howclearance works for that but with that let'sstart building in it in the basementwe get a couple of hard drive cages whichare actually very low in here which kind ofmakes sense for cable management but I thinkit would be nice for them to add an accessorywhere you can have a double stack of harddrives as opposed to just the ones flat onthe floor so that you can have like two furtherup or up to four hard drives depending onwhat you wantoh oh I actually do quickly want toreplace the fans on the cooler here with thesesilent Wing Pro 4S considering that I havenine million of them lying aroundQueenit doesn't look quite as Sleek as it did withthe fans that come stock with this deep coolcooler but I think a little bit quieterthat fits real nice look at that they giveyou a nice guide of what all the screws areon the box that's usefulnow comes the most feared test in all of customthe David hand big air cooler CPU power plug-indifficulty testlook at that it was real easy even with thisbig air cooler good job fractal design afterwhich I started the cable management in thecase which is very easy aside from a weirdsmall shortcoming it comes with just fourzip ties that's a bit stingy don't you thinkoh like that okay pull it out it actuallycomes out real easy and now the next stepis to see what kind of clearance we're gonnahave if you drop this in here and this goesI mean we can do push pull if we want so Idecided to very professionally test how muchof a difference it would make starting offwith a pool configuration adding a secondset of fans later on to see how much it helpsthe temperatureshahmm heavythank youno I'm not going to spend too much time talkingabout the way that it looks because I feellike it's up to you to decide how you feelabout it but in person I'm not nearly as painfullyaroused by it as I was expecting to be asidefrom the awesome wooden front I feel likemaybe the side panel is a little bit too smallslightly obscuring your view of the systemand then what you get in return is this justblank bit of white space I don't know it'sdefinitely not ugly it just doesn't reallyget my juices flowing you know and I'm prettydisappointed that I didn't buy the black onebut you live and you learn and that's besidesthe point let's do some gaming on it to seehow the temperatures stack up and then we'lladd another set of fans in the front to seeif that helps okay so it's been a while anduh we've been hovering around 54.80 for awhile now 80 has been kind of the averagelet's see what happens when we add a couplemore fans to that front radiator wowit made a surprisingly big difference especiallywhen it comes to the CPU where we lost about10 degrees Celsius on average my theory asto why that's happening is that the two fanscouldn't quite pull enough air through theradiator into the case and adding the extratwo fans just gave that additional bit ofairflow that the system needed to stay coolI really am surprised at how big a differencethat made so at the end of the day in personvisually the fractal design North doesn'tquite ignite the fire in my loins I was expectingit to but it's a well thought out case andit's nice to see fractal using some interestingmaterials in the build with that thank youfor watching and until the next video bye-byethank you