Fractal Design

The first time I heard of Fractal Design I was still heavily invovled in the Windows Home Server community. The Fractal Design Array Mini-ITX NAS case was shaping up to be the ultimate choice for the DIYer looking to build a compact appliance-style WHS box. The original Array was popular, but not without its flaws, and so Fractal Design released the Array R2. For the Array R2, Fractal Design tweaked the design to improve airflow and cooling without giving up the phenomenal storage capacity that one would want in a case targeting the home server and NAS market. We took a look at the Fractal Design Array R2 just about a year ago, and liked what we saw. Our friends at Techgage recently took the Array R2 for a spin and it sounds like they came to similar conclusions. It's hard not to like a Mini-ITX case that can hold up to 6 3.5" hard drives without losing its cool.

Designed and marketed as a home NAS or server chassis, the Array R2 was built to house mini-ITX motherboards. Built entirely out of aluminum and rivaling Lian Li for quality and style, the Array R2 can house an astounding 7 hard drives (6x 3.5" drives and 1x 2.5" HDD or SSD) and ships with a Fractal Design-branded 300W SFX power supply. 

Techgage

When we met with Fractal Design at CES they didn't have anything new to show us, but it was obvious that they were hungry and responsive to the community. If there was any doubt on this point it should be clear now with the re-launch a sleeker Node 605 just a few weeks after it was originally announced in early June with a very un-HTPCesqe logo on emblazoned on the front. If you're in the market for a full size (ATX) HTPC case, the Node 605 just got a lot more interesting. Kudos Fractal Design!

Design changes:

• New logo placement moved to the bottom right-hand corner to highlight a minimalistic front panel
• Logo colour changed from white to grey for a sleek appeal
• All other features originally outlined will be delivered as promised!

MSRP	USD	EURO	GBP	SEK
	$ 159	€ 149	£ 119	1399 kr
Description	Art. Number	EAN	UPC
Node 605	FD-CA-NODE-605-BL	7350041080985	817301010986

 

Will be available in August

We had the opportunity to review Fractal Design's Arc Midi case last month and came away generally pleased, particularly with the case's versatility and value. It would make a solid foundation for any HTPC or home server build. I am continually surprised with how many drive bays Fractal Design manages to fit into their cases without sacrificing accessibility. Our friends at the Hardware Canucks have also taken a crack at the Arc Midi and have put together a video review that does a nice job of showing the case's features inside and out. Though they note that the case is not without its flaws, they too seem to be rather impressed with how much value Fractal Design has manged to build into the Arc Midi. 

The Arc series follows two distinct lines: a mini tower and what they call a “midi” design which is something between a mid tower case and a slightly smaller form factor. For anyone that wants a mid tower but has limited space, the Arc midi may be the perfect enclosure since it combines a subtle design with a ton of cooling options and a great price of under $110.

Hardware Canucks

We reviewed the Fractal Design Array R2 back in September and concluded that, despite lacking an optical drive bay, it was a fine HTPC and media server case, eliminating the need for a separate, stand-alone NAS. Of course, the Array R2 would make a fine NAS case in its own right, which is how the folks at LanOC approached the Array R2 in their review. I would still love to see one of these cases loaded up with drives, but it sounds like the LanOC guys were pleased with what they saw.

A case that almost prides itself on being simple has very little to mess things up or cause problems once everything is put together. I was very impressed with the total weight of the Array R2 with our full build inside coming in lighter than even our past shuttle builds! 

LanOC