Node 202 was meant for REAR exhaust GPU. Blower cards and cards with fins running front to back vs up and down. For other cards, yes add 2 fans and they keep the GPU from recycling hot air by pushing it out the small vents and also out the MoBo side.
I mean, I have a Node 202 with a Zotac 1080 AMP! extreme... which is 325x148mm and 2.5 wide. I did have to remove the metal LED shroud since it was 3 mm too long to fit. The clearance between the fans on the card and the power cable/usb header is around 1 MM, close enough to hit if the GPU is not supported. I modded the side of the case with a cutout in the GPU area as the small vents don't work well enough. I ran into a lot of problems since the USB cables literally had nowhere to go. I ended up 3D printing a duct close to the fans on the card as an intake, the USB cable runs in front of this duct with cutouts. but I really enjoyed doing the mods, messing with curves, fitting and designing pieces. Now that its all together I love it. Thermals stay 70C under full load at 60% fan, Could be cooler, but I don't like the noise. 1600AF OC to 4 ghz, hits 75c under prime 95 (I printed a shroud for the cpu fan to the case intake). I did end up having to make some stand offs for the case as the GPU was in-taking a lot of air and was being restricted with the stock feet. I only did this because I had all these parts already. I would definitely go for a 1080 mini or something blower style. but if you want lower noise and have a 3D printer. You can just create a duct and put some 120mm fans in there with almost any cards heatsink. I love the small design of it for my HTPC. I dont want a PC case sitting on my TV stand next to a PS4.
I have a node 202 with rhyzen 5 5600 running id cooling is55 cooler with the stock fan repurposed as gpu cooling fan pulling air in. I replaced it with a Noctua NF-A12x15 PWM, cpu runs in the 60s under load. My gpu is amd rx6650 8gb but unfortunately its suffering with the issues in this video, its in the 80 degree range with the intake fan added without it in the 90s. Hot spot at 105. Guess im going to have to get a bigger case.
PRO-TIP: If you drill out the dremels in the compartment separator, you can install and mATX board and still have room for a SFX PSU and a full sized GPU.
I personally use the OG Cooler Master NR200 (non-P or non-Max) & has the perforated side panels (no mesh filter) with Ryzen 9 5900x w/ AIO 280mm and RTX3080Ti and runs perfectly fine and cool under load. It’s a budget friendly case with tons of potential 🥰👍🫠😇
Surprised the Dan A4 H20 isn't in your list, its a brilliant sub 11litre case with AIO support though appeals more to custom watercoolers abit more i think.
L9 with thiccer fan by noctua. Also got a 6700xt challenger 3fan with 2 big noctuas below of it. Never got problems with hot air. To fix the only issue what is the covered gpu backplate side is to buy a second case , cut out the air vent and replace that thing. Rivet will work fine, only limitation is the tdp of your cpu.
I really liked the node 202 at first, it was compact, it was what I was looking for at the time circa 2016-2017. The TL;DR for me at the end of the past 6 years is that I would choose a case that isn't so cramped, has adequate room for hardware upgrades without having to worry whether or not my GPU is going to fit the 47mm-50mm thickness limitations. I'd just buy a larger ITX case.
One suggestion for building in the Node 202, using a blower style gpu and a SP fan next to it helps keep the temps much lower. The downside to that will be the limited options for the GPUs and the need to dust those vents more (air will be blowing out of all those vents thanks to the SP fan next to the GPU)
Both the NR200P and the Meshlicious are very solid options. Both also allow for mATX (and the Meshlicious even allows for an ATX) board mods. Size-wise, the Meshlicious is a bit smaller and also weights about 2 - 3 kg less. The advantage of the NR200 over the Meshi is, that it allows for a traditional GPU layout AND a riser-card vertical option, while the Meshlicious is limited to sandwich-style. cu, w0lf.
It is designed for a blower design gpu. I own the case too. And it is bad to not use a blower design gpu in this case. The only thing that can change that is to mod the case with mesh or drill hundred of holes at the right spots...
A lot of comments recommend NR200 but yeah I know it has better cooling. But to be honest I kinda like this "console-like case"( so we limit to options when it comes to design.)
I'm typing this on a machine with a Node 202 case and a Wraith Spire. I did remove the decorative shroud around the fan, and it does contact the case lid, but it does fit. I'm also using a variant of the GTX-1080 with a blower, so the GPU draws in air from the bottom vents and exhausts it out the back of the case. I actually get remarkably good thermals in this case.
I can highly recommend the NR200P. Even with the stock included two fans at the top and using the glass side panel, my 5600X and 6700XT runs really great. All the cool air is sucked in via the bottom and vented out top. I wouldn't use the mesh panel and riser since it looks like nothing special then. The white version is the one i chose, but I believe you get them in a few different colour options now. Had a few ITX cases before this, Silverstone RVZ01 (similar to the node 202) and the Corsair Bulldog (once again similar layout). The only struggle with the NR200P and using the glass side panel is finding a tower cooler that fits. Used one of my older 92mm Be quiet towers and works great.
I have another pc with Ryzen 7 5800X3D w/ Alpenpfon Black Ridge cooler (slightly squished 1-2mm) w/ RTX3060 in a Skyreach Mini S4 and its performance stays fine under load 🤯😇🫠🥰👍
Lian Li Dan A4-H20 is best a litter bigger 11L I currently have my 12700f paired with 3080 12gb I was previously using this node 202 with 3060 and 5600x and still the best 1080p gaming setup
Small computer case? How about that one that you had your first (I think) computer in lol Edit: For those wondering, it was the most massive PC case I have ever seen.
What I did with my nose 202: I took the GPU fans and shroud off my 2060 super, I run 2 full size 120mm fans. BUT I have one fan as intake through the gpu heat sink, and the second fan as exhaust. The exhaust fan is only half covered with the heat sink and it moves some heat. The card only hits 75 to sometimes 80c and that’s laying down, not on the stand.
Did you consider the Dan Case H2O? I use it and it's very small while still being able to house a 240mm aio. It also accomidates a big GPU like my AMD 6800XT pretty easily
the q58 is pretty neat to build in...i went odd tho...air cooled a ryzen7 2700..65w tdp..noctua l9a cpu cooler with a grill and fit a 120mm fan over it..2 fan gigabyte 2060...hot a 4tb drive behind psu and another 4tb at the end of graphics card..its in an ext. enclosure..2tb behind front panel and a 1tb on mobo...2 top intake and side..bottom exhaust...runs great..mpoved gpu 1 slot closer to the mesh..bottom mesh and glass pn top ..,36 to 40 when doing light tasks...4 cooler master halo fans now..i do have a vid on here ig ypu wanna check it out..love the vids..
Hey, if you want to send me your node 202 once you switch cases, let me know. I am happy to pay shipping. Been wanting this case for a long time, regardless of the GPU cooling issues
I have built in both the SSUPD Meshlicious and the CM NR200P, my vote would be the Meshlicous (I have 2 builds in this case) it is what I have my wife's (happy wife, happy life....or something like that) build in. Anyway, her Meshy is a sandwich layout that houses a 3080 Strix and 5800X3D, on a Strix B550i motherboard, being cooled by a NZXT Z63 280mm AIO, it stays in the mid-60's to low-70's throughout hours of DayZ, Fallout 76 and other games she likes to play. It was easy for me to build in (my first ITX build), mostly toolless, has a small footprint and there was a lot of YT information to help me out if I had troubles figuring out how to fit something. The CM NR200P is a great case as well, and what I am using to play around with building my first custom loop in, I did have our HTPC cased in this case and temps were great, all air cooled, it isn't sandwich and for me will be easier to route tubes and whatnot (when I get to that stage) because it is more open. I would also mention, because you have a 3060 in the video, that my 2nd Meshlicious is a bit of an experiment in progress, I have a dual fan EVGA 3060ti in that one, in horizontal configuration, it just fits 2 Phanteks T30's up front with like 2mm to spare and on the CPU side I have a 5700X being cooled by a Big Shuriken 3 with a Noctua 120x25mm fan, this configuration also leaves me with room below the GPU to house 2x3.5 HDD's or up to 4x2.5 SSD's if I want to. Good luck picking a new case, though, while I don't have any experience with the Hyte, I'm sure they are all suitable for your needs.....I did see somewhere that there is a new SSUPD in the works as well, but not sure what'll be different about it though.
im looking to build a pc and i'd like to use this case (my size is limited to about that of a xbox 1 and the node 202 is one of the few i can find) do you think a it would benefit from a blower style gpu?
Using zip ties, I installed three 40mm fans on the top of the case to create airflow for exhaust. My card is an itx one though, so it leaves room for the air to flow out of the GPU compartment.
Lol what a joke. These mini itx pc's are supposed to be entertainment center/living room pc's. You throw a 3090 in there and a ryzen 9 5950x and the case literally wont even matter, ALL the mini itx cases will be the same XD The parts you have DESERVE to be in a normal sized case. Node 202 is fucking mint for NORMAL applications.
Not quite. Mini-ITX cases are meant to house gaming systems but usually not the most high-end ones possible. My RTX 3060 and R5 5600 run at perfectly safe temps in the Node 202 while gaming.
best CPU cooler for this case is the Thermalright AXP-100, I run a Ryzen 7 5800X and the highest temps i get are at 75 degrees C, Except for video encoding, this cooler will never let my cpu throttle. Have a low profile Noctua fan pulling air into the cooler from the outside and 4x Noctua 40mm fans venting out the grill above the CPU, best part about the cooler is you can orient it in any position, this way the heat pipes are at the bottom of the mobo allowing for near 0 obstruction for air to get through the cooler and out the top grill
I also have one 120mm Noctua NFP12 pulling air directly onto the GPU then another one pulling air out right beside it in the GPU compartment, my EVGA RTX 2060Super never gets above 45 degrees C, I also have an 80mm noctua fan pulling air from the GPU compartment, through the little cable managment hole and into the CPU compartment to help create a negative air pressure in the GPU compartment, making sure more air comes in to cool it rather than an equal pressure which would promote recirculation of hot air in the GPU compartment. This only fractionally increases temps in the cpu compartment as the cooler for the CPU has already pulled fresh air in from outside the case and also allows for some air to cool critical components like the ram and in my case refreshes the air in the CPU and PSU compartment so that mini fans on my MOBO heatsinks can have a fresh, supply of air at all times.
pros of this setup are that everything is nice and compact, temps stay relatively low and in a small form factor, downsides are that it sounds like a fricken heavy duty truck engine when youre running at full power and no matter what you will never to be able to prevent throttling under full utilization of the processor, any throttling that does occur however is only fractional and even when it is happening i can still expect to see 4.1 - 4.3 GHZ on all cores
Even as I move to higher end hardware I remain loyal to my node 202. I will continue building in it until it becomes unsupported by new parts. It’s a fun challenge. I’ve gone from a 7th gen pentium with a 750ti all the way up to a 12th gen i5 with 3070. Next step is a 13th gen i7 or i9 and a 4080+ gpu from the next gen. Might have to mod this time around to get the heat out.
How are the fans installed at the entrance and exit of the case now? If you use 3070, then it's probably 120 mm * 15 mm, 2 pieces for the input opposite the video card, and which ones are for the output from the case? And if they are not, is there overheating?
Node 202 was meant for REAR exhaust GPU. Blower cards and cards with fins running front to back vs up and down.
For other cards, yes add 2 fans and they keep the GPU from recycling hot air by pushing it out the small vents and also out the MoBo side.
fractal ridge is now a great option
I mean, I have a Node 202 with a Zotac 1080 AMP! extreme... which is 325x148mm and 2.5 wide. I did have to remove the metal LED shroud since it was 3 mm too long to fit. The clearance between the fans on the card and the power cable/usb header is around 1 MM, close enough to hit if the GPU is not supported. I modded the side of the case with a cutout in the GPU area as the small vents don't work well enough. I ran into a lot of problems since the USB cables literally had nowhere to go. I ended up 3D printing a duct close to the fans on the card as an intake, the USB cable runs in front of this duct with cutouts. but I really enjoyed doing the mods, messing with curves, fitting and designing pieces. Now that its all together I love it. Thermals stay 70C under full load at 60% fan, Could be cooler, but I don't like the noise. 1600AF OC to 4 ghz, hits 75c under prime 95 (I printed a shroud for the cpu fan to the case intake). I did end up having to make some stand offs for the case as the GPU was in-taking a lot of air and was being restricted with the stock feet. I only did this because I had all these parts already. I would definitely go for a 1080 mini or something blower style. but if you want lower noise and have a 3D printer. You can just create a duct and put some 120mm fans in there with almost any cards heatsink. I love the small design of it for my HTPC. I dont want a PC case sitting on my TV stand next to a PS4.
Before you replace it, try cutting a hole on top of the GPU (or in front & above the GPU and put an exhaust fan there.
I have a node 202 with rhyzen 5 5600 running id cooling is55 cooler with the stock fan repurposed as gpu cooling fan pulling air in. I replaced it with a Noctua NF-A12x15 PWM, cpu runs in the 60s under load. My gpu is amd rx6650 8gb but unfortunately its suffering with the issues in this video, its in the 80 degree range with the intake fan added without it in the 90s. Hot spot at 105. Guess im going to have to get a bigger case.
PRO-TIP: If you drill out the dremels in the compartment separator, you can install and mATX board and still have room for a SFX PSU and a full sized GPU.
interestingly you provide a video
A blower style gpu card is best for a Node 202. A 120mm fan can help bring in more cool air straight into the blower fan.
I personally use the OG Cooler Master NR200 (non-P or non-Max) & has the perforated side panels (no mesh filter) with Ryzen 9 5900x w/ AIO 280mm and RTX3080Ti and runs perfectly fine and cool under load. It’s a budget friendly case with tons of potential 🥰👍🫠😇
Surprised the Dan A4 H20 isn't in your list, its a brilliant sub 11litre case with AIO support though appeals more to custom watercoolers abit more i think.
L9 with thiccer fan by noctua. Also got a 6700xt challenger 3fan with 2 big noctuas below of it. Never got problems with hot air. To fix the only issue what is the covered gpu backplate side is to buy a second case , cut out the air vent and replace that thing. Rivet will work fine, only limitation is the tdp of your cpu.
I really liked the node 202 at first, it was compact, it was what I was looking for at the time circa 2016-2017. The TL;DR for me at the end of the past 6 years is that I would choose a case that isn't so cramped, has adequate room for hardware upgrades without having to worry whether or not my GPU is going to fit the 47mm-50mm thickness limitations. I'd just buy a larger ITX case.
One suggestion for building in the Node 202, using a blower style gpu and a SP fan next to it helps keep the temps much lower. The downside to that will be the limited options for the GPUs and the need to dust those vents more (air will be blowing out of all those vents thanks to the SP fan next to the GPU)
Sp fan?
help me do this
Both the NR200P and the Meshlicious are very solid options. Both also allow for mATX (and the Meshlicious even allows for an ATX) board mods.
Size-wise, the Meshlicious is a bit smaller and also weights about 2 - 3 kg less.
The advantage of the NR200 over the Meshi is, that it allows for a traditional GPU layout AND a riser-card vertical option, while the Meshlicious is limited to sandwich-style.
cu, w0lf.
You are correct, a sff case from 2015 is not suitable for components from 2022.............
It is designed for a blower design gpu. I own the case too. And it is bad to not use a blower design gpu in this case. The only thing that can change that is to mod the case with mesh or drill hundred of holes at the right spots...
Those two side 120mm fan spaces? Use one as intake and one as exhaust. Simples!
A lot of comments recommend NR200 but yeah I know it has better cooling. But to be honest I kinda like this "console-like case"( so we limit to options when it comes to design.)
I'm typing this on a machine with a Node 202 case and a Wraith Spire. I did remove the decorative shroud around the fan, and it does contact the case lid, but it does fit.
I'm also using a variant of the GTX-1080 with a blower, so the GPU draws in air from the bottom vents and exhausts it out the back of the case. I actually get remarkably good thermals in this case.
80 degrees for a 3060 is not a good result. How unfortunate.
I can highly recommend the NR200P. Even with the stock included two fans at the top and using the glass side panel, my 5600X and 6700XT runs really great. All the cool air is sucked in via the bottom and vented out top. I wouldn't use the mesh panel and riser since it looks like nothing special then. The white version is the one i chose, but I believe you get them in a few different colour options now. Had a few ITX cases before this, Silverstone RVZ01 (similar to the node 202) and the Corsair Bulldog (once again similar layout). The only struggle with the NR200P and using the glass side panel is finding a tower cooler that fits. Used one of my older 92mm Be quiet towers and works great.
There's a cool spacer available on Etsy that spaces the glass panel out enough to support a full 165mm air cooler (I believe that's the height).
recommend the NR200
I have another pc with Ryzen 7 5800X3D w/ Alpenpfon Black Ridge cooler (slightly squished 1-2mm) w/ RTX3060 in a Skyreach Mini S4 and its performance stays fine under load 🤯😇🫠🥰👍
Lian Li Dan A4-H20 is best a litter bigger 11L
I currently have my 12700f paired with 3080 12gb
I was previously using this node 202 with 3060 and 5600x and still the best 1080p gaming setup
Pc snobs hate the node 202 for some reason
Can a 4080 fit in this case?
Small computer case? How about that one that you had your first (I think) computer in lol
Edit: For those wondering, it was the most massive PC case I have ever seen.
What I did with my nose 202: I took the GPU fans and shroud off my 2060 super, I run 2 full size 120mm fans. BUT I have one fan as intake through the gpu heat sink, and the second fan as exhaust. The exhaust fan is only half covered with the heat sink and it moves some heat. The card only hits 75 to sometimes 80c and that’s laying down, not on the stand.
Did you consider the Dan Case H2O? I use it and it's very small while still being able to house a 240mm aio. It also accomidates a big GPU like my AMD 6800XT pretty easily
the q58 is pretty neat to build in...i went odd tho...air cooled a ryzen7 2700..65w tdp..noctua l9a cpu cooler with a grill and fit a 120mm fan over it..2 fan gigabyte 2060...hot a 4tb drive behind psu and another 4tb at the end of graphics card..its in an ext. enclosure..2tb behind front panel and a 1tb on mobo...2 top intake and side..bottom exhaust...runs great..mpoved gpu 1 slot closer to the mesh..bottom mesh and glass pn top ..,36 to 40 when doing light tasks...4 cooler master halo fans now..i do have a vid on here ig ypu wanna check it out..love the vids..
The air is expelled thru the back of the gpu, i get 70s C on full load 6600xt with two fans going in
Hey, if you want to send me your node 202 once you switch cases, let me know. I am happy to pay shipping. Been wanting this case for a long time, regardless of the GPU cooling issues
I have built in both the SSUPD Meshlicious and the CM NR200P, my vote would be the Meshlicous (I have 2 builds in this case) it is what I have my wife's (happy wife, happy life....or something like that) build in.
Anyway, her Meshy is a sandwich layout that houses a 3080 Strix and 5800X3D, on a Strix B550i motherboard, being cooled by a NZXT Z63 280mm AIO, it stays in the mid-60's to low-70's throughout hours of DayZ, Fallout 76 and other games she likes to play. It was easy for me to build in (my first ITX build), mostly toolless, has a small footprint and there was a lot of YT information to help me out if I had troubles figuring out how to fit something.
The CM NR200P is a great case as well, and what I am using to play around with building my first custom loop in, I did have our HTPC cased in this case and temps were great, all air cooled, it isn't sandwich and for me will be easier to route tubes and whatnot (when I get to that stage) because it is more open.
I would also mention, because you have a 3060 in the video, that my 2nd Meshlicious is a bit of an experiment in progress, I have a dual fan EVGA 3060ti in that one, in horizontal configuration, it just fits 2 Phanteks T30's up front with like 2mm to spare and on the CPU side I have a 5700X being cooled by a Big Shuriken 3 with a Noctua 120x25mm fan, this configuration also leaves me with room below the GPU to house 2x3.5 HDD's or up to 4x2.5 SSD's if I want to.
Good luck picking a new case, though, while I don't have any experience with the Hyte, I'm sure they are all suitable for your needs.....I did see somewhere that there is a new SSUPD in the works as well, but not sure what'll be different about it though.
Cannot fit GB 3070 video card into Node 202 because it is too thick. Need to cut off some parts of the case somehow.
im looking to build a pc and i'd like to use this case (my size is limited to about that of a xbox 1 and the node 202 is one of the few i can find) do you think a it would benefit from a blower style gpu?
Using zip ties, I installed three 40mm fans on the top of the case to create airflow for exhaust. My card is an itx one though, so it leaves room for the air to flow out of the GPU compartment.
Hands out a Dremel with a cutting wheel on it to cut out the side area for air flow and removes all the small grill area.
The though had occurred to me as well
@@HoosierHardware I would give it a try before doing a rebox of your system.
And it looks like crap.....
I need an sff case but idk. I might look for something smaller
HZMOD XQ69 (Sentry Clone) would be nice.
Lol what a joke. These mini itx pc's are supposed to be entertainment center/living room pc's. You throw a 3090 in there and a ryzen 9 5950x and the case literally wont even matter, ALL the mini itx cases will be the same XD The parts you have DESERVE to be in a normal sized case. Node 202 is fucking mint for NORMAL applications.
Not quite. Mini-ITX cases are meant to house gaming systems but usually not the most high-end ones possible. My RTX 3060 and R5 5600 run at perfectly safe temps in the Node 202 while gaming.
What about the Lian Li Dan Case a4-h2o?
best CPU cooler for this case is the Thermalright AXP-100, I run a Ryzen 7 5800X and the highest temps i get are at 75 degrees C, Except for video encoding, this cooler will never let my cpu throttle. Have a low profile Noctua fan pulling air into the cooler from the outside and 4x Noctua 40mm fans venting out the grill above the CPU, best part about the cooler is you can orient it in any position, this way the heat pipes are at the bottom of the mobo allowing for near 0 obstruction for air to get through the cooler and out the top grill
I also have one 120mm Noctua NFP12 pulling air directly onto the GPU then another one pulling air out right beside it in the GPU compartment, my EVGA RTX 2060Super never gets above 45 degrees C, I also have an 80mm noctua fan pulling air from the GPU compartment, through the little cable managment hole and into the CPU compartment to help create a negative air pressure in the GPU compartment, making sure more air comes in to cool it rather than an equal pressure which would promote recirculation of hot air in the GPU compartment. This only fractionally increases temps in the cpu compartment as the cooler for the CPU has already pulled fresh air in from outside the case and also allows for some air to cool critical components like the ram and in my case refreshes the air in the CPU and PSU compartment so that mini fans on my MOBO heatsinks can have a fresh, supply of air at all times.
Sorry, im talking about the Node 202 haha
pros of this setup are that everything is nice and compact, temps stay relatively low and in a small form factor, downsides are that it sounds like a fricken heavy duty truck engine when youre running at full power and no matter what you will never to be able to prevent throttling under full utilization of the processor, any throttling that does occur however is only fractional and even when it is happening i can still expect to see 4.1 - 4.3 GHZ on all cores
What's the best cpu cooler for LGA 1700 procesors???
Even as I move to higher end hardware I remain loyal to my node 202. I will continue building in it until it becomes unsupported by new parts.
It’s a fun challenge. I’ve gone from a 7th gen pentium with a 750ti all the way up to a 12th gen i5 with 3070.
Next step is a 13th gen i7 or i9 and a 4080+ gpu from the next gen. Might have to mod this time around to get the heat out.
How are the fans installed at the entrance and exit of the case now? If you use 3070, then it's probably 120 mm * 15 mm, 2 pieces for the input opposite the video card, and which ones are for the output from the case? And if they are not, is there overheating?
Its old, but I like the Cougar QBX.
They need to meshify it.
I would LOVE to see a Node 202 revision.
then buy another case and don't complain