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- Joined
- 10 Apr 2011
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- Burnham On Sea
Hi Folks, pretty new to this but please find my Mini Review here
Exterior
---------
The steel construction weighs in at a total of 6kg, and the side panels are a little flimsy though, but nothing of concern to me.
However, the rest of the case is very sturdy. The windowless version is fairly plain, so all the colour choices are welcome to spice things up a bit.
The front panel is located on top at the front of the case, and sports the
usual ports, Mic/Headphone and Power and Reset buttons while only one USB 3 port is present, the other being USB 2.
Looking at the front of Neos we can see the entire front panel is mesh. BitFenix has intentionally designed the front to have large mesh holes to aid airflow – that is if you are going to install fans there, as at stock no front fan is included, however should you choose to install fans 2 x 120MM fans can be installed into the front of this chassis, which would give masses of air flow, for those hot running components.
Inside The Case
----------------
There are three 3.5in bays and three dedicated 2.5in bays located in two racks stacked one above the other.
These are fixed in place, at least unless you drill some rivets out, these trays simply slide in and out, and unlike on some other far pricier cases I have used, they fit nice and snug.
So the clearance of 300mm for the GPU is fixed and any Video Card with side-mounted power sockets will reduce this further, although to be fair, most of the High/Mid range cards should still fit without issue
The CPU cooler, on the other hand, has 158mm clearance and this is going to be a tight fit for a lot of CPU coolers, so be sure to check the Height of your cooler before purchase.
The PSU itself sits slightly raised on 4 metal stud feet, with a removable dust filter underneath, this is something I like to see at whatever the price bracket is.
The internal header cables, are nicely decked out in black , as you will be able to see in the pictures, the case also has several rounded cut out area's to run cables, again this is something I love to see in a case at this price point, as it makes neat cable tidying so much easier, there is also a large cut-out behind the CPU area to make swapping out coolers with back-plates that much easier.
While talking about the internals, I should mention 7 Expansion Slots are supported by this case, 6 come with blanking plates fitted, these are of the punch-out type, so once you punch them you cant re-fit, but for a case in this price range, I consider that a small niggle.
In terms of accessories, the Case comes with 1 pre-fitted 120mm fan in the rear mount, screws, etc, along with some cable ties to assist in making a nice tidy build.
In Conclusion
-------------
In summing up this case , I had to have a good think as for a long time now, i've rocked nothing but top end premium cases running in the +£100 mark, but I have to say for the first time in a while, I think i've found a budget case , that ticks all the boxes for me, the Drive mounts for the SSD/HDD are a joy to use, I always love having dust filters in my cases, as it makes cleaning so much easier.
Plenty of Cable management holes, makes building in this case a joy, and the inclusion of Zip ties with the accessories makes it more so, its also worth mentioning that I found no issue running the 24pin + 8 pin cables and 2x sata power + data cables, through the cable management holes and out to the back of the case to help maintain a really clean look.
I also like the fact that the case can be bought in so many different colour schemes, this is something so fundamental to individual choice, and BitFenix should be commended for this.
And even better than almost all of the above is the price £29.99 is the current cost for this chassis, this is amazing value for a case with this feature set, or if you want the windowed version its £33.95 still amazing value.
Materials
------------
Steel, Plastic
Color (Int/Ext)
White/Red (As reviewed)
Dimensions (WxHxD)
185 x 429 x 470
Motherboard Sizes
Mini-ITX, mATX, ATX
5.25" Drive Bays
2
3.5" Drive Bays
3
2.5" Drive Bays
3
Cooling Front
2 x 120mm (optional)
Cooling Rear
1 x 120mm (included)
PCI Slots
7
I/O
1 x USB3.0, 1 x USB2.0, HD Audio
Power Supply
PS2 ATX (bottom, multi direction)
Extras / Features
Front Dust Filter, PSU Dust Filter, Tool-Free Drive Locking
Exterior
---------
The steel construction weighs in at a total of 6kg, and the side panels are a little flimsy though, but nothing of concern to me.
However, the rest of the case is very sturdy. The windowless version is fairly plain, so all the colour choices are welcome to spice things up a bit.
The front panel is located on top at the front of the case, and sports the
usual ports, Mic/Headphone and Power and Reset buttons while only one USB 3 port is present, the other being USB 2.
Looking at the front of Neos we can see the entire front panel is mesh. BitFenix has intentionally designed the front to have large mesh holes to aid airflow – that is if you are going to install fans there, as at stock no front fan is included, however should you choose to install fans 2 x 120MM fans can be installed into the front of this chassis, which would give masses of air flow, for those hot running components.
Inside The Case
----------------
There are three 3.5in bays and three dedicated 2.5in bays located in two racks stacked one above the other.
These are fixed in place, at least unless you drill some rivets out, these trays simply slide in and out, and unlike on some other far pricier cases I have used, they fit nice and snug.
So the clearance of 300mm for the GPU is fixed and any Video Card with side-mounted power sockets will reduce this further, although to be fair, most of the High/Mid range cards should still fit without issue
The CPU cooler, on the other hand, has 158mm clearance and this is going to be a tight fit for a lot of CPU coolers, so be sure to check the Height of your cooler before purchase.
The PSU itself sits slightly raised on 4 metal stud feet, with a removable dust filter underneath, this is something I like to see at whatever the price bracket is.
The internal header cables, are nicely decked out in black , as you will be able to see in the pictures, the case also has several rounded cut out area's to run cables, again this is something I love to see in a case at this price point, as it makes neat cable tidying so much easier, there is also a large cut-out behind the CPU area to make swapping out coolers with back-plates that much easier.
While talking about the internals, I should mention 7 Expansion Slots are supported by this case, 6 come with blanking plates fitted, these are of the punch-out type, so once you punch them you cant re-fit, but for a case in this price range, I consider that a small niggle.
In terms of accessories, the Case comes with 1 pre-fitted 120mm fan in the rear mount, screws, etc, along with some cable ties to assist in making a nice tidy build.
In Conclusion
-------------
In summing up this case , I had to have a good think as for a long time now, i've rocked nothing but top end premium cases running in the +£100 mark, but I have to say for the first time in a while, I think i've found a budget case , that ticks all the boxes for me, the Drive mounts for the SSD/HDD are a joy to use, I always love having dust filters in my cases, as it makes cleaning so much easier.
Plenty of Cable management holes, makes building in this case a joy, and the inclusion of Zip ties with the accessories makes it more so, its also worth mentioning that I found no issue running the 24pin + 8 pin cables and 2x sata power + data cables, through the cable management holes and out to the back of the case to help maintain a really clean look.
I also like the fact that the case can be bought in so many different colour schemes, this is something so fundamental to individual choice, and BitFenix should be commended for this.
And even better than almost all of the above is the price £29.99 is the current cost for this chassis, this is amazing value for a case with this feature set, or if you want the windowed version its £33.95 still amazing value.
Materials
------------
Steel, Plastic
Color (Int/Ext)
White/Red (As reviewed)
Dimensions (WxHxD)
185 x 429 x 470
Motherboard Sizes
Mini-ITX, mATX, ATX
5.25" Drive Bays
2
3.5" Drive Bays
3
2.5" Drive Bays
3
Cooling Front
2 x 120mm (optional)
Cooling Rear
1 x 120mm (included)
PCI Slots
7
I/O
1 x USB3.0, 1 x USB2.0, HD Audio
Power Supply
PS2 ATX (bottom, multi direction)
Extras / Features
Front Dust Filter, PSU Dust Filter, Tool-Free Drive Locking
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