[section_title title=Closer Look]
Closer Look
As I mentioned previously, for such a simple sleek design it’s got a lot going for it, the inclusion of the angled area where the buttons and ports are located and a simple groove down each side of the fascia works really well in my opinion. And speaking of the fascia, there’s venting down each edge where  the front is blocked off helping to maintain that sleek look.
The chassis itself is crafted from steel and plastic, and on the side, we have a large window that shows everything from the top of the motherboard down to the PSU so all your expensive goodies can be shown off in all their glory. The window is not quite wide enough to show the storage drive area, but as you will see later that’s not a big loss.
That control area with the power and reset buttons is fully featured with HD audio 3.5mm ports as well as a USB2 and USB3 port, though for the sake of the additional wiring involved with this setup if nothing else I don’t see why there’re not two USB3 ports there instead. The rest of the roof of the BitFenix Nova is completely enclosed… no additional cooling option here for a radiator in the roof.
With the side and fascia removed we get a look at the skeleton holding the Nova together, and there’s not really that much top say about it. Space in front for two 120mm fans that are not included but not quite enough space for a radiator here, the rear has the full compliment of seven PCIe expansion slots and a fitted 120mm fan that runs from either MOLEX or a fan header. There’s also a fitted dust filter below the PSY which is a nice touch and should protect one of the more overlooked components. You can see from this image why a wider side window would have been a bit pointless.
In between we see a stack of four 3.5″ drive bays neatly positioned next to the front fan space, and a large gap for long GPUs highlighting the potential for this cheap little case. There’s also a very large cutout and an inch or so gap alongside that stack to allow you to put extra cables out of the way. Two SSDs can be screwed in place one on top of the HDD bay and another in the top ODD bay. The only tool-less drive is that single ODD bay at the top which is a little disappointing, but this is an extreme budget case and a lot of extras have been left to the imagination.
With the back panel off we can see a large cut out which should allow for easy fitting of aftermarket CPU coolers without having to remove the motherboard to fit a backplate. There’s a nod toward cable management with all those smaller cut-outs and anchor points, the only thing obviously absent is some rubber grommets to make the holes look a little tidier, but it’s a cheap case and savings have to be made.
With not much more to say about the case, it’s on with the testing and see what it’s like to build in.
