Bit Fenix Nova Chassis Review – Your Straight-Forward Chassis

With all the fancy expensive cases out there, we always have to look at the full spectrum of chassis’. Today we will dip into looking at the budget chassis brought to us by Bit Fenix, Nova. Coming in under $100 is quite a feat for a case. In doing so you’re always going to be left wishing there was a little more effort or features put in.

OVERVIEW

First glance is nice which we like as most would. A sleek and slender matte black case with the Bit Fenix logo embossed in white at the base of the front panel. Note: The Nova comes in either Black or White, window or non-window. We are rockin’ the black window version today. The front panel has an attached I/O panel which consists of the HDD and PWR LED, 1 x 2.0 and 1 x 3.0 USB, power and reset buttons along with the standard headphone and microphone jack.

The front panel pops off pretty easily, just grab under the front panel and give a firm jerk and it’ll pop loose. Not a huge fan of I/O panels that are attached to the front panel as it makes moving the front panel out of the way to install fans drives etc. a little more difficult. Fortunately, the I/O wires aren’t run too intensely through the chassis so you can just slide the wires out and put the front panel aside. We just prefer I/O panels that stay attached to the chassis, keeps things easier and cleaner. We noticed there is no dust cover on the front either, ok the side slots are somewhat meshed to cover from dust but we always like a removable cover to ease cleaning. There is a dust cover at the bottom for your PSU.

The window side panel pops off pretty easily and is flimsy steel with metal tabs holding the window panel in place. This is where you’ll get your first look at the interior of the Nova. Some of the first things you’ll notice when you look inside are the 120mm fan, the lack of grommets and the full cage running top to bottom on the right. This cage tower allows the installation of one OD, as is noticeable from the front panel, 4 x 3.5” drives and two 2.5” drives.

Taking a long at the top panel as well as the top from the inside you’ll notice there is no ventilation or removable parts. Ventilation is very limited on this chassis and due to the lack of top ventilation the most you’ll be able to install as far as radiators is a 120. You’ll notice the PCI slots have covers but are not replaceable except for the top one, which you can move to any spot but the rest are just pop off and gone.If you take off the back-side panel you’ll notice there isn’t much as far as assistance for cable management. There are limited amount of tie-downs but the case didn’t come with any cable ties. Not that they are hard to come by but it wouldn’t’ hurt to include a few for the customer. There also doesn’t seem to be a lot of space for cable management as far as depth goes.