BitFenix Neos Review

Interior

There are three 3.5in bays and three dedicated 2.5in bays located in two racks mounted one above the other. These aren't removable, at least not unless you want to drill some rivets, so the 300mm clearance for the GPU is fixed and side-mounted GPU power sockets will reduce this length further, although most mid-range and plenty of high-end cards will still be fine. The CPU cooler, on the other hand, has 158mm clearance and this will prove quite restrictive. Small CPU coolers such as the Deepcool GAMMAXX S40 will be fine as will most single 120mm-fan radiator all-in-one liquid coolers. However, even fairly compact high performance coolers such as the Raijintek Ereboss and SilverStone Argon AR01 are slightly too tall.


As we mentioned on the previous page. the front panel pops off to reveal two 120mm fan mounts on the rear of a pop-out fan mount. The front of the case also sports dust filters, although the airflow here is actually quite restricted thanks to the stack of drive mounts behind. As standard there's just one rear 120mm fan too, so you'll likely want to splash out on a couple of additional ones to get better cooling if you're building a gaming system with a discrete GPU.


There are very few frills on the inside too, particularly with cable routing. As you can see, there are some options here, but it's not a case for masses of cables as things will be difficult to keep neat. There's also very little room behind the motherboard tray, although we managed to route the 8-pin EPS12V connector here without issue. There's a small notch to the right of the motherboard, which just about allows the 24-pin ATX connector and cable to be threaded up, but that's about it. Still, for basic systems with a single SSD or hard disk and a low to mid-range GPU, it shouldn't be too difficult to tidy things up sufficiently.


There is at least a CPU area cut out in the motherboard tray but it's worth noting the lack of clearance around the rear fan, which may limit all-in-one liquid cooler options - you'll need a radiator that's pretty much the same size as a 120mm fan width-wise.


It's nice to see some dedicated SSD mounts too. Given the typical system budget associated with a £30 case, it's likely the owner won't be stuck for storage space.


BitFenix was kind enough to forward one of its new Fury PSUs too. It's a very attractive PSU, which is semi-modular with the added bonus of coming pre-equipped with individually sleeved cables. The PSU mount in the Neos allows for the PSU to face downwards, drawing air through the dust filter-equipped vent beneath and there's plenty of clearance at the front for longer PSUs too.