PC Gamer Presents - PC Hardware Handbook - May 2018

BITFENIX NOVA

http://www.bitfenix.com £26

STACKED UP

PRICE (£) CPU TEMPERATURE

(Celsius)

GPU TEMPERATURE

(Celsius)

7

The main culprit is the very old-school layout with a

full-height drive bay column at the front that doesn’t

even have 3.5in bays that face the side panel. As

such, you have to remove or work around the PSU

to install hard drives. Thankfully, for those with long

graphics cards, so long as they aren’t too tall, you

can manoeuvre them under the drive cage to install

them. Plus, if you want a small case but still use

optical drives then the Nova can accommodate you.

Cooling options are basic but sufficient if you’re

not interested in water or all-in-one coolers. You get

two 120mm fan mounts at the front and one at the

rear, which is already occupied.

Nonetheless, this modest configuration and the

lack of top or side penal ventilation meant that this

was the only case on test to noticeably fall behind in

our cooling tests. It came last in both CPU and GPU

cooling and by a clear distance.

All told, this stalwart of budget cases

is starting to look a bit long in the tooth

as more modern designs outclass it.

The BitFenix Nova is a very popular option for an entry level

case, as it’s cheap but has a nice, tidy, simple design with a

window. However, particularly when compared to the more

modern layout of the Aerocool 300, it feels dated.

65 %

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Phanteks Enthoo Pro M

NZXT Source 340 Elite

Corsair Carbide 270R

Aerocool 300

Fractal Define R4

CoolerMaster MasterBox 5

BitFenix Nova

26

63

67

80

51

61

55

53

58

57

58

64

30

52

64

90

50

62

75

56

62

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

2

2

8

3

4

8

2

0

1

0

0

1

2

0

3,5in drive

bays

5.25in

bays

2

3

3

4

2

2

3

2.5in drive

bays type

6

6

3

4

3

6

5

120mm

fan points

ESSENTIALS

Plastic

No

Tempered

glass

Tempered

glass

Plastic

Plastic

Plastic

Window?

Group Test

BUDGET CASES

7

6