The Alpha and omega

Click to enlarge

The Alpha is sent in a simple looking box where blue is the prominent colour and the ‘Simple yet powerful’ tag-line is shown (in LTAroma font for those wondering). The box is quite petite and the list of specs reinforces this point, with four 5.25” bays making this case a much less extravagant buy than compared to the super tower cases, such as the Antec P190 or the ThermalTake Armor+ VH6000.

Click to enlarge

Once you’ve released the Alpha from its box, you notice how light the case is thanks to the rather thin 0.6mm steel chassis. While this definitely does make for a lighter enclosure, you’ll also notice that the panels are very easily bent, and can be flexed with a single finger. The windowed side of the case is especially weak, and you could easily bend it in two if you wanted. You can get this case without the windowed side, and you can also get a power supply pre-installed.

Click to enlarge

With the case you’ll find that there is a fairly large array of accessories that are crucial for the tool-less drive mounting system that the case is furnished with. You get a whole bunch of black plastic clips and devices that are used for mounting 5.25” and 3.5” drives. There are special rails reserved for your HDD’s, and this type of tool-less system has been witnessed on other NZXT cases. You get a manual which covers the basic points with pictures and the usual bag of screws to mount your PC components.

External

Click to enlarge

The front of the case is where the styling effort has been spent, with the side panel being the usual window blue-print that NZXT follow which is by no means a bad idea. The front is edged with Perspex that sticks out from the profile of the case while the facia is made of a glossy black plastic, which links well with the glossy finish that the side panels have been given. At the bottom of the case front, you’ll find six slits which stop the fan mount behind from suffocating from lack of air flow. While this fan mount isn’t used, it can support either a large 120mm fan or an 80mm fan. That said, you can’t remove the HDD cage, and you can’t fit that fan in the gap that’s left; removing the front facia leaves you with no more options. This mount is there for show, and cannot be used for the fact that a fan simply won’t fit in.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

The front actually curves in for the drive bays above, and is slightly inset as a result at the top. This is where the two 5.25” drive covers are, which stop your beige drive from ruining the look of the case at the front. If you look on the right-hand side of the case, you’ll find the I/O which has taken a leaf from the Rouge book, and instead of having a FireWire port, there is an e-SATA socket. While this is definitely a step forward, the number of devices that use e-SATA are few and far between, and seems like a stop-gap between USB 2.0 and the newer version 3. But it’s faster than a FireWire so thumbs up to NZXT. Unfortunately, the position of the I/O is poor; if you have your PC against a wall – which you would have if you want to see the window – you will either have difficulty finding the ports, and more problems when you come to use a long USB drive, such as the OCZ ATV Turbo, as there won’t be enough clearance.

Click to enlarge

While the front fan spot is unusable, there are another two spots that have fans pre-installed; the side and the rear. If you go for the non-windowed version, you won’t get the side fan but for the additional £5 it costs for the glazing, the choice is easy. The rear fan spins at 1100 RPM sending 23 dBA of sound waves to your ears. The side fan doesn’t have any figures listed for it, but I doubt that NZXT would put a louder fan in as it would counter-act the reasonably quiet rear blower.

Click to enlarge

The side panel has an angular bevel on all of its edges, with the top having a small silver NZXT branding tab letting you know who made the case. The fan is mounted near the bottom left hand corner; just the right height and placement to blow directly onto your heated GPU and giving a cooling breeze. It’s grilled which should stop dust from entering your PC, although it’s probably not fine enough to stop everything but at least its something. There aren’t any vibration mounts and the grill is square rather than being round so you get edges behind the Perspex. A better idea would have been to drill holes directly into the Perspex and mount the fan behind that; it wouldn’t protect as much from dust, but would have a better aesthetic appeal, plus it wouldn’t look as bad if you need to remove the fan (a circular hole is left currently).

The bottom of the case features nothing out of the ordinary with four rubber feet keeping the case a good half an inch above the surface you place it on being the only parts of interest.

Click to enlarge

The rear of the case has nothing out of ordinary, with the power supply in the right place, followed by the motherboard I/O hole and 120mm fan mount side by side, and seven PCI slots below. On the right-hand side of the PCI slots, you'll find some vents which should allow additional airflow from hot graphics cards.

Internal

Click to enlarge

To gain access into the case, you’ll find a couple of thumb screws at the rear. These are completely removable, and hence losable as apposed to the spring loaded type which stay attached even when unfastened.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

The side panel comes off easily and you’ll see the four 5.25” drive bays, with two 3.5” external bays and the HDD cage below capable of hold five hard discs. In front of the HDD cage is the impossible-to-use front fan mounting point due to the fact that the HDD cage sits too close; trying to wedge a fan in will simply leave you with a fan stuck at an awkward angle.

Click to enlarge

Looking at the motherboard area, you’ll find a load of labelled holes that correspond to ATX, mATX or mini ATX. There is a legend stamped into the metal behind letting you know which holes to screw the supplied spacers into. There is surprisingly no motherboard blanking plate fitted at the back, but as you’ll probably know these generic blanking plates are never used and instead the plate supplied with your mobo finds its new home here. You’re not going to find a removable motherboard tray or any special features as this is a budget case, although there are cable holes cut into the motherboard area allowing you to stealth cables around the back of the case rather having them visible through the windowed side.

Click to enlarge

Next to the blanking hole, you’ll find the 120mm fan which has become somewhat of a tradition in cases as of recent, and so has the use of molex connects to power the fans. This becomes very annoying, especially with the prevalence of multiple motherboard fan headers on even the most budget of boards. Using these headers means that much less cable is spread over your motherboard, and you can also use your PC to control the speed depending on in-case temperature. Granted molex provides sure-fire compatibility and connectivity as every PSU has molex connectors, but it adds unnecessary cable bulk. Supplying the case with simple 3 pin to molex converters solves this problem and Lian Li have been doing this for a while now.

The fan mounted on the side panel is held in place with a couple of removable plastic pins allowing you to easily remove, or upgrade the fan as it is. The stock fan is a blue LED number with that fact stamped on the top by means of a label. I’m sure that NZXT will eventually do their usual colour options of blue or red for this fan.

Click to enlarge

The power supply spot is in the standard position, and has the standard quad-screw install method as with any case. There is a shelf that will provide mechanical support for a heavy PSU so all of the weight isn’t burdened on the rear screws, and there is plenty of space for a longer-than-average power supply.

Click to enlarge

The PCI slots are the worst covers that I’ve seen. They are made out of what appears to be tin-foil, and while each has their own individual screw apparently holding them in place, they clip too. While not a problem in itself, removing one means that you are likely to bend and damage it to a point where returning it to its previous holding isn’t possible without getting out your anvil.

The front/side I/O has the usual plug terminators; with HD audio in either moulded or separate plugs, allowing you to choose which one you prefer and trim the others off, a SATA cable and the power, reset and indicator LED plugs. There is also a pass-thru molex connector that is used to power the front illuminations.