Most enthusiasts opt for high end and often pretty flashy computer enclosures. But there many users who continue to choose clean, easily manageable enclosures that also happen to be quite affordable. The tough part is finding one that has features you need, and is still attractive, despite the low cost. The BitFenix Neos, which launched just after COMPUTEX 2014, is a refreshing look at the segment, with simplicity and attractive design logic that offers all the features without the feel of cheap.
We also happen to have the BitFenix Fury 750G 80Plus Gold power supply, which is the company’s first PSU series built in the FSP Group plant. We’ve paired this new case and power supply together in the lab, to create a system that should test the temperature management of the Neos and the Fury that the 750G has to drive it.
BitFenix Neos – Features and Specifications
The BitFenix Neos comes in four different, black and white accented, color combinations. All of them sport the same well painted chassis and machined mesh front, with a set of cutouts for two 5.25″ bays and two 120mm front fans. Depending on the kind of dust build up in your home, cleaning should still be relatively easy. There are also front and bottom rear filters that will additionally help control build up inside.
The specs list tells you just the amount of expansion you will have for building a system. There are a few attributes missing from the list though. First, the case has two rear rubber grommet holes for external tubing, has tool-less hard drive trays and bays, and is very light weight, yet feels sturdy enough to house a full case, without fear of crumbling under that weight.
In terms of pricing, the BitFenix Neos runs from $49.99 to $59.99 US with a windowed option at the higher end of the pricing scale. Since launch, the company has also added additional colors to the mix.
BitFenix Fury 750G – Features and Specification
The new BitFenix Fury series of power supplies offers performance, reliability, and aesthetics without equal. It sports a matte black powder coat finish with a cool saw blade accent, accompanied by that fierce BitFenix winged graphic, stamped into the casing. The cabling is wrapped in Nanosleeve braiding for both aesthetics, yet are easy on the hands when managing them. The fan side almost looks identical except for the addition of a 135mm fluid dual bearing fan. BitFenix discloses no fan specs but these usually have low vibration and noise specs.
The BitFenix Fury offers 80Plus Gold certification up to 90% efficiency at full load and powers the system through a single 12V rail, The protection features include over-voltage, under-voltage, over-current, over-power, over-temperature, and short circuit protection. If the unit has the proper components mounted internally near the power cord socket, it should be able to handle a short which is important to DIY users. Why? We sometimes get a little creative and that can sometimes mean outside of the box thinking.
We’d like to note that at launch, the BitFenix Fury series wasn’t 100% Haswell-E certified. However, thanks to BitFenix’s very fast customer support, they made the modifications to ensure that their shipping PSU units are 100% compatible and certified for any Intel (or AMD) processor.
The BitFenix Fury power supply comes in three versions as noted above and start at $139 US for the 550W version, $159 US for the 650W version, and tops out at the 750W version at $179 US as tested.
Let’s pop back to the case for quick walk through.
BitFenix Neos on the Outside
The Neos is BitFenix’s most affordable enclosure. It comes in the standard and a windowed model which I think is always a preferred touch. None the less, all of the models regardless of color have very nice mesh front bezels. The mesh is superbly machined and square right down to the hole alignment.
The top front houses a USB 2.0 and 3.0 port as well as the audio ports. The power and reset are simply added to the panel. The port panel is quite sturdy and don’t flex or bend as we’ve seen on some enclosures. This means the ports will not work themselves loose resulting in shorted ports.
Moving to the back, the Neos has a couple features worth noting. It has two rubber lined ports for water cooling tubes and a PCI screw cover. It sort of cleans it up since we always seem to have different colored screws holding expansion cards in place. It also kind of complicates someone quickly removing something like your ASUS GTX 760 Stryx video card.
Users will also find a bottom removable fan filter to help keep the PSU from getting too dirty. It’s tooless and simply slides out by pulling down. Now, lets look inside.
BitFenix Neos on the Inside
After removing four thumb screws, the panels slide off very easily. It’s nice when they fit squarely on any enclosure. Inside, the chassis is all black. There are some basic wire management cut outs with buffed edges at least and CPU cut out in the tray so you can get to the back of the board to attach your CPU cooler. The motherboard tray has punch-outs already added so users won’t have to mount any motherboard standoffs in holes. The case fits mini-ITX, m-ATX, and ATX boards so that isn’t a problem. You’ll see a mounted motherboard in just a minute.
The hard drive trays secure in their perspective bays in a tooless fashion which is a feature not commonly found on sub $50 affordable enclosures. The three SSD trays require screws which are included in the accessories package. The hard drive tray is an especially interesting feature as it simply spreads and slides shut in to the drive housing. You simply side the tray back in and the locked position keeps it from expanding.
Here, you can see an SSD and hard drive secured in their bay. They’re quite easy to pull out but have pretty beefy locking teeth to help prevent movement. As for the 5.25″ locking clip, it’s a bit of a clumsy clip made of rather weak plastic. It will take a little bit of patience centering the holes and getting the knob to lock in to position. There are also visible frame holes to add screws which is good as the clip may not hold if the case is shipped with a mounted drive.
BitFenix Neos – Mounting Components
In order to give the case a proper real world test, we installed a system consisting of the following components:
- CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K,
- Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty Z87 Professional
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780
- RAM: Kingston HyperX 8GB DDR3 low profile memory kit
- Hard Drive: Western Digital 1TB Caviar Green hard drive
The CPU cooler was an retail Intel CPU cooler that maxes out at 45dB a full speed. Temperatures were recorded at 30 minute intervals with the side panel off and side panel on.
As with any smaller mid-tower enclosure, a little planning and patience is required especially if you have big hands. We recommend installing the motherboard first otherwise it’s a very tight fit between the PSU and top of the chassis. Once installed, you’ll have just enough room to access headers and wiring. As affordable enclosures go, there isn’t any real usable space behind the motherboard tray so you’ll have to pay attention to cable management.
We’ve seen cases perform much better with an optional 120mm fan, so we’ve mounted one for some additional testing and data points.
BitFenix Neos – Thermal Testing
From the table, you can see that the system was not only hotter (as measured in Celsius), but also louder with the panel on. That’s because there’s very little cool air being pulled inside or directed to the components. However, adding a bottom front 120mm fan forced temperatures down, and allowed the stock cooler a bit of relief in both temperature and noise. It’s a shame that the case doesn’t come with one, allowing it to be ready to go out of the box.
Given the temperatures recorded, and the fact we did not use a discrete GPU, the temperatures would be even higher. If you run a discrete GPU, that second fan in the front is a definite non-negotiable add on.
BitFenix Fure 750G – Closer Look
The new BitFenix Fury series of power supplies completes a hole in the company’s component line up. Here, you can see the silver bladed theme which is similar on both sides of the unit’s chassis. The fan side faces downward to draw in cool air and expel out the back so you’re not going to see this side very often.
This is the side users will typically see. I kind of wish the BitFenix wing was matching silver, or red. There are many modding possibilities for enthusiasts. In terms of the paint, the chassis itself has a finer black powder coat which adds durability. Especially if you plan on keeping the power supply for upcoming builds.
In terms of modular cabling, users will find SATA and IDE 4pin power cables fit the slender CON ports. Naturally, the four VGA are labeled to support graphics cards up to two graphics cards maximum. The CPU is the 8pin EPS/ATX connector that plugs in next to your CPU socket. The sockets are shape specific as always.
The cabling is individually braided. While this is always a really neat unique look, that process is time consuming which most certainly drives up costs. Fury units come with 1 x 8pin CPU, 4 x 8pin VGA, 3 SATA strands, 1 Molex 4pin strand, 1 combo SATA+Molex, and 1 Floppy cable. Refer to the specs section from earlier if you’re curious as to how many connectors are on each strand.
Internally, the BitFenix Fury 750G has the heart of an FSP Group factory build. The key points of interest are the Rubycon 450V 390uF capacitor that keeps current moving during operation. This is a decent capacitor, especially when coupled with good quality MOSFETs which, unfortunately, are attached to an unusually small heat sink. This could mean higher operating temps, and may result in higher fan RPMs which generates more fan noise. No one likes a noisy PSU!
Hopefully this will not be the case as we load this power supply down for some testing, coming up next.
BitFenix Fury 750G – On The Test Bench
Voltages are well within spec under load, but components in the power supply aren’t going to break down under this short a test due to lack of voltage or too much voltage. The current is respectively steady which is important for stability. Efficiency results are indeed 80Plus Gold. The BitFenix Fury does well in this area which is what keeps them classified as an excellent green power supply.
As for noise, the unit gets moderately noisy at 50% load and quite noisy at 100% load. At that point, the fan was spinning at max RPM. Thankfully, the BitFenix Neos enclosure blocks about 8 or 9dB of system noise. The reasons for the noise is most likely due to the heat being generated by the MOSFETS mentioned earlier, being attached to a small heatsink. Or perhaps an over zealous sensor could be misfiring as the unit doesn’t really top 50C. The easiest fix would be to replace the heatsinks with something much larger for better heat dissipation. That would of course void your warranty.
BitFenix Neos – Final Thoughts
Affordable computer enclosures that look good, have useful features like tooless drive bays, vents, and a price tag that is very easy to stomach seem few and far between. At a price of around $49.99 – 59.99 US, there are few other cases that we’ve come across, that had the style and features of the BitFenix Neos. You get just the right standard features with a little creativity given to the hard drive bays which is a nice touch. If BitFenix includes the optional 120mm fan in the future and uses a better optical drive retention mechanism, the Neos would be stellar for its price.
But despite its shortcomings, it still represents a decent value overall. And let’s not forget its range of colors including windowed editions at the top of the price range, making it possible to have a system exactly the way you want it. Even at a lower price point.
Pros
- Attractive high quality front bezel
- Clean contemporary design
- Solid build quality
- Available in a range of colors with a windowed option
- Functional Tool-less bays and big CPU cut out
Cons
- Optical Bay (5.25″) tool-less clip clumsy and weak
- No front 120mm fan in the box
Overall Rating: 8.5 / 10.0
BitFenix Fury 750G – Final Thoughts
The BitFenix Fury 750G more than meets regulated voltage requirements and exceeds its specified efficiency rating. In fact, it met 80Plus Platinum requirements at 50% load which tells us that with just a couple of component tweaks, the unit would probably meet the rating with flying colors. Unfortunately, the unit does get louder than expected should you need 75% to 100% of the unit’s rated 750 watt power output. If you do require max output, you’ll have another 75 hidden watts so you know the unit won’t fail you, but we’d advise against going there for the long haul.
We really appreciated BitFenix’s persistence in getting their Fury series up to spec to support Intel’s latest chipsets and platforms. Granted, most users wouldn’t have given it a second thought, but when it comes to system integrators and extreme enthusiasts, we like to see all the certified ducks in a row. It makes the BitFenix Fury series an extremely safe buy in this respect.
That said, the BitFenix Fury power supply series is easily one of the most attractively themed units available today. Several units come close but the chassis design on the BitFenix sets it apart. Plus, the unit sports individually braided cables, which is something not yet offered as a feature by many other manufacturers. That Nano-braided look is great, and makes builds of every price point, a more custom look.
Because of all the touches BitFenix has given to the Fury series, the 750G will set you back $179.99 US, making it one of the more expensive units around. However, the performance is there to back up the aesthetics, especially in a 100% BitFenix build and it really does perform. But we do feel that better value could still be found elsewhere.
Pros
- Superb design and theme
- Exceeds 80Plus Gold efficiency standard
- A 750 Watt unit with a 820 Watt heart
- High quality individually braided cabling
- Ready for Intel’s latest processors and platforms
Cons
- Substantial price premium for that custom look
- Cooling fan gets quite loud at 75% or higher loads
Overall Rating: 9.0 / 10.0
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