Wire Management:

At first glance, the wire management looks solid. It has three pre-cut holes to run wires to help keep your case as clutter-free as possible. The BX1 also has a handful of anchor points, making it convenient to use zip ties when routing wires.

Once we got our components installed, we noticed a couple things that stood out to us. When routing wires behind the motherboard tray, things got rather crowded with all the wires from the 750w power supply. The BX1 has room to run your wires, but the space is fairly limited. The extra 1/4″ in width this case lacks compared to many other mid towers doesn’t seem like much when you’re looking at a spec sheet, but this congestion between the motherboard tray and the back wall of the case, for ease of cable management, is where actually matters.

If your power supply is not the modular sort, it’s a little tough to get all the extra power leads tucked away and stored properly. However, if you have a modular power supply, or a lower-wattage unit with fewer power leads, you should be able to route your cables without too much trouble.

Installation:

Test System:

• Abit IP35 Pro
• WD 500GB
• Zumax 750w PSU
• Nvidia GTX 580
• ASUS CD ROM

Installing the motherboard in the BX1 turned out to be just like almost every other motherboard installation: dead easy, just needing screws and a screwdriver. Once you have the motherboard spacers installed, line up the motherboard holes with them and use the screws to securely lock the mobo in place.

Installing your 5.25″ devices, you will need to turn clockwise to unlock the locking mechanism to release it from the drive bay. After that,  slide in your device, line up the screw holes, and insert the locking mechanism’s prongs and turn counter-clockwise to securely lock the device in place. As you can see, you can move the locking mechanism to four different holes, depending on where your 5.25″ lines up.

Moving on to installing your 3.5″ and 2.5″ drives, we will start with the 3.5″ drive first. You can pop out one of the red sliders to allow you to insert the 3.5″ drive. Once the drive is inserted, push the slider’s prongs into the drive’s screw holes to finish locking it into position. To install the 2.5″ drives, you will need four screws to fully secure it into position. Line up the 2.5″ drive with the holes you see on the slider’s base. We left the top two exposed so you could see.  Then, use your screws to lock into place.

Installing the PCI cards was easy and quick. You will need to push back on the locking mechanism while you insert the card, then slide it back to the original position to lock your card in place. The red locking mechanisms did feel a little loose when we had our video card installed. It really made us question whether we should actually have used screws instead for a heavy PCI card. We did not, however, end up using screws to secure the card in place. Although, if you had a massive aftermarket cooler on a big PCI card, we would think the screws would then come into play.

Dust Filtration:

The dust filtration on the BX1 is great in all areas except for the side window’s intake fans, as they do not have any type of filter whatsoever. The front intake fan is covered by the mesh filters placed in the bay covers and the bottom intake areas are covered by a big mesh filter.

Next: Air Flow, LED Lighting and Conclusion

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