After the disk was installed I moved to the graphics card. I removed two rear vented slot covers and mounted the video card. The fit was great since the Nvidia 285 I have is on the long side of video cards. I was able to route the main power under the video card to get it out of the way.  

I mounted the DVD writer and ran power and SATA cables where appropriate. I also ran dual PCI-E power cords to the video card. One 6 pin from the PSU and the other by combining two molex connectors with a 6 pin PCI-E power adapter.

Then came the dread of most builders and modders; cable management. This is where my excitement about the Lexa S features were dampened. I found that the case failed to provide cable ties to tie down the cables to the provided mount points. Luckily being a geek, I pulled out a favorite type of tie down that can be reusued and proceeded to manage cables.

I quickly found that the case does not provide enough space to hide all the cables you need to do a simple build. This would become even more of a challange if you had multple drives installed and need to route more power and SATA cables around. After thinking about this challenge I did realize I could get shorter SATA cables and route them directly. I could then focus on routing only power cords together in a zig-zag pattern to the tie downs. Finally I could bundle the other cables and shorten their lengths with zip ties.

I may return to the drawing board on this when I have small zip ties and try some new ideas. As a simple fix would be more space on the backside of the main board tray between the side panel would have let me hide the cables with out so much complexity. The solution to this would be an additional. 5" of depth on the back side of the case to hide those power molex ends and other cable bulk.

After using about 10 black cable ties I had the cables into a respectable bundle. I choose to hide the extra cable ends (bulk) under the SSD location. When it came to closing the back side of the case I turned the case over and laid it flat to be able to gently push down the cable bundle between the case skeleton and the cover plate.

While the picture looks like the cables are still impeding airflow they are not. This is the best cable management I have seen for a case in this price range and size. The final two cables that needed some attention are the back and window fan cables. Right now they are the only cables that just dangle through the system. Luckily these are thin cables and do not restrict airflow, but for a nice finish it would be great to have some tie down points for these.

At the end of the build I realized I had not paid attention to how the front door closed. I found a nice touch in the front of the case where the door that access the power and reset buttons, and drive bays use magnets to keep the doors latched shut.

Performance

Maybe it was luck or skill or a bit of both but the system turned on the first time with everything running fine. The four included fans connected to the two fan controllers cooled the system well even on the lowest setting. You can just start to tell how the blue nightlights show in this running photo.

The system I have is not particularily taxing on the CPU, front side bus (FSB) or random access memory (RAM) heat but the 285 video card heat output can bring a poorly cooled case to its knees. I found that I was able to maintain very good GPU (low) temperatures even on the lowest fan speed. My load testing was to play COD4 at the highest settings for my system.

Pricing

NZXT has said that the Lexa S will be available in September [2009] at an MSRP of $69.99. Doing a quick check I found pricing from $69.99 to $82.99 on the web [Sept 2009].

Modification

This case has some great low barrier to entry modification points for new modding enthusiasts. There are tons of possibilities but here are some I thought of right away.

1. Replace all the plastic thumbscrews with nice aluminum thumb screws.
2. Put some time into cable management and get sleeving mesh on all of the visible cables.
3. Consider a paint job on the screen grills covering the 5.25", 3.5", lower bezel grill and rear slot covers. Consider a color match to thumb screws and cables.
4. With the big clear panel you could do nice things with colored lights and or UV light and reactive cables and sleeving.