A Closer Look - Inside

Simply remove two thumbscrews holding each panel in place to access the interior. As mentioned before, the entire interior is black to match the exterior of the Colossus Mini-ITX. Not a lot of the layout and its internal functionality has changed from that of the original Prodigy on which this design is based, but BitFenix updated a few elements we will take a close look at later.


Just like with the original Colossus, which was the first enclosure BitFenix offered, the Mini-ITX variant has some lighting elements embedded into each side panel. This means that you will not find any 2.5" mounting possibilities here, although they are present in the quite similar Prodigy or Phenom Mini-ITX.


Unlike the original Colossus, which also had its lighting elements built into its side panels with a cable you had to connect to a power source, the Colossus Mini-ITX only has a clear plastic tube to funnel light into the side panel. This means that its lighting element is somewhere within the front panel. The clear strips funneling light into the side panels are not held in place by anything other than a few thin plastic clips embedded into the front panel. You should really take care not to break anything off during the assembly process.


The Colossus Mini-ITX may hold up to five 3.5" hard drives, but you may remove the top cage to reduce this number two, which would provide additional room for long GPUs. You can also opt to remove everything completely. This last step makes sense if you plan to remove the 5.25'' bay to then place a second fan for as much airflow as possible into the front of the Prodigy. The chassis ships with a single 120 mm Spectre fan BitFenix pre-installed into the front, but it is good to have the flexibility to go bigger.


Remove everything and you should be able to place 240 mm radiator into the front of the chassis, which would amount to a total of 480 mm in radiators if you were to fancy such a high-end build. Removal of the bottom hard-drive cage also allows you to access the three 2.5" drive bays. One of them is located on the floor while two more have been placed on the frame of the power supply bay. The design of the PSU cage has changed slightly as it now has a large central opening instead of two small ones on each side. This is a step in the right direction, especially if you want to use PSU's with modular cables, but BitFenix could easily make this cable-routing hole even bigger by simply opening this part of the bay up completely.


The single 5.25" drive bay is at the very top, which is identical to the original Prodigy chassis. As the Colossus is for the gaming crowd, having such a drive bay is more important than it would be in the Phenom family of enclosures, for example.


The motherboard area is nothing extraordinary, but its horizontal placement gives you plenty of clearance for large CPU coolers with a maximum height of 175 mm. Below that is The PSU bay. Although BitFenix updated its design, it is still the most restrictive area of the chassis. Their fix only moved the problem around a bit. This PSU compartment is good for PSUs with a length of 160 mm, but you need to reduce length accordingly if your PSU is modular. That said, BitFenix is offering an optional extension bracket if you want to install a larger unit into the Phenom Mini-ITX.


Taking a quick look at the ceiling of the case, one can see where any cooling fans or radiators there would be placed.


All the cables within the Phenom Mini-ITX are black and utilize standard connectivity options. Unique here is the USB 3.0 cable with its attached USB 2.0 header. It voids the need for an additional adapter regardless of the type of header your motherboard uses. BitFenix also included a SATA power cable for the LEDs inside the chassis. Its plug was unfortunately damaged slightly, although it still worked as only a non-functional piece broke off.