Assembly

Assembly does not hold any real surprises. Even though the Alpha is quite compact it does feature an extra bit of space above the board and below the power supply. This means that you can even place really large heat sinks on the board without any problems. NZXT also advertises compatibility with 8800 GTX cards and, even though an X800 card was installed, there is enough space beyond the board's dimensions for such a large card. It will be tight, but certainly possible.



Installing the drives is done completely screwless. Just place the drive rails on the hard drive and slide it into the case until the rails snap into place. The optical drives require the removal of the drive bay covers. This is done with a bit of gentle force from the inside of the case. The drive is then placed into the case and the cover is replaced into the chassis. The included plastic locks actually hold the drive in place quite well - better than expected.

Final Looks

Once everything was installed, you can see that there are a lot of cables and due to the construction you may not be able to hide them all very easily. Expect a longer session with zip ties and a lot of imagination to get the case spick and span. Replacing the side also includes connecting the side fan with the power supply. It then lights up in a very nice blue glow. The fans are fairly noisy, but if NZXT ever decides to utilize mainboard headers, you could use your board to slow them down automatically.


The overall look and blue glow looks awesome. NZXT has managed to create the additional lighting effects in the front without overpowering it with light. This means that you should be able to keep it on at night or during a LAN party without bothering the person to the right of you with the lights in the front of the Alpha. The HDD LED is actually green, also a nice change of the usual blue or red.