A Closer Look - Inside

To gain access to the interior, simply remove the thumb screws holding the chassis in place. The entire interior has been colored black as well, which further adds to the overall looks of the case, but does make taking pictures a bit harder for me. The layout of the guts does not seem unusual and NZXT has taken features and systems from previous cases which are not exclusive to their brand. In other words, you will find the exact same screw-less locks in many other cases as well. One aspect which is exclusive to the NZXT Lexa S are the various rubber guarded holes around the mainboard area. These are intended to make cable routing and hiding easier. While this will work more or less, there is very little space between the mainboard plate and the side panel, so you will not be able to hide a lot of cables here. There are plenty of cutouts to use zip ties for securing cables on this side of the mainboard tray, but their purpose is defeated by the little space available between it and the side panel.


We have seen the hard drive bays before in many different cases. The plastic rail design works well, but is nothing out of the ordinary anymore. Also there are only five such drive bays, while NZXT advertises seven bays. Upon closer inspection they seem to have added the two external 3.5 inch bays as well. This is perfectly fine, as the bottom one of the two is not accessible from the outside, but the other one is. So in reality there are six internal 3.5 inch bays and one external one. Once again, their feature list is quite misleading in many regards, which is something I certainly do not take lightly as it creates certain expectations for users who may then be disappointed at home.

Moving up to the optical drive bays, these can take plastic locks or traditional screws. As the former simply does not hold well and the latter is not screw-less, NZXT has included thumb screws instead - certainly a great choice.


To avoid vibration from the power supply, there are four little foam covered bumps on the floor of the chassis. You may only install the PSU in one direction so nothing else to mention in this area. Moving up, the seven expansion slot covers, which are made of metal mesh, are held in place by traditional screws and may be reused at a later point. On the very top of the rear you will find one of the four white bladed fans. Did I mention that I really like the fact that these blades are white?


While the rear fan is of the 120 mm variety, NZXT has chosen to place a 140 mm fan under the ceiling of the Lexa S. It would have been perfect if both areas under the ceiling were filled with these units, as acquiring another white bladed fan just like the ones used may be a bit tough. The last of the four cooling units is located in the front behind a plastic dust guard. Removing this unit also means that the fan is removed, as the screws go all the way through to the case, holding both the fan and the guard. I should mention at this point, that I had to unscrew the guard and flip it around so that the NZXT logo faces the fan, as it was interfering with the blades of the cooling unit out of the box, creating a loud rattle.


The four fan connectors are clearly labled with the numbers 1 and 2. So you can easily plan which pair of units will be controlled by which dial. The power is acquired through a black Molex connector. The PCB of the fan controller looks to be of high quality and is hidden behind the front panel of the chassis.


Neither of the motherboard connections comes with white cables. While we still have the needed color leads, all white ones have been replaced by black cables. This is a small, but certainly impressive little touch and shows the amount of detail NZXT has gone to for the overall design of the chassis - very cool!