Assembly

Installing the motherboard itself is quite easy as you can reach in through three sides to hold it in place. Due to the way the board is installed, you have to use a short screwdriver, though. I was lucky enough to have one lying around as my high-end one is much too tall. I also pre-routed and pinned the cables below the motherboard before installing the motherboard to ensure a clean and clutter free interior. Due to the overall layout within the chassis, you are pretty limited in terms of what cooler you may use, but any stock AMD or Intel unit will obviously work, and you should also be able to use low-profile ones without any problems. As expected, the big LED contraption does limit the length of the graphics card you may install. You would easily have another inch if that thing were not in the way.


You may install up to two 3.5" drive or one large and two small drives into the HDD cage. Xigmatek includes a metal tray on which two 2.5" units will fit within one large drive bay. You will need to use the supplied screws to hold an SSD in place, which is then popped onto the two rails. The traditionally larger units are to be installed with the tool-less rails.


Once the drives are prepped, simply slide them into place until everything snaps down. The connectors face towards the front of the chassis, which makes connecting things much easier. The rear fan on top of those will pull air across the drives and out the back, which helps in keeping things cool.


Installing the power supply does require a bit of tough love as you squeeze it into place. But once in position, you can easily use traditional screws to pin it down properly. Once again, any PSU cables and connectors face forward. Xigmatek's semi-modular Vector PSU also gave us the ability to only pick the leads we need for this setup.


With everything installed and all the drives connected, the front of the Nebula becomes a bit more crowded, but both sides are fairly clean. There is also no cable mess around or above the CPU cooler, so you won't have to worry about cables blocking the fan during a heated gaming session.

Finished Looks

With all the panels popped back on and the system turned on, the Nebula makes a very nice and clean impression. This is definitely a system you can have sitting next to your TV as a HTPC. Everything in the rear is easily accessible, and the power LED emits a strong orange glow. While the glow looks pretty cool, it may be a bit bothersome to those who want to watch a movie in a darkened living room.