HardwareGeeks.com - Review: NZXT Tempest

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Posted by: Michael on Fri, Oct 02nd, 2009

Before I get on with the review, I wanted to share some unboxing pictures and specs with you guys.

As you can see in the first picture on the left that the box took a bit of a beating during it’s travel to Canada, however due to NZXT packaging there wasn’t a scratch on the case. The case is packed in very hard foam as well as being wrapped in plastic. Another nice addition is that the product manual’s/extras are all tucked neatly inside the case so that nothing is left in the packaging to move around or get lost

Now the Specs

Colour: Black
Material: Steel w/ Plastic Top and Front Panels
Dimensions: (W x H x D) 211.5 x 521.5 x 562 mm Weight 11.2 KGS

Drive Bays:
3 External 5.25” Drive Bays ( up to six 5.25” )
1 3.5” External bracket
8 Internal 3.5” Drive Bays
Screwless Rail Design
Expansion Slots: 7

Case Fans:
Front 2 x 120mm Blue LED
Rear, 1 x 120mm
Side Panel, 1 x 120mm Blue LED
Top, 2 x 140mm Fan
Motherboard Support: E-ATX ATX, Micro-ATX, Baby AT

Now the Exterior:

Upon first look at this case, the impression you get is that this case is marketed towards todays gamer with high powered equipment that produces plenty heat. Up until this case was created there were very little options for the gaming community that offered such wonderful cooling without having liquid running through your case. The design of this case is very straight forward and has very little curves. The 2 large 120mm fans in the front pull air in to cool your hard drives and send it right back out through both the 1 rear 120mm fan or the 2 massive 140mm fans at the top to keep everything in this case as cool as humanly possible.

The front of the case is covered with grill plates which help in the air circulation but can collect dust VERY quickly. There are 2 thin blue LED’s running down each side of the front panel which light up the case very nicely in the night as do the blue LED fans in the side and front.

The rear of the case is very basic but utilizing the cooling feature of having the power supply at the bottom of the case as to have less heat surrounding your processor. As you can see in the picture (above/right) the case also has 2 holes in the rear to make this case fully able to be water cooled.

The top of the case includes the 2 huge 140mm fans which spin at a low speed but produce quite a bit of airflow. The 2 grills covering the top fans are not removable and just like the front grills can collect a lot of dust. The top panel is very sleek in it’s design and just as functional as it includes front audio for headphones, 2 usb, 1 ESata and your power/reset buttons. The panel faces at a 45 degree angle which makes it easy to access regardless of where the case is located.

Overall the case is very sturdy considering its top and front are made of plastic, which at times can feel weak but overall it does the job nicely.

The insides!!!

The interior of this case is a tooless design making it very easy to remove and add new drives, and also includes thumb screws on the rear to remove the sides. Each drive bay comes with 2 drive rails that remain in the bay when not being used. The rails clip on to drives very easily and feel very sturdy and secure when drives are in the bay. The plastic clips for optical drives are also very solid and use a simple stick and twist method and because of the plastic on plastic it helps reduce any noise or vibration that may occur.

Upon first opening the case you will see 2 pouches. A black pouch containing manual and screws and accessories, and in the white pouch you will find all your case wiring for front panel use. This was a very nice extra from NZXT as other cases i’ve seen have these items in the box itself and not neatly packaged inside the case. +1 for NZXT.

The motherboard tray is not removable unfortunately but does have large holes which you can see in the picture for easily managing your cables to avoid clutter.
Test System:

AMD Phenom II X3 720 @ 3.5Ghz
Jetway JHA07 Ultra
EVGA 7900GTX
4GB OCZ Reaper (2 x 2gb)
NZXT 800W PSU
Western Digital 1TB HDD
Maxtor 200GB IDE HDD

Installing everything into the system went without a hitch. The cables were easy to manage and hide thanks to the holes in the motherboard tray which made for alot of airflow through the case.
While idling the cpu temp dipped between 30-32 and at load maxed out at 38C, which is simply amazing for having a 2.8ghz processor overclocked to 3.5ghz on air.
Having had this system running for quite sometime I can still confirm that the system has yet to go over 38C even when playing CPU intense games, the case remains cool as do the drives.

Noise:
If you are purchasing this case you have to have realistic expectations about the noise as you are using a case that has 6 large fans, not including any large cpu heatsinks you may be using. With that said, considering the above, the case is not really all that loud. The fans run at a low speed to avoid having loud noise and they do a very good job of it.

Conclusion:
Overall this is a very solid case that not only does it’s job well but in most areas it can surpass your expectations. The solid design and large amount of fans can provide enough air flow for even the top of the line overclocked system. It comes at a realistic price which is quite competitive that should make it a top product for gamers worldwide. My only issues with this case is the lack of removable motherboard tray and fan speed control and maybe an option to dim the lights or turn them off completely as you desire. But despite my cons about this case, make no mistake that this case can and will do it’s job extremely well, and it truly lives up to the name the Airflow King.

Review by Joe Davidson posted by Michael