NZXT Tempest Airflow King ATX Case Review

Cases & PSU/Cases by jmke @ 2008-11-20

Equipped with two 140mm and four 120mm fans this case from NZXT is build to provide a maximum of airflow to the components installed inside. It is a mid-sized tower case with enough room to fit high end VGA cards and third party CPU coolers. We compare the performance of the NZXT Tempest to our multitude of competitors, read on to find out if this case is truly the Airflow King.

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Size Comparison & Outside Look

Size comparison

To get an idea of the size of this case we put the NZXT Tempest in the image below next to a 1.80m human and a collection of other ATX cases. The Tempest is not the largest case we’ve tested yet, but it does rank in the upper echelon of mid-size enclosures.

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An important factor if you have a high end VGA card(s) is the depth of the case, as you can assume that a case with more depth will have a higher chance of fitting the current generation of single and dual GPU powerhouses.

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You do get a lot of steel for your money, over 550mm deep the engineers at NZXT have enough room to work with inside the Tempest to make current hardware fit.

Look Outside

The right panel of the case doesn’t reveal much…

Madshrimps (c)


As the left side holds all the *bling* with a nicely shaped window with a 120mm fan fitted in the middle.

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The top panel holds the I/O control at the front and you can also see the metal mesh grill for the 2 huge 140mm exhaust fans which make sure the temperature inside is always low.

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The case rests of four rubber feet of ok quality

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The rear reveals the motherboard position, which is at the top, with the PSU at the bottom;

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Important to note are the two pre-cut holes for water-cooling tubing:

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The I/O panel is situated at the top panel of the case, so it’s easily accessible when the case is placed on the ground. You get 2 USB ports, 1 eSATA and audio in/output jacks. The power and reset buttons are quite similar in size, we would have loved to see a smaller reset button, to avoid accidents.

Madshrimps (c)


Let’s take a look inside ->
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Comment from jmke @ 2009/05/14
lol, I just noticed that the result chart on the last page was incorrect; it didn't even include NZXT Tempest; I wonder how this could have gone undetected for so long

 

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