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NZXT Hades chassis offers enthusiast features, mainstream price

by Parm Mann on 22 December 2009, 11:45

Tags: Hades, NZXT

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qavhh

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Following the introduction of its Gamma and Tempest EVO chassis back in October and November, respectively, NZXT has today rolled out its latest offering in the form of a mid-tower enthusiast chassis dubbed Hades.

Like most products that emerge from the Californian manufacturer, Hades is an acquired taste. Targeting the gaming crowd, it foregos sophistication in favour of high-end features at a mainstream price of $89.99 (roughly £60).

Despite the relatively-low price tag, users are treated to a mid-tower monstrosity that promises just about everything. Hades' airflow system consists of five meaty fans - including a 200mm red LED front intake, a 120mm rear exhaust, a 200mm side fan and dual 140mm exhausts up top. What's useful is that everything bar a single 140mm exhaust is bundled as standard.

Keeping to its promise of "advanced features for the most demanding PC enthusiast", NZXT bundles in a dual-fan controller to manage airflow and noise, and there's a three-way temperature display housed in the plastic front panel of the chassis. Useful for the overclocking crowd.

Measuring 200mm x 430mm x 501mm and weighing 6.95kg, it's one of the chunkiest mid-tower solutions around. The added dimensions are put to good use, though, with NZXT ensuring support for 300mm-long graphics cards such as AMD's ATI Radeon HD 5970.

The all-black steel frame provides room for up to nine 5.25in drive bays, or five 5.25in and four 3.5in. Ensuring the SSD crowd is covered, a bundled bracket allows for easy installation of up to two solid-state drives.

A bevy of cable-routing holes are present - and they're equipped with rubber grommets ala Corsair's Obsidian Series 800D - and a motherboard cutout allows for easy CPU cooler installation. Elsewhere, a mesh front panel is in place to aid air flow, pre-drilled water-cooling holes are provided, there's support for dual top-mounted radiators, the bottom-mounted PSU slot features a dust filter, and a top-mounted I/O panel provides a USB, audio and eSATA connectivity.

It isn't the best-looking chassis we've ever seen, but it's hard to knock it at £60.



HEXUS Forums :: 11 Comments

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These things are coming along at the same rate as ATI drivers… :\

Another month, another God-awful looking chassis. Better than the previous ones, but that's like choosing your favourite wart.

I generally wouldn't buy a chassis based on aesthetics, but I'd certainly wouldn't buy one which would makes Bill Bailey look like a sex symbol.
Another brilliant case by NZXT in my opinion. Has everything the M59 has except a side window and the “ambient night light”. Slightly wider too and heavier so that's a good thing.

Aethetics is always in the eye of the beholder so it's everyone's individual view. I've always loved red so I can't complain about it.

Lots of fans included too so that's good.
Isn't aesthetics completely moot in a case of this size though? I can see the point in nice compact mITX / mATX desktop cases where your computer is on display, but this thing's going to sit under a desk being relatively anonymous - makes me wonder why they go to so much effort styling the damn thing when they could just make a generic black box with a bit of mesh on the front (like my Dell Poweredge T105 that's currently warming my knees :D) and probably increase their profit margins due to easier manufacturing processes!

That said, while the aesthetics wouldn't stop me buying this case, they would make me look for another alternative with similar features first! But it looks well featured for the price, and definitely worthy of consideration.
looks similar to a cooler master 590

Looks pretty awesome to me for my purposes. I have an NZXT case with a 240mm fan on the side that has supported an OC'd proc and a bunch of hard drives as a file server, and I'm actually moving it to the office because we need more storage there. This looks like a great new home to move into.

If you are planning on just running a normal PC, or need something in a quiet room with you, this probably isn't for you. If you care more about cooling and know that with multiple hard drives you already have a higher end cooling requirement, this is for you.

I am consistently stunned by people who disdain innovative tech without realizing that their purposes aren't universal. Nay say away, but you aren't the only person building a box because you aren't the only person who needs to use that box.