Installation
Motherboard installation was smooth and easy. It’s such a cavernous case that nothing had to be removed or squeezed past to get the board in.
This standard ATX motherboard almost looks silly in this giant case.
In fact, all of the pieces fit nicely. Even with the gigantic heat sink I was using, and the double-height video card, the case still looked like a cavern.
I wasn’t until I added the PSU that the case began to look cluttered. With the fans in so many places, the power cables had to string across everything, and began to look messy. Some cable management clips would help, but it would have helped even more if the designers had chosen to run the power for the fans along the case to a point near the PSU.
It would not be cramped to put 8 drives in this beast
All-in-all, the assembly of the components was very easy in this case, and I didn’t run into any trouble along the way.
When I turned it on, the whole thing turned blue. Normally, I’m not into lots of LEDs, but NZXT’s placement of them has been done tastefully. My least favorite part about lots of LEDs is their propensity to, at certain angle, poke me directly in the eye. However, I moved all around the room in front of this case, and could not find any angles which caused viewing discomfort.
All fired up and blue. Why yes, you're right, it WOULD look better with a black optical drive.
Heat tests
I ran the same components in the Tempest and in a control case to see how its cooling compared to a typical setup. Prime95 was used to load the system. Here’s the list of components used in testing:
- MoBo: DFI Infinity NFS70-M2/G
- Video: Palit GForce 9600GT 1GB Sonic
- RAM: 2x Firestix DDR2 1GB
- PSU: OCZ 600w
- Optical: Generic CD-RW
- HDD: Western Digital 30GB
The control setup ran just a little bit hotter, but not enough to really convince me that the six fans are all necessary. This couple of degrees might be useful to an overclocker, but not really all that useful to anyone running stock speeds.
Tempest temperatures were not significantly lower than my control case
Recap
The Tempest is a nice case for enthusiasts. If you can look past a few minor gripes, it should serve you well. There were no “dealbreakers” with this case – if you like the look, it would make an admirable chassis for your high end system. As with any aesthetics, these are strictly matters of opinion. The ample interior space should allow a great deal of system growth. You can currently find the Tempest for around $120.
Positives:
- The steel chassis is well constructed and sturdy
- Giant fans on top
- Keeps cooler than control case
- Lots of space for HDDs
- Ports on top
- Mostly matte finish
- High MoBo/ Low PSU
- No standard port plate
- No ‘pokey’ lights
Negatives:
- Poor quality assurance (arrived scratched)
- Cheap plastic parts
- Needs some creative cable management not to look cluttered inside
- No fan controls
Other Points:
- Has a nice floppy bay
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