Finding a good desktop case, despite ten years of enthusiast-oriented designs from a wide array of manufacturers, remains a struggle. “Good” is a pretty wide term, of course, but ’round these parts it refers to a chassis with excellent airflow at an affordable price. Today we’ll be looking at the NZXT Hades, a case that happens to offer just that.
Who is NZXT?
Located in El Monte, CA, NZXT is one of the few American companies dedicated to building quality peripherals and cases for the PC market. Founded in 2004, the company has spawned more than 20 original chassis designs, in addition to a complete range of fans and chassis-related accessories such as USB expanders and fan controllers.
In their own words:
NZXT, a company built upon gamers dreams, hopes to create products that put consumers first. With the objective of designing unique products catered for hardware enthusiasts and gamers, NZXT has grown into a globally renowned brand recognized for dedication towards creating the next great gaming product. NZXT has won numerous awards from media and publications from across the globe with a product line spanning from gaming chassis, power, and gaming input devices. As a corporation formed by gamers, NZXT continues to expand into new horizons and push the limits further with each product unveiling.
Icrontic has had a fantastic relationship with NZXT over the years, and it has granted us the opportunity to review several of their designs:
NZXT Beta
NZXT Beta EVO
NZXT M59
NZXT Panzerbox
NZXT Tempest
NZXT Guardian 921
The recipe for this relationship is simple: NZXT makes fantastic cases and our reviewers love them. From the Beta to the Guardian 921, NZXT has proven time and time again that they really do understand the needs of hardware enthusiasts. The Hades hasn’t fallen far from that tree–not even a bit.
Specifications
Materials: Steel (chassis), Plastic (front panel)
Dimensions: 7.87″x16.9″x19.7″ (WxHxD)
Cooling: 200mm front, 120mm rear, 200mm side, 2x140mm top (1 included)
Drive bays: 9×5.25″, 4×3.5″
Expansion slots: 7
Weight: 15.3lbs
Mobo support: ATX, mATX, Baby AT
Accessories
The Hades comes with a basic, but complete set of accessories:
- A piezo speaker.
- Three sets of rails for mounting 3.5″ hard disks.
- Tape for the Hades’ thermistors.
- Various screws, washers and standoffs for mounting the motherboard.
- and a generous helping of thumbscrews.
Design and installation
Starting with the case’s external design, it’s clear that this won’t be a looker for everyone. I happen to like the angles and lines, as that’s my cup of tea, but I can see why other users might prefer a more traditional box. More universally, I think buyers will appreciate that the red LEDs on the front intake aren’t bright enough to land an airplane; in fact (I never thought I’d say this), I think the subdued LEDs make the case a touch classier.
At the top of the Hades’ front door, you can also see three red LEDs. These are temperature displays. Each readout connects to a thermistor that you can position in the case and secure with included tape. Some people will dig this feature, but I ended up dismantling the front door to remove them. Today’s motherboards and CPUs offer dedicated temperature hardware that’s vastly more accurate than a thermometer taped to a chip.
Finally, the top of the Hades offers some external I/O in the form of two USB 2.0 ports, an eSATA port, a mic jack and a headphone jack.
Moving to the interior, the Hades is easily the most charming case I’ve ever had the privilege to work with. I don’t say this lightly, mind you, because I think most cases range from bad to worthless. So, what flies and dies on the Hades? Let’s take a look.
Punched backplate
Plain and simple: if a heatsink is any good, it uses a bolt-through kit and a backplate. While these parts are worth the dosh, it’s a real hassle to yank the board just to install a heatsink. Not so with the Hades!
The motherboard tray on the Hades has a fat cutout that sits right behind the socket on every motherboard you can buy. In theory, you can use this window to install a high-performance heatsink without unseating the motherboard, but it wasn’t all roses in practice.
Going solo on the installation of my Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme forced me to lay the Hades on its back and then shimmy it off the edge of a table to reveal the cutout. Then, blindly holding the backplate in place, I had to hand-tighten the bolts to secure the plate without bumping a heatsink that’s more than happy to skate around on the slick layer of thermal paste.
Whether you bring a spare set of hands or a bucket of patience, at least you didn’t have to uninstall the motherboard.
Cable management
As you can see in the image above, the Hades provides slots in the motherboard tray through which you can route cables. There are three such channels: the first is in the image, the second is down near the hard drive bays, and the third runs horizontally along the bottom of the tray. All three channels are the same size.
These cable management channels are incredibly convenient, and NZXT backs them up with ample space behind the tray. It’s a shame, though, that the rubber grommets popped off on more than one occasion and were a hassle to put back on.
SSD bracket
One of the Hades’ hard drive bays comes pre-configured with a bracket that accepts a pair of 2.5″ (laptop form factor) hard disks, which is ideal for SSDs. As an SSD owner, this was a “must have” for me, and the Hades delivered with aplomb.
Detachable front panel cables
Some people are hot for USB ports on the front of their case, but I never have a need for them. I also don’t appreciate the clutter five front I/O ports creates inside the case. If you’ve a screwdriver and 15 minutes to spare, you can dismantle the Hades’ front door, unplug the cables and set them aside.
While NZXT probably didn’t design this as a feature per se, it was easy to use and a joy to discover.
HDD installation
If any part of the Hades could be considered a big, fat failure, it’s hard drive installation. You have to fix a pair of crummy steel brackets to any hard disk before it can be mounted in the case.
Honestly, it’s 2010. Drive rails and complicated drive installations were so last decade.
Optical drive installation
Where the Hades falls on disk installation, it soars when it’s time to install an optical drive: you slide the drive into the chassis, mount the plastic brackets and turn the knobs. It takes all of ten seconds.
If only hard disk installation were this easy!
Airflow
Arriving at last upon the feature that initially caught my attention, the NZXT Hades offers outstanding air cooling performance. Just look at the amount of air this baby moves:
- Front fan: 200mm, 166.2 CFM @ 37.25 dBa (Intake)
- Side fan: 200mm, 166.2 CFM @ 37.25 dBa (Intake)
- Rear fan: 120mm, 47.3 CFM @ 25.35 dBa (Exhaust)
- Top fan(s): 140mm, 62.5 CFM @ 26.52 dBa (Exhaust)
That is a lot of cooling. As an added perk, the top exhaust and front intake are also connected to a rheobus, which allows the user to control their RPMs (and noise) through a pair of knobs located behind the Hades’ front door. Swank!
The Hades' fan control knobs, front and center.
I do have one gripe, however, and it would be a cinch for NZXT to solve: the Hades supports two 140mm top exhaust fans, but it only ships with one. NZXT has the courtesy to sell additional matching fans for all of the sizes used on the Hades, but I’m fairly certain they cost less than a Ballpark Frank to manufacture. Would it hurt to toss in one more? Nah.
Damn that empty fan bay!
Final thoughts
Once upon a time, I believed that the best case on the market was the Antec 900. Many enthusiasts still believe that, but I am no longer one of them. For me, that case is the NZXT Hades. The Hades offers superior airflow, superior cable management and a better overall design for the same, exact price: $99.
You can’t find a better case for the price. It’s that simple.
Pros
+Exceptional airflow
+Quiet (surprise!)
+Robust cable management
+Easy optical drive installation
+Fan controller for front/top fans
+Attractive price
+Spacious interior
+Detachable front I/O cables
+Motherboard removal not necessary for heatsink installation
+Supports two SSDs
+Supports 300mm GPUs (Radeon HD 5970)
Cons
-Second top exhaust fan not included
-Awkward hard disk installation
-Thermistors deprecated by modern hardware
-Heatsink installation still complicated
-Rubber cable grommets prone to dislodging
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