Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/4678/nzxt-tempest-410-elite-jack-of-all-trades
NZXT Tempest 410 Elite: Jack of All Trades
by Dustin Sklavos on September 1, 2011 3:20 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- mid-tower
- NZXT
Introducing the NZXT Tempest 410 Elite
The last time we checked out an NZXT enclosure, we saw in their H2 a lot of fantastic ideas done in by a single poor design choice. NZXT's engineers are clearly thinking on their feet and the company stays in the enclosure conversation with good reason, and today we have on the slab their new Tempest 410 Elite mid-tower. Geared towards excellent performance without breaking the bank (remember when that was what overclocking was about?), should the Tempest 410 Elite be on your shortlist for an economical build, or were too many compromises made?
First impressions when opening the box for the Tempest 410 Elite were mixed, but it's important to keep in mind that enclosures under $100 tend to make some sacrifices to keep the price down, one of the major ones being extensive use of plastic for the front bezel. Yet further inspection of the 410 revealed that, much like their peers at BitFenix, NZXT's engineers are keenly interested in cramming a lot of value into their enclosures. Whether or not they were successful with this case remains to be seen, but there are some awfully nice touches here and there.
NZXT Tempest 410 Elite Specifications | ||
Motherboard Form Factor | ATX, Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX, Flex-ATX | |
Drive Bays | External | 3x 5.25" |
Internal | 8x 3.5"/2.5" | |
Cooling | Front | 2x 120mm intake fan |
Rear | 1x 120mm exhaust fan | |
Top | 2x 120mm fan mount | |
Side | - | |
Bottom | 1x 120mm fan mount | |
Expansion Slots | 7 | |
Front I/O Port | 3x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.0, mic and headphone jacks | |
Top I/O Port | - | |
Power Supply Size | ATX | |
Clearance | Up to 11" (Expansion Cards), 170mm (CPU HSF), 280mm (PSU) | |
Weight | 17.2 lbs. | |
Dimensions | 19.53" x 8.46" x 18.94" | |
Price | MSRP $89 |
Just looking at the spec sheet, there should be a couple of oddities jumping out at you. The biggest one I ran into was actually the odd mix of USB 2.0 and USB 3.0; this really should've been two USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 instead of the odd numbers, since now half of each header is basically wasted. And the Tempest 410 Elite does use an internal motherboard header for its USB 3.0 port, as is becoming increasingly common.
In and Around the NZXT Tempest 410 Elite
The NZXT Tempest 410 Elite is basically just the windowed version of the Tempest 410 at $10 less, trading in the Tempest 410's dual 120mm side intake fan mounts for a window. Whether or not that's worth it is up to you, but I know in my testing experience an intake fan can often have tremendously positive effects on both cooling and noise.
For the front bezel of the 410 Elite, NZXT uses what they call a "honeycomb steel mesh" to improve airflow into the enclosure, and they back that up with two 120mm fans that are, like the drive bay shields, easily removed. I'm actually quite fond of the aesthetic of the 410 Elite; while it looks a little bit chintzy just due to the amount of plastic, it's at least fairly understated compared to how gaudy and ostentatious enthusiast cases typically are. NZXT's mesh is attractive, while the column of ports below the power and reset buttons on the right side states pretty clearly where the end user should orient themselves relative to the case.
On the top of the 410 Elite is a pocket that can be popped open and used to store cables, flash drives, and optical media, while the steel mesh behind it can be removed to allow for installation of a 240mm radiator. That space would ordinarily be a welcome inclusion, but as you'll see in testing, it winds up being an active detriment to the enclosure's acoustics. The steel mesh that snaps on and off maintains a clean design, but beneath it are just two massive holes for 120mm fans. I can't help but wonder if there wouldn't have been a better way to handle this mounting solution.
Popping open the enclosure reveals a reasonable amount of space for a mid-tower, including tool-less clasps for the optical drives and a staggering eight drive sleds, each able to support a single 3.5" drive tool-lessly or a 2.5" drive with screws. Once again there are holes in the motherboard tray for routing cables, and again, the rubber grommets are held in fairly loosely and liable to pop out if provoked. Finally, there are seven expansion slots which use mesh covers, and each of these are held in place by thumbscrews.
Speaking of thumbscrews, this is one convenience that I appreciated in NZXT's H2 and again here: NZXT sees fit to mount rows of thumbscrews inside the enclosure, pretty much just to make sure they're readily available. These things are like getting a pleasant postcard from a friend travelling overseas: I'm not sure how useful they are (especially with the 410 Elite's design), but they're pleasant and thoughtful and I'd just as soon have them than not.
When we move behind the motherboard tray, we find a healthy amount of space for hiding cabling. It's not stellar, but it's enough, and the hole for mounting heatsinks is always welcome. I haven't griped about it for a while so now seems like as good a time as any: Intel needs to fix their mounting system, period. When two entire industries are picking up the slack for your crappy mounting system, there's a real problem. Pushpins begone!
Assembling the NZXT Tempest 410 Elite
While the NZXT Tempest 410 Elite is a reasonable enough size for a mid-tower, the insides felt unusually cramped during assembly, and some of the decisions NZXT's engineers made seemed...unnecessary. From the get go, space was at a bit more of a premium than I've usually seen in other mid-towers I've reviewed.
Getting the motherboard in was relatively easy, but the way NZXT pre-mounts and routes the case's cabling actually gives you a minor obstacle to deal with in the assembly. Strangely enough my cabling to the motherboard (which is really easier to do when it's just the motherboard in the enclosure) wound up looking and feeling a little bit messier than usual. Part of that is due to the strange choice of ports for the front of the enclosure. The two HD audio ports, fine, and two USB 2.0, again, just fine. But opting for a third USB 2.0 and a single USB 3.0 results in having a split USB header and then wasting an entire USB 3.0 port off of the motherboard.
Installing the optical drive, hard drive, and SSD wasn't particularly difficult, but the process for the latter two felt a bit silly. The tool-less clasps for the optical drive worked reasonably well and were fairly firm, and removing the bay shield was very easy. But the HDD and SSD trays are installed from the front by removing the front fans.
Let me explain: NZXT's two 120mm intake fans are mounted in easily removable housings which use contacts with the case to prevent wires running from them when you have to take the housings out. And you will have to, because the drive trays slide in from the front. I'm not saying the system doesn't work because it does work just fine, and the drives are easy enough to install (although our HDD felt ever so slightly too fat and needed a little coaxing to lock into the cage), but it feels like a case of misplaced priorities (no pun intended).
Why? Because clearance between our ZOTAC GeForce GTX 580 and the drive behind it was very narrow. I was able to make it work, and in the interests of fairness this is how I tested the enclosure. Yet like I told BitFenix when I reviewed the Shinobi, this kind of drive orientation creates exactly these kinds of clearance issues and is generally worse for routing cabling than having the drive cage rotated ninety degrees with the cabling already behind the motherboard tray. The money that was spent on making the front fans work in their housings the way they do would've been much better spent rotating the entire drive cage.
Installing the power supply and cabling everything wasn't too difficult, although at this point I will say I'm not completely sold on the clearance above the motherboard for a 240mm radiator. It'll work, but it'll be a very tight fit. The cabling for the two front fans is also confusing: both fans are routed through a single connector, which probably seems sensible but in theory actually winds up being counterintuitive in practice since no other case I've seen works like that. It's a nitpick, but I'll admit that I stopped and scratched my head for a second about it.
Testing Methodology
For testing ATX cases, we use the following standardized testbed in stock and overclocked configurations to get a feel for how well the case handles heat and noise.
Full ATX Test Configuration | |
CPU |
Intel Core i7-875K (95W TDP, tested at stock speed and overclocked to 3.8GHz @ 1.38V) |
Motherboard | ASUS P7P55D-E Pro |
Graphics Card | Zotac NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (244W TDP) |
Memory | 2x2GB Crucial Ballistix Smart Tracer DDR3-1600 |
Drives |
Kingston SSDNow V+ 100 64GB SSD Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gbps Samsung 5.25" BD-ROM/DVDRW Drive |
CPU Cooler | Zalman CNPS9900 MAX with Cooler Master ThermalFusion 400 |
Power Supply | SilverStone Strider Gold 750W 80 Plus Gold |
A refresher on how we test:
Acoustic testing is standardized on a foot from the front of the case, using the Extech SL10 with an ambient noise floor of ~32dB. For reference, that's what my silent apartment measures with nothing running, testing acoustics in the dead of night (usually between 1am and 3am). A lot of us sit about a foot away from our computers, so this should be a fairly accurate representation of the kind of noise the case generates, and it's close enough to get noise levels that should register above ambient.
Thermal testing is run with the computer having idled at the desktop for fifteen minutes, and again with the computer running both Furmark (where applicable) and Prime95 (less one thread when a GPU is being used) for fifteen minutes. I've found that leaving one thread open in Prime95 allows the processor to heat up enough while making sure Furmark isn't CPU-limited. We're using the thermal diodes included with the hardware to keep everything standardized, and ambient testing temperature is always between 71F and 74F. Processor temperatures reported are the average of the CPU cores.
For more details on how we arrived at this testbed, you can check out our introductory passage in the review for the IN-WIN BUC.
Last but not least, we'd also like to thank the vendors who made our testbed possible:
Thank You!
We have some thanks in order before we press on:
- Thank you to Crucial for providing us with the Ballistix Smart Tracer memory we used to add memory thermals to our testing.
- Thank you to Zalman for providing us with the CNPS9900 MAX heatsink and fan unit we used.
- Thank you to Kingston for providing us with the SSDNow V+ 100 SSD.
- Thank you to CyberPower for providing us with the Western Digital Caviar Black hard drive, Intel Core i7-875K processor, ASUS P7P55D-E Pro motherboard, and Samsung BD-ROM/DVD+/-RW drive.
- And thank you to SilverStone for providing us with the power supply.
Noise and Thermal Testing, Stock
Going in to testing the NZXT Tempest 410 Elite, I'll admit I was concerned. While the cooling system certainly seems adequate enough (two 120mm front intakes and a single 120mm rear exhaust), the massive opening at the top for mounting a 240mm water-cooling system just screams "noise problems" to me. The Tempest 410 Elite seems to be engineered for airflow first and foremost, with acoustics a distant second.
Thermals aren't great but they're not awful either, and at least the idle temperature on the CPU ranks among the lowest we've seen. For its price range, the Tempest 410 Elite is posting some of the best performance we've seen, though, with only the In-Win BUC really competing with it. Everything else that beats it is north of $100.
Yet there's the price you pay for those thermals: noise. While a fan controller could probably clean up this situation (and NZXT's recently released Sentry Mix certainly fits the bill, able to support an impressive six fans from a single 5.25" bay), you'll undoubtedly sacrifice some of the Tempest 410 Elite's thermal performance in the process, and a fan controller still doesn't really address what I think the major issue of the case is: the gaping holes in the top for mounting that 240mm water-cooling kit.
Noise and Thermal Testing, Overclocked
Introducing the NZXT Tempest 410 Elite to our overclocked testbed is cause for some concern. The Zalman CNPS9900 MAX cooler that we use on our processor can get fairly noisy under these circumstances, and the Tempest 410 Elite doesn't look like it'll be able to do much to mask it. At this point it's best just to hope the airflow of the enclosure itself is enough to keep the cooler in check.
Unfortunately, once we overclock, the Tempest 410 Elite loses a great deal of its lead on the processor. The In-Win BUC, priced just $10 more, delivers appreciably better thermal performance and as you'll see below, does so more quietly as well.
At idle, the Tempest 410 Elite is the loudest case we've tested, while under load it acquits itself nearly as poorly. It has some trouble handling the increased thermal load, but more than that, it's just unable to handle that load efficiently and quietly. Meanwhile, enclosures like SilverStone's FT02 and Thermaltake's Level 10 GT may be three times as expensive, but they also show an appreciable benefit to spending up. Even Rosewill's Thor v2, at $149, makes a reasonable argument for spending an extra $60 for a better enclosure.
Conclusion: A Case of Misplaced Priorities
Anand and Ryan have both said before that there are no bad products, only bad prices. To an extent I agree, and certainly I wouldn't classify NZXT's Tempest 410 Elite as a bad product. What I would classify it as is an okay product marred by a series of poor design decisions and unfavorable trade-offs.
As a whole, I'm not 100% certain what NZXT was going for with the Tempest 410 Elite. The press release argues that the case is designed for aggressive overclockers, but I'll tell you right now, I have a case in house that blows it out of the water on nearly every metric for just $10 more, and that's ignoring the slightly-fugly-but-extremely-practical In-Win BUC.
The minor problems are thus: the USB ports on the front should've been split between two USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0, end of story, and why they were arranged the way they were mystifies me. If money was somehow saved here by doing three USB 2.0 and one USB 3.0, that money should've been taken out of some other aspect of the case. The hard drive cage also should be rotated 90 degrees with the connectors facing behind the motherboard tray, improving cooling and ease of use and preventing NZXT from having to put together the kind of fan-removal system they have to begin with. Doing so may obstruct the intake fans a little bit more, but it also increases clearance between the cage and any expansion cards and improves cabling tremendously.
My major problem has to do with the 240mm mounting system in the top of the enclosure. I've seen this on other enclosures in this price range, but here the implementation is particularly poor. If you haven't installed a radiator into the Tempest 410 Elite, that massive open space is basically just a huge window for noise to spill out. I don't think it's worth the sacrifice at all; the Tempest 410 Elite is an $89 case (and the Tempest 410 is just $79), and anyone who cuts corners on their enclosure and then buys a 240mm radiator and water-cooling kit is either a boutique looking to cut costs anywhere they can or an enthusiast who deserves exactly what they paid for. The former is wasting their time outside of hitting a marketing checkbox (cheap gaming system with water-cooling!) while the latter needs to seriously reconsider their build.
Don't mistake me: I like the Tempest 410 and 410 Elite's aesthetics, and they're certainly reasonably priced. But I do think there are better choices to be made out there, even for builders on a budget. We're in an era now where powerful computers don't have to be noisy, and there are better options out there than the Tempest 410.