NZXT Tempest 410 Elite Review

In 2008 NZXT released the original Tempest case, at the time it was considered one of the finest ventilated cases available in the budget sector. Recently NZXT decided to update the range with the new Tempest 410 and 410 Elite. NZXT has incorporated a clear acrylic window and a large honeycomb steel mesh into the design to offer both good looks and maximum airflow. They have also added USB 3.0 to the front panel with dual radiator support and dual touch powered front fans. Features Large honeycomb steel mesh design for optimal airflow Dual radiator support for all-in-one liquid cooling solutions Latest Audio, USB 2.0, and USB 3.0 internal support Dual touch powered 120mm front fans equipped with easily removable filters for easy maintenance Large clear side windows allows for viewing of CPU and components Specifications MODEL Tempest 410 Elite CASE TYPE Mid Tower Steel FRONT PANEL MATERIAL Plastic/Steel DIMENSIONS (W x H x D) 215 x 481 X 496mm VGA Clearance Maximum 315mm w/o HDD, 290mm w/ bracket, 250mm w/ HDD installed CPU Heatsink Support 170mm COOLING SYSTEM FRONT, 2 X 120mm @ 1200rpm (2x included)REAR, 1 X 120mm @ 1200rpm (1x included) TOP, 2 X 120/140mm BOTTOM, 1 x 120mm DRIVE BAYS 3 EXTERNAL 5.25" DRIVE BAYS8 INTERNAL 3.5"/2.5" Slots Screwless Rail Design MATERIAL(S) Steel with painted interior EXPANSION SLOTS 7 WEIGHT 7.8KG MOTHERBOARD SUPPORT ATX, MICRO-ATX, MINI ATX, FLEX ATX, MINI ITX Packaging of the Tempest 410 Elite consists of a sturdy but plain looking cardboard outer shell with the chassis pictured on the front side. The opposite side of the package contains information about the numerous features of the new Tempest 410 Elite. The chassis is wrapped in a plastic bag for protection, as well as 2 custom fit pieces of Styrofoam, used to protect and secure the case during shipping. Inside the case in a small white cardboard box with all the extras. NZXT always provide plent of standoffs and screws as well as a few small cable ties to complete whatever install configuration we may have to deal with. The Tempest 410 Elite features a large clear acrylic side panel window, to highlight the finished build. NZXT have placed protective sheets of plastic on both sides of the window to make sure it arrives without any undesired scratches. The opposite side panel is just a standard one piece design with no additional areas configured for ventilation. As we examine the front of the new Tempest we have 3 x 5.25" Drive bays for optical drives and accessories at the top, and the lower portion features 2 removable 120mm fans that are positioned in front of the hard drive bays. The front of the 2 x 120mm fans are covered with large honeycomb steel mesh to provide optimal airflow. The beauty of these fans is the fact that we don't have to mess with any wires. NZXT have designed the fans to make contact between themselves and a contact plate on the inside of the case. Once the fan is placed into the appropriate position the two contacts meet and complete the circuit required to power up the fans. The top panel is covered with large honeycomb steel mesh, and the rear portion is removable to access the area designed to mount a radiator for a water cooling setup. This is also where we can mount 1 or 2 additional exhaust fans depending on cooling requirements. The front portion of the top panel has an area that can store a few small items and is designed to route and secure long headphone cables if we use the front audio jacks. The base of the Tempest 410 Elite is pretty much a standard format. There are 4 hard rubber feet to elevate the case off the floor, and vented areas below where the PSU mounts. There is also a ventilated area where an additional 120mm intake fan can be mounted. The interior of the Tempest 410 Elite is painted entirely black to match the exterior. It seems like the majority of case manufacturers, have opted to remain with an all black design. NZXT provide a large cutout area for installing aftermarket coolers that require the use of a backplate. In the second image we can see the rear mounted 120mm fan as well as the 7 expansion slots and the area cutout to bottom mount a power supply. There are 8 internal hard drive bays in the Tempest 410 Elite. This particular model has the drive cage turned so that the bays can be accessed from the front of the case after removing one or both of the 120 fans from the front panel. While this layout was designed with optimal airflow in mind, in our opinion it also has negative qualities. With the cage orientated as it is we will potentially have to sacrifice a couple drive bays if we use a full size graphics card. This layout also makes hiding the cables that connect to our hard drives more difficult. The picture above-right shows all of the cables that attach to the motherboard and supply power to: On/Off, Reset, HD LED, USB/USB 2.0/USB 3.0, and either AC97 or HD audio. The 5.25" drive bays use the same tool free method as they used in the Phantom. The procedure is as follows; we depress the portion of the mounting device that is rippled which unlocks the mechanism. Then after we insert our optical drive into the available bay we depress the tab to lock the drive in place. The hard drive bays each have a removable black plastic drive caddy. The drive simply fits into the caddy which then just slides in place and we are good to go. NZXT have made the new Tempest 410 Elite very user friendly when it comes to cable routing. This really helps to keep cable hell under control, even for a novice system builder. After looking at the 2 images above we can see there is plenty of space available to hide all of our excess cables behind the motherboard. NZXT have also made sure there are plenty of areas for fastening cable ties, which we use to secure the cables. The motherboard we used has the main 24pin power socket in the strangest place. It is located close the the rear edge of the board where there was no way to hide the main power line that runs from the power supply to the board. Once we add the HD 6950 to the system we have a better perspective of how much space is given. Finally here is the system with the side panel back in place. The CPU cooler consumes the entire depth of the case but does not interfere with our ability to remove or replace the panel. To test the Tempest 410 Elite the test system will consist of the AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition CPU instead of the Phenom II X6 1090T that is usually the processor in our test system. After checking out the current hardware stats accumulated by the Steam online game service, close to 47% of users are running a 2 core CPU compared to the 1.56% that were running a 6 core CPU. We opted for the Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition because we were confident we would be able to reach the 4 GHz mark. The AM3 board we had available was the Biostar MCP6P3. We added 8GB of Mushkin DDR III 1333, and the Sapphire Radeon 6950 2GB PCI-e graphics card. While these components are far from the high end of the enthusiast market, they are all well within the specs of many mid range systems run by the majority of users today. Test System Chassis: NZXT Tempest 410 Elite Processor: AMD Phenom II X2 555BE @ 4.02 GHz Motherboard: Biostar MCP6P3 GPU: Sapphire Radeon 6950 2GB (1536 unified shaders) Cooler: Evercool Transformer 4 Memory: 8GB Mushkin DDR3 1333 (9-9-9-24-1T) Storage: Samsung 150 GB SATA II Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Plus 850 Watt For our temperature tests, we are using the 64bit Prime95 and Furmark to load the system for 15 minutes, we then record the results. After restarting the system we let it idle at the desktop for 15 minutes and record the result. The ambient room temperature was maintained at 22c for the duration of the tests. Validation Link Considering the fact that the Tempest 410 Elite is only configured with 3 fans, we were pleasantly surprised with the results of our testing. The motherboard sensor only reached 34 degrees Celsius when running Prime 95 and our Phenom II 555BE (that is overclocked to 4.02 GHz) only reached 40c, which is impressive. The temperature of the Radeon 6950 fell right in line with similar cases we have tested in the past, peaking at 78c during our Furmark tests. There was very little fluctuation with hard drive temperatures. The fans that are included with the Tempest 410 Elite spin at approximately 1,200 RPM and have a noise level rating of 25dBA. The NZXT Crafted series have two new designs, the Tempest 410 and the Tempest 410 Elite, which we reviewed today. The Elite has a clear acrylic side window and the standard version is only supplied with a single fan, while the Elite has two. The 410 Elite ships with 3 x 120mm fans, but is capable of housing an additional bottom mounted 120mm fan and two top fans that can be either 120mm or 140mm. The fans are rated with a 25 dBA noise emission and in real world terms, are reasonably quiet. The top panel is also designed to mount a dual radiator if liquid cooling is your thing. The original Tempest design was a personal favorite and I feel NZXT could played a little more with the redesign, to give it more dramatic impact. The orientation of the hard drive bays leaves me with mixed feelings. I like the fact the the removable front fans make it easy to access drives but I also like when the drive cage is turned to face the side panel because of the enhanced cable routing. The Tempest 410 Elite has full support for all USB standards, as well as AC97 and High Definition Audio right out of the box. There are also eight removable hard drive bays and three 5.25" bays which will satisfy even the most demanding of enthusiast user. There is plenty of room for graphics cards, like the HD6950 we used today. The NZXT Tempest 410 Elite delivers a solid, well rounded package at a competitive price. The Tempest 410 Elite is definitely a product worth buying, especially with a modest £69 price tag. Pros: Watercooling support (240mm) Appealing appearance High level of cooling. Cons: A little noiser than we hoped. Only one USB 3.0 port.

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NZXT Tempest 410 Elite Review

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