NZXT Hades Crafted Series Mid-Tower

NZXT is a company with a strong focus on gamers and aims to provide the products they need to get the task at hand done. They have given us time and time again some great products at an excellent price point. The competition in this class is fierce and the benchmark has been reset again and again. The Hades does a good job fitting in and even manages to hang with the current top dog, the CM 690 II.

Build quality is excellent. There are no sharp edges anywhere and the chassis is rigid and feels strong. There is no flex in the panels and the paint job is of a really good quality. The included hardware as well as the near full compliment of fans shows the attention to all details has been given proper attention. Toss in a built-in fan controller and temperature monitoring station for possibly the most rounded set of features in this class.

Unfortunately, in the quest to keep the overall size down and yet give you the most internal room possible for items such as graphics cards, it took away from the space required for running larger processor heat sinks. As long as you are creative and take your time, I believe that most heat sinks with removable fans will be able to be used, but this could have been avoided with just a bit more thought in the engineering of where the side panel fan was located.

Overall, the Hades is still a very good chassis. The pros do outweigh the cons in my mind and as long as some careful planning is used, you will end up with a great-looking and high-performing PC. The front panel door is a love it or hate it feature, but I really did like it. It was very easy to use, it did not block the airflow one bit and it even angled the temperature readouts upward so that they could be easily read. While I can’t state that it unseated the reigning king of the $99 class, it sure did a great job, and seeing it has many features that most others do not, it’s still worthy of consideration for your next build.

Pros
• Excellent build quality.
• Built-in fan controller/temperature readout.
• Lots of quiet and powerful fans.
• Good amount of internal room.
• Solid pricing.

Cons
• Motherboard mounts too close to top panel fans.
• Side panel fan could interfere with many tall CPU coolers.

Discuss this article in our forums!

Have a comment you wish to make on this article? Recommendations? Criticism? Feel free to head over to our related thread and put your words to our virtual paper! There is no requirement to register in order to respond to these threads, but it sure doesn’t hurt!