NZXT Rogue Ultimate Gaming SFF Chassis

Introduction:

   Deciding what chassis to house your computer in these days can be an agonizing decision. The selection of computer cases on the market is simply astonishing which tells you it's a lucrative market segment and everyone wants a piece. Not to mention everybody needs some type of case for their system so just like the selection of automobiles is huge to try to fit every personality and situation, so tries the case market. However it's not everyday that a product launches that simply breaks the normal segment boundaries. NZXT just launched such a product called the Rogue. It's tagline is "the ultimate gaming SFF chassis". Let's take a closer look at the specs and see just what's so different about this new case.

Specifications:

Features:

• 3mm Outer Aluminum Frame protects and guards your internals from damage during LAN parties and transportation

• Support for high end large video expansion cards

• Open top window allows view of your system

• Carrying Strap for LAN Go-ers and moving the PC

• Supports ATX PSU and expands for larger PSU over 700W and all NZXT PSUs up to the Precise 1200W

• Locking Door Mechanism for security at LAN events

• Weight reduction through aluminum chassis

• Great ventilation and cooling with 5 120mm fans

• Removable Motherboard Tray

• Supports E-SATA, Mic, Audio-in, 2 x USB 2.0

A Closer Look:

Box Front	Box Rear	Great Packing	Wrapped
Case Front	Case Left Side	Case Rear	Case Right Side

   The box is unusual from your normal case box because it's thick and square. The packing inside is high quality white foam, not that cheap Styrofoam that cracks and falls apart when you pull on it. Under that is the typical plastic bag (wrap).

   Before I discuss the case pictures I just want to say sorry for the nasty fingerprints on the case but I swear they're not mine! I always wash my hands prior to touching products and taking pictures and there's no way all those prints are mine. Also, the case looked perfectly clean to me when I took all of these pictures but the flash brought out every fingerprint, dust bunny, lint and pimple on this thing because the case exterior is aluminum and that's slightly porous which just attracts and holds EVERYTHING and unfortunately you just can't see it until it hits the right light, or in this case, a camera flash! UGH!. And since I took these pictures in succession while doing a complete build, I didn't notice the bad pictures until it was too late and the case was done and running. Ok, that's my excuse...on to the case.

   The entire exterior of the NZXT Rogue is black painted aluminum. The first thing I noticed upon pulling this beast from the box is the size. For a micro-ATX case standards, this thing is huge. I equate it to the size of slapping exterior panels all around my large tech station (and that holds full ATX, SLI, etc!). The next thing I notice is how solid, and heavy this Rogue is. grabbing it from the sides and lifting it proved it's solidity. It felt like a solid unit. 

   The front door was locked when it arrived to me so I had to fish the accessory box out through the back of the case through the empty power supply area. The front door is lockable and held on with a small magnet that holds it pretty well by itself.

Accessories	Door Open	MB Tray Area	Rear 120mm Fan
Windowed Top	Window Inside	Window Inside	Top Removed

  NZXT includes some interesting accessories with the case, but more in terms of "unusual" interesting. First the good; there are a large number of screw bags inside the little white box and each bag is labeled with exactly what screws are inside each particular bag and for what they will secure. In other words THEY organize all the screws for you. No more fishing thru a huge bag of screws to find the ones you need. Kudos to NZXT for this and I think it's something other manufacturers should learn from. Now the bad; the included manual is pathetic and virtually useless. Now for the so-so; the included case carry bag. Now personally this case is too big and heavy once built to be lugging around and I wouldn't trust it for 2 seconds in the included carry thingy. But that's just me, you might like it, or need it. I wouldn't. But at least they included it. If it was truly a LAN case, it should have handles on the case itself...this doesn't.

   Moving around the case we see the 120mm rear exhaust fan which is great. The bigger the fan the better I always say. And there's plenty of room for big fans in this case and NZXT didn't skimp to make them usable here.

   Next we see the top windowed panel. One thing I need to mention here is the top panel is much thinner than the rest of the panels. It's flat and plain other than the rather small window. It seems the top panel was more of an afterthought on the design as a whole because it's just like a flat slab on an otherwise slightly rounded design. Too bad, It really could've finished off the case nicely. The window rattles if you tap it and again, is quite thin. I was worried that the top panel would cause the case to rattle severely during usage, but luckily that wasn't the case. No rattles I found out later.

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