PP500 PSU	Specs Label	120mm Fan	Honeycomb Exhaust
20/24 ATX	4 pin CPU / 6 pin PCIe	Molex	SATA
Inside	Inside	Inside 120mm	(2) 120mm LED Fans

   The looks of the PP500 power supply are nothing to write home about. The lines are not sleeved at all (circa. 1998) but it does have a large (and silent) 120mm Fan that's thermally controlled. 500w is more than enough to power any micro ATX rig that I know of. The cables aren't super long on this power supply either, which is nice however them not being sleeved made a little more mess in the tight quarters of this smaller case. Nothing some time and zip ties couldn't fit though.

Side Panel	Other Side Panel	Matched Exhaust	Matched LED Intake
Intake Filters	Powered Up	Powered Up	Powered Up

   Here you see how I utilized the (2) included side panel 120mm fans along with the (2) 120mm fans sent along by NZXT. I thought ahead as to how I seen best to arrange the side panels for intake and exhaust. Something very important to note here is the side panels on the rogue are identical and therefore interchangeable from left to right. That's great and allowed me not to worry about which is which while arranging the fans so much. So I grouped the 2 non-LED fans as exhaust fans and the 2 LED fans as intake fans with the filters. I knew I'd have the Rogue sitting on my desk to my left, so I arranged the fans to be exhausting away from me as I sit at the desk.

   Now it's finally all built and ready to be powered up! Upon firing it up the first thing I noticed was how quiet it was. I was expecting a tornado with 5 120mm fans in this thing, but I was welcomed with just a slight hum. Excellent! I was quite shocked and relieved that it was so quiet. 

Big, but not too big. Cool, but Quiet. Excellent.

   So to wrap up how I have the cooling setup (because I've seen it different in other reviews), I have reversed the airflow from left to right, to right to left (looking at the front of the case). I feel this will work best because the cool air coming in from the right side blows over the entire CPU, memory and motherboard and pretty much smacks into the back of my 8800GTS. However the exhaust fans on the left side are sucking all that hot air off that hot 8800GTS and not pushing it back into the case. The power supply is also mounted directly above my 8800GTS and also sucks hot air off the card, up thru the power supply and out the rear of the case. Hopefully you can imagine what I'm trying to explain but if you had this case in front of you, you'd see what I meant. Basically If I left the cooling setup the way I got it, I'd have all the cool air traveling about an inch or two into the case and stopping as it smacks into the huge 8800GTS. I think my way is better...it's common sense.

   When I grip the case on each side (over the fan areas) while It's running, I can really feel the airflow moving big-time. And it feels cool on the intake side (obviously) and quite a bit warmer out the exhaust side. That tells me it's really moving that hot air out of there. i would hope so with 6 120mm fans (including the power supplies exhaust fan) moving air in there! Yet still so quiet! Amazing.

Conclusion:

   NZXT has really delivered a mixed bag with the new Rogue ultimate gaming SFF chassis. On one hand it's a larger SFF case so you don't have to your little sister install your components in it because her fingers are the only ones that fit. And on the other hand there just seems to be too much wasted space inside and to be limited to only micro-atx boards when clearly a full ATX will, or could fit, is just too bad. With the massive cooling ability of the Rogue, it's a shame to waste it on a single GPU micro-ATX system. This kind of cooling can rarely be found on full size high end cases that are designed for high end dual graphics systems never mind on a much more compact SFF system. If this thing could take a full ATX and dual GPU setup, it would truly be the ultimate gaming SFF chassis.

   Also, I just can't overlook the terrible decision to release a modern case, clearly designed from the ground up, without tool-less installation. You'd think it would have the best of the best in this regard, yet it's about as generic as it gets. But I cold get over that if it just simply meant screwing in all the drives, no problem. The real crime is the necessity to remove the bulky front panel w/door just to unscrew the front bay covers. That's just wrong and a nuisance. It's one of those "what the hell were you thinking?" moments during installation.

   As for the rest of the installation after the nuisance, it went quiet smoothly because there really is a bunch of room in there for an SFF class case. I didn't have any issues with two parts crashing into each other or the usual problems with a SFF case.

   Overall the NZXT Rogue is truly in a class of it's own as I've personally never reviewed anything like it. It's Solid. It's Super Cool. And it's very quiet even with 5 120mm cooling fans plus power supply. It's exterior design is subtle and clean if not a bit bland for some. I think if NZXT spent just a little more time refining the design and making the best use of the available space, especially under the drive bays which is totally unused, they could've really had a genre changing chassis. As it stands right now, it's really just an oversized micro-ATX rig with tons of cooling because it aliens the true gamers and the dual GPU option. So all in all it's a really good case that could've been spectacular. Either way, I'll probably be using this case as my personal rig for awhile. I guess that says something about it. The Rogue lists for $149.99 right now from Newegg in both black with blue LED and black with red LED. A bit pricey, but you get a lot for the money with this beast.

Got News? Send 'em in!