NZXT Duet Get our reviews RSS feed here  |
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Author: SorX | ||
| Posted: 23:00, June 5th 2007 | |||
| Link: http://www.nzxt.com/ | |||
| Score: 7 out of 10 [?] | |||
| Price: £50 | |||
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Time for a Duet
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Unlike the cases that we have received recently (and yes I am talking about the P190) the box for this case is of more reasonable proportions. Obviously destined for a retail shops shelves, a good degree of effort has been put into the design, and its tag line is ‘entertainment media chassis’ letting you know that this is HTPC territory.
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With the case you get a very well laid out manual with pictures for every stage of the installation, and a packet of drive rails and screws.
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120mm fan for scale - Click to enlarge
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Once out of the box, you can see how small the case is but still manages to accommodate a full ATX sized board which is good news. There aren’t as many 5.25” drive bays as most cases, but the Duet manages to squeeze two external drives, and there is also a single 3.5” external drive bay. To compliment the external drive bays, there are three internal HDD bays. You can also use the FDD spot to mount another HDD. There is only one dedicated internal HDD bay, with the other two places having the ability to have either a 120mm or an 80mm fan installed. To me this seems like a really good use of space inside the case.
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To cool your media PC there are two supplied 80mm fans at the rear of the case, above the motherboard blanking plate. You can also install another 80mm fan in the dedicated mount at the front of the case. Oddly, this fan would be sucking air in from the underside of the case which won’t have the best airflow in the world. However, the option is there if you want to use it.
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The front of the case is a mixture of glossy black plastic and slightly polished aluminium (mid point between brushed and reflective). The plastic section runs off-centre between the two portions of aluminium. The right hand side is a large flip-down door which hides the two external 5.25” bays and the FDD. There is also a silver reset button in the bottom right-hand corner. On the left side of the case, you’ll find another button which is for the power, and another door which has the usual array of I/O ports (two USB ports, a FireWire and audio in and out).
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The sides of the case are covered with glossy black paint which compliments the front of the case, and looks pretty good, although it shows up fingerprints like no tomorrow. The side panels both have square vents in them, allowing for air flow.
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As the power supply position in this case is far from ordinary, there is a kettle lead extension cable that runs from the rear to the front PSU mounting space. This allows NZXT to place the PSU out of the way of the motherboard and better use the space inside. The power supply area is big enough for any standard sized PSU, although longer units will interfere with longer PCI add-in cards.
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Unfortunately, the rear PCI blanking plates (apart from the top screw-in replaceable one) are the bend-out type meaning that if you remove one of these covers, you’ll have to either have a card installed, or find a spare PCI blanking plate to fill the hole.
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The case can be used either as a tower, or horizontally. The case has been designed to be used horizontally, which is evident from the direction of the NZXT logo on the front, and the way that the doors open.
Buy now
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