Intro

When I was asked to review the NZXT Guardian computer case, I must admit that I started chuckling when I first saw it. I'm one of the old school dudes who would rather tackle a generic case with Dremel in one hand and a can of Krylon in the other instead of purchasing a pre-modded rig. The Guardian case from NZXT was so far over the top that I thought that they couldn't be serious; they had gone beyond pre-mod to pre-mad. All I saw was the "Power Ranger" face and my opinion of this case had already been made. As I spent time with this case I found that I was way off the mark with my initial assumption.

NZXT is a brand new company and the Guardian case is their only product so far. Fortunately for them, it seems to be a product that is selling well. While waiting for my review sample to arrive, I noticed that several major online stores were pre-selling the case, and I saw one major computer company offering them in the most popular computer magazines. This alone piqued my interest. By now, the case should be widely available. When I visited the NZXT site and saw that they had a forum devoted to this case and computer enthusiasts, I started to become very interested in the Guardian. I'll summarize up front; the Guardian case was engineered with a certain segment of the computer community in mind, and they did a good job meeting the expectations of that segment. Going beyond first impressions, this is a well designed rig with only a few shortcomings.

Package

When the shipping box arrived in the usual banged up condition, I was struck with how large it was. When I viewed the system at the NZXT web site, it didn't seem to be that large. The styrofoam packaging was sufficient to protect the outside from the FEDEX delivery folks, even with the severe blow it took on the window side. The styrofoam on that side broke off due to compression and is squished to less than half the size it should be. The only damage I could find was on the inside of the window but it is in a location that cannot be seen unless the door is off.

The window was protected with an adhesive film which didn't leave any residue on the window when removed. Inside the case there were the usual bag-o-screws, a slot cover for the AGP slot, power cord (no power supply on this review unit, though), and a user manual. The manual is short, but well written and would assist n00bs on how to install a motherboard in the case. It also helps the rest of us to figure out how to mount the drives using a new locking mechanism design that I'd never used before.

Case Exterior

We'll start our tour around the outside of the Guardian case with it's most unusual feature, the front, or "face" as I call it. The influence of Anime upon the designers is obviously apparent in the helmeted figure emblazoned upon the front. The face on the front has a few tricks up his sleeve other than just looking bright and shiny, the eye hole is actually a series of LED's that are programmed to flash á la Knight Rider's KITT. Unfortunately, the vents in the lower part of the mask do not go all the way through to the inside, the only air that could get drawn in from the front would be beneath and behind the front cover. Towards the top there is a shiny object that serves no other purpose than to hold red LED's to brighten up your life and make you smile when your hard drive is accessed.

At the bottom front of the case are two sliding doors that hide the microphone and speaker out connector's on one side, and two USB ports on the other. Unlike many other cases I've reviewed, all the necessary cables to activate all the front ports were included and actually installed.

A slight tug on the top door panel reveals 5 external 5.25 inch bays, two external 3.5 inch bays, the power switch, and the reset switch. Plenty of room for all your optical drives or other devices. Unfortunately, if you have a 3.5 inch baybus or rheobus, you will be out of luck. If you have a 5.25 inch baybus or rheobus, the only bay that you will be able to put it into is the very top one. All the electronics for the front LED's are contained in the front door, and the cover for them on the back of the door is almost flush against the front of all the bays except the very top one when closed.

Since the cover had screws on it, I naturally took it off to see what made the LED's work. I didn't remove the PCB with the LED's attached to it because it looked like it would be a major pain in the ass to get them back into the holes correctly. One thing I did find interesting though, their is a 7 pin connector at the top of the PCB. NZXT had hinted that they would be releasing software and instructions in the future that would allow a person to reprogram the LED flash pattern. Looks like they planned that into the build.

It took quite a bit of force, but I finally managed to yank the front panel completely off so I could look behind it. Even though there is a spot for an 80mm fan on the front of the chassis, there are no airways on the front of the case to allow for cooling. The only airflow would be from the handhold notched in at the bottom that is used to yank the front off. The bay covers are the normal tabbed type that easily pop out, and the wiring to the ports, power, and reset switches looks like they are very firmly attached. A warning, there is no way you will be able to yank the front cover off if you have the power and reset switches attached to your mobo. You'll see in a later pic that there is barely enough wire when the front is on for them to reach the mobo. We'll revisit the unique front of this case once I get some juice in it.

Before we get into the various specifics of the case, I would like to comment on the paint. The case I received was the black one (several other colors are available) and the paint is well done. It isn't the automotive grade like the Vexx case I reviewed, but a little wet sanding with a fine grit paper followed by some Mother's wax would make this case glow. I had a hard time with some of my pictures during the review because the flash back from the paint screwed up the photo. That isn't a bad thing. The right side door is also fairly glossy and is vented.

The window is an original design, but I am not real clear on what it is supposed to depict, if anything. Doesn't matter though, it's still pretty cool. The edges of the cut are completely clean which means they are either laser cut or punched out. Again, I am not sure what the grill design is, but again it looks cool and the steel is very reflective. Unfortunately, there is about a 65/35 ratio of open grill area vs covered grill area which will negatively affect airflow. The grill is mounted on the outside of the case, and some modder's mesh was used on the inside to protect your dainty digits.

The window is a single sheet of acrylic that is held in place with plastic rivets. The acrylic is nicely cut with smooth edges, and the mounting on the door is top notch. I've seen other manufacturer's who used plastic rivets, but theirs were not all placed uniformly or pressed completely through. NZXT managed to use plastic rivets while maintaining uniformity and each one is pushed fully through so that there are no gaps visible from the outside. The fan that NZXT uses on the door is a xfcooler clear tri-LED 80mm fan, but I couldn't find the specs on it at their website. I'm guessing it's around 25 CFM. If you look at the larger pic of the inside window, you can see the crack that occurred during shipping.

On the back there is the standard back plate, 6 PCI and 1 AGP slot. There is also room for 2 80mm fans. You can see the blue things next to the PCI slots, I'll hit on those in a minute.