NZXT Crafted Series Vulcan Black Steel / Plastic Gaming mATX Computer Case

Pros: Subdued orange lighting was far better than I could have imagined, flexible options for air & water cooling, clever floor vent & PSU mounting option allowing you to have the PSU oriented normally or "flipped", comes with black thumbscrew-type connectors for PSU, HDD, Optical Drives, etc. It's nice to see that "handle cases" haven't completely gone away and the handle of this case seems sturdy enough.

Cons: Black/grey motherboard I/O shields don't exist (that I am aware of) and, therefore, this "all-black" build couldn't truly be all black (Not the case's fault) Also, if you have the PSU mounted fan down, you probably wouldn't want to have this case sitting on shag carpet. ;)

Overall Review: This case was the housing for a new gaming rig build for my oldest friend (38 years and counting). It wasn't planned when I ordered everything, but all of the internal components were dark in color, which turned out for the best. Because this case has a lot of grille/mesh on the panels, the guts are open to view and the interior is also completely black. Once I got everything in place, even red SATA cables looked out of place and I even custom-sleeved one of the fan cables to subdue it. When I was done, the only noticable item was the I/O shield, which was bright shiny chrome. Even with that, I don't think I've ever built a sweeter looking rig. I then had to say goodbye to this thing of beauty as soon as I got the everything tweaked and running smooth a few days later. I guess I shouldn't have been quite so efficient ;)

Pros: -High value
-Great ventilation
-Attractive design

Cons: -Flawed handle design may cost you big time
-Shoddy wiring internals
-No ATX support for a case this large

Overall Review: I built a $1200 rig two years ago for my friend using mid to upper end components, and he wanted something portable with good ventilation for both at home and LAN party use. This case was the winner after a few days of browsing, and we got right to it with the build.

I was worried about the TINY handle threading and screws for this case, and boy were my fears justified. After two years, and only transporting the case four or five times to and from our houses the handle snapped off from the tiny threading, and the entire rig smashed onto the floor. The front case cover snapped off along with two of the case feet and the side case door snapped off.

I'm in the process of trying to figure out which components still work on a bench rig, but wanted to contribute this review while the event was still fresh in my mind.

NZXT: Please refrain from a manufacturer's response unless you are willing to take financial responsibility for the components destroyed by your product's flawed and hazardous design. Save the canned CSR responses for someone else.