NZXT Nemesis and Nemesis Elite

Final Words

We'll break it down for you all and let you judge for yourselves. To begin, we enjoyed the Nemesis steel model because it isn't just another steel case with a nice paint job. It has great tool-less features such as built-in drive locking mechanisms as well as rotating locking clips for the expansion slots. It also has a solid construction with no sharp edges, which is a plus in steel cases. We would, however, have loved to see more room for expansion, especially more HDD bays instead of the extra 5-1/4" bay that we may never even use.

The Elite edition also has tool-less features such as drive rails for its entire drive bay array as well as the new securing mechanism for the expansion slots. The Elite model also has the fold-up LCD display that shows information about the temperature of specific components as well as fan speeds, date and time, and HDD activity.

The performance of each model was also exceptional. The ambient air temperature inside the Nemesis stayed between 30-31 degrees while the ambient temperatures inside the Elite model hovered just a few degrees cooler around 28-29.

The number of fans had very little effect on sound as we thought that they would. The steel model produced about 49dBA on average while the Elite model produced only 54dBA with three running 120mm fans. This level of sound is almost 10dBA less than that of Chenbro's Gaming Bomb 2 (two 120mm) and Aspire's X-Navigator (three 80mm, one 120mm).

Many will criticize the Nemesis models because of their themed bezel. Many have mentioned that all they want is a simple-looking case that will do the job, but there are those out there who want factory-modified, themed chassis to wow their friends or even for their own amusement. We all have different tastes in aesthetics as we have learned from reading all of your comments and we must agree with many of you.

The selling price for the steel model of the Nemesis is about $80 at various online retailers, which is a bit steep since we can get the Lanboy from Antec for under that, about $75. If we can get an aluminum case for as low a price as the Lanboy, then why spend $120 on something similar? We may surprise many of you with our final decision. For those who enjoy these custom-modded cases from the factory, or do not care about the visual design of the case and just want great performance, then the Nemesis is for you. But we feel that the price is much too high right now to invest in certain looks instead of the overall quality of a product. If the Nemesis was designed to be more visually appealing to a wider market, then we would definitely give it our pick.