Installing your components into the Tempest is a fairly straightforward affair, with some components having tool-less installations, and some still requiring screws. The three bays for optical drives use an interesting clip method to secure the drives in place that I haven't seen before, and even after installation I wasn't completely sure that it was locked, but the drives appeared secure. One benefit to using plastic clips is that less vibrations are transmitted from the drives to the case, thus resulting in less noise. Hard drives use a more conventional plastic rail system that again helps with the noise, and makes installation a breeze.

There are routing holes near the edge of the motherboard tray for cable routing, but the space left behind the tray is minimal. You likely won't be able to run your 24-pin power supply cable behind the tray, but smaller cables like SATA and audio work. It's also worth noting that like several other popular gaming cases, the Tempest places the power supply at the bottom of the case, ensuring that any unused connectors rest out of sight, rather than dangling in the middle.

So once everything is installed, how does the Tempest perform? Firing up the computer for the first time makes one thing immediately apparent: this case isn't silent. The noise is of course a side effect of the emphasis on airflow, but if you're looking for a quiet computing experience it's worth keeping in mind. Thankfully the noise isn't unbearable, and it's worth the performance gains that come with it. Anyone that's really bothered by it could easily swap out the fans with offerings from Nexus or Yate-Loon, and maybe even toss in a fan controller. I have no doubt that making these simple changes would turn the Tempest into a solid choice for quiet computing enthusiasts as well.

The Tempest does a great job of keeping all of the components in the system cool, and I could even see using passive coolers because the airflow is so good. Extremely efficient heatsinks like the Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme on the CPU and HR-03 on the GPU would be perfectly comfortable in the Tempest without fans attached to them, providing another opportunity to cut down on noise levels.

The addition of routing holes at the back of the case for water cooling is an interesting addition, considering the cases great thermal characteristics for air cooling. Using the "Airflow King" at its maximum potential becomes less necessary if paired with an external water setup, but it's good to see NZXT thinking about every type of customer.

Fans of internal water setups will no doubt be overjoyed by the mounting holes for a dual-120MM radiator at the top of the case. Finding a suitable case to fit an internal radiator of that size, and in a location that offers good cooling is no easy task, so kudos to NZXT for offering a great solution. I can recall having to do some serious modification on an old Antec 1040B-II just to get a dual 120MM radiator in there, but now water cooling enthusiasts have a solution that will work out of the box.

With an MSRP of $99, NZXT's Tempest is a very compelling option for gamers, especially when stacked against other premium cases that tend to run between $100 and $200, or even more. The Tempest doesn't do anything radically different, but it really doesn't need to. It's easy to work, offers good build quality, and will keep your system cool in every sense of the word. By incorporating enough enthusiast features into a slick form factor, and at an affordable price, the Tempest immediately becomes one of our recommended cases. For those reasons, we're also awarding it our Critical Hit! award. Let's hope that NZXT has some more pleasant surprises for gamers in the near future, because the Tempest is one heck of a case - "Airflow King" indeed.