A Closer Look - Outside

The Rogue has very clean edges, which real corners within the design of the case. This makes the design very elaborate than other cube cases. After you have gotten over the straight lines and interesting door, you will realize that the case is actually not small at all. It may be not as tall as a mid tower or even mATX tower, but it is certainly very wide. The thick Aluminum makes the case extrodinarily heavy, which is quite surprising, due to the intended use of the Rogue as a LAN party case. Mid towers based purely on the light alloy will weigh less than the Rogue by a large margin. The door opens in one direction to reveal a very simple front. Completely straight, no fan holes or air vents. This really contrasts the general look and feel of the case, and you may find yourself wanting to keep the door closed all the time. Even though the door has airvents, the front does not, so these cuts only serve an aesthetic purpose.

Due to the width of the Rogue, the door is also very wide. You may bumb into your neighbour at a LAN party every time you open the door. While it does make the case look incredible, it may have been more productive to put the effort into well designed front with no cover, much like the Thermaltake Lanbox.


The rear of the case holds another surprise. Even though the material is listed as being Aluminum, the rear plate and the mainboard tray, along with the bottom of the case, seem to be made of steel. On top of that the steel is black. Either NZXT never planned to offer a silver variant at first, or is trying to cut costs, by using the same black parts for the silver Rogue. Nonetheless, some may like the contrast of the colors, while others may be dissapointed by this fact. The sides are identical, with the only difference being the two dust filters for the 120 mm fans on the intake side of the case. This difference can be seen in the above pictures as the fans are not spinning and the case is empty.


Taking a closer look at the front, there are two 5.25 inch drive bays and a seperate 3.5 inch bay. This should be sufficient for a gaming case. The I/O connections - two USB 2.0, audio and a eSATA connector - are lined up on the left edge of the front. These can be accessed even when then door is closed. The power and reset button on the other hand, are hidden behind the wide door. Another downside is the similar feel of each of the buttons and no label, so you may be hard pressed to find the right one simply by feeling for it in the dark.


NZXT also added a lock, which is a great feature for a LAN Party case. This way no one can come along and take your game CD out of the drive or reboot/restart your PC for the fun of it. The downside of this is a large square hole in the front of the case. The hook on the door, which goes into that large hole is around 1 mm wide. NZXT could have reduced this hole to a mere 2 or 3 mm wide, vertical opening. There is simply no reason for a large hole like this.


The rear on the other hand holds no surprises. The rear fan is clear with LEDs in the same color as the case lighting. The mainboard tray is removable and secured by four thumb screws. A bracket for the PSU not only gives you the option of placing the power supply with the fan facing up or down, but can also be exchanged with the afore mentioned adapter, which gives you about one further inch of space, for longer PSUs.