NZXT while being rather new on the scene have released many fantastically designed chassis. The Nemesis and Nemesis Elite were fine examples of good looking “gamer” cases, the Trinity an excellent “budget” case and finally the Lexa, which we reviewed earlier this year and found it to be an excellent “designer” case. NZXT just recently released a case which is meant to continue this success, the Apollo, a mid range gamer case. Despite its good price, the Apollo is designed to easily accommodate a powerful system, while being of high build quality with appealing aesthetics.

Features

• Steel chassis
• See-through smoked acrylic for 5.25" lcd devices
• Screwless design
• Standard dual 120mm silent fans
• Intel hd© and ac 97 audio support for 7.1 and 5.1 audio systems
• Support for 4 internal hard drives
• Magnetic closing door
• Usb 2.0 and firewire support

MODEL	APOLLO
CASE TYPE	70 x 85 x 23 mm
DIMENSIONS (W x H x D)	218X438X536 mm
COOLING SYSTEM	FRONT, 1 X 120 mm (Optional) REAR, 1 X 120 mm FAN SIDE PANEL, 1 X 120 mm BLUE LED FAN
DRIVE BAYS	10 DRIVE BAYS 5 EXTERNAL 5.25" DRIVE BAYS 1 EXTERNAL 3.5 " DRIVE BAYS 4 INTERNAL 3.5" DRIVE BAYS SCREWLESS RAIL DESIGN
MATERIAL(S)	SECC STEEL CHASSIS
EXPANSION SLOTS	7
POWER SUPPLY	400 WATT PS2 ATX 12V ( OPTIONAL )
WEIGHT	7.2 KGS (W/O Power)
MOTHERBOARD SUPPORT	MOTHERBOARDS: ATX, MICRO-ATX, BABY AT

Packaging

The NZXT Apollo comes in a cardboard box, which pictures an imaginary space city. The box will certainly draw attention if someone is browsing inside a store. The case is held in place with two thick pieces of Styrofoam and is rather lightweight, making it hard to damage inside such thick packaging.

The case

We received the silver version of the case, but it comes in other colours as well, such as black and red. The front section of the case is very elegantly designed and symmetric. Most of the face is silver, with the nickel plated air vents at the lower part of the case and the black middle part of the front door.

When we opened the bay door of the Apollo, we found out that the plastic faceplate parts beneath it are all painted with a highly reflective gloss paint, which while looking good is very easily marked with finger prints. The hinges of the door are made out of steel instead of plastic, a very reassuring feature to see. The door has no closing mechanism, it is magnetic. The black part of the front door is not solid, but a heavily tinted plastic window meant to allow LCD screens to be visible while the door is closed. Unfortunately the tinting is so heavy that the very light of the LCD is barely visible, making the screen unreadable.

The bottom front part of the case is mostly covered by the nickel plated air intake vents. There are two small tube lights vertically placed beside the air vents which light up when the system is powered on, creating a very attractive soft blue glowing effect. The power and reset buttons are placed between the two air vents, right at the middle of the case. The Apollo offers two front USB 2.0 ports, a firewire port and headphone/microphone ports at the right side of the case’s faceplate as well.

The left side panel of the case is entirely covered by a window. The window bolt points are not visible at all as they are covered by thin nickel plated metal pieces. There is an intake 120mm fan placed on the window as well. The clear blue LED fan is branded as an NZXT fan and is relatively quiet.