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Originally published at Internet.comWhat's old is new again: As new designs for home-theater PC cases take on the shape of stereo receivers, they also hearken back to the classic AT desktop layout - but this time, with more style! 
That's a trend also sure to please true home theater aficionados, who can appreciate the similarities of cases like these - the new NZXT Duet ATX Desktop chassis - to the shape and size of high-end rack components.
SysOpt has reviewed many home-theater case designs of various heights and widths, all more or less following the same stackable format. So what makes the Duet different? Careful consideration of its features will put a value perspective on its price, so let's dig in. NZXT Duet PC Case Specifications Chassis Type ATX Desktop Motherboards ATX, microATX, flexATX Dimensions (h*w*d) 5.8" x 14.5"x 17.9" Front Panel Audio Microphone
headphone Material Steel body
Aluminum face Front Panel Data 2x USB 2.0
1x FireWire (IEEE1394) External Bays 2x 5.25"1x 3.5" Intake Fans 1x80mm bottom
2x120mm side Internal Bays 3x 3.5" Exhaust Fans 2x80mm rear Card Slots 7 Options Power supply
Layout and Features
Real aluminum always impresses us better than aluminum paint or plating, so we were pleased to find the silvery face panels made from actual extrusions. A small door on the left reveals two USB ports, headphone/microphone jacks, and a single IEEE-1394 FireWire port. 
A large door on the right reveals two 5.25" and one 3.5" external bay, plus the reset button. Hiding the reset button behind a door helps prevent accidental resets that could corrupt an operating system, but something about this case seems familiarÂ…
Out back we find two 80mm cooling fans and a chassis height barely adequate to hold larger cards, providing the lowest possible profile for conventional full-height card mounting. The real surprise is how NZXT was able to fit a full-sized ATX motherboard into a small 14.5-inch width: By relocating the full-sized power supply internally! 
The case included only one screw-in slot cover, the remaining slots covered with breakouts. This could leave people who reconfigure their systems frequently seeking out slot covers on their own.
Looking down from an open top shows how everything fits together, with an open full-sized motherboard across the back, drive cages on the case's right-hand side and a power supply bay on its left-hand side. 
Layout and Features, Continued
Flipping the case over reveals an 80mm intake fan mount on the bottom, and this mount is ducted to the power supply from the front. Most power supplies should have enough airflow without adding a fan here, so none is included. 
Also seen from the bottom is the 3.5" external drive cage, with extra holes for optionally mounting a hard drive it its place.
In case you cared to see the exhaust fans from a different angle, here's the shot. 
Looking from back to front, we can see the offset between the drive cage/power supply mounts and the motherboard. There's plenty of room for stuffing cables here. 
A small flap on the left-hand side of the face panel can be pushed in to create a handle for easier face panel removal. This would be necessary to install 5.25" form factor drives and power supply mounting screws. 
Before we go ripping off the face panel, let's take a look at the hardware that allows us to put it all back together. The case includes a manual which you probably won't need, two sets of 5.25" drive rails, four self-adhesive feet, a mini buzzer (in place of a case speaker for motherboards that don't include an on-board buzzer), screws, and standoffs. 
Notice that NZXT included only seven standoffs, while our motherboard uses nine. We found two more of our own to address this oversight.
System Assembly
Using included rails, 5.25" drives such as this DVD burner slide in with relative ease, while the hard drive uses screws on the top and bottom. The power supply drops in from the top with its screws affixed from the front. This is important to note: If your power supply has a switch, be sure to turn it on before re-attaching the front panel! 
From the back, we can see that crowding only occurs between the graphics card and a full-sized (PS/2 form factor ATX) power supply. Increased graphics card space could be achieved by using a shorter "PS/3" form factor power supply, but if you're using cards that need extra space, they'll probably consume more power than a short supply can provide. 
We had installed the Asus EAX1950 Pro as the longest card to fit with a full-sized power supply installed, only to find that its heatpipe prevented closing the lid! Other X1950 Pro cards may or may not fit, depending on how far the cooler stands above the top edge. 
Shorter in both height and depth, the Foxconn 7900GS proved a better match for tight quarters. 
While we're looking at the side vents, it's a good time to note what all the round holes are for: The narrowly spaced holes are for optional use as hard drive mounts, the widely spaced holes are for 120mm cooling fans, and the holes between them are for 80mm fans. All of them are designed for tapered-seat screws, but none were included.
Test Results
We used the following system configuration to assess cooling and noise control for the NZXT Duet chassis: Testing System Configuration Motherboards Foxconn 975X7AB-8EKRS2H Video card Foxconn 7900GS 256MB RAM Crucial Ballistix PC2-8000 2x1GB CPU Intel Core 2 Duo E6300, 1.86GHz Hard Drive Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 SATA 3.0Gb Optical Torisan CD-ROM Floppy NEC ND-3500A PSU Antec EarthWatts 500W OS Windows XP Service Pack 2 Drivers Intel INF 8.0.1.1010 Chipset
nVidia Forceware 93.71 Graphics
Running 3DMark2001SE in looping mode for approximately two hours assured this system was as hot as it would ever get under similar ambient conditions. Open and closed configurations are compared, with open representing the best possible conditions. 
Our CPU got somewhat toasty but not enough to cause any instability even under continuous heavy load. Still, these results are with the exhaust fans running, which caused us to lose any desire to run the system with the exhaust fans off.
Not that anyone would have a real reason to disconnect the exhaust fans, since these are extremely quiet parts. Estimated below 21dB, these could not be heard over the noises of other fans - not even from only a few inches away.
Noise isolation was very good for high-pitched noises, such as that from our CPU cooler running at full speed. The case also managed to reduce our DVD drive noise while reading CDDs at full speed, by muffling the upper-frequency range.
Conclusion
The NZXT Duet works well at reducing noise and looks good enough to stack with mid-sized home audio rack components. Its width - narrower than a "full-sized" stackable component - is the only aesthetic reservation we have, at 14.5 inches compared to a typical audio rack component width of 16.8 to 17.5 inches.
Now would be a good time to reveal more on the deja-vu hinted at earlier: I've personally owned several AT cases of a similar design. I liked the form factor so much that I actually kept two circa-1992 cases around with plans to modify one with aluminum face panels and Micro ATX support. Those earlier models had their floppy drives mounted where the NZXT Duet hard drive is today, and the Duet's 3.5" external bay was taken up by empty space in its predecessors.
NZXT's designers obviously went several steps beyond my lowly plans, and working so many improvements into a design I already valued might have earned the company special honors - except that it's still constructed like the earlier cases.
By this, I mean that the biggest problem with the Duet is the light-gauge steel used. Strong enough to support the weight of a few stackable components on top, it still feels much weaker than a higher-end case should. The original chassis on which the Duet is based was originally designed for economy systems, and adding new features and rugged aluminum face panels feels just a little pretentious.
None of this matters if you can find the case for around $60, but the only available online sources show it selling for around $80. Great design details would make it an exceptional value-priced case, if only it actually were value-priced.
Pros: * Space conserving design for full-sized motherboards and power supplies * Excellent fit and finish quality * Most edges rolled or folded to reduce cutting hazards * Quality aluminum face panels with "hydraulic action" door mechanism * Handy push-action front panel port cover * Ultra-quiet exhaust fans
Cons: * Thin, weak-feeling steel panels * Inadequate number of included motherboard standoffs * Knock-out slot covers without screw-in replacements * Clearance issues between large graphics cards and power supplies.
The Verdict: The NZXT Duet would be a good start for a low-cost Home Theater PC if only the cost were lower. SysOpt Product Info
Product:
Duet ATX Desktop Case
Category:
PC Chassis
Avg. Price:
$80
Manufacturer:
NZXT
6F, No.1, Sec 1, Chung Shan Rd.
Panchiao City, Taipei, Taiwan 220
886-2-89535000 x201
Availability:
Now
Ratings: (Best of four stars)
Features: 
Performance: 
Value: 
Best for:
Home Theater PC
Author: Thomas Soderstrom
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