NZXT Product Manager and Co-Founder Johnny Hou this morning sent out a letter that wasn't quite as seething as the one Cleveland Cavaliers majority owner posted online after LeBron James skipped town, but almost as defiant. With the subject line "NZXT Still Kicking Ass and Thriving," Hou wrote:

To our friends and loyal customers in the PC enthusiast community,

Yesterday at 7:30 PM PST the NZXT website was infiltrated illegally. While having access to the site, hackers made several malicious changes including sending out an erroneous newsletter to our database claiming that NZXT is going out of business. They also changed product warranties, deleted product and home page banners, etc.

Well, I’m happy to report that NZXT is NOT going out of business and to the contrary we are more excited than ever to be a part of this tremendous industry. We are poised to launch several highly anticipated products over the next two months including the Phantom full tower case we unveiled at Computex. We feel this will provide enthusiasts with one of the most fresh and unique case designs in quite some time.

I’d like to take this opportunity to offer my sincere gratitude to the community for your ongoing support of NZXT. We design our products based on what you need to build a stellar PC and welcome your feedback as to how we can help your computing experience be as enjoyable as possible. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions.

Best regards,
Johnny Hou

The source of the attack is unknown, and so is the intent, which may have simply been to stir up a bit of trouble or to pick a bone with NZXT. Either way, NZXT fans who may have read gloom and doom scenarios prior to today can breathe a sigh of a relief.

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Power users rarely consider a micro ATX case because of the space constraints for high end hardware, but with the introduction of NZXT's Vulcan chassis, perhaps it's time to rethink that philosophy. This thing was built with the LAN gamer in mind, and as such, it comes ready to house not only one, but two full-sized ATI Radeon HD 5970 videocards.

"Most Micro ATX cases currently on the market make a lot of sacrifices to save space" said Johnny Hou, Chief Designer at NZXT. "With Vulcan, we’re making a huge statement by empowering gamers with a portable solution that is 40% more compact than ATX full towers that still offers superior cooling and space for larger heatsinks and the most demanding graphics cards like the Radeon 5970 in CrossFire."

The Vulcan retains NZXT's flair for gaming oriented designs and shares similar traits with full-sized ATX enclosures. Features include an all-black interior, two 5.25-inch and four 3.5-inch slots, non-slip finish, dual 8W fan control, watercooling cutouts, two top mounted 120mm fans with support for a 200mm side fan, routing holes for easier cable management, removable hard drive cage, and thumbscrews for all drives.

NZXT tells us the Vulcan will be available by the end of the month for $70.

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Sartre said that hell is other people. We don’t know about that, but we know what Hades is—a steel mid-tower chassis that’s full of surprises, nearly all of them pleasant.

At 7.9 inches wide by 16.9 inches high by 19.7 inches deep, the Hades is skinnier than the Zalman Z7 Plus, though otherwise similar in size. It’s all black, inside and out, and the motherboard tray includes a CPU backplate cutout as well as rubber-rimmed cable-routing cutouts. The front and side fans are 20cm monsters, and the top of the chassis has mounting holes for two 14cm or 12cm fans, as well as for a dual-fan radiator, if your tastes swing to water-cooling.

The Hades’ nine 5.25-inch drive bays include five toolless optical-drive retention mechanisms, and in lieu of dedicated hard drive cages, the Hades comes with four sets of mounting brackets, so you can install one 3.5-inch hard drive per optical drive bay. The floppy drive bay at the bottom of the case also includes an adapter that can hold two 2.5-inch SSDs (or notebook hard drives, if you prefer). Because of the Hades’ flexibility with regards to hard drive installation, it can handle foot-long videocards like the ATI Radeon HD 5970.

Continue reading this review after the jump.

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NZXT has been on a roll churning out affordable cases that, at least on paper, appear to belie their low price tag with features typically reserved for more expensive enclosures. The same can be said for NZXT's newest chassis, the Tempest EVO.

Constructed of all black steel, the EVO edition expands on the original Tempest's design with better cooling potential and more attention to cable management schemes. Cooling duties are provided by four 120mm fans (dual intake, one side, and one rear). NZXT said it even redesigned the fan blades to push more air at lower noise levels.

The mid tower Tempest EVO targets enthusiasts looking for server-level performance. The E-ATX form factor is now supported, and there are slots for up to 8 hard drives.

"The original Tempest is one of our most successful designs due to its optimal airflow capabilities," said Johnny Hou, Chief Designer at NZXT. "With the additional improvements the Tempest EVO brings to the equation, it's destined to be a top performer in its class."

The Tempest EVO is available now for with an MSRP set to $100.

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