Mind of a Community

Community.  One word.

When NZXT brought me on in March of 2012, there was one goal in mind.  Reach out to the community, be part of the community.  I think that’s the biggest difference between NZXT and a lot of companies out there today.

In truth, I wouldn’t want to work for a company that didn’t listen to the community, and I’m thankful every day that I have the opportunity to be part of something that’s bigger than just a company.  NZXT wants to build a culture.  Not one of brand loyalty and profits and cult followings, but of a mentality of progress, change, and openness to everyone within the community.  To ideas big, small, or radical in their premise.

NZXT wants to be different, and not for the sake of being different.   It’s with this mindset that we move forward, we challenge ourselves to be better, make better products, design differently, and that goes for our community as well.

We need not look back more than a couple of years to the original Phantom.  A bold, asymmetric design that was different than anything else the company (or, any other company) had put out before.  The community had spoken, and NZXT listened.  The Phantom stands as one of the most modded cases out there today, and without the community, NZXT wouldn’t be the company it is today.

To the community of enthusiasts, modders, watercoolers, and gamers:  ”Thank you.”  You make us who we are.

-Jason “XNine” Worner
NZXT. Community Support

Lovin’ my new Alienware

This week I made a purchase I never expected to ever make. I bought an Alienware…

As a kid I had pined for an Alienware, then it was for Voodoo, and by the time I had enough income to support that kind of purchase, it no longer made any sense. Alienware’s business is completely built on image and marketing and it has worked very well for them, but in the end, the customer is only paying the premium for that and to different people that can have a very polarizing effect. Most notably to the people who would consume our products, I am fairly confident that the majority of you reading this were ready to hear a sob story about how I wasted my money…

I absolutely love my new Alienware. Granted, there are two caveats. The first is that it was a notebook, not a desktop and my other alternatives were generics. The second was that it was heavily discounted.

I was previously using a Compal JHL90 with a Core 2 Duo and 9600M GT video card. It had been a trooper, but my many accidents and time took quite the toll on it. The Bluetooth, webcam, female power connector, power brick, hard drive, optical drive, battery and speakers have all broken at some point with most remaining unfixed. Next Monday I will be traveling to Taiwan for CES for two weeks and was not confident it would be able to sustain my usage any more so I set out for deals. Mother’s Day weekend arrived with just what I was looking for. I picked up the Alienware M14X R2 with a 3610QM, 6gb DDR3, GT 650M 1gb, 500gb 7200RPM drive, and an upgraded screen for $650 out the door. Arguably this was the best deal I have ever gotten on a new computer.

I really wasn’t expecting to be impressed by anything other than the specs of the components, but once it was in my hands, my perception began to change. The exterior was covered an a fairly scratch resistant rubber coating, Windows included no bloatware, the power saving options were immense, the LEDs were really fun and neat especially when I loaded up Battlefield 3 and they synced with my health without any configuration, speakers sounded fantastic, the BIOs allowed plenty of options and overclocking control and was preconfigured for RAID which made adding my MSATA cache drive a breeze, and the CPU and GPU had discreet cooling systems which kept the laptop at comfortable temps while gaming. A lot of what makes the M14X different from its competitors are aesthetic features, but it is no slouch and does a great job of not sacrificing performance for beauty.

Admittedly, I would not have bought this laptop without such a deep discount and many of the features it provides are available on other laptops, however my experience has been fantastic thus far. It may have superfluous features but in no way does that make it a lesser product and after my time with it I can’t even say that I would be unhappy with the laptop had I paid $1,000 for it. Will my next desktop be an Alienware? LOL, no. I still dislike that I can’t compile my own laptop out of individual parts, and there is no getting around the fact that Alienware is charging for things no one needs in a computer which in return just makes it harder to justify the purchase. The end of the day Alienware is still doing things no one else is doing, they aren’t revolutionary, but they are still unique and I like my laptop.

-Rob Teller
Product Development

A Reason to Build Again

Diablo III’s release is just around the corner. It seems as though we’ve been waiting a lifetime for this blockbuster title to emerge. Now we can all rejoice as it will be here in less than 2 weeks. BUT – I’m more looking forward to Guild Wars 2’s release. I had a chance to participate in beta last weekend. It was a great experience as 8 hours flashed by in the blink of an eye.

What really caught my eye was how fluid the combat system was as I slay my foes in close combat. Nothing is more epic than running around as an Elementalist, kiting mobs and casting spells without having to worry about breaking spell interruptions due to movement. This already 1UPs World of Warcraft Vanilla days (the only time when WoW was the best game I’ve ever played). With that in mind, GW2 gives me a solid reason to build again. It’s been 4 years since I last upgraded my PC. The long haul has made me feel less inclined to want to experience any awesome games on my rig because it has become dated in terms of performance. But now I can finally breathe life back into my PC by gathering together high-end components for my next build (YES, I’m going all out because really that’s the only way to build). I’m also stoked for The Elder Scrolls Online. It’s going to be a memorable experience to spam FUS RO DAH on party members! Can’t wait to try out D3 on not one, or two, but THREE GTX 680 GPU’s ;)

It’s GO TIME!

Irene P.
Marketing Department

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Gearsmas

I hope everyone got what they wanted for Christmas this year – because I certainly did :) I never received so many Gears of War gifts before but I totally love each and everyone of them. After all, the top of my Christmas tree is the COG flag (not a bright shining star like typical trees). Besides that, I’m also relieved that I reached level cap and earned my wings the same week ^^ Now it’s time for me to hit lvl 50 in Skyrim on my High Elf destro mage. I’m 46 atm, but will be 50 by the weekend at latest. Here is a glimpse of the awesome gifts I received that were gaming related. Check it out! And Happy New Year guys. Anyone fancy a Gearsmas ;) [didn't even mention how big of a Mass Effect fan I am - but Paragon Commander Shepard is the ONLY way to go :)]

Gears of War Set-Up built for a true Veteran:

The scarf is Mass Effect themed btw – can you guys tell?

Simply put – there is something very satisfying about charging opponents with your retro lancer bayonet and popping heads off with a gnasher that makes this game seriously addicting. I can’t wait to unlock the Seriously 3.0 achievement!

‘It’s go time, baby!’

- Irene Phung

Dance Central 2, My Guilty Pleasure

Two weeks ago, I was at Frys Electronics and saw a herd of people surrounding a 50 year old lady dancing in front of a LCD TV. She was performing the  ”Rude Boy” on Dance Central 2 and she was pro. After I went home, I bought the Xbox 360 and the DC2. I have to admit the Dance Central 2 is probably the most interactive and calorie burning dance game I have ever played. This game is so damn fun – only if you get over the embarrassment of how goofy you look trying to imitate the moves on the screen. My best advice is to not play around friends who will record you :)

But anyways, as I was saying, I’m really blown away by how great Dance Central mastered the use of Kinect’s motion sensors. In fact, 80% of the reason I purchased the Xbox 360 was so that I could play this game.  This will keep me entertained until Diablo III comes out. Perhaps this video review might convince you to hold a dance battle in your own living room with your friends!

-Shin F.

Vote for the Phantom for the Hardware.Info Awards 2011!

Do you love the Phantom? Support us for the Hardware.info Awards 2011!

Here’s how you can support us:

Firstly, you will need to register at Hardware.Info here. We realized most of you probably don’t read Dutch so just hit Google translate and it should convert it all into English!

The registration form should look like this:

A confirmation notice should pop up saying this:

This will let you know that you have finished registration and will be getting an email to activate your account. Sign into your email and activate your account and you should be good to go! Start the survery here.

Now you can begin the survey! Vote for your favorite products and be sure to support us in the Best Housing 2011

If you do support us for the survey, we would love to know! We truly appreciate our fans and wouldn’t be here without you.

-Kitty M.