Despite my tendancy to prefer a more conservative style of case I found the aesthetics of the NZXT Guardian 921 to my liking. Much like the Apollo that I reviewed a few years ago, NZXT has toned down the design of the Guardian 921 compared to other cases in the Crafted series such as the original Guardian or the Nemesis. They've kept the exterior to a single color and although there are some odd-shaped angles and curves on the front panel the overall result is, in my opinion, a good balance of unique design without being overly gaudy.

Functionally the Guardian 921 has a lot to offer as well. It uses a completely tool-less array of clips and locks to mount all of the drives and expansion cards; the only screws you'll need to put in are those for the motherboard and power supply. The case comes with three fans already included, whereas many other manufacturer's mid-towers leave out one or two to cut costs, and the end user has to buy extra to fill the empty spots. The inclusion of the temperature display is a nice add-on as are the openings for water tubing if you use an externally-mounted radiator. There is no fan controller built-in however the included fans are low speed and very quiet.

If I had to quibble about something I would mention that the panel design for the LCD display is way larger than it needs to be, and the location for the side panel fan puts it at risk of interfering with large CPU coolers. The front panel door extends all the way to the bottom where it drags on the carpet and there's some issues with the cable routing blocking the 3½" drive bays. But I didn't find that these minor inconveniences were enough to diminish my opinion of the Guardian 921. Someone who wants to use a 120mm tower cooler may disagree.

I found the Guardian 921 online for right around $100 which puts it squarely in the middle of NZXT's lineup price-wise. Although sharing similar specs to some of their other mid-tower cases like the Alpha and Apollo, it must be the inclusion of the LCD display that bumps the price up into the range of the Lexa and Hush. That's still not a large amount to pay for a quality case, and is probably about average compared to other manufacturer's mid-tower offerings.

The NZXT Guardian 921 earns the OCIA.net Seal of Approval.