Looking at the construction materials, design, etc, I just don't understand how this needs to be selling at $170. Is the price set merely to differentiate from other products? Can't some researcher actually find out what it costs to manufacture such a case? THAT is what I'd like to read. Ditto for motherboards.
Speaking about the price tag ... Why not get a HAF X instead ? I mean there's a bunch of more interesting features, better cooling ... I think NZXT missed the point with this one.
And on the other hand .. you can get so much quieter with other cases/. meh.
Attempting to justify price tags on logical points such as material costs as well as labor costs is illogical. Any amount of overhead or other middle men taking a cut will raise the price. Beyond a middle man and direct from the manufacture still leaves an overly inflated price point. This is not just for this product unfortunately, I wouldn't assume there are many products or services that actually cost what it costs the company + small amounts of profit.
Though if you had questioned a company *any amount of questioning before breaking an arm off in court* the costs would be directly based on employee wages and materials with very modest markups. Guess the research and development costs need to be offset so a computer case set the company back $170 per unit....
This is a case designed for watercooling rigs. Massive room up top, and only a little bit of changing allows for a radiator in bottom.
The lack of fan control is not a major issue. Lots of motherboards have built in fan control and if all else fails buy a separate controller - not exactly expensive.
My problem with this is simply that it is overpriced and nothing original. Simply example. If case is 235mm wide, would it be better to instal the PSU at tight angles (Lian Li have tried this) rather than conventionally? Makes for neating wiring.
I wonder if NZXT will follow with a smaller case (Switch 610 maybe)
I do not know why they insist upon mounting the PSU on the bottom sucking off the ground, but like bottom mounted freezers on trendy fridges and flat keyboards; it is moronic.
Obviously just another cheap ploy to rip off Apple's Powermac and Mac Pro, who unlike these stupid asinine idiot me too PSU case makers; keep the PSU from sucking dirt off the ground and blowing up.
I believe the idea is to keep it away from the hotter areas (CPU/mem), since hot air rises anyway... Most cases have bottom filters and many users simply don't plant their cases on the floor.
I'm not saying I agree with that logic, on a gamer's case the bottom location is bound to be as warm as anywhere else due to the GPU(s), although GPU are under load less often than the CPU (unless the system's used strictly for gaming).
It does seem odd to me that bottom PSU placement is almost universally favored now considering its sometimes a wash as far as temps and it can complicate wiring, but maybe I'm just rationalizing.
Personally I really dig Silverstone's 90 degree designs, but I haven't gotten around to trying one of them first hand. They're not the most flexible, since they complicate cable management even more and they're not really efficient if you're not using high powered or back vented GPUs, but for a gaming case it seems like the ideal solution... Kind of what BTX should've been.
I think it's probably the psu makers that have told the case makers to do this. that way the psu's burn out from dust long before they would if they were mounted at the top of the case. That way the psu makers can sell a lot more psu's than they would otherwise.
seriously though, I agree 110%. I would never buy a case with a bottem mount psu, it is just not practical. Everytime I open my case I have to vacuum out a 1/4 inch of dust and fuzz off of the bottom of the case where it gets sucked in and settles. If a psu was on the bottom it would suck all that in which would not be good.
I generally find cable management to be (at best) a wash, when deciding based on PSU mounting. There are difficulties either way.
As for the bottom PSU mounting, if you purchase a case with a filtered PSU vent (almost all cases with bottom mounted PSUs feature some kind of filter) and clean it regularly (as you should any PC, to keep dust buildup to a minimum) then you should experience no adverse effects on PSU lifespan. And it's not like having it constantly sucking in hot air (when it's intake fan is inside the case at the top) is somehow better for it than taking some time every few weeks to dust off a filter.
I have it in my desk a few inches off the ground with filters everywhere that actually mounts it off the ground, but still despite diligently cleaning out the filter my Corsair HX1050 has dust in places no PSU should have ever. I am not a smoker, clean diligently and have filters over every intake in the computer, yet the machine gets soo fricken dirty so fast.
These up and out case designs are just really bad, I love the way this NZXT looks, but just know it will be just as bad as my Corsair Obsidian. I really think there is a 3 inch no fly zone where dust hovers and gets kicked up from movement and the major flaw with these trendy up and out cases; is they tap directly into it. Would make a great design for an actual Air Filter, but not for cases.
Maybe you need to vacuum/sweep your floor more often. And yes, I have a bottom mount psu case, filters and have my case under my desk on the floor in a computer stand that gives it an inch of clearance off the rug. I clean the filters regularly and vacuum out the case periodically.
that is always what people say when some new trend is found inadequate, never considering how much is too much.
But yes I do weekly(I am a female and am sensitive to dust) and no, my case does not get stuffed full of dirt. The problem is how much more I need to clean out the fricken thing because some idiot thought it was a good idea to give it the airflow of an upright Hoover.
FYI I had an older front back out based airflow case and the thing in the very same stop and despite heavier use, never collected dust at the same rate. Also my primary work machine is a Mac Pro, same story.
Is there a reason you don't just flip the PSU around so that it draws the intake air from inside the case? To me it seems like up or down don't really matter in most situations, for most people. In the few where it matters, it matters for people smart enough to know which way to go.
Funny, I've never heard of a bottom mounted PSU "blowing up". In fact, any time a PSU "blows up" it's because it inherently is flawed; not because of how it was mounted in a case.
Either turn the PSU upside down, take your case off the floor, or buy one of the dozens of top mounted PSU cases still widely available.
As massive as some PSUs have gotten I think mechanical constraints are part of it. You need solid support to hold it in place on the top now on the bottom you can just use the existing metal.
A case this huge could have it mounted sideways on the bottom though and avoid the carpet clogging and worst of the dust sucking problems in the process.
I have a bottom mounted PSU and really like that it cleans the interior of the case without cluttering a bunch of cables inside the case. Then again, I don't have a PSU with a bottom mounted fan - it's a rear mounted one instead.
BTW, Bottom mounted freezers make more sense than a top mounted ones for at least 2 reasons: 1. Cold air sinks - put the part of the device that's supposed to be colder on the bottom 2. I use the Fridge part quite a bit more than the freezer part - so put that part more at my level.
they do that so you have room at the top to install a 420mm radiator.
besides, there is a (easily removable) dust filter in front of the intake fan, if you mount the PSU with the fan facing downwards, which you dont have too.
My question is this: If the fan directed to the GPU was not contributing to better cooling, did you tried the old horizontal airflow? If it was better that you could have just said that the feature looks nice but it is ultimately useless. That's my only concern with this review. Otherwise it's as good as any of the other ones.
Id Rather Have A Bunch Of Quiet But High CFM Fans Running At Full-Tilt. In My Opinion Fan Controllers And Just Fan Speed Adjustment In General is Pointless, At-Least I Know My Fans Are Alwayse Pushing High Amounts Of Air And Keeping My Hardware Cool, Even My Graphics Card I Have Set To A Constant 80% Fan Speed (Highest It Will Allow For Some Reason)
And Noise, Eh, I Like To be Able To Hear My Fans As-Long As They Arent Too Loud And Especially Whiny That Way I Know They Are Indeed Working.
1. Yes bottom mounting the PSU hurts cooling of every other component in the case by interfering with airflow coming from front and potentially bottom mounted intakes. However, top mounting the PSU with the intake on the inside of the case is just as stupid, because then it's getting both dust AND hot air (unless you think the other dust filters on your case are somehow magically better than a psu dust filter, or that dust can't fly?), and disrupting a fluid current of air to the cpu.
That said, don't put your bottom mounted PSU-case on carpet, or on a dirt floor. Consider placement when choosing a case. Shouldn't have to tell you this.
It astounds me that so few case designers have realized the least stupid answer to the PSU-placement question is just to put a damn psu intake vent ON TOP OF THE CASE. Some have done this. Not enough.
2. Concerning our guest of the day, the Switch 810: Like every Anandtech case review, all it tells us is how their component setup performs in the case. If the In-Win Buc thermally matching the Silverstone FT-02 doesn't cause you to read the test results of every Anandtech case review with a giant vat of salt, I don't know what to tell ya.
3. Golly what a surprise: slanting the fan so that it directed incoming air away from the place on the GPU that actually would utilize that air...ugh, folks.
4. No surprise that an NZXT case is better in photos than it is in use. The same goes for Coolermaster and their chincey crap. NZXT is more disappointing because unlike Coolermaster their designs actually seem inspired, only to be sabotaged by weak engineering and cheap manufacturing.
What I dislike about case designers is how lazy they are. Stick a fancy front on and some tool-less drive cages and they think that is it.
Not sure case design has moved forward in 5-10 years.
I agree, pick a case where the PSU placing works for you. But is it about time case designers followed Lian Li and Silverstone lead and experimented with different PSU placements.
But my pet hate at moment is graphic cards and the placement of the power connectors - absolutely no thought as to how that would work for decent cable management.
here are a few thoughts for case designers:
1. Hard drives placement and cable management. How about having a drive cage where all drive plug into a daughterboard (bit like some of the hot swap boards) so only one power connector needed, and all SATA Data goes through same board and out at a convenient point for connection to main computer motherboard.
2. More room round back of motherboard (see Fractal Arc Midi) for cable management.
3. Dampening around optical drive bay.
4. All side panels to have rubberised strips where metal meets metal to stop any resonance
5. Improved front panel cable management -every case I have ever had seems to either have cables that are too long or too short
6. Makes cases wider (seeing this already) allows for larger fans.
7. NEVER EVER release a case without all intake fans having washable dust covers
8. Give up on stealth covers from optical drives - never works for long
After owning a CM sniper and Corsair 500R I would never buy another gaming case without one. Especially at the price range of this case where it's something I would expect.
Only quibble I have with the review is the use of a tower cooler instead of using a water-cooler. Mounting a water cooler at the top of the case with fans blowing out would lower the temps inside the case and improve GPU cooling. The reviewer commented one of the major benefits of the case is custom watercooling; why not check the temps and noise with that setup?
Maybe too many variables - Push-pull? or Push-only? What rad(s)? What blocks? As bit-tech (IIRC) pointed out, it's very difficult to have meaningful w/c results, as there are ridiculous variations in the hardware. In air-cooling, standardize on a well-performing (ie, tested on a bench) tower cooler and stock fan config, and away you go. You can cram a 360 in this case, but what if it will only take a 240? And on and on. Maybe if they did these rounds of testing, and one more using a H100 or so, replacing the rear fan mount with the stock rad/fan configuration from the H100...but that really only tells you how the H100 does. Which you already know, having seen the multitudes of reviews when it was released.
Lateral mount PSUs don't make sense to me (never having seen one) - what about the rocker switch and cable jack? Well, whatever - next couple I build will be low-powered enough to use PicoPSUs, so no worries about any of this silliness :)
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29 Comments
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Zstream - Wednesday, February 1, 2012 - link
That has better noise control?TerdFerguson - Wednesday, February 1, 2012 - link
Looking at the construction materials, design, etc, I just don't understand how this needs to be selling at $170. Is the price set merely to differentiate from other products? Can't some researcher actually find out what it costs to manufacture such a case? THAT is what I'd like to read. Ditto for motherboards.Morg. - Wednesday, February 1, 2012 - link
Speaking about the price tag ... Why not get a HAF X instead ? I mean there's a bunch of more interesting features, better cooling ... I think NZXT missed the point with this one.And on the other hand .. you can get so much quieter with other cases/. meh.
domezone - Saturday, February 4, 2012 - link
Attempting to justify price tags on logical points such as material costs as well as labor costs is illogical. Any amount of overhead or other middle men taking a cut will raise the price. Beyond a middle man and direct from the manufacture still leaves an overly inflated price point. This is not just for this product unfortunately, I wouldn't assume there are many products or services that actually cost what it costs the company + small amounts of profit.Though if you had questioned a company *any amount of questioning before breaking an arm off in court* the costs would be directly based on employee wages and materials with very modest markups. Guess the research and development costs need to be offset so a computer case set the company back $170 per unit....
no grammar hawks please I know I make errors
cjs150 - Wednesday, February 1, 2012 - link
This is a case designed for watercooling rigs. Massive room up top, and only a little bit of changing allows for a radiator in bottom.The lack of fan control is not a major issue. Lots of motherboards have built in fan control and if all else fails buy a separate controller - not exactly expensive.
My problem with this is simply that it is overpriced and nothing original. Simply example. If case is 235mm wide, would it be better to instal the PSU at tight angles (Lian Li have tried this) rather than conventionally? Makes for neating wiring.
I wonder if NZXT will follow with a smaller case (Switch 610 maybe)
danchen - Wednesday, February 1, 2012 - link
storm trooper !Iketh - Tuesday, February 7, 2012 - link
+1danacee - Wednesday, February 1, 2012 - link
I do not know why they insist upon mounting the PSU on the bottom sucking off the ground, but like bottom mounted freezers on trendy fridges and flat keyboards; it is moronic.Obviously just another cheap ploy to rip off Apple's Powermac and Mac Pro, who unlike these stupid asinine idiot me too PSU case makers; keep the PSU from sucking dirt off the ground and blowing up.
Impulses - Wednesday, February 1, 2012 - link
I believe the idea is to keep it away from the hotter areas (CPU/mem), since hot air rises anyway... Most cases have bottom filters and many users simply don't plant their cases on the floor.I'm not saying I agree with that logic, on a gamer's case the bottom location is bound to be as warm as anywhere else due to the GPU(s), although GPU are under load less often than the CPU (unless the system's used strictly for gaming).
It does seem odd to me that bottom PSU placement is almost universally favored now considering its sometimes a wash as far as temps and it can complicate wiring, but maybe I'm just rationalizing.
Impulses - Wednesday, February 1, 2012 - link
Personally I really dig Silverstone's 90 degree designs, but I haven't gotten around to trying one of them first hand. They're not the most flexible, since they complicate cable management even more and they're not really efficient if you're not using high powered or back vented GPUs, but for a gaming case it seems like the ideal solution... Kind of what BTX should've been.Margalus - Wednesday, February 1, 2012 - link
I think it's probably the psu makers that have told the case makers to do this. that way the psu's burn out from dust long before they would if they were mounted at the top of the case. That way the psu makers can sell a lot more psu's than they would otherwise.seriously though, I agree 110%. I would never buy a case with a bottem mount psu, it is just not practical. Everytime I open my case I have to vacuum out a 1/4 inch of dust and fuzz off of the bottom of the case where it gets sucked in and settles. If a psu was on the bottom it would suck all that in which would not be good.
themossie - Thursday, February 2, 2012 - link
On a bottom-mounted PSU, the PSU does not either intake or exhaust into the case. (see gallery - the fan points down, not up into the case.)Any dust that gets into the case will not get into the PSU. Just make sure there is reasonable clearance under the case, so you get decent airflow...
Alecthar - Wednesday, February 1, 2012 - link
I generally find cable management to be (at best) a wash, when deciding based on PSU mounting. There are difficulties either way.As for the bottom PSU mounting, if you purchase a case with a filtered PSU vent (almost all cases with bottom mounted PSUs feature some kind of filter) and clean it regularly (as you should any PC, to keep dust buildup to a minimum) then you should experience no adverse effects on PSU lifespan. And it's not like having it constantly sucking in hot air (when it's intake fan is inside the case at the top) is somehow better for it than taking some time every few weeks to dust off a filter.
danacee - Wednesday, February 1, 2012 - link
I have it in my desk a few inches off the ground with filters everywhere that actually mounts it off the ground, but still despite diligently cleaning out the filter my Corsair HX1050 has dust in places no PSU should have ever. I am not a smoker, clean diligently and have filters over every intake in the computer, yet the machine gets soo fricken dirty so fast.These up and out case designs are just really bad, I love the way this NZXT looks, but just know it will be just as bad as my Corsair Obsidian. I really think there is a 3 inch no fly zone where dust hovers and gets kicked up from movement and the major flaw with these trendy up and out cases; is they tap directly into it. Would make a great design for an actual Air Filter, but not for cases.
bigboxes - Wednesday, February 1, 2012 - link
Maybe you need to vacuum/sweep your floor more often. And yes, I have a bottom mount psu case, filters and have my case under my desk on the floor in a computer stand that gives it an inch of clearance off the rug. I clean the filters regularly and vacuum out the case periodically.danacee - Thursday, February 2, 2012 - link
that is always what people say when some new trend is found inadequate, never considering how much is too much.But yes I do weekly(I am a female and am sensitive to dust) and no, my case does not get stuffed full of dirt. The problem is how much more I need to clean out the fricken thing because some idiot thought it was a good idea to give it the airflow of an upright Hoover.
FYI I had an older front back out based airflow case and the thing in the very same stop and despite heavier use, never collected dust at the same rate. Also my primary work machine is a Mac Pro, same story.
another voice - Thursday, February 2, 2012 - link
i have bottom mount psu - i just installed it fan side up so it sucks air out case and out back of psu. surely thats the ideal situation...and to the tin foil hat guy who think its conspiracy to break your psu - lol enjoy life.
Death666Angel - Wednesday, February 1, 2012 - link
Is there a reason you don't just flip the PSU around so that it draws the intake air from inside the case? To me it seems like up or down don't really matter in most situations, for most people. In the few where it matters, it matters for people smart enough to know which way to go.zero2dash - Wednesday, February 1, 2012 - link
Funny, I've never heard of a bottom mounted PSU "blowing up". In fact, any time a PSU "blows up" it's because it inherently is flawed; not because of how it was mounted in a case.Either turn the PSU upside down, take your case off the floor, or buy one of the dozens of top mounted PSU cases still widely available.
DanNeely - Wednesday, February 1, 2012 - link
As massive as some PSUs have gotten I think mechanical constraints are part of it. You need solid support to hold it in place on the top now on the bottom you can just use the existing metal.A case this huge could have it mounted sideways on the bottom though and avoid the carpet clogging and worst of the dust sucking problems in the process.
erple2 - Wednesday, February 1, 2012 - link
I have a bottom mounted PSU and really like that it cleans the interior of the case without cluttering a bunch of cables inside the case. Then again, I don't have a PSU with a bottom mounted fan - it's a rear mounted one instead.BTW, Bottom mounted freezers make more sense than a top mounted ones for at least 2 reasons:
1. Cold air sinks - put the part of the device that's supposed to be colder on the bottom
2. I use the Fridge part quite a bit more than the freezer part - so put that part more at my level.
The_Countess - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
they do that so you have room at the top to install a 420mm radiator.besides, there is a (easily removable) dust filter in front of the intake fan, if you mount the PSU with the fan facing downwards, which you dont have too.
earthrace57 - Saturday, May 5, 2012 - link
Actually, I put mine upside down....so the fan is pointing up (corsair 400R)1. Usually cold air flows into that area because of the intake fans, with only the GPU and PSU to suck it up
2. My PSU's fan very very very rarely turns on, so the natural process of heat rising is a good thing
adece - Wednesday, February 1, 2012 - link
My question is this: If the fan directed to the GPU was not contributing to better cooling, did you tried the old horizontal airflow? If it was better that you could have just said that the feature looks nice but it is ultimately useless. That's my only concern with this review. Otherwise it's as good as any of the other ones.Hella-D - Wednesday, February 1, 2012 - link
Id Rather Have A Bunch Of Quiet But High CFM Fans Running At Full-Tilt. In My Opinion Fan Controllers And Just Fan Speed Adjustment In General is Pointless, At-Least I Know My Fans Are Alwayse Pushing High Amounts Of Air And Keeping My Hardware Cool, Even My Graphics Card I Have Set To A Constant 80% Fan Speed (Highest It Will Allow For Some Reason)And Noise, Eh, I Like To be Able To Hear My Fans As-Long As They Arent Too Loud And Especially Whiny That Way I Know They Are Indeed Working.
BlueReason - Thursday, February 2, 2012 - link
1. Yes bottom mounting the PSU hurts cooling of every other component in the case by interfering with airflow coming from front and potentially bottom mounted intakes. However, top mounting the PSU with the intake on the inside of the case is just as stupid, because then it's getting both dust AND hot air (unless you think the other dust filters on your case are somehow magically better than a psu dust filter, or that dust can't fly?), and disrupting a fluid current of air to the cpu.That said, don't put your bottom mounted PSU-case on carpet, or on a dirt floor. Consider placement when choosing a case. Shouldn't have to tell you this.
It astounds me that so few case designers have realized the least stupid answer to the PSU-placement question is just to put a damn psu intake vent ON TOP OF THE CASE. Some have done this. Not enough.
2. Concerning our guest of the day, the Switch 810: Like every Anandtech case review, all it tells us is how their component setup performs in the case. If the In-Win Buc thermally matching the Silverstone FT-02 doesn't cause you to read the test results of every Anandtech case review with a giant vat of salt, I don't know what to tell ya.
3. Golly what a surprise: slanting the fan so that it directed incoming air away from the place on the GPU that actually would utilize that air...ugh, folks.
4. No surprise that an NZXT case is better in photos than it is in use. The same goes for Coolermaster and their chincey crap. NZXT is more disappointing because unlike Coolermaster their designs actually seem inspired, only to be sabotaged by weak engineering and cheap manufacturing.
cjs150 - Friday, February 3, 2012 - link
What I dislike about case designers is how lazy they are. Stick a fancy front on and some tool-less drive cages and they think that is it.Not sure case design has moved forward in 5-10 years.
I agree, pick a case where the PSU placing works for you. But is it about time case designers followed Lian Li and Silverstone lead and experimented with different PSU placements.
But my pet hate at moment is graphic cards and the placement of the power connectors - absolutely no thought as to how that would work for decent cable management.
here are a few thoughts for case designers:
1. Hard drives placement and cable management. How about having a drive cage where all drive plug into a daughterboard (bit like some of the hot swap boards) so only one power connector needed, and all SATA Data goes through same board and out at a convenient point for connection to main computer motherboard.
2. More room round back of motherboard (see Fractal Arc Midi) for cable management.
3. Dampening around optical drive bay.
4. All side panels to have rubberised strips where metal meets metal to stop any resonance
5. Improved front panel cable management -every case I have ever had seems to either have cables that are too long or too short
6. Makes cases wider (seeing this already) allows for larger fans.
7. NEVER EVER release a case without all intake fans having washable dust covers
8. Give up on stealth covers from optical drives - never works for long
zlandar - Friday, February 3, 2012 - link
After owning a CM sniper and Corsair 500R I would never buy another gaming case without one. Especially at the price range of this case where it's something I would expect.Only quibble I have with the review is the use of a tower cooler instead of using a water-cooler. Mounting a water cooler at the top of the case with fans blowing out would lower the temps inside the case and improve GPU cooling. The reviewer commented one of the major benefits of the case is custom watercooling; why not check the temps and noise with that setup?
fluxtatic - Saturday, February 4, 2012 - link
Maybe too many variables - Push-pull? or Push-only? What rad(s)? What blocks? As bit-tech (IIRC) pointed out, it's very difficult to have meaningful w/c results, as there are ridiculous variations in the hardware. In air-cooling, standardize on a well-performing (ie, tested on a bench) tower cooler and stock fan config, and away you go. You can cram a 360 in this case, but what if it will only take a 240? And on and on. Maybe if they did these rounds of testing, and one more using a H100 or so, replacing the rear fan mount with the stock rad/fan configuration from the H100...but that really only tells you how the H100 does. Which you already know, having seen the multitudes of reviews when it was released.Lateral mount PSUs don't make sense to me (never having seen one) - what about the rocker switch and cable jack? Well, whatever - next couple I build will be low-powered enough to use PicoPSUs, so no worries about any of this silliness :)