The NZXT H7 Case Review: A Comprehensive Analysis

The NZXT H7 case is a mid-tower powerhouse that boasts an impressive array of features and capabilities. One of the standout aspects of this case is its ability to prevent overheating, which can lead to reduced performance and even damage to the machine. In order to achieve this, the engineers at NZXT have incorporated a clever design element - a bowl fan situated at the bottom of the case that blows air up into the interior, keeping components cool.

However, in all honesty, this feature alone does not seem sufficient to produce optimal results. To truly maximize performance, it is recommended to pair this fan with additional cooling solutions, such as extra fans or other heat-dissipation mechanisms. This approach ensures that users can achieve the full potential of their hardware without compromising on cooling.

Cable Management: A Key Aspect of Case Design

The H7 case also shines in its cable management capabilities, offering a generous amount of space for neatly routing cables and securing them with velcro tie-backs or other provided plastic tiebacks. This thoughtful design element enables users to create a tidy and organized workspace within the case, which is particularly important when dealing with a multitude of components and peripherals.

Unfortunately, this focus on cable management also highlights one of the H7's limitations - its inability to accommodate traditional hard drives. Due to the placement of the bowl fan at the bottom of the case, there simply isn't enough room for two or three standard 3.5-inch hard drives. While users can opt for NVMe or M.2 drives instead, this restriction may prove inconvenient for those who prefer the convenience and flexibility offered by traditional storage solutions.

Storage Options: A Mixed Bag

The H7's storage capabilities are somewhat limited by its design constraints. On one hand, users do have access to a generous selection of options for internal storage devices, including NVMe drives and M.2 slots. However, those seeking traditional hard drive solutions will find themselves stymied due to the aforementioned space limitations.

Storage needs can vary greatly depending on individual requirements, and it's essential to weigh these against the trade-offs presented by this case design. For users who prioritize flexibility in storage options or need to store large amounts of data, a different case might be more suitable.

Cooling Options: Limited Flexibility

When it comes to radiator mounting, one would expect greater flexibility within the H7 case. Unfortunately, the top surface is somewhat restricted due to its shape and size, which can make accommodating larger radiators or fans challenging. In this reviewer's opinion, a 240ml radiator would be too large for the available space without interfering with other components.

This constraint applies similarly to fan installation, as users will need to carefully select fan sizes and orientations that won't compromise airflow or create unnecessary noise levels. The H7 case does provide some wiggle room for these considerations, but it's essential to approach them with caution to avoid issues down the line.

The Bottom Line: A Solid Mid-Tower Option

In conclusion, the NZXT H7 case is an excellent choice for users seeking a well-equipped and visually appealing mid-tower solution. Its impressive cable management capabilities, solid storage options (when limited), and clever design features all contribute to its value proposition.

However, those requiring more extreme cooling solutions or larger radiators may need to consider alternative cases that cater better to their needs. The H7 case does come with some notable drawbacks, including the bowl fan's limitations in optimizing overall performance and restricted hard drive options due to its compact design.

Overall, if you're a fan of NZXT products or simply looking for a solid mid-tower solution that checks all the right boxes, the H7 case is definitely worth considering.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enare you needing a case that prioritizes both style and performance well look no further introducing the H5 flow compact mid Tower airflow case from NZXT so inside the bolts you've got well a manual a manual that's that big is pretty much as big as the actual case itself it's double-sided I suppose it's got plenty of information but a lot of the writing there's that small you'll need a magnifying glass or even a phone to take a picture of the information and then enlarge it so you might as well just use the QR code in the first place otherwise Inside the Box you had a few bits of foam a bit of plastic was wrapped in and obviously the case itself where can you go and meet hundreds of people just like you strengthen existing relationships and Forge new ones with vendors and Distributors and meet some of the biggest names in the industry where you can go and see the newest Tech and services that you need to make your it business grow and there'll be thousands of pounds worth of prizes up for grabs then what's more you'll get that for a quid 10 Max 2023 will be on the 23rd of June at Magna adventure and Science Center near Meadowhall in Sheffield this event will be over four times larger than last year's event and this year's event will incorporate a Live tech award dedicated meeting rooms demo and interactive areas and up to 800 other texts just like you get registered new at tftmax.com so let's have a look at the case itself so we'll start off with the glass side but first of all this is the mesh version of the case they call it the H5 flow they also do an elite version as well now they haven't sent us the elite version but from what I can see it's very similar to the H7 series of the elite the only difference is is basically this bit here from the Elite model instead of being a mesh front is a glass front and then there's an air intake just on the right hand side down there in instead of on the front so obviously it can get air flow generally if it's anything like the H7 Elite it is a slightly noisier case because the where the airflow is it has to strain a lot of air through that airflow which is quite small and it makes a bit of a noise doing it but again that all depends on the fans and configurations and everything like this but today we're looking at the mesh so first of all we've got the glass side here as you can see it's full glass it's not tinted or anything like that it's not plastic it is there to remove it it's just one thumb screw which I'm not a fan of to be honest because on the H7 so it's Big Brother all the panels you can remove on the case without using any screws or thumb screws that just pop off so I would have liked to seen that on this case as well there is a piece of plastic on the glass to protect it so I'm just going to peel that off now okay and as you can see it looks fairly nice case this is a white version they do a black one as well and as I said from the screw you just undo that and then the side should pop off is a little bit tight just watch it though it doesn't automatically fall off because it could do it is held in sorted by a ledge there but obviously we're being slightly top heavy it can potentially just fall out and the last thing you want to do is break it otherwise on the side you can see here it's not a full gas side isn't it doesn't take up all the way down to the bottom you have got a white strip here which does cover up where the power supply is so you won't be able to show off your power supply so if you've got a decent power supply in there no one is going to be able to know because they're not going to see any information about that at all there because you just cannot physically see it on the front to the case you've got this mesh area here which will pull off it is not screwed in or anything so it will pop off which is good so you just pull it there and it will pop off that makes it easy for you to clean as well you've got your disc dust filter in there which you can separate if you wished with ease so that is pretty good and then you've got mounting options for fans it doesn't come with any fans on the front already unfortunately so that means no RGB fans or anything along the front obviously adding a couple of fans in there will up the price of the actual machine if you obviously build in it that's so you have an ear or there because it depends on how you want it setting up but if you're having a decent machine I would advise obviously sticking some fans in the front and again this metal panel which is here is basically one piece from the side and it is not removable it does have the NZXT logo there which is sort of like a two-tone white so it doesn't stand out the most but it is there if you can see it right so to put the front back on pretty straightforward just slides down like that and then pushes and Clips in so let's have a look at the side and the back so the side first is just a standard panel like on most cases held in with two thumb screws it will just slide off we'll take a look inside it in a few minutes on the back itself you've got a fan what's pre-installed there doesn't look like it's RGB it's just a standard fan you've got obviously you're cut out for your i o of your motherboard and then you've got seven expansion slots there to put in obviously a motherboard of a decent size so you can obviously install your graphics cards in any other expansion cards you've got sound cards network cards stuff like that if anyone really uses SIM cards these days and then obviously you've got your opening here which is where your power supply will be you'll install that from at the reverse side of the motherboard and then you can obviously unscrew this here to open this area up so you can easily install or your cards and stuff like that so to the top of the case itself you've got your power button which I'm getting lights up around the button itself we'll have a look at that in a few seconds you've got your USB type a connection I believe that's USB 3.2 gen 1 obviously if you're not sure what that is double check that but it's basically high speed USB normal stuff like memory sticks and stuff like that you plug in there you've also got a USB type c that's USB 3.2 Gen 2 yeah they do get complicated these USB generations and so forth and then you've got a standard audio jack which you could use for microphone headphones obviously combination if you wanted to now the top panel itself doesn't come off which is a shame because on the bigger Brother model the H7 it doesn't makes installing things like water coolers and stuff like that very easy so the only thing what is removable here is the actual mesh bit on the top so this will keep just from getting inside your machine or out depending on how you've got your configuration set up but it allows you to clean it and so forth and just make it look a little bit better than just leaving it with little holes and gaps where you can mount different fans and stuff like that will come to the mountain and stuff like that in a few seconds so on the bottom of the case the bit what you're probably not going to see much of but it's not too bad actually you've got a feet which are plastic which raise it off the floor a good distance so if you have good on a carpet unless it's a really deep pile carpet then you should be able to get a good airflow but as always we always suggest you put them on a flat surface not carpeted because that can restrict airflow now they are rubberized feet which will stop it sliding around which is really good and there are two slidable dust filters on the bottom so you can pull that one out with ease and clean it which is really good I do like that design and then one on the front which you do normally see him on the back the one on the front you don't usually see on most cases the reason being there is a fan on the inside of the case at a weird angle we'll talk about that in a few seconds but obviously you're going to be getting fresh air coming in from there it's going to keep the dust out obviously anything that does filters on you need to make sure you keep them clean especially if you've got pets animals any smokers in the house anything what dirty or a business or anything like that because these things can get blocked up very fast and very quick and obviously if the air is not getting in your power supply is there that's going to get hot and go oops and go bang and the same for obviously the air intake on the front as well as on the bottom here as well if you air can't get in the machine it's going to overheat lower performance and potentially cause problems down the line so let's talk about fan and radiator options on this case so first of all on the back it comes pre-fitted with a 120 millimeter fan there as well as our 120 millimeter fan down here in this oh no it looks like a urinal to me or possibly a drain pipe or something like that it's uh it's a strange positioning to be honest with you but I know it's designed to blow air up but still looks strange but anyway that's 120 centimeters there you could potentially swap that out if you wanted with another 120 if you wanted on the top you can fit two 120 millimeter fans as well and on the front you can either fit two 120 millimeters or two 140 millimeters bear in mind with the max GPU length which we'll get to in a few minutes is if you're having fans depending on how you orientate them as in do you have them more towards the front or on the back or radiators in there it will reduce the length you'll be able to have your GPU depending on the size now regarding water cooling you do have a few options you could potentially fit 120 millimeter Woods cooler on the back in all honesty if you're only having 120 mil water cooler you might as well just stick with an air con taller because there's very little difference if any at all on the top you can fit a 120 or a 240 but you can't fit anything larger so if you're wanting a 360 or a 280 not going to fit on the front you've got a few options you've got 120 millimeter 140 millimeter 240 millimeter and 280 millimeter so it's the biggest you can go is 280 millimeters but it does give you the room there to do it if you're wanting again if you're going to have probably part of the radiator on this side depending on how you're going to do it push pull configuration it may block up a little bit of the airflow coming from that rear fan down there now inside if you're wanting a CPU Cooler in there you've got a maximum of 165 centimeters clearance from the motherboard to the side of the case so if it's 170 or bigger you're going to struggle basically so the max GPU clearance is 365 millimeters so that's from there to there obviously that's if you don't have any radiators or anything blocking it this side obviously that's going to reduce the size as well unfortunately if that's going to be the case you've got your front radiator clearance is a 45 millimeter and you've also got cable management size of 23 millimeters on the back which we're going to look at in a few seconds now on the reverse side of the motherboard part of the machine you do have a little cardboard box which in that box you've got a few cable ties there which is nice as well as a number of different screws which is good as well would it be nice if the cable pies and rather than being plastic with velcro ones so it could be reused better for the environment and so forth but again it's better than nothing now you're probably thinking storage options because of this fan here there's nowhere to put hard drive well you can actually fit a three and a half inch Drive in here that's your traditional size of hard drive it would attach to this area here you basically take this screw out here this fun screw this panel comes off you screw your hard drive to that fit it back in and Away you go if you don't want a traditional hard drive in there the three and a half inch tight you can actually fit a two and a half inch hard drive or two and a half inch SSD there instead and another one there so you could have two two and a half inch ssds if you wanted but you obviously you won't be able to put that three and a half inch Drive in again they're getting less and less common these days especially in gaming computers and in more more likely with you using potentially nvme drives on your motherboard you're probably not even going to use those connections but you it's nice to have an option there if you did next thing to come to is cable tied in there's lots of areas where you can actually hide the cables keep them neat would it be nice if there was another option probably up here a bit like this and you've got velcro here here here as well as a bit there to keep the cables nice and tidy nice and neat and there's that plenty of room so you can put lots of cable in through there without an issue you can hide the cables Behind These bits and so forth and it allows it to tie down very nice very neat and I must admit I do like NZXT cases or at least the recent ones like the H7 and this H5 where they have done a really good job with the cable management on the back and that's one of the good things obviously you've got this opening here which the cables will go through to the front so for example your 24 pin cable or your six slash eight pin cables go into your graphics card can go that way and if you're not going up through the bottom there obviously plenty of room for your power supply there as well shouldn't have any issues there unless you're getting a really oversized power supply which I won't suggest in a case like this anyway and it's got lots of room to keep the cables hidden if you you haven't got a module or one again unfortunately you can't see the brand of your power supply once it's in there so you can't show it off if you've got something like a little top of the line NZXT one you want basically to show off look I've got NZXT power supply No One's Gonna know basically because it's hidden so just bear that in mind cable and all the cabling is black with the exception of the fan Cable in which is white with black ends to it unfortunately the fans have only got a free pin fan connector on there so they're not pwm pwm if you didn't know basically means that it can adjust the speeds of the fan a lot better than the standard three pin unfortunately the not the best the free pin connections to be honest I tend to find they can get quite loud the fans because they don't know exactly or how hot things are all the time and the motherboard can't control them as well as the pwm connections now cable wise the rest of the cables so USB free connection that is all black obviously blue connection on the end which is standard these you've got a nice black cable for your front panel it's nice to see that it's all in one unit rather than the power the reset and so forth it's all in one connection so you can just plug that straight in your board and not worry about it I remember the days where each individual cable had to be connected up which that's a long time ago but it's nice that they're actually doing it in one block a bit like they do with the USB headers then on top of that oh dear we've got the HD audio which has got multi-colored sash 8 packet rainbow colored connections everything's black booted until you get to there this bit's going to be sticking out on your motherboard so it's going to look a little bit of a mess to be honest it would have been nice if they'd colored all that black I know you could paint it put some isolation tape insulation tape over the top of it or even Mark a pen over it to make it look black but again it should be in Factory not multi-colored to be honest with you it's one of the biggest issues I have with cases these days is that generally I'm guessing using old cabling and connections and they just can't be bothered to cover it up on boot which is a bit of a shame you've also got your USB free header there so that's like 3.1 Gen 2 USB C and so forth that's that connection that will plug into your motherboard so that's your USB type c connection and then on top of that you've got the other fan cable as we said from that bottom one which as you can see is there looks like a traditional fan what's been screwed in but is one of those things where it's sort of like got a shroud on top of it to make the airflow push up into your graphics card or components inside your machine which you can swap out if you wanted to but otherwise plenty of room there really good cable and can't complain about the cable in and it looks pretty good to be honest with you you can't really complain too much about this case apart from as I said would have preferred pwm cables and then this to be blacked out or booted or something to cover up those nasty multi-colored cables so in conclusion and testing so testing first unfortunately the thermals on this are absolutely appalling if you don't add extra fans in there which is a shame really because they've made it this flow case but they've put no fans or very little in the way of fans in there to make the air flow through it so you have to spend extra to get that good performance for example we tested this on a 12 700k processor and a 3070 graphics card and we found that to be a 10 degree difference just on the processor 13 degree difference on the GPU when there weren't fans in the front so as soon as we put two 140 millimeter fans on the front of the case so just behind here the temperatures dropped on the CPU by 10 and over degrees and on the GPU around about 12 to 14 degrees depending on the testing we were doing so that's a huge difference so I would suggest and well I wouldn't suggest I would really recommend if you are planning on getting this case you do add some extra fans in I know it's tempting not to add them in you think it's got good airflow but if there's nothing sucking anything in nothing's going to be coming out the other side so you need to make sure you add more fans and we see it quite often where people don't add these extra fans and then they get high thermal temperatures in there which then obviously causes the machine to either crash or under clock itself to keep itself cool which means then you're not getting the full performance out of your products so the actual conclusion itself so don't get me wrong you have got that bowl fan or whatever you want to call it at the bottom which is blowing air up into the case which is a good idea but in all honesty on its own it does very little you really need to team it up with those extra fans now Cable Management wise this thing has got brilliant Cable Management there's plenty of room there velcro tie backs all sorts in there and they even Supply extra plastic cable ties as well if you wanted a cult fault the cable tied in options of this case same with the H7 we've reviewed earlier absolutely brilliant for what you're getting in all honesty and I wish a lot of other manufacturers would do the same because amount of times we find cases where we've got very little room for getting cables around or if you do it looks like a Rat's Nest back there and it looks like complete mess so next option is obviously storage I know more and more people are going down the route of nvme or m.2 drives and even two and a half inch drives but there isn't much in the way of options for other storage if you wanted it and to be honest that's really up to you but if you're wanting let's just say one three and a half inch hard drive that's your traditional type of hard drive and one two and a half inch SSD you're going to be fine but if you wanted two traditional hard drives tough luck you ain't going to fit it in there now the reason because of this is because of that bowl fan they've put in there that's where you'd normally have a hard drive cage unfortunately because that's there you haven't got much room unfortunately which is a shame but it's also an advantage as well because not everyone needs to add a store extra storage in these days a lot of motherboards give you option for two or three I mean sometimes cases for nvme drives so you've got plenty of options in your machine for storage so unless you're wanting to do lots of data backup or lots of data editing and stuff like that then you're probably fine and they know I want to see if you're doing that amounts of stuff you'd probably be best getting something like a Nas system with some sort of raid option to back up your data to make sure it's nice and secure and obviously nothing happens to it so one of the other issues we got was The Calling on the top if you wanted to mount the radiator on the top for example the one we used it's actually from be quiet rather than NZXT basically there wasn't enough room up there so we wanted to put a 240ml one even though it says you can fit one in there you can but the problem is it was coming into contact with the motherboard and the ram so we couldn't actually do it unless you'd go out and actually buy a thin radiator then you may struggle same with fans you've got to make sure they're quite firm for it to be able to fit up there otherwise you're going to struggle so you haven't got much clearance there at all which is a shame so the bottom fan was designed for the basically Elite version as we've said but it only comes with that fan as your intake and one for your outage taken in all honesty both of those fans don't seem to be the quietest in the world I can hear it right here blowing into my ear and it is actually quite loud would be nice if they did have a pwm connection on the fans so the fans could adjust the speeds better depending on the temperature inside the machine but overall it's actually a good looking case if you add more fans in there you do have a good few options but you are limited as I said with the top with the amount of room it's got and you can only go up to like a 280 millimeter rad if you're going for the front no 360s or 420s even on the front but in most cases that's more than plenty for most people so if you're wanting a decent size or should I say a well-equipped good looking mid-towered case then well that's probably for you especially if you're into the NZXT ecosystem you love their products then you're going to love this case but just bear in mind if you're wanting to push it a little bit more by adding lots of storage or you want extreme cooling then this may not be the case for you I hope you enjoyed this video and know I did why not check out one of our other videos by clicking this box up here or this one just down here otherwise you can give us a thumbs up like subscribe comment below let us know what you think and we'll see you next timeare you needing a case that prioritizes both style and performance well look no further introducing the H5 flow compact mid Tower airflow case from NZXT so inside the bolts you've got well a manual a manual that's that big is pretty much as big as the actual case itself it's double-sided I suppose it's got plenty of information but a lot of the writing there's that small you'll need a magnifying glass or even a phone to take a picture of the information and then enlarge it so you might as well just use the QR code in the first place otherwise Inside the Box you had a few bits of foam a bit of plastic was wrapped in and obviously the case itself where can you go and meet hundreds of people just like you strengthen existing relationships and Forge new ones with vendors and Distributors and meet some of the biggest names in the industry where you can go and see the newest Tech and services that you need to make your it business grow and there'll be thousands of pounds worth of prizes up for grabs then what's more you'll get that for a quid 10 Max 2023 will be on the 23rd of June at Magna adventure and Science Center near Meadowhall in Sheffield this event will be over four times larger than last year's event and this year's event will incorporate a Live tech award dedicated meeting rooms demo and interactive areas and up to 800 other texts just like you get registered new at tftmax.com so let's have a look at the case itself so we'll start off with the glass side but first of all this is the mesh version of the case they call it the H5 flow they also do an elite version as well now they haven't sent us the elite version but from what I can see it's very similar to the H7 series of the elite the only difference is is basically this bit here from the Elite model instead of being a mesh front is a glass front and then there's an air intake just on the right hand side down there in instead of on the front so obviously it can get air flow generally if it's anything like the H7 Elite it is a slightly noisier case because the where the airflow is it has to strain a lot of air through that airflow which is quite small and it makes a bit of a noise doing it but again that all depends on the fans and configurations and everything like this but today we're looking at the mesh so first of all we've got the glass side here as you can see it's full glass it's not tinted or anything like that it's not plastic it is there to remove it it's just one thumb screw which I'm not a fan of to be honest because on the H7 so it's Big Brother all the panels you can remove on the case without using any screws or thumb screws that just pop off so I would have liked to seen that on this case as well there is a piece of plastic on the glass to protect it so I'm just going to peel that off now okay and as you can see it looks fairly nice case this is a white version they do a black one as well and as I said from the screw you just undo that and then the side should pop off is a little bit tight just watch it though it doesn't automatically fall off because it could do it is held in sorted by a ledge there but obviously we're being slightly top heavy it can potentially just fall out and the last thing you want to do is break it otherwise on the side you can see here it's not a full gas side isn't it doesn't take up all the way down to the bottom you have got a white strip here which does cover up where the power supply is so you won't be able to show off your power supply so if you've got a decent power supply in there no one is going to be able to know because they're not going to see any information about that at all there because you just cannot physically see it on the front to the case you've got this mesh area here which will pull off it is not screwed in or anything so it will pop off which is good so you just pull it there and it will pop off that makes it easy for you to clean as well you've got your disc dust filter in there which you can separate if you wished with ease so that is pretty good and then you've got mounting options for fans it doesn't come with any fans on the front already unfortunately so that means no RGB fans or anything along the front obviously adding a couple of fans in there will up the price of the actual machine if you obviously build in it that's so you have an ear or there because it depends on how you want it setting up but if you're having a decent machine I would advise obviously sticking some fans in the front and again this metal panel which is here is basically one piece from the side and it is not removable it does have the NZXT logo there which is sort of like a two-tone white so it doesn't stand out the most but it is there if you can see it right so to put the front back on pretty straightforward just slides down like that and then pushes and Clips in so let's have a look at the side and the back so the side first is just a standard panel like on most cases held in with two thumb screws it will just slide off we'll take a look inside it in a few minutes on the back itself you've got a fan what's pre-installed there doesn't look like it's RGB it's just a standard fan you've got obviously you're cut out for your i o of your motherboard and then you've got seven expansion slots there to put in obviously a motherboard of a decent size so you can obviously install your graphics cards in any other expansion cards you've got sound cards network cards stuff like that if anyone really uses SIM cards these days and then obviously you've got your opening here which is where your power supply will be you'll install that from at the reverse side of the motherboard and then you can obviously unscrew this here to open this area up so you can easily install or your cards and stuff like that so to the top of the case itself you've got your power button which I'm getting lights up around the button itself we'll have a look at that in a few seconds you've got your USB type a connection I believe that's USB 3.2 gen 1 obviously if you're not sure what that is double check that but it's basically high speed USB normal stuff like memory sticks and stuff like that you plug in there you've also got a USB type c that's USB 3.2 Gen 2 yeah they do get complicated these USB generations and so forth and then you've got a standard audio jack which you could use for microphone headphones obviously combination if you wanted to now the top panel itself doesn't come off which is a shame because on the bigger Brother model the H7 it doesn't makes installing things like water coolers and stuff like that very easy so the only thing what is removable here is the actual mesh bit on the top so this will keep just from getting inside your machine or out depending on how you've got your configuration set up but it allows you to clean it and so forth and just make it look a little bit better than just leaving it with little holes and gaps where you can mount different fans and stuff like that will come to the mountain and stuff like that in a few seconds so on the bottom of the case the bit what you're probably not going to see much of but it's not too bad actually you've got a feet which are plastic which raise it off the floor a good distance so if you have good on a carpet unless it's a really deep pile carpet then you should be able to get a good airflow but as always we always suggest you put them on a flat surface not carpeted because that can restrict airflow now they are rubberized feet which will stop it sliding around which is really good and there are two slidable dust filters on the bottom so you can pull that one out with ease and clean it which is really good I do like that design and then one on the front which you do normally see him on the back the one on the front you don't usually see on most cases the reason being there is a fan on the inside of the case at a weird angle we'll talk about that in a few seconds but obviously you're going to be getting fresh air coming in from there it's going to keep the dust out obviously anything that does filters on you need to make sure you keep them clean especially if you've got pets animals any smokers in the house anything what dirty or a business or anything like that because these things can get blocked up very fast and very quick and obviously if the air is not getting in your power supply is there that's going to get hot and go oops and go bang and the same for obviously the air intake on the front as well as on the bottom here as well if you air can't get in the machine it's going to overheat lower performance and potentially cause problems down the line so let's talk about fan and radiator options on this case so first of all on the back it comes pre-fitted with a 120 millimeter fan there as well as our 120 millimeter fan down here in this oh no it looks like a urinal to me or possibly a drain pipe or something like that it's uh it's a strange positioning to be honest with you but I know it's designed to blow air up but still looks strange but anyway that's 120 centimeters there you could potentially swap that out if you wanted with another 120 if you wanted on the top you can fit two 120 millimeter fans as well and on the front you can either fit two 120 millimeters or two 140 millimeters bear in mind with the max GPU length which we'll get to in a few minutes is if you're having fans depending on how you orientate them as in do you have them more towards the front or on the back or radiators in there it will reduce the length you'll be able to have your GPU depending on the size now regarding water cooling you do have a few options you could potentially fit 120 millimeter Woods cooler on the back in all honesty if you're only having 120 mil water cooler you might as well just stick with an air con taller because there's very little difference if any at all on the top you can fit a 120 or a 240 but you can't fit anything larger so if you're wanting a 360 or a 280 not going to fit on the front you've got a few options you've got 120 millimeter 140 millimeter 240 millimeter and 280 millimeter so it's the biggest you can go is 280 millimeters but it does give you the room there to do it if you're wanting again if you're going to have probably part of the radiator on this side depending on how you're going to do it push pull configuration it may block up a little bit of the airflow coming from that rear fan down there now inside if you're wanting a CPU Cooler in there you've got a maximum of 165 centimeters clearance from the motherboard to the side of the case so if it's 170 or bigger you're going to struggle basically so the max GPU clearance is 365 millimeters so that's from there to there obviously that's if you don't have any radiators or anything blocking it this side obviously that's going to reduce the size as well unfortunately if that's going to be the case you've got your front radiator clearance is a 45 millimeter and you've also got cable management size of 23 millimeters on the back which we're going to look at in a few seconds now on the reverse side of the motherboard part of the machine you do have a little cardboard box which in that box you've got a few cable ties there which is nice as well as a number of different screws which is good as well would it be nice if the cable pies and rather than being plastic with velcro ones so it could be reused better for the environment and so forth but again it's better than nothing now you're probably thinking storage options because of this fan here there's nowhere to put hard drive well you can actually fit a three and a half inch Drive in here that's your traditional size of hard drive it would attach to this area here you basically take this screw out here this fun screw this panel comes off you screw your hard drive to that fit it back in and Away you go if you don't want a traditional hard drive in there the three and a half inch tight you can actually fit a two and a half inch hard drive or two and a half inch SSD there instead and another one there so you could have two two and a half inch ssds if you wanted but you obviously you won't be able to put that three and a half inch Drive in again they're getting less and less common these days especially in gaming computers and in more more likely with you using potentially nvme drives on your motherboard you're probably not even going to use those connections but you it's nice to have an option there if you did next thing to come to is cable tied in there's lots of areas where you can actually hide the cables keep them neat would it be nice if there was another option probably up here a bit like this and you've got velcro here here here as well as a bit there to keep the cables nice and tidy nice and neat and there's that plenty of room so you can put lots of cable in through there without an issue you can hide the cables Behind These bits and so forth and it allows it to tie down very nice very neat and I must admit I do like NZXT cases or at least the recent ones like the H7 and this H5 where they have done a really good job with the cable management on the back and that's one of the good things obviously you've got this opening here which the cables will go through to the front so for example your 24 pin cable or your six slash eight pin cables go into your graphics card can go that way and if you're not going up through the bottom there obviously plenty of room for your power supply there as well shouldn't have any issues there unless you're getting a really oversized power supply which I won't suggest in a case like this anyway and it's got lots of room to keep the cables hidden if you you haven't got a module or one again unfortunately you can't see the brand of your power supply once it's in there so you can't show it off if you've got something like a little top of the line NZXT one you want basically to show off look I've got NZXT power supply No One's Gonna know basically because it's hidden so just bear that in mind cable and all the cabling is black with the exception of the fan Cable in which is white with black ends to it unfortunately the fans have only got a free pin fan connector on there so they're not pwm pwm if you didn't know basically means that it can adjust the speeds of the fan a lot better than the standard three pin unfortunately the not the best the free pin connections to be honest I tend to find they can get quite loud the fans because they don't know exactly or how hot things are all the time and the motherboard can't control them as well as the pwm connections now cable wise the rest of the cables so USB free connection that is all black obviously blue connection on the end which is standard these you've got a nice black cable for your front panel it's nice to see that it's all in one unit rather than the power the reset and so forth it's all in one connection so you can just plug that straight in your board and not worry about it I remember the days where each individual cable had to be connected up which that's a long time ago but it's nice that they're actually doing it in one block a bit like they do with the USB headers then on top of that oh dear we've got the HD audio which has got multi-colored sash 8 packet rainbow colored connections everything's black booted until you get to there this bit's going to be sticking out on your motherboard so it's going to look a little bit of a mess to be honest it would have been nice if they'd colored all that black I know you could paint it put some isolation tape insulation tape over the top of it or even Mark a pen over it to make it look black but again it should be in Factory not multi-colored to be honest with you it's one of the biggest issues I have with cases these days is that generally I'm guessing using old cabling and connections and they just can't be bothered to cover it up on boot which is a bit of a shame you've also got your USB free header there so that's like 3.1 Gen 2 USB C and so forth that's that connection that will plug into your motherboard so that's your USB type c connection and then on top of that you've got the other fan cable as we said from that bottom one which as you can see is there looks like a traditional fan what's been screwed in but is one of those things where it's sort of like got a shroud on top of it to make the airflow push up into your graphics card or components inside your machine which you can swap out if you wanted to but otherwise plenty of room there really good cable and can't complain about the cable in and it looks pretty good to be honest with you you can't really complain too much about this case apart from as I said would have preferred pwm cables and then this to be blacked out or booted or something to cover up those nasty multi-colored cables so in conclusion and testing so testing first unfortunately the thermals on this are absolutely appalling if you don't add extra fans in there which is a shame really because they've made it this flow case but they've put no fans or very little in the way of fans in there to make the air flow through it so you have to spend extra to get that good performance for example we tested this on a 12 700k processor and a 3070 graphics card and we found that to be a 10 degree difference just on the processor 13 degree difference on the GPU when there weren't fans in the front so as soon as we put two 140 millimeter fans on the front of the case so just behind here the temperatures dropped on the CPU by 10 and over degrees and on the GPU around about 12 to 14 degrees depending on the testing we were doing so that's a huge difference so I would suggest and well I wouldn't suggest I would really recommend if you are planning on getting this case you do add some extra fans in I know it's tempting not to add them in you think it's got good airflow but if there's nothing sucking anything in nothing's going to be coming out the other side so you need to make sure you add more fans and we see it quite often where people don't add these extra fans and then they get high thermal temperatures in there which then obviously causes the machine to either crash or under clock itself to keep itself cool which means then you're not getting the full performance out of your products so the actual conclusion itself so don't get me wrong you have got that bowl fan or whatever you want to call it at the bottom which is blowing air up into the case which is a good idea but in all honesty on its own it does very little you really need to team it up with those extra fans now Cable Management wise this thing has got brilliant Cable Management there's plenty of room there velcro tie backs all sorts in there and they even Supply extra plastic cable ties as well if you wanted a cult fault the cable tied in options of this case same with the H7 we've reviewed earlier absolutely brilliant for what you're getting in all honesty and I wish a lot of other manufacturers would do the same because amount of times we find cases where we've got very little room for getting cables around or if you do it looks like a Rat's Nest back there and it looks like complete mess so next option is obviously storage I know more and more people are going down the route of nvme or m.2 drives and even two and a half inch drives but there isn't much in the way of options for other storage if you wanted it and to be honest that's really up to you but if you're wanting let's just say one three and a half inch hard drive that's your traditional type of hard drive and one two and a half inch SSD you're going to be fine but if you wanted two traditional hard drives tough luck you ain't going to fit it in there now the reason because of this is because of that bowl fan they've put in there that's where you'd normally have a hard drive cage unfortunately because that's there you haven't got much room unfortunately which is a shame but it's also an advantage as well because not everyone needs to add a store extra storage in these days a lot of motherboards give you option for two or three I mean sometimes cases for nvme drives so you've got plenty of options in your machine for storage so unless you're wanting to do lots of data backup or lots of data editing and stuff like that then you're probably fine and they know I want to see if you're doing that amounts of stuff you'd probably be best getting something like a Nas system with some sort of raid option to back up your data to make sure it's nice and secure and obviously nothing happens to it so one of the other issues we got was The Calling on the top if you wanted to mount the radiator on the top for example the one we used it's actually from be quiet rather than NZXT basically there wasn't enough room up there so we wanted to put a 240ml one even though it says you can fit one in there you can but the problem is it was coming into contact with the motherboard and the ram so we couldn't actually do it unless you'd go out and actually buy a thin radiator then you may struggle same with fans you've got to make sure they're quite firm for it to be able to fit up there otherwise you're going to struggle so you haven't got much clearance there at all which is a shame so the bottom fan was designed for the basically Elite version as we've said but it only comes with that fan as your intake and one for your outage taken in all honesty both of those fans don't seem to be the quietest in the world I can hear it right here blowing into my ear and it is actually quite loud would be nice if they did have a pwm connection on the fans so the fans could adjust the speeds better depending on the temperature inside the machine but overall it's actually a good looking case if you add more fans in there you do have a good few options but you are limited as I said with the top with the amount of room it's got and you can only go up to like a 280 millimeter rad if you're going for the front no 360s or 420s even on the front but in most cases that's more than plenty for most people so if you're wanting a decent size or should I say a well-equipped good looking mid-towered case then well that's probably for you especially if you're into the NZXT ecosystem you love their products then you're going to love this case but just bear in mind if you're wanting to push it a little bit more by adding lots of storage or you want extreme cooling then this may not be the case for you I hope you enjoyed this video and know I did why not check out one of our other videos by clicking this box up here or this one just down here otherwise you can give us a thumbs up like subscribe comment below let us know what you think and we'll see you next time\n"