NZXT H440 Mid-Tower Case Review

[toddybody]

Can someone please explain to me how 5.25" bays are "obsolete" when you still need them to install your OS? I'm sorry, but most of us don't have a spare rig sitting around dedicated to mounting bootable ISOs onto a flash drive. Whoever thought this was a good idea should be put in stocks and publicly humiliated, and whoever OK'ed this as a "smart buy" should be fired.

Most of us do have USB ports on our rigs.

External optical drives are the way to go. It was the same thing with 3.5" disks. There was an abundance of affordable external USB 3.5" drives before they were no longer in use. Again, unless you're setting up a burn station, there's no real practical use for more than one 5.25" drive bay. Even most would argue that an external optical drive would suffice and they are quite affordable now.

Finally took me buying a pretty case to understand that Just took my 5.25" Blu Ray drive and placed it in an external enclosure...best decision I made. 2 less cables in case, exterior still looks pretty.

I still need my ODD for playing Crysis and some conversion stuff...

 

[fatmaninMI]

Not available through most retailers NZXT works with.. and Newegg charges more for it than anyone else (oddly enough)

 

[ceeblueyonder]

oops. i was wrong. the front is not a door. it looks like a door though. lol.

 

[Haravikk]

This is a great looking case, but with them ditching the optical drives entirely I just don't see the point of having so many hard-drive bays. They could have taken the opportunity to move three or four drive slots to the bottom of the case and made the whole thing a lot shallower (shorter from front to back). As it is the bulk of that front space is going to be wasted; granted people without an optical drive were wasting the space anyway, but if the drives aren't accessible from the front then there's not really any reason for them to be there. If they're going to keep the front drive position then I'd have much rather they'd stuck with a front door and add hot-swap hard drive bays instead, not that there's much need for RAID in gaming these days thanks to SSDs being so fast to begin with.

 

[tropicocity]

I have my H440 in White, and I must say the worst part of the entire case, in fact more or less the only thing that screws with it's awesomeness, is that for a case with so much sound-dampening foam, the fact that all 4 included fans are only powered off a 4-pin molex with no option for control built-in, means that literally they are running at way too high an RPM!My old case was a CM Storm Sniper, this had a mesh side panel instead of a window, mesh on the top, and mesh on the front (including mesh on the 5.25" bays!) and due to the H440's fans running so fast, it is actually LOUDER than my previous case by a decent margin.The front magnetic dust grill, whilst simple in nature and effective at blocking dust, creates quite a large amount of air-based noise with the 3 intake fans running so fast. When you couple this with the fact that those 3 fans cause vibrations to resonate either into the dust grill or into the front panel itself (I have tried repositioning them and came to this conclusion when unplugging the fans removed the noise entirely), you get a case that's aimed at silence, but in effect produces both noise And heat.Granted, I may be spoilt in that my previous case had 3x200mm fans and a 120mm exhaust, which due to the mesh all over I was able to run at their lowest setting (500rpm for the larger fans I believe?) So my idea of a "quiet" case is probably like an oil baron's idea of "cheap" if you catch my drift... but I dunno, NZXT made a stunner of a case but the exclusion of perhaps a simple fan control dial at the back where the LED button is would have made this case unbeatable.I have ordered a 3-pin Y splitter cable that'll allow molex power and motherboard control for 3 of the fans, but having to buy small extras to fix something that the manufacturer could have sorted out from the start does erk me some.

 

[mortsmi7]

External drives defeats the purpose of a case large enough to fit anything in it, plus it clutters the desk. But what about fan controllers, card readers and other things that add versatility to a case that fits in a 5.25 bay?The only case I own without a 5.25 bay is a NAS.

 

[vagrantsoul]

now, pardon my ignorance... but could you possibly hook something like this up in-line with the hub?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811995073

 

[RedJaron]

Interesting thought: Why don't any cases put 5.25" bays at the bottom? No airflow issue because the PSU sits right behind it, and because they're rarely used it's not an issue if they're slightly harder to get to. Though on a desk drives at the bottom would actually be easier to access.

I've thought the same. It might be a little awkward for floor units. But you're right, desk units would improve with this.

This is a great looking case, but with them ditching the optical drives entirely I just don't see the point of having so many hard-drive bays. They could have taken the opportunity to move three or four drive slots to the bottom of the case and made the whole thing a lot shallower (shorter from front to back). As it is the bulk of that front space is going to be wasted; granted people without an optical drive were wasting the space anyway, but if the drives aren't accessible from the front then there's not really any reason for them to be there. If they're going to keep the front drive position then I'd have much rather they'd stuck with a front door and add hot-swap hard drive bays instead, not that there's much need for RAID in gaming these days thanks to SSDs being so fast to begin with.

I agree wholeheartedly. Why keep so much extra room at the front?

If you find yourself [loving the absence of external 5.25" bays], you're going to appreciate the extra space for peripherals (like fan controllers and reservoirs).

Sorry, Kai, this makes very little sense. What peripherals are you going to put here that you can't access from the outside? You can't put a card reader or any type of system monitor display. And, what kind of fan controller do you intend to use without an external bay? Do you plan to mount it backwards inside? If you have to crack your case just to get to the fan controls, doesn't that kinda defeat the purpose of having the controller in the first place?

As for reservoirs, this seems like a moot point. This is a $140 mid-tower case. You've got quite a few options at that price point, and nearly all of them have at least four external bays ( most have five. ) At seven card slots, you're maxing out at three GPUs. And if you're considering this case, it means you're not planning on an ODD in your build. Now I'm not a liquid cooling expert, so I may be wrong, but I don't believe LCing a CPU and three GPUS would require more than three bays worth of reservoirs ( leaving one open for the aforementioned fan controller. ) And when you mount a front radiator you lose some bays to mount reservoirs. So how is this extra room supposed to be a boon when nearly every other four-bay mid-tower has enough room to do the same?

 

[Astrodroid]

So then rayden54 get one of these cases that already include a 5.25 drive (most of them) and stop wearing your keyboard commenting on a review of a product that is not for you

 

[Astrodroid]

Tropicocity why not use the motherboard fan control? most motherboards have at least support for 4 fans plus the cpu.

 

[Karadjgne]

While it seems like there are more than a few here who are dedicated gamers, the are also more than a few who are not. I am one of the later, and I find it rather imbecilic for people to claim that internal optical drives are obsolete. So now I need another external object cluttering up my desk, just because its the latest fashion? All by kids baby pictures are in DVD/BR, why? Because a DVD properly stored lasts longer than a HDD, doesn't have sectors suddenly burn out, there's no motor to fail (my last Seagate, non recoverable) and I have backup copies. Not to mention the small fact that every game I do own and Windows too, is all on disc. My entire system is recoverable in a matter of hours. Contrary to popular belief, unlimited cable internet is not unlimited. My 'unlimited' account is actually a block of 100Gb per month. Normal usage will never cover that in a month of streaming, dl, surfing, but to replace over 20 BR worth of photos, 10 games of over 10Gb each plus all the other stuff on the HDD? Not likely. My pc is not a burn station, its not an over-powered x-box replacement, its not a miner nor a workstation. It's just a frikkin PC and will always be just that, including the internal optical drives.

 

[cocosoy]

For all of you hating on this case because it has no optical drive slot, please, obviously this case is not designed for you if you need the slot. There are PLENTY of cases that have the slot, why hate on something that's not targeted for you? It's like a 3D enthusiast hating on a great TV because that model doesn't support 3D. There ARE other models out there that fits you. You are not the only person in the world, there are people like us who has no use of the optical bay and love this case. Leave us alone.

 

[Karadjgne]

Thought for the day: NZXT H450. A H440 with hinges on the front panel to make it a door, and 2 optional 5.25 bays up top that can be changed out to HDD bays or a third 120mm fan. In the door include 2 transparent or smoked 'windows' and 2 door material covers for ODD slots so users who want to use led fan controllers etc can still 'see' them through the door, or if not, are covered to look like the door.This covers every option, including ease of filter cleaning, 3 fans, no ODD cages, 1 or 2 ODD cages, fan controllers, led readouts, card readers, hot swap bays etc and still maintains the integrity of the case as is.That I feel would be innovative, a truly modular case to satisfy anyone's priorities and needs and esthetics

 

[dennphill]

So it's great to not have a 5-1/4 in external drive bay? I don't bother to even read these reviews because I wouldn't buy a case without an external drive bay. (And, NO, I don't want to install a 5.25 in. floppy drive!) Get real, NZXT. You'll get the idea when you see the lack of sales.

 

[Jeffrey H]

Well I know one thing, those who want a Mini Server or get a Card that supports Drives that need the 5.25 Bays to change out Drives(Uses for Mini Servers) are not going to be happy of this, I mean I know most of the 2.5 to 3.5 Bays will increase let alone my Case has 4 of them, I think leaving them out is not going to make people want to buy Cases that remove them, besides again this is where Old School Cases will be the factor of this.

 

[Zhyr]

I haven't used a DVD drive in over 3 years. Just because you want to have an optical drive doesn't mean that everyone else does.Since you want to continue to have an optical drive, buy a case that has 5 1/4 slots. There's many out there. Stop bitching about it.

 

[Karadjgne]

If the H440 was an ugly case, and none of the extras like lighting and window and hidden psu, and was a piece of junk plastic built by a 5th rate case manufacturer, ppl wouldn't bitch. Unfortunately, its a gorgeous case (especially the black/red in my opinion), its got some great features and is built by a superior case manufacturer! And in designing this case, they have taken away my, and many others, personal choice of owning one. It's a honey covered carrot on a stick bandied just out of reach. THAT'S why ppl are bitching, Guess ppl will just have to settle for a Fractal Design R4, since the option of the H440 has been denied.

 

[ceh4702]

If you have no optical drive bay why do you need such a large case? It is all going to a landfill somewhere.

 

[enonu]

For the folks complaining about a lack of 5.25" bays for OS installs, you can buy a $30 external DVD drive for the 2 times a year you'll use it. Additionally, most folks do not watch video from disc from their PCs unless it's an HTPC, and this is not an HTPC case. It's time to welcome the lack of 5.25" bays for more modern case designs.

 

[clinaman]

It's not for me. I am a user of products that fit the 5.25 bay, particularly HDD in a tray that slides in and connects via sata. That way I can backup my files and pull the drive. I wonder if Dell is going this route?

 

[WyomingKnott]

I personally use two of my external bays as slots for removable bare hard drives. My favorite way to do a backup. Pop in a hard drive, backup to it, put it back in the hard case with antistatic foam.It's a question of personal taste. I suppose it's neat that they make a case for people who prefer to do things this way.

 

[vagrantsoul]

all things aside, the lack of a 5.25 bay was somewhat obviously forseen by NZXT as a detractor for wide adoption at this point... hence the supplies running so low so fast, they DO lose sales from unavailability on top of personal choices.

I really do like this case, coming from a 690II advanced in the rig it replaces... I even installed the OS on a test drive while waiting for my SSD to arrive with an internal drive hooked up and sitting on top of the open case, then shut down and removed it.... worked fine..

there's a wide variety of cases for a reason, personal aesthetics and requirements vary... everyone's mileage may vary

 

[grokem]

Wow, no 5.25" external bays! Sold! I would have purchased this case if it had caught fire during the review and seriously cut someone. The fact that it's actually a very good case is just bonus. I don't have a need for it currently but I want to support manufactures that think different. I don't understand all the posts complaining about a flood of "cases without 5.25" external bays". As far as I'm aware there are exceedingly few of these and almost none with no external bays like this one. Why can't you pick one of the other 1,978 cases with 6 external 5.25" bays and let us enjoy just this one?

 

[sebastian869]

Great "basic" case. My only concern is DUST!!!!!! my mortal enemy does anyone know of a case similar to this (mid tower) that has great dust protection and easily removable filters so that it's not too much of a pain to wash them. If so PLEASE email me at REDACTED - SS or through THG if possible.
I would really be grateful, for some reason I can never buy a case "for life" my last one a lian li u have to disassemble the front to get at the filter.

 

[vagrantsoul]

sebastian, where are you concerned about dust on the h440? the front has a magnetic filter, as does the bottom, i use the top for exhaust... it's been running constantly in a house with a husky in the middle of a coat blowing and two long haired cats since march 16th, no dust inside, only minor build up on the filter (took 4 seconds to clean).

other cases with filtration mentioend:
zalman z11 plus
a bunch of the corsair cases also have good filtration