NZXT H440 Mid-Tower Case Review @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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NZXT H440 Mid-Tower Case Review - The NZXT H440 Mid Tower Case is a steel enclosure that is solidly built and not priced incredibly high. Its designers have focused on a very clean look inside and out without forgetting about all the actual needs and wants enthusiasts have when it comes to a new chassis. NZXT do not short your on quality fans to make sure you keep your cool either.
 
I am not a fan of front doors or how they have air vents, seem to restrict airflow to much .
Case looks well built for price though .
 
I love that we've come full circle on case colors. 15-20 years ago you got white/beige because that was pretty much all you could get. Finally we're back to white, and it looks great.
 
NZXT makes some absolutely terrific cases. I'm glad you're reviewing them. I have a white Switch 810, and it is a great case. That black and red is also a very nice looking case.
 
EdKiefer said:
I am not a fan of front doors or how they have air vents, seem to restrict airflow to much .
Case looks well built for price though .
Click to expand...

That's designed to dampen noise so that there is no direct pathway from the front fans to your ears. Any case that emphasizes quietness will have this type of design.

The only thing that bothers me is that you open up the door only to find out that there's no drive bays; just 3 fans. What is the point of having a door if it is only to access fans?
 
mkygod said:
That's designed to dampen noise so that there is no direct pathway from the front fans to your ears. Any case that emphasizes quietness will have this type of design.

The only thing that bothers me is that you open up the door only to find out that there's no drive bays; just 3 fans. What is the point of having a door if it is only to access fans?
Click to expand...

It's not a door....
 
Hey NZXT! This is not quite what I'm looking for, but it's got excellent fit-and-finish.

Please, make me a professional version of this:
2_zps4ac0707d.jpg~original
3_zpseb9d0299.jpg~original
1_zpseb84295a.jpg~original


It's an NZXT M59 with the schizophrenic front panel switched out for the Rosewill Challenger U3 panel, which has then been mostly destroyed and covered with a custom DEMCifilter. The motherboard side panel is just the side panel from the Challenger flipped upside down to shine lights through. It should be acrylic, but I use positive pressure so, not a huge deal. Getting rid of the optical drives is a step in the right direction, but there's a lot of wasted space in this 440, and I want a SMALL chassis that makes good use of all it's space. This 440 is basically a full tower you are calling a mid tower. While I can appreciate having more room for cable management, I'm not interested in wasting my precious desk space when I can just do a better job of organizing the cables. The width of the M59 in the photos? 7.5 inches. You've given us almost 9. Let's use 8.1". Also, please don't cover up my PSU, I paid good money for it, and until NZXT starts making top-notch electronics I don't want their name covering up my wiring, my fan switch, or my Seasonic status-symbol.

The comments above about the door/cover/front panel whatever you want to call it, they are reflective of the fact that it is a wasted component of the design. It absolutely is not necessary to make it solid in order to improve sound levels, and the umpteen little channels in the panel's sides for airflow are going to invite capillary action type dust collection, not to mention utterly destroy overall intake potential as compared to a design like I've developed above. All you need to do is put a proper set of multiple removable filters for the door itself and the disruptive action of the filters themselves will muffle the fans. Just make them magnetic, like DEMCi, so we can wash them in cold water and quickly replace.My advice is to use 2 sets of removable filters, and divide the middle section by a real fan controller with separate psu power inputs and pwm inputs. The fan hub is slightly useless as it's powered from a 3-pin motherboard header or from the PSU (the one in the picture actually doesn't look like it has a molex connector either) and no PWM functionality, so you're going to run 10 fans off 1 motherboard header or run them all at full speed? You need to get another fan controller to control the fan hub... but there's nowhere to put it because of the door/wall o fans.

Thanks!

Your fan,
Bluesun
 








Don't see myself buying another case for a very long time.
 
Just as a heads up, you do have a typo near the end with the sound levels. You put "quite" instead of putting "quiet".
 
Derangel said:
So a case with optical bays, no sound dampening, very little cable routing options, and a cramped internal layout is exactly the same?
Click to expand...

The Antec is older.....so not as up to date with the cable stuff. Big deal.
The Antec has sound dampening, too.

I was merely pointing out the design concept is essentially identical, even the bottom of the case, less a NZXT logo.

Other than removing the Optical bays in the NZXT, there really isn't a lot of difference.
I wouldn't buy either one.
Just pointing out there's nothing new here.
 
magoo said:
The Antec is older.....so not as up to date with the cable stuff. Big deal.
The Antec has sound dampening, too.

I was merely pointing out the design concept is essentially identical, even the bottom of the case, less a NZXT logo.

Other than removing the Optical bays in the NZXT, there really isn't a lot of difference.
I wouldn't buy either one.
Just pointing out there's nothing new here.
Click to expand...

They are nothing a like, period. Watch this,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP85Zo-E55I

Nothing a like...
 
I have already done a build in one of these for a friend. It is a great case to work with.
 
magoo said:
The Antec is older.....so not as up to date with the cable stuff. Big deal.
The Antec has sound dampening, too.

I was merely pointing out the design concept is essentially identical, even the bottom of the case, less a NZXT logo.

Other than removing the Optical bays in the NZXT, there really isn't a lot of difference.
I wouldn't buy either one.
Just pointing out there's nothing new here.
Click to expand...

I have the P180, and aside from the similarities on the outside, they're NOT the same thing. Its what's on the inside that counts, trust me. The antec has shit for fan mounting locations, zero cable routing options, cools poorly, and can't accommodate today's graphics cards without removal of the lower HDD cage which leaves a big ugly open space where all your cables show. Don't even think about tri-gpu configurations, as even fitting two cards is a pain. Its been a great, well-built case, but its really showing its age. This nxt (in black and red) will be my next case. I love the way my P180 looks, but it can't handle the latest hardware very well. This nxt is right up my alley.
 
EdKiefer said:
I am not a fan of front doors or how they have air vents, seem to restrict airflow to much .
Case looks well built for price though .
Click to expand...
In case anyone is curious, the front panel does choke the stock fans.
I'm not sure if it really matters for overall airflow but anybody looking to build a monster rig is probably going to have to run with the front panel detached, as it cuts airflow in half (estimate).

They could have put 800~1000 RPM fans on the intake and it would achieve the same amount of airflow with less noise. I guess that's why it's so quiet.
The good news is, you can mount both the front and top panels but don't snap them into place for an extra inch or so of clearance.

I upgraded from a P182, the H440 is superior in all aspects except build quality.
The case is flimsy, it says "steel" but unless I'm an idiot the internals and panels definitely feel like hard plastic. I can literally bend the side panels with my hands.
It also weighs about half as much as my P182.

Under no circumstances should someone buy the P183 instead of this case, it doesn't really do anything the H440 doesn't do better. :/

I like the case but I regret spending $120 on it.
If you want a silent case just save $30-$40 and go for the Fractal R4.
 
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I'm torn. I was going to upgrade my my 2600k rig to the new haswell refresh hopefully coming out in a couple of weeks. The problem that I have is what home will my new rig be in. I currently have been running a white 600t and love it but Ive been rockin it since 2010 and im getting tired of looking at it. This nzxt case is very nice and its up there in the running for me but with some issues. Air flow bothers me with this case because i have a evga 780 ftw with the acx cooling and would run aio in the roof so I NEED air and would never run sli in this thing. And Im not spending 200 bucks on a new high end psu to not show it off.

After my rant, I guess I solved my own problem. 450D it is even tho Corsair has been suckin in the case dpt lately.
 
I have the NZXT Switch 810 case and absolutely love it. It has a ton of custom water cooling in it with room to spare.
 
Im not going to even lie. I pulled the trigger on the black and red one also! First order of business is changing all the fans out to Corsiar Performance fans because the stock fans may be ok, they just dont put out enough air for me. The Corsair 120s are putting out 15 more cfm and not much louder.
 
I got this case and ended up switching back to my Corsair C70. The H440 is a great case but only if you are running watercooling. Airflow isn't that great since the top and front vents are pretty much starving your fans for air.
 
MMMmm... I really like, but white case can be easily scratched and end up with marks of all kinds. You have to keep it semi-wrapped and on a pedestal to keep it that pristine-white!
 
damstr said:
The H440 is a great case but only if you are running watercooling. Airflow isn't that great since the top and front vents are pretty much starving your fans for air.
Click to expand...

Fared a lot better than the H630 though (on air) so it's a vast improvement.
They should dump the 630, use the 440 as a base and add back the opticals and release it as a 640.
 
MonarchX said:
MMMmm... I really like, but white case can be easily scratched and end up with marks of all kinds. You have to keep it semi-wrapped and on a pedestal to keep it that pristine-white!
Click to expand...

I stack games and plates, and whatever on mine, still pristine. Very thick sturdy coating of paint.
 
I'm glad to see a case that ditches the ODD drive slots. I wish they made a black on black version without the window
 
I absolutely love my H440. If it wasn't for me itching for more power I would keep it forever.

1891287_10152332907350628_982890109_n.jpg
 
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