NZXT H230 Silent Case Review
by Dustin Sklavos on September 13, 2013 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- NZXT
- ATX
- Case
The NZXT H230 is a pretty open and shut case, if you'll pardon the utterly freshman grade wordplay. NZXT has a good streak going with the run of Phantoms and their H630, and that streak has essentially come to an end with the H230. NZXT has effectively hit the same wall Corsair tends to: solid hardware from a certain price point up, but having a devil of a time getting the balance right below that point. That's a segment of the market that, ironically, a company like BitFenix will (and does) thrive in.
Build quality of the H230 is for the most part very good, and the aesthetic is pretty simple. Those of you less impressed by the glossy black might be happier with the white version, but overall it at least looks nice enough. The interior has a decent amount of flexibility with the removable drive cage, and the toolless 5.25" drive bay clamps are fantastic, but the drive sleds desperately need to go back to the drawing board.
Unfortunately, once you do get to actually testing the H230, it's pretty much all over. The H230 provides good idle acoustics and that's about it, and unfortunately that's something you can get from other vendors. Load noise is poor with even an arguably modest system configuration, and thermals range from unnervingly hot to downright unacceptable.
I pretty much just plain can't recommend the H230. None of the innovation, creativity, or forward thinking NZXT demonstrated in many of their recent enclosures is evident here; the H230 is instead fairly generic with cripplingly poor performance. Hitting the $69 price point requires a lot of brutal tradeoffs, but I don't feel like NZXT made the right ones. If you're shopping for a silent case at $69, you're better off either tuning an Antec GX700 than going for a case designed specifically for low noise or just trying to expand your budget upward a bit until you hit either the Carbide 330R or a Nanoxia enclosure.
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flemeister - Monday, September 16, 2013 - link
New Audio Test Gear 2008 [SPCR] -- http://www.silentpcreview.com/article875-page1.htm...An Anechoic Chamber for SPCR -- http://www.silentpcreview.com/anechoic_chamber_SPC...
rpg1966 - Saturday, September 14, 2013 - link
Can you please produce charts that show both temperature and noise on the same chart, one on X axis and the other on Y-axis, so that we can more easily interpret the results and compare cases? It would be trivially simple to do.jasonnovak - Saturday, September 14, 2013 - link
I bought an H2 when they first came out, I'm interesting in some more info on the factory tweaks you mention they made to improve airflow. I did a mod I came across somewhere cutting some material away from the bottom of the door.Building Wealth - Saturday, September 14, 2013 - link
When's the pink version out?I like the design of this case. The front door looks good in my opinion. Those drive trays are annoying, though.
Building wealth http://bit.ly/14P6Too
Silma - Monday, September 16, 2013 - link
I have a loud pc with 6 7200 rpm harddrives in raid 6, 2 ssds, 1 gtx680, and an Intel i920.Would a silent enclosure work or is it wishful thinking? If yes which enclosure?
ON my Alienware laptop I have a silent mode which switch from gpu to processor gpu - the laptop basically goes silent, the difference is very noticeable. Is there nowadays a similar technology for desktop pcs?
TGressus - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Near silence can be done in your situation with oversized or multiple radiators used with water blocks and mid-speed/dampened water pump(s) for the the cpu and gpu. This will eliminate the loudest fans and allow you to tune the fans around the case and at the radiator to a lower speed. Fluid-dynamic bearing fans seem to be the best balance of silence/longevity.Without water cooling you best bet is a huge aluminum case that allows for convection and radiation through the case itself. Again most of the noise is going to be a result of your cpu/gpu heat sink efficiency and how their fans react to your workloads, plus the tuning of the case fans.
dehemke - Monday, September 16, 2013 - link
Antec P180 retread again? Was the 180/2 the one true silent case that everything since has just been a refactor of? Where's the new innovation?quas - Saturday, September 21, 2013 - link
How did you test? Did you open the front panel door to allow more air in?xoham - Friday, February 14, 2014 - link
If the front door was a rectangle instead of that cut, and if they took off the brand name, this would be a perfect looking case for me. I don't get why they are putting on brand names. It is not like I take this computer around and people get to see what brand it is and then go buy one.