NZXT H440 Mid-Tower Computer Case Review

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NZXT H440 Mid-Tower Computer Case Review
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By David Ramsey

Manufacturer: NZXT, Inc.
Product Name: Mid-Tower Computer Case
Model Number: CA-H440W-W1 (white), CA-H440W-M1 (matte black/gloss red)
UPC: 15671011848 EAN: 5060301691098
Price As Tested: $119.99 (NewEgg)

Full Disclosure: NZXT provided the product sample used in this article.

You might think, upon initial inspection, that the NZXT H440 Mid Tower computer case is just another well-crafted and attractive case from NZXT; and you’d be right, in the sense that it’s both attractive and well-crafted. But the H440 hides several innovations under its painted steel skin, one of which will be controversial.

Some of my first reviews for this site were of NZXT cases, and I was always impressed at the features and quality that NZXT could bring to a case retailing for a mere $49.95. Simple ideas like slots for the rear exhaust fan screws that let you position the fan precisely behind your CPU cooler cost virtually nothing to include but added real functionality. The H440 follows in this tradition.

Features & Specifications

Drive Bays	External: 0, Internal 2.5″/3.5″: 6 + 2
Cooling System	Front: 2x 140/3x120mm (3 x 120mm FN V2 Fans Included) Top: 2x 140/3x120mm Rear: 1x 140/120mm (1 x 140mm FN V2 Fan Included)
Filters	Front Side(Included) Bottom Front (Included) Bottom Rear(Included)
Radiator Support	Front 2 x 140 or 3 x 120mm Top 2 x 140 or 3 x 120mm Rear 1 x 140/120mm
Clearance	GPU Clearance With HDD Cage: 294mm GPU Clearance Without HDD Cage: 406.2mm CPU Cooler: 180mm Cable Management: Lowest Point – 17.7mm; Highest Point 32.5mm
Dimensions	220mm x 510mm x 475.3mm
Material	SECC Steel, ABS Plastic
Motherboards	Mini-ITX, MicroATX, ATX
Expansion Slots	7
External Connections	1x audio/mic, 2xUSB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0
Weight	9.75kg / 21.5 pounds
Warranty	2 years

NZXT has been broadening their appeal in the mid- to high-end case market, and we here at Benchmark Reviews have been impressed with cases like new Phantom series. But the H440 is unlike anything that NZXT has done before. In this review, I’ll show you the features that will make you want this case…or cross it off your list.

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Closer Look: Exterior
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The NZXT H440 computer case is a painted white box with few exterior details aside from its large side window. The steel panels give it a heavy, substantial feel, and the white paint is glossy and smooth.

This possibly pre-production case came with no instructions, just a few zip ties and bags of screws as shown below. Since you’re an experienced builder, you’ll know where to use 6-32 screws and M3 screws, right? NZXT also includes four self-tapping fan mount screws and a spare motherboard standoff.

The first unusual thing you can see here is the cover over the power supply area. The side of the power supply cover has a black panel with a backlit “NZXT” logo in it. This cover is part of the case structure and can’t be removed.

The front of the case is a plain white panel. You’d think this front panel is a swing-open door covering the front drive bays. You’d be wrong: rather than swinging off, the panel snaps off to reveal…

…three 120mm intake fans, with a magnetic pop-off filter. There are no external drive bays in this case, which is the “controversial” feature I alluded to in the introduction. This design decision has significant ramifications, which we’ll see when I build a system into this case.

The top of the case has unlabeled power (large) and reset (small) buttons at the left. At the right are jacks for headphones and a microphone, and two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports. And that’s it for your system’s easy connections to the outside world.

The back of the NZXT H440 case is pretty standard: an exhaust fan mount with NZXT’s signature adjustable screw slots, a space for your motherboard’s I/O panel, seven card slots topped by two grommeted holes for water cooling hoses, and a removable power supply bracket. Below and to the left of the opening for the motherboard I/O panel is a small black button used to turn the case lighting on and off.

There’s more to this case, which I’ll get into in the next section.

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Detailed Exterior Features
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Every removable panel in the NZXT H440 mid tower computer case– which includes the front panel, the top panel, and the two side panels– is covered in sound-absorbing foam.

The front and top panels are solid steel, but each has vents in one panel edge for airflow. Here we see the top panel vents, which exhaust air from any top-mounted fans or radiators…

…and here are the front panel vents, which provide intake air to the triple front fans:

Curiously, only one side of each panel is vented, with the opposite side being solid black plastic.

The bottom of the case shows the removable filter for the bottom-mounted power supply, some cable tie-down points, and the bottom of a drive mount area.

Let’s take a look at the interior of this intriguing case in the next section.

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Closer Look: Interior
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Removing the windowed side panel reveals the motherboard tray, along with three rubber-grommeted cable openings and lots of tie down points. Note that the front 3.5″ drive bays are not accessible from this side of the case.

On top of the non-removable power supply cover, NZXT has placed two 2.5″ device brackets. Cable holes behind these brackets make for simple, short power and data cable runs to anything you mount here.

From the other side of the case we can access the five removable drive caddies, as well as the power supply area.

Five removable drive trays can accommodate either 2.5″ or 3.5″ drives (a sixth drive can be screwed directly to the bottom of the case). No tool-less bliss here: you’ll use screws to mount either size of drive. Careful, though: the rubber grommets used for 3.5″ drives don’t protrude through the screw holes, but are simply adhesive donuts placed on the top surface of the caddy. It’s easy to accidentally peel them up when sliding a 3.5″ drive into place.

Removing the drive caddies opens up the front of the case for a front-mounted radiator. If you remove the top four caddies, a 240mm radiator will fit; removing all five caddies makes room for a 360mm radiator. Remember that even with all the drive caddies removed, you can still mount up to three drives: one 2.5″ or 3.5″ at the bottom of the case, and two 2.5″ drives on top of the power supply cover.

Under the top panel are mounts for three more fans, or a radiator up to 360mm. Note that the electronic boards for the power/reset buttons and I/O ports remain on the case, which makes removing and replacing the top panel very easy.

NZXT includes a fan hub that can handle up to 10 three-pin fans, and a controller for the case lighting.

Join me in the next section as I build an SLI gaming rig in this case.

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Building a System
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A standard ATX motherboard fits perfectly. Note that there’s plenty of room between the motherboard and top of the case for even a thick radiator and fans (although a thick 360mm radiator and fans might interfere with the EPS-12V power cable).

One complaint: there’s a mere 5/8″ of clearance between the back of the motherboard tray and the case panel. This will be reduced to less than 1/2″ when the panel’s attached due to the thickness of the sound absorbing foam.

The front edge of the motherboard tray tilts up at about a 40-degree angle to provide mounting points for the drive caddies. This means that an ATX motherboard is the largest you can fit; anything longer, like an XL-ATX or EATX board, would hit the edge of the motherboard tray.

Cables for 2.5″ devices mounted here tuck neatly into the provided cable opening, along with the motherboard front panel cables and a USB line. But see that opening just to the right of the 2.5″ drive?

That’s for your PCI-E power cables. In this build, I’m using dual NVIDIA GTX580 reference cards, with each card requiring both a 6-pin and an 8-pin power connector, so there are a total of four cables routed here…and there’s room for at least two more.

Let’s continue this build in the next section.

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Building a System, Continued
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Things are reasonably neat on the back of the motherboard tray. I’ve a single 3.5″ hard drive mounted in one bay to back up the 2.5″ drive. You do have to be careful of the existing fan and lighting wiring, which is small-gauge and easy to damage. This image also shows another advantage of this case design: there’s plenty of room to stuff excess cabling under the lowest drive caddy. This will be especially handily for systems with non-modular power supplies.

If you’re using a modular power supply, it’s easiest to plug in all the cables you expect to need before sliding the power supply into the case. Once the supply is installed, working through this opening is your only option, and plugging in cables can be a little difficult if you have large hands and/or must work past a tangle of existing cables.

Overall, this was a very clean and easy build. The design of the case, especially the power supply cover, makes for a build so neat it looks as if it was done by a professional modder.

Powering the system up reveals the backlighting of the NZXT logo on the power supply cover…

…as well as the brightly lit ports and slots at the rear of the case. The lighting can be turned on or off with a small button on the back of the case.

In the last section, I’ll present my final thoughts and conclusion about the NZXT H440 computer case.

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Mid Tower Case Final Thoughts
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NZXT’s decision to keep the H440 free of any externally accessible drive bays is a bold new step in tower case design. While we’ve seen optical drive bays vanishing from small form factor systems for a while now, this is the first tower case to have this “feature”. Although most people will immediately think of not being able to install an optical drive, it also means you can’t install a fan controller, a card reader, or a bay reservoir. Of course, all of these devices can be installed externally, and it’s hard to argue with the fact that physical media like optical disks is simply going away. Apple, the first company to eliminate floppy drives from their computers, has eliminated optical drives from their entire computer lineup.

It’s easy to say that optical drives are rarely needed by most people…but think about it: if you’re interested in this case, you’re building your own system. Which means you’ll be installing a separately-purchased motherboard. And what will all the drivers for that motherboard be delivered on? And installing Windows is still a from-DVD process for most people. So for now you’re going to need an optical drive; it’ll just have to be an external one. I would have liked to see an integrated SD card reader like the one NZXT has on their Phantom 630 case.

That said, eliminating external device bays opens up the interior of the case to an amazing degree. You have room for two 360mm radiators, and cable management becomes much easier. With NZXT’s other design features, constructing a super-clean, professional-looking system becomes so simple that even neophytes can do it.

I’m pleased with the results of the build, but I wish NZXT had included a fan controller. The case comes with four 120mm fans, and while every removable panel has thick sound absorbing foam, it did not strike me as a particularly quiet case: the fan noise was clearly audible at all times. Being able to turn down the built-in fans would have helped.

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NZXT H440 Conclusion
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Optical drives aren’t the only thing slowly vanishing from the desktop computer world: tower cases are an endangered species as well. Increasing motherboard features and graphics card power make the seven or eight slots of a full-sized ATX motherboard redundant for most builds, which is why mini-ITX and micro-ATX cases are exploding in popularity.

Still, sometimes you just need a full-tower case (personally I’ve never been really comfortable running air-cooled SLI or CrossFireX systems on an mATX system). With the H440 case, NZXT is adapting to the times, and while its lack of external drive bays will rule it out for some, others will appreciate the advantages of this design. Personally, I’m torn: I have to have an optical drive, but I love the case. Could I live with an external drive? Well, maybe…

The performance of this case right now is in a class by itself. If you want an exceptionally neat, easy-to-build rig, this is your case. My only build complaint was the lack of space behind the motherboard tray. The fit back there is so tight that when I removed that side panel for the first time, there were depressions and small tears in the foam just from the standard case cables. There’s ample cooling, and little touches like the lights on the back of the case for the ports and slots can make day-to-day tasks a lot easier.

Some people have suggested that the white version of this case looks like a Stormtrooper accessory or a small refrigerator. I find the very understated looks attractive; since there are no front bays to access, were it on my desk, I’d turn it sideways so I could look directly into the case window. (I’d also add some interior lighting.)

All the case panels and parts fit together smoothly and appear to be well-made. I was impressed with the quality of the heavy white paint used on this case; I’ve seem other painted cases that weren’t nearly as well-done.

Functionality…well, that’s a tough one. If you need an optical drive or anything else that requires an external bay, this case is a non-starter. If you don’t, you’ll appreciate the tremendous versatility you’ll have in designing your cooling system, the fantastic cable management, and the little touches like the fan hub and power supply cover. Still, in the final analysis, the functionality of this case must be judged as limited compared to other cases.

Costing $119.99 (NewEgg), this case competes well against the likes of similarly-priced cases like the Antec 1100, Corsair Carbide series, or the venerable Cooler Master CM690.

If you’re ready to take the next step in computer case evolution, your case is ready. Wish it had a card reader, though.

Pros:

+ Can accommodate multiple closed-loop water coolers
+ Unique internal design makes it trivially easy to build a super-neat system
+ All air intakes have easily-removable filters
+ A bold new step in tower case design

Cons:

– No externally accessible drive bays
– Limited to ATX-sized motherboards
– No card reader
– Doesn’t seem particularly quiet even with foamed panels

Ratings:

• Performance: 9.50
• Appearance: 9.25
• Construction: 9.50
• Functionality: 7.50
• Value: 9.00

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Final Score: 8.95 out of 10.
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Quality Recognition: Benchmark Reviews Silver Tachometer Award.