NZXT H2 H2-001-WT White Steel / Plastic Classic Silent ATX Mid Tower Chassis

Pros: Quiet, clean, easily removable front fans, slide out bottom filter, magnetic door closure, crisp styling, 3-speed fan switch, NO side window (yes!)

Cons: top-mounted USB ports / power / reset / fan speed switches. Factory-installed screws are a bit over-tight, so prepare properly when removing them (they are not the strongest metal - read: china).

Other Thoughts: Sometimes it is hard to find a really nice case that has everything (and more) that one could want; at least a case without an annoying, childish side-window. I am glad I got this model without the window (I think the newer replacement put it in). This is a case for adults who just want something stylish and beautiful, fully functional, and well-made.

It is incredibly quiet, even with the fan setting on the highest. I work in a dusty environment (garage converted to a man-cave), so filters and easy cleaning are a huge plus for me. My only regret is the top-mounted USB ports and switches. Many cases like to put them on the very top, which is inconvenient for people who keep their cases under a desk.

Pros: Excellent case! The case is spacious in essentially every regard. There's plenty of room for large CPU heatsink/fan configurations. There are a bunch of 3.5" internal drive bays (I use 6 mechanical hard drives+1 solid state drive and there are tons of bays and space left for more). I'm happy to say that the case can accommodate the largest video cards, no problem. I have an ASUS Radeon HD6970 with the DCii cooling system - if you don't know, that line of card features a ridiculously large heatsink/fan setup which takes up THREE slots and has a length longer than the lines at retailers on Black Friday. It fits in this case just fine :)

Also, there is a very generous amount of space behind the motherboard tray to route ALL your cables through. Without any real organization, I was able to lazily route ALL the cables in my system through the side of the case and could close the side panel with ease. That's ALL the cables. SATA power cables, molex power cables, PCIe power cables, CPU power cables, ATX power cables, front panel power, reset, LED, USB, audio header cables, SATA data cables for my drives, fan controller cables, fan cables - everything - with tons of room to spare.

Everything seems mostly high quality. Not top-of-the-line perfect, but great. Painted inside and out, strong material and construction, solid feeling buttons, slot covers, front panel audio and USB connectors...magnetic door and top fan/hot swap bay covers, nice weight, sturdy base with strong rubberized feet. Front (top) panel audio jacks are solid and - thankfully - don't suffer any unwanted noise or distortion, unlike any other cases I've had before. I love this case. It's exactly what I've been looking for and does the job perfectly while featuring tons of future upgrade potential.

Cons: None to speak of. I purchased this with prior research and knew what I was going to get for my money. Could the case be made with a side window option? Sure. Could the front panel door have been offered in a white variation instead of brushed aluminum print? Sure. But there's no sense in trying to nitpick and subtract an egg for inherent features of a product that I knew about all along. No cons to speak of.

Other Thoughts: While this is a "silent" case, it still features a decent amount of spots to mount fans - one 140mm on the top, one 120mm on the rear, one 120mm on the bottom (plus one where the power supply goes), and two 120mm on the front. The included fans (two front, one rear) are fairly standard. They don't move a whole lot of air, but fall under the "this will do for now" category. The air flow/noise level ratio is acceptable. In addition to the included front/rear fans I have a top mounted 140mm exhaust fan top help with cooling - again, pretty standard, but it keeps temperatures at an acceptable level - and I overclock. My AMD FX-8150 runs at a modest 4.1GHz and my video card is a major heat source, and my relatively high number of hard drives creates a lot of heat as well. While I am going to grab some high powered, high CFM fans to replace the stock ones, the stock setup gets the job done just fine - and stays nice and quiet while doing so.

Speaking of "quiet" - obviously there's no such thing as a completely 100% quiet case - Not unless you want SOME type of airflow. While you can easily hear fan noise from the case, the side and front panel noise insulation padding does help in keeping the volume down a bit. I didn't get this case for the "silent" aspect, though. I'm used to struggling with the jet-taking-off-from-an-aircraft-carrier-during-a-huge-thunderstorm level of noise that my previous cases would need to make in order to keep things cool. So the fact that this case is nowhere near that noisy and yet still keeps temperatures down is a HUGE bonus.

*Worth noting that the case I received must be a slightly updated version of what's listed here - it's listed as having a USB 3.0 front panel port that uses a passthrough cable to connect to a rear USB 3.0 port on the motherboard. My case did not have the passthrough cable for the front USB 3.0 port, but instead uses the 20 pin cable to connect directly to the 20 pin header on the motherboard - which was a pleasant surprise.

Pros: I really like the looks of this case - It's simply jaw dropping. And you can tell the building quality is there - interior is painted throughout, no rough edges to be found. Good quality gaskets, noise dampening features, filters, the works.

Cons: As some of the other users have noted - the screws on the back of this case were over-tightened and you need to be careful not to strip them. The paint job on the case looks great, but when you go to screw things in, this extra thickness of the finish can make it a difficult fit, etc.

While most of the case is a high quality mental, the front is flimsy plastic - seems like a bit of a let down given the other great features on this case like the front removable fans with contact plates instead of wires (genius). I understand making the bottom stand plastic to help avoid noise vibrations etc. but who ever made the design decision to slap on a cheap front panel that is a fau-stainless plastic asking to get scratched up should be round up and shot (in a figurative sense, only). Every bit of beauty which oozes from this case is lost the moment you touch the front panel (and ONLY the front - the rest is solid sexy) to discover that it is a cheap piece of throw-away plastic. Minus one egg.

So why 3 eggs do you ask, on an otherwise all around great case? There is a bit of a design flaw with the placement of the motherboard in the case versus the top 140mm fan mount. The motherboard placement is such that it gives you just enough room to fit a fan in this location - but not a fan and a radiator for a liquid cooling set up. This is a bit of a disappointment, considering this is such an obvious place to put a radiator/fan (there is even the nifty little magnetic cover with a rear facing vent, for g*d's sake!). Having purchased the 140 mm NZXT CPU liquid cooler kit to go here, I was a bit disappointed that I would have to go get a 120 mm CPU liquid cooler and move it to the rear of the case (as there were not 140 mm holes for the option of mounting the 140 mm cooler in the rear). My disappointment was only further solidified when I discovered NZXT does not make a 120 mm CPU liquid cooler - only in 140 mm and 280 mm (at what is the point, NZXT, in making the first 140mm cooler if you can't even use it in your own cases?). I like the clean look of matching features in my cases, and had already spent a good amount of extra cash on NZXT branded silent fans to emphasize the awesome black on white thing I had going on - how disappointing that in the end I will need to add some loud 120 mm alternative (or spend even more money on another NZXT fan and toss out the other brand's P*S fan) and redesign my airflow pattern when all that was needed was an extra half inch between the top of the case and the motherboard mounting holes. Half an inch guys....

Other Thoughts: I want to love this case - and part of me does. Maybe that's why I find this glaring issue with the inability to mount a cpu radiator at the top of the case such a huge let down. That and having to return and wait for new new cpu cooler has made me wait another 1.5-2 weeks to play with my new toy.... :(

Pros: One of the few cases I've seen that makes it possible to achieve a FILTERED, POSITIVE air pressure inside the case. This means you won't be sucking in dust through every opening (like optical drive bezels). The pop-out front fans are genius. Buttons, audio, usb & cigarette holder on top! Works great with BSD, Linux, & Windows.

Cons: Wish the bottom filter pulled out from the front rather than rear.

Other Thoughts: I bought this used, so can't comment on quality except to say looks appropiate to the price point to me. Cable mgmt. may be a pain to install, but sure looks nice. Will buy another for next build.

Pros: Plenty room inside and also you get a good amount of drive bays. The white case really looks sharp. Having the USB, audio outputs/inputs on the top of the case are great. The case tends to reduce noise inside the PC. I barely hear anything unless a fan is rubbing on a cable. The front fans come out while still powered. The fans are powered by a magnetic connector. This lets you get to the drives easier.

Cons: I am not a fan of the cable management system. The provided mounting system for the hard drive, SSD drives and CD rom are really painful to operate. If I would have known how bad this was designed it would have been a show stopper when I was buying it.

Other Thoughts: Overall the case is decent but the drive mounting hardware could be designed better.

Pros: I bought this on sale and paid $84.99!
It looks to be put together very well. I like that frame is held together with screws not riveted. The white finish is very nice and professional looking. The controls are located on top in a perfect location and even has a three way fan controller built in. It comes with a external bay for a "Hot-swappable" hard drive one top that is neatly tucked away. I like the magnetic fan cover on top as well. The cable management holes are well laid out with plenty of room behind the motherboard tray. I am glad to see that is comes with three case fans that are also white. It comes with sound deadening foam pre-installed. I also love the fact there is NO CASE WINDOW, thank you NZXT!!!! It comes with lots of screws and zip ties. I am really pleased with this case so far.

Cons: The first negative was when I brought it home, I thought I was buying a black case which was all that was displayed and they only had one left. When I got home it was white even though there was not indications on the box that it was white, but it grew on me and I decided to keep it. Its not NZXT's. I did find that the thumb screws were excessively tight and I thought they were going to strip out. The hot swap bay isn't really hot-swap. I have to install the drive and restart my computer before Windows will recognize there is a drive there. The USB 3.0 port on top is REALLY tight and hard to get a thumb drive in and out.

Other Thoughts: GA-F2A85X-UP4
A10-6800k
16 GB Patriot 1600mhz
Crucial M4-256GB SSD
Windows 7 Pro

Pros: Nice case i notice it did not have windows but that ok works like a champ cool features a night light at bottom right.all fans work great and including the exta one i bought all working good love my case.
and can hold alot of hard drives

Cons: none that i could think of except the power supply bought else where maybe get the **NZXT HALE90 V2 NP-1GM-0850A 850W ATX 12V V2.31 has better cable managemnet

**i bought power supply else where it was a struggle to keep all power cables from hitting fans but it ok now

Other Thoughts: my build all brand new items
Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3
ASUS DVD Burner
Pioneer BDR-208 15X Blu Ray Burner
NZXT H2 white case
AMD FX-6300 Vishera 3.5GHZ to 4.10Ghz
2x Kingston 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 total 8G of Ram
CPU Cooler:COOLER MASTER GeminII M4 RR-GMM4-16PK-R2 120mm
Video Card: GIGABYTE GV-N550D5-1GI GeForce GTX 550 Ti
and two extra case fans: XIGMATEK FCB (Fluid Circulative Bearing) Cooling System Crystal Series CLF-F1251 120mm Blue LED Case
Acer Refurb:27inch monitor

Pros: - Solid construction
- Quiet design and Acoustic Foam definitely make a difference
- HDD Dock is a nice feature
- Solid airflow @ low noise
- Pleasing aesthetic
- Fan filters on all intakes
- Bottom mounted PSU with bottom-facing intake

Cons: - HDD tool-less sleds aren't exactly great, can be a challenge to mount the hard drives to their vibration reduction screw setup
- My front fan controller does not function (Fans are at max at all times, but the fans are of such excellent quality that they are near silent)
- Cable management grommets come out unless you're careful during installation

Other Thoughts: I bought this case because I was tired of having a gaudy, loud system. My Antec 900 (original) was definitely aging. It lacked any real cable management options, had no mounting points for 2.5" drives, picked up tons of dust, was loud, and excessively bright. The NZXT H2 is easily the best case I've worked with. Cable management and installation was a breeze. I only wish the standoffs had come preinstalled. The case is silent when my computer is @ idle or just performing CPU tasks.

With an i7 920 @ 3.6 and 2 GTX 480's in the box, there is plenty of heat generation. Whenever I go to game, I just kick up the speeds of the bottom intake and top exhaust as well as monitor the VGA temps through Afterburner. Despite it's acoustically sensitive design, you can put high wattage parts inside of it without significant issue.

Pros: Case looks really good when it's sitting there, and you haven't tried to move it in a while, and don't get to close to it, and don't have an animal that will crawl on it.

Cons: Is not by any means a quality case, but it is also only $99, can't expect the same quality as a $200 case. However, screws where cranked down so tight they had stripped out screw holes. The paint easily chips away when the metal flexes. Worst is probably the noise from the rear fan. It is insane. I eventually just had to remove the fan and install one from another case. I emailed their support and was hoping it was a temporary solution, looks like it is, but only because I am going to have to buy a new fan. Yes, their support (emailed direct, and through their site) has not bothered to even send me a courtesy response.

Other Thoughts: I rated this before a little better, but after owning it for a while I decided I really needed to revisit this and rate it far lower. I am much, much less generous with the company after emailing their support about the rear fan and not hearing a word back from them. That is enough to make me avoid them in the future.

Manufacturer Response:

We want to thank you for being a customer of NZXT.

We also want to apologize for your experience with the H2. Please email our support center at service@nzxt.com or contact us directly at 626.228.1150 to better serve you. We appreciate your feedback and will continue to strive to make our products better.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to let us know how you feel. We appreciate your business and truly want to make your experience as enjoyable as possible.

Pros: Lots of space. Great routing solutions. Love the looks. Good price.

Cons: LOTS. While the outside is great looking the worksmanship leaves something to be desired. The manual has been mentioned, but the screws in the case I got where over tightened with one screw hole actually stripped out. The rear fan is the noisiest fan on any case I have ever owned.

Other Thoughts: Overall for the price I recommend it. The case has it's failings, but I haven't seen anything major, and a fan isn't really going to kill my decision on a case under $100.