Review: NZXT H700i PC Case

A good looking case. I think the airflow might be a bit dodgy though, those front fans are likely gonna be starved for air as the intake mesh doesn't look wide enough. I've said it before, but Gamer Nexus did some work showing that such side vents on the front panel of cases need to be at least 1 inch wide so as to not restrict air intake to the front fans - this is versus testing with front panel removed. I don't know why manufacturers don't make those side vents wider, I mean how much uglier would it make it look, I don't think it would look ugly to be a few more centimetres wider on the side mesh.

 

Overpriced I think. Maybe if it included some more led strips (under the case) and some AER RGB fan...

I don't like the mesh over the PSU either, I miss the NZXT light in the PSU shroud and the lack of vertical GPU mount.

 

Sadly You are not the only one, love this case but same thing happened to me, am in email ping pong with NZXT to try and get it rectified
" With the latest CAM software update, the controller was detected and active, a minute later there was a firmware update available for the unit, and you likely guessed it already .. the firmware update killed the unit. Totally non-functional."

 

I'm looking for a replacement for my old Define S and I've been looking at the Enthoo Pro M for some time. Now that NZXT released this case I was sure I had found my replacement and was happy to see that everything is included (all fans I need plus a fan controller) which would be almost the same price as an Enthoo Pro M plus extra fans, controller and SSD brackets. But hearing how CAM kills the controller I'd better wait until it's resolved.

 

Ill update if /when I get a resolution, to be fair to NZXT they are in talks with the engineers, to try and identify the problem, so hope they have a fix soon

 

Would like to see Hilbert do thermal testing for cases. I think that's the most important aspect of a case. If there is not enough airflow that will cause high CPU, GPU and VRM temperatures that in turn will result in performance throttling then basically the case is not good.

 

Lovely case and nice design. It's way overpriced though. That arch thing really gets in the way. I would tolerate it if it was at the right price. 200 euros for this case is too much.

 

I agree. For me the most important thing is thermals and acoustics, then it comes down to features and design. @Hilbert Hagedoorn I hope you consider this sometime in the future.

 

TBH the thermals and acoustics are not to bad, I'm running a corsair H110iGT AIO, along with a Gigabyte 1080ti water force, I've got the fan for the gpu card pulling air in from the front , and 2 of the new Noctua AF fans (black swap) 140 on the cpu cooler pushing air out the top, temps on the cpu are under 50C and the GPU runs wildlands at 52/53C with a 50% fan curve, and that's without the other fans currently working due to the hub problems,.
just for info, my board is an x99 deluxe 2 ASUS and cpu is i75930K with 32 gb ram, so I think the case is pretty sound, just need to fix the hub problems for the fans/lighting, also once fixed, not sure how it'll work but there is an acoustic mike that supposed to balance fan speed and noise against heat, and its supposed to be adaptable if you upgrade your rig. as for the bar, you can move along a little bit, or take it out, I left mine in and used it to route the corsair pipes along the top bit, and to hide the wiring to the motherboard, it doesn't look that bad, hope this helps you guys

 

Thanks dude though I also hope to hear from someone who bought this case and uses air cooling. Running everything on AIO has different thermal requirements and also creates a different ambient themal profile inside the case.

 

I've commented the same, and Hilbert answered saying that the number of variables & complications make the testing non-representative for all situations/configurations & hence not worthwhile (something along those lines anyway) - although I'm also of the opinion that a common base configuration could be chosen for testing in all cases to at least give some ideas as to thermal performance & acoustics of a PC case. (I think an air-cooled base configuration would be the one to choose).

 

Yup that's more than fair comment, just putting a report of how my set-up faired, hopefully somebody else will give there comments on an air cooled set-up, would be interested to find out myself

 

I just got mine yesterday and its a real treat to build in, when i was done building and powered up cam told me that the HUE+ needed a firmware upgrade, which then proceeded to fail now the HUE+ in the case dont work i cant seem to get it working. YAY

 

Hi there

I would go rather with Pro M TG for such price as this case does look good but CAM SW is pain in arse

If you are want to control everything without the CAM SW then check SIV64, its good alternative to CAM or CorsairLink

http://rh-software.com

Same can apply as well for Coolermaster H500p which looks good but with all panels this case have poor airflow

Phanteks SSD bracket is not expensive, over here cost around £5-£10 and PWM hub around £15

Hope this helps

Thanks, Jura

 

Hi, I've been on to NZXT since last week in the states, they are aware there is a problem and have seen the review, they are looking to get me a new unit sent out, in addition they have also requested that once received could I send mine back to them in the states so they can see what went wrong,
I would advise anybody not to install the new firmware at this point
Also if you have built your rig, I would contact them through a ticket on there web site (need to set up and account) and advise them all the numbers i.e. serial etc. from the side of the box, to see if they will send a new one to you, out of curiosity did you purchase from over clockers, nothing wrong with that just wondering if its a bad batch

 

I already made a ticket just waiting for them to respond to it. I bought it from a Danish retailer called komplett.dk. Problem was it just started the firmware update i didnt get a chance to cancel it.

 

I think I'll go with Pro M TG. I've watched a few reviews of the H770i and they all say the same thing - great but overpriced case with the stupid Smart Hub which completely destroys the case.

Unfortunately the XP fans we talked about do not exist in Sweden so I'll just populate the case with MP fans and hope for the best.

You are right about the SSD brackets, they cost 10€ and the PWM hub 17€ (not sure if it's worth it though, how will it adjust my fans based on temps?)

 

Hi there

XP fans are not available in Sweden that's shame there,these fans I would choose as well as they have similar characteristics like MP with less RPM,but MP fans are very nice fans,if you will keep them in 1000-1200RPM they're very quiet fans,if you can then have look as well on TY-147A SQ

https://www.cdiscount.com/informati...fer=zanoxpr&cid=affil&cm_mmc=zanoxpr-_-269969

These SSD brackets are available for good prices there and they're working beautifully there,PWM hub you need to plug to yours motherboard PWM header and you can adjust temperatures based on what you want or what Motherboard offers or you can try have look on Speedfan and create there profile,this what I done on friend PC as well as he didn't liked idea fans ramping up during the gaming or when CPU temps spiked for few seconds,you can pickup there points like based on temp GPU etc

I would base temperatures on T sensors,do yours motherboard offers T_sensors ?

Thanks,Jura