Is NZXT Elite Worth The Money?

MutenJoshi · 1 Mar 2020 at 16:03

I'm looking at buying the build at the bottom of this post after a couple of extremely helpful people on the General Hardware page speced it for me (@Danny75 @Joxeon). I asked about a number of cases but thought this would be a better place to ask? I'm trying to do a white minimalist new pc setup. Already have a desk in place with my current PC (the desk is 50cm in depth and I plan to have my build on top of it). From the cases I've seen, the I find the NZXT H510 Elite the best looking one for what I want. I love the glass panel at the front (as opposed to the cheaper H510 with a white front panel) and also like the RGB fans (RGB is a nice to have though rather than a necessity). What do people think of this case in terms of airflow and suitability for my build? Is there a better and smarter looking case (in your opinion of course) that I may have missed? Any recommendations would be really appreciated.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x NZXT H510 Elite Midi Tower RGB Gaming Case - White Tempered Glass= £149.99

Total: £161.09 (includes shipping: £11.10)

My Potential Build:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX (Socket AM4) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £98.99
1 x AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core 4.2GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £154.99
1 x Patriot Viper Steel 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C17 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVS416G360C7K)= £89.99
1 x Corsair TX650M 650W 80 Plus Gold Semi Modular Power Supply (CP-9020132-UK)= £74.99
1 x Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 WindForce X2 rev3.0 8192MB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £349.99
1 x Arctic Freezer 34 eSports Duo Red CPU Cooler - 2 x 120mm= £26.99
1 x LG 27GL850-B 27" 2560x1440 NANO IPS 144Hz 1ms FreeSync/G-Sync Compatible Widescreen LED Gaming Monit= £479.99

Total: £1,289.13 (includes shipping: £13.20)

mods1965 · 2 Mar 2020 at 08:47

To see what people think about this case, I recommend you join the sub reddit r/NZXT. You will find lots of views on this case and you can ask about it.
YouTube Reviews have stated that the case air flow is not perfect and it benefits from having a fan in the roof. Maybe you get a NZXT AER RGB fan for the back and move the standard included fan to the roof.
You might also want to consider a AIO like the NZXT Kraken to complete the look.

Lustral · 2 Mar 2020 at 12:07

The motherboard you have spec'ed up will not have the pin output for the USB-C on the front.

I did consider the above case in my build myself , but i got a NZXT H500i instead as i wanted the 2 x USB-A instead. Also they had a sale on that made the H500i £70

Personally i dont think it is worth the full RRP of £149.99 but there was some sales on that made the elite case near £100 which is more palatable. There are far more decent cases for £150 mark.

MutenJoshi · 2 Mar 2020 at 16:52

Lustral said:
The motherboard you have spec'ed up will not have the pin output for the USB-C on the front.

I did consider the above case in my build myself , but i got a NZXT H500i instead as i wanted the 2 x USB-A instead. Also they had a sale on that made the H500i £70

Personally i dont think it is worth the full RRP of £149.99 but there was some sales on that made the elite case near £100 which is more palatable. There are far more decent cases for £150 mark.

The issue I've got is all of the cases I've been looking at have got USB-Cs (below). Are you aware of any smart looking white cases? I can't find the h500i in stock anywhere. I'd change the motherboard but not sure it's worth it just to get the usb-c on the case when there's one already on the motherboard. That and I wouldnt know what to switch it out to!

As for cooling of a case, based on what I've been looking at, I'm put off by getting water coolers or AIOs as I've never fitted one before. Are they simple enough? Are they worth the extra cost? Can I get away with just fans on these sorts of case or should I really be looking at AIOs? Will I need one just for the CPU or both cpu and GPU? If it's needed, I'll obviously do it as I've got to learn eventually!

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Lian-Li Lancool One Digital Champagne Edition Midi Tower - Gold= £99.95
1 x Lian-Li Lancool II ARGB Midi-Tower Case - White= £87.95
1 x Lian-Li PC-O11 Dynamic Midi-Tower - White Window= £119.99

Total: £328.71 (includes shipping: £20.82)

MutenJoshi · 2 Mar 2020 at 16:59

mods1965 said:
To see what people think about this case, I recommend you join the sub reddit r/NZXT. You will find lots of views on this case and you can ask about it.
YouTube Reviews have stated that the case air flow is not perfect and it benefits from having a fan in the roof. Maybe you get a NZXT AER RGB fan for the back and move the standard included fan to the roof.
You might also want to consider a AIO like the NZXT Kraken to complete the look.

It's the YouTube reviews that have put me off it.

How easy are AIOs to fit? Is it worth spending the extra money? (I'm assuming yes or you wouldn't have mentioned it)

mods1965 · 2 Mar 2020 at 19:23

MutenJoshi said:
It's the YouTube reviews that have put me off it.

How easy are AIOs to fit? Is it worth spending the extra money? (I'm assuming yes or you wouldn't have mentioned it)

I watercool and started out with a AIO, so my opinion is that they are easy to fit, but it is subjective, so I recommend you look at examples on YouTube. I think they are worth it as they look better then the huge air Coolers. They will provide better cooling then a lot of cheaper air Coolers, but the bigger air models are just as good now. It does come down to aesthetics in the end in my opinion.
Look at the YouTube reviews for the new H1. They do a white version and show how the integrated AIO is fitted. It really is esay and if you can wait, that might be an option.

MutenJoshi · 2 Mar 2020 at 20:46

mods1965 said:
I watercool and started out with a AIO, so my opinion is that they are easy to fit, but it is subjective, so I recommend you look at examples on YouTube. I think they are worth it as they look better then the huge air Coolers. They will provide better cooling then a lot of cheaper air Coolers, but the bigger air models are just as good now. It does come down to aesthetics in the end in my opinion.
Look at the YouTube reviews for the new H1. They do a white version and show how the integrated AIO is fitted. It really is esay and if you can wait, that might be an option.

OK cool (pardon my pun. Didn't mean that originally). Just watched a video of a few being fitted and seems straight forward. Essentially no more than installing any normal cpu cooler and a case fan? For the sort of build I'm looking at, how much would you look at spending on an AIO?

Disco_P · 2 Mar 2020 at 21:24

The issue with AIOs is not that they are hard to fit, it's that they have questionable reliability. They are more prone to failure due to cheap pumps, if the pump does fail the cooler provides no cooling whatsoever, occasionally the coolant goes bad and they can leak destroying other components. I'd choose a good air cooler or if you have money to burn then custom watercooling.

You're also going to have to balance the visual appeal of glass front panels with cooling. It's only recently that case manufacturers have started to realise that air can't actually go through glass and therefore been designing around this limitation or scrapping glass fronts entirely. Both of these solutions make me happy.

The H510 Elite screams RGB oven to me, I don't like the aesthetic of either of the lancool cases however the PC-O11 is a god tier case with great cooling and aesthetics. You will have to shell out for fans though, maybe put some bling bling RGB in the vertical side mounts and more basic value fans in the bottom (arctic cooling P12 comes to mind).

Lustral · 3 Mar 2020 at 11:07

https://imgur.com/a/FsTyQzE

My H500i with X62 280mm Kraken.

I have been using AIOs for the best part of 13-14 years and apart from that well documented Raijintek Triton AIO issues , i have faith in AIOs from Corsair and NZXT.