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The excellent cable management, better thermals, and updated design make the NZXT H7 series one to watch out for. Voltage regulator temperatures show why this builder prefers to put the radiator (and its extra fans) on top, as the N515 fell well behind the H7 Flow’s clear win...
The NZXT H7 is in quite the predicament. The H7 Flow is by far the better PC case. It has better thermals, is the same price, has all the same features and has a completely clean side panel thanks to the large intake vent upfront. If you want something a little fancier, the NZXT H7 Elite has more tempered glass than you'll know what to do with. The H7 Flow’s bottom panel features slide-out filters for both the power supply and the intake gap. While the front filter and its corresponding hole seem unnecessary on a case that has a fully vented face, the same underlying chassis also fits the unvented face panels of its two sibling models. The NZXT H7 Elite is good for those who want to create a statement visually with the front window, whereas the normal H7 would have been good for those who don't wish to pay as much if the H7 Flow didn't cost the same. This makes it the best NZXT H7 option for those who don't want more than one tempered-glass panel (and the included RGB/fan controller hub).
Even with an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X processor, you'll see a good 5% reduction for average temperature in games. It's still not quite as good as some other PC cases, namely the be quiet! Silent Base 802 or NZXT H7 Flow, but it's good to see lower temperatures all in keeping the same overall look of the existing H710.
If you were looking at the front of the H7 and though “but where’s the airflow going to come from?”, the H7 Flow is the case for you. The H7 Flow is the same case as the standard H7, including the same fans out of the box, internal layout, and price point. There are only two differences between the H7 and H7 Flow, and those differences are the case’s front and right panels. The NZXT H7’s design is very skeletal– especially the front panel, which is nearly all perforated. Because of that, I wasn’t expecting a quiet case, but I was wrong– very wrong. Now, this case isn’t quite church mouse-level silent, but for an airflow-focused case, I’m quite impressed. The only case that goes toe-to-toe with the H7 Flow on our chart is the Hyte Y60, but two of its three included fans are in the basement, and it has a whole lot more glass going on to keep the noise down. Thermal Results for the NZXT H7 Flow Obviously, the H7 Flow has a perforated front panel, allowing the case’s front fan (or fans) to intake air directly from the front. This maximises the H7 Flow’s air intake, making it the best performing H7 chassis in terms of cooling performance. Aesthetically, some users may prefer the H7 or H7 Elite, but for those who want the best cooling, the Flow will be the way to go. Cables and headers are also included with the H7 Flow. As per PC case tradition, NZXT includes built-in headers for its power button and USB. The H7 Flow gets bonus points for putting all individual power plugs into a single F-Panel. The all-inclusive F-Panel works well with motherboards. It also saves a tedious job of plugging one tiny header at a time. Although, for some questionable reason, NZXT has left out the reset button. “White is easily the best change for PC owners upgrading from traditional cases.” As expected, NZXT’s H7 Flow delivers much lower CPU and GPU thermals than the standard H7, so much so that the case is one of the best performing cases that we have tested with 600 RPM fan speeds. While the case does not offer cooling that is on par with Fractal’s Torrent chassis, it gets remarkably close for a case that only ships with two fans out of the box. If we added a few more fans to this chassis, maybe we could expect CPU/GPU thermals to lower even further.ÂThe H7 Flow hangs in with the HAF 500 for middling noise levels, beat only by the O11D EVO’s reduced fan set. But that’s with all cases being measured from the front-left and front-right corners. What’s not shown in these numbers is that the H7 Flow became noticeably louder from above the top panel after removing its top filter, which is an angle that we didn’t have other data to compare. The first thing that we will note with our 600 RPM fan tests is that NZXT’s H7 Elite would not let its fans run at speeds of below 750 RPM. This is a quirk of the case’s fan controller and software, and for this reason we have not placed data for the H7 Elite into our 600 RPM fan graphs. Simply put, adding 750 RPM fan speed data would be unfair to the other cases that we have tested. After unscrewing and removing the second and third slot cover, our ATX build slipped right into the H7 Flow with zero issues. Placing the radiator on the top panel while using its fans as exhaust provides voltage-regulator cooling benefits, though at some cost in CPU temperature. There are MANY other cases like this to choose from, and they are MORE AFFORDABLE. Some of them are preinstalled with more fans; this case comes with 2 fans, when the older H710 came with 4. Removing all the panels exposes just how open the H7 Flow is internally, with its forward fan mounts a full 2 inches behind the front panel.
I've gone into some detail about the NZXT H7 series refresh in my NZXT H7 Flow review, but the goal NZXT's designers had in mind was to keep the same look but refine the cooling performance. This was carried out by adding a new side vent for the front fans to gain access to more cool air, as well as a redesigned top panel. We'll map the results against some recently tested large ATX cases, some of which have at least a modicum of EATX support: Cooler Master's HAF 500, Corsair's iCUE 5000T RGB, Lian Li's O11 Dynamic EVO, and In Win's N515. While temperatures were higher than they could have been with better access to air, NZXT was comfortable at the time to mix form with function. For the new NZXT H7 range, the company has redesigned how the cases both take and exhaust air. The NZXT H7 Flow is the biggest change here with the perforated front panel. Sadly, when looking at the H7 and H7 Elite, thermal results were less impressive, especially with regards to the Elite. Even with its additional fans, the H7 Elite does not run much cooler than NZXT’s standard H7, with both cases exhibiting GPU thermals that are 5 degrees hotter than the H7 Flow. If you want low system thermals, the H7 Flow is clearly the case you should be buying. The dust filter at the bottom of the intake duct wouldn’t make much sense if the face panel didn’t also have a filter, so NZXT equips the H7 Flow’s snap-off front with a snap-in plastic-framed filter that covers the entire ventilated section.In all, the H7 is slightly smaller than the H710, and it is significantly lighter. The H710 was 12.1 kg, and the new H7 is 10.26kg. That said, both cases support the same levels of CPU clearance, front fan/radiator clearance, and cable management space. The only compromise with the new H7 is that is has 13mm less GPU clearance, not that 400mm of clearance isn’t enough for practically all modern GPUs. While NZXT’s H710 chassis has proved to be popular over its lifespan, the PC market has changed a lot since this case was introduced. For starters, CPUs and GPUs are more power-hungry than before, making airflow a greater concern for PC builders. This change to the PC market has forced NZXT to include more fan mounts on the top of their H7 series cases, adding support for top-mounted 360mm liquid cooling radiators while redesigning their front panels to enable increased system airflow.
The NZXT H7 Flow is capable of handling not one, but two 360mm radiators — one on the front and another up top. The rear panel has a 140mm fan and radiator mount, atop of seven horizontal PCI slots. There aren't any vertical slots with the NZXT H7 series. Finally, we've got the single tempered-glass window panel, which showcases everything instead within the case. At 1000 RPM fan speeds, the H7 Flow continues to impress. Again, it sits towards the bottom of our graphs, delivering results that are amongst the best cases that we have tested. Again, this is a huge achievement for a chassis that ships with only two fans out of the box, and adding additional fans could result in further improvements to the H7 Flow’s cooling performance.Â
Then, our testing of GPU thermals. The HAF 500 fed our GPU the coolest air, followed by the H7 Flow without the top exhaust filter fitted in place, and then the H7 Flow with top exhaust filter...
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