Gadgetory

hey everyone this is Steve from gamers Nexus tonight and today we're talking about NZXT s not this 450 case also called the N 450 this new case by md xt uses the existing h 440 chassis the frame so the interior of the h 440 is effectively identical to the interior of the n 450 the new case and to that end if you like the interior of the H 440 you might like the N 450 but it's got some pretty big aesthetic differences for those who did not like the interior for the age of the h4 40 for whatever reason you will definitely not like this case also because it uses the same thing the new Noctis 450 by NZXT costs 140 dollars which it puts it in the competitive price range of quite a few other cases it is certainly entering the enthusiast range of computer cases and is competing alongside items like the Corsair 760 t which is currently priced at about $140 after discounts other same range competitors would include the silent base 800 buy be quiet which is a slightly different target market and fractals arc XL which is again a slightly different target market but they are all $140 cases the main selling point of NZXT s noctus of 450 is entirely that it uses the h 440 frame with a new look and in an interview with NZXT s former case designer chun-tae who worked on this case we learned that the noctus 450 was an attempt to move away from the negative connotation associated with gamer quote unquote chassis and that would include things like ntsc's old Guardian which is compared to this quite hideous if we're all being honest here and NZXT isn't the only company that's done this aro cool does it Sigma tech Zalman anyone who makes a quote-unquote gamer aesthetic case is at some level and at some point in time guilty of using very cheap quality components very cheap plastic and creating what might look cool to a certain audience but once you get it in your hands you realize that this is kind of cheap and I actually don't like it anymore so that's what they're trying to move away from with this NZXT really wants to differentiate themselves by employing them artful use of the Yammer look without being cheap or gaudy and it's really up to you guys to decide that I will review to the best of my abilities but I'm trying to remain objective so I will let you decide if you like it or not going over the course pecs of the n450 we learned that there are 3-1 20 millimeter fans in the front 1 140 millimeter fan in the back and that's about it for the stock cooling so you've got a very push intensive configuration and in our smoke tests we show where the hot spots are and if there are any dead zones and yes there's a new smoke test now I want to make a quick note that a lot of cases on the market especially thermal take cases will make very heavy note of how many radiators they support where they support them what type of radiators and it's cool I like that people want to support liquid cooling and there are definitely users who will make use of that especially with open-loop stuff but at the end of the day the vast majority of gamers system builders buying these cases are maybe deployed one liquid cooling unit so I wouldn't get too hung up on case specifications where you're choosing between cases strictly because of the radiator count unless you know that you're going to be using more than one for example if you're cooling the GPU with AC LC as well as the CPU speaking of radiator support the n450 has 25 to 26 millimeters of clearance above the steel of the chassis in the compartmentalized top panel so if you want to install your radiator up there there's just barely enough room and then you can install your fan on the underside to hold it in and we recommend a push configuration in that instance some radiators we found will have difficulty fitting in the case at all including the sidon series which is becoming increasingly rare due to a thrashing put forth by ACE attack who sued coolermaster for their Sidon series but also things like an Tex larger 1250 another cooler brand product and this is because when you install them they'll hang down from the steel chassis and then you obstruct your EPS 12 volt connector and that is inherent with any mid tower case you just don't have the room to play as you would with a full tower case the big thing with the n 450 that's very easy to overlook because it was also the big thing with the h4 40 and the s3 40 is the power supply shroud so the power supply shroud on this car the power supply it covers the cables and it even connects with the drive bays and then covers all the drives the s340 doesn't have drive cages in the same fashion it uses a cable management bar instead but the h4 40 did obviously because it's the same chassis and the fact that there is continuous coverage from the power supply to the drive bays is actually noteworthy because you have other companies like the old half x by coolermaster made several years ago attempted to install a power supply shroud but it's pretty poorly executed anyone who used it will remember that they just removed it most likely and then more modern cases like the fan tax in thule ox which does make use of a power supply shroud and very closely resembles some NZXT products has a gap in the shroud to the drive bays and it doesn't look that great so this is something that NZXT does very well cable management of course is a big deal these days with just about any case and in the h4 40 and now the m4 50 the new case the the cable management pass-throughs are all the same so if you know them then you already know them for them 450 but items that are worth noting that NZXT does well would include the pass-through on the power supply shroud at the top for the PCI Express connector so you can shoot a PCIe connector straight through the PSU shroud and eliminate the need to go behind the motherboard tray which of course reduces clutter and makes it easier to close the panel on many other things so I goes straight into the video card and that is a feature that I am a fan of another item that is very small that I don't think many people will notice is that NZXT actually has several pastors for the EPS 12-volt connectors up at the top where the motherboard mounts at the very top of the case and this is worth noting because not all motherboards position that EPS connector the same spot so with some cases you end up having issues connecting the EPS connector you need to route it a different way or get an extension cable because it's not in the right place and that's because boards will position it either left or right or center of the CPU so obviously build quality is a big thing here as evidenced by NZXT efforts to make the m4 50 a poster child of modern gamer cases and and the higher build quality that and ZX e wants associated them so we analyzed this carefully with everything ranging from the chassis itself underlying frame the structure all the way down to the thumb screws in the paint and that's pretty big range of things but I've got a few items of notes for you first of all the chassis is very sturdy and this is something we know from the H 440 the plastic paneling feels good it has a good feel it has a good look maybe not aesthetically depending on how you feel that's a subjective item but in terms of the actual quality of the plastic and the paint it does look pretty good unfortunately there's a lot more to it than looks and if you just even run your fingernail lightly on the surface of the plastic it will leave a mark it will Mar the case that is not a permanent scratch it can be rubbed off with just basically brushing your hand on it so it's leaving a trail dead skin or something I don't know something gross but that does speak to the quality of the paint it does give concern that the paint is not particularly strong and this is something that was reinforced when I built the system I built it on this table actually so I was building it on this table and I ended up with a couple scratches in the case and the paint on the panels and that's really something that doesn't normally happen the h4 40 uses a different type of paint I can tell just by feeling it it's a lot stronger it has zero scratches on it and it's been through a hell of a lot more build cycles in this case which has been through to build cycles so that is a small mark against the n450 if you're careful and you keep this in mind when you're building and when you move it around you'll probably be okay there might be one small scratch but nothing too terrible another very small item of note that I want NZXT to resolve is their thumb screws and they they've heard me complain about this before but in many of NZXT teas recent cases it has been the case that the thumb screws are over tort when I receive the case and when many customers receive the case I'm sure and this is just a factory issue if they could get the torque spec right I could actually use my thumbs and fingers and whatever to take the thumb screw out of the case and not have to resort to a screwdriver now obviously I can use a screwdriver to take it out so it's not like it's a an inhibiting issue but if you're going to have thumb screws you should go through the effort of making sure the user can actually use their thumbs to remove the screws otherwise might as well just use a cheaper screw and other cases from competitors do this a little bit better especially Corsair ease of installation is the same as the h4 40 so if you want to know more about that watch our h4 40 review the short form is that it's very easy to install system in this case it does not have a five and a quarter base so keep that in mind when you're buying parts but the lack of a five and a quarter bay does lend us some benefits elsewhere like less clutter a smaller drive cage area and generally just better air flow and looking better solid-state drives can be mounted on the top of the power supply shroud which is something I like because I like showing off the surface of the SSDs companies like PNY and Kingston go through efforts to make them look good these days let's talk about the smoke test so this is something that first let's make it very clear our smoke test is not scientific I have not finalized methodology for it I am not using a thermographic imager to log better results at hotspots but just for sake of experimentation and fun and learning about how cases work we decided to build a smoke testing rig ie large piece of cardboard that was insulated and a tunnel connecting the smoke test chamber to the case where the intake is and then ignite a smoke pellet used for testing HVAC leaks and things like that and this shows in the high-speed footage the air channels of the case and we recorded this at 120 fps and at 60 fps using two different cameras helps us slow it down and we can see where the hotspots in the case are so if you watch very carefully here you'll see that the smoke sort of swirls in a circle in the top right of the case and the bottom right of the case and these are in one aspect significant areas the bottom right being near the GPU and this world is happening because the intake comes in at the bottom fan it's the the bottom most fan comes in hits the video card some of it gets sucked into the video card and then the video card does not have the capacity to pull in all of that air so the rest of it ends up spinning in a vortex until it can be consumed and spat out the case if you look closely you'll notice that there's very little exhaust at the bottom of the cake there are a couple of drilled out holes but nothing major there's no fan back there and this will be impacted based on the video card you have more so than the case but the case can certainly assist in the dissipation of thermals toward the bottom and this is especially true when you have a side fan and I've yet to find a case that has a side panel fan that does not cool the video card better than those without if you watch closely all the air gets siphoned out the back very quickly and it even accelerates as time goes on as more smoke fills the case as a CPU fan speeds up it shoots out the back and then the rest of it sort of drifts toward the top and this is actually useful information to know so what we can learn here functionally and practically from the smoke test is that you should not install a fan on the top rear position the back most position this is something I've tested in the past with thermal benchmarks proving the statement and this is because it will siphon air away from the CPU cooler so you end up with a warmer CPU as a result and it doesn't actually give you any benefit if you want to install a fan on the top and not a radiator just a fan you should do it in the front top position because that will actually assist in getting some of the air out of the drive cages if you look in the drive cage area there's actually a lot of sitting smoke and having a fan in this position will pull that away and shoot it at the top of the case so it's not perfectly scientific and we're still developing it but it's a cool test it sort of shows the very basic concepts of air flow in a case and it does so on a super cheap budget I mean we can't afford the high end air flow testing chambers that these companies have so it's not a bad move so that is the n450 overall it's a good case it has a few points of improvement and the $140 price point may be out of reach of some users the aesthetic is cool and well executed but again not for everybody if you want something more subdued look at some of the other NZXT options the s3 40 the h4 40 included or look at their competitors like Corsair is 760 T which is a really cool case and has a big quality glass side panel or even fractal products the arc XL is an example of something sort of different the be quiet silent bass 800 is a very quiet case it's bigger than this is a lot more plasticy but it's quiet and it's the same price so you've got plenty of options out there the m4 50 is worth a strong consideration check the link in the description below for more information on this case and be sure to check back in about a month when we get our thermal benchmark fully operational and we're executing thermal tests again we haven't done that four cases in a little while and pretty excited to get it set up so subscribe to the channel and I will see you all next time you