Gadgetory

you know I love me a large ITX enclosure and the n60 h200 eye is finally here it's just a mini iteration of the h 709 check it out over here but in order to answer if it's Fred worthy we need to first rewind so I have a really exciting objects the closure that's supposed to hit my doorstep and I'm just excited to see more ITX options in 2018 but why is it that majority of companies that make ITX cases are ballooning them up it seems like the industry is going in Reverse and trying to make them as large as possible so it can accommodate the most hardware but I don't think that's the right approach you could say the same thing about the intro so let's check out the h2 100 I and what it brings to the table right after this the new master liquid all-in-one coolers are available in 120 and 240 millimeter stylish radiator sizes with air balance fans included for best air flow and RGB sync on the pump and the fans that are controlled via this hub or through your motherboard check out the ML 120 ln 240 l down below okay so first of all let's start with the size um I didn't realize just how little and cute the H 200 would be I thought it would be something in the realm of the size of the NZXT monty ITX which as you can see it's much wider it's taller it's just overall bulkier and they went back to the roots of like this whole angular structure that looks fantastic and it's yeah it's so tiny I mean the perspective here I can fool you around but look at this here the NZXT monta and the dark bass 700 the full tower so in comparison yeah it's very small I'm happy that this is the size and nothing bigger and it's also quite difficult to show on camera but the red accents here are super vibrant I was expecting something a little bit more muted but wow I fell in love as soon as I open this just the metal pieces on the interior and the exterior looks fantastic and so in the usual NZXT fashion we have several color options that you need to follow for color coordination because the side ventilation area and the interior cable cover really pop in color I think the price point will be a major deterrent for many even though it comes with a smart hub for fan control and lighting control at $129 in an already expensive ITX eco system you might be tempted by several compact mid tower options like the mesh if I see or the s340 elite for example that they're much cheaper but the H 200 I is a cute little cube with fantastic built quality nice DG panel that is only slightly tinted and the may value-added here is that smart hub that for majority of ITX users might actually be useless and I'll explain later why now because the exterior is full metal aside from the glass panel if you own one of the magnetic pucks you can easily occupy one on the surfaces over here for your headphones and even the colored sections which are also metal you can even attach it right on the corner there for that really cool effect now I love the design direction with the entire H series with the hidden logo in the front and a pretty deep air pocket behind the front panel and the slightly angled ventilation on both sides that actually has a purpose so for the glass part it's part of the frame so it doesn't protrude only the thumb screws do and you can use that slight angle area to pop out the glass panel with your fingers while on the other side it helps to secure the right side panel the rear side panel has captive thumb screws so that's awesome and instead of you kind of inserting the panel on all sides you just insert it at the front because we have these pegs and they go right over here making a reinstallation of the panel a bit easier and that way you can actually kind of compress the cables that are behind it because the panel does pretty much all the job for you now I generally don't might be for thumb screw method on the tempered glass side panel but the threaded here is so short that every time I open one of these up they tend to just simply fall out and roll away forever the i/o is basic with purple USB 3 ports illuminated power button and the i/o cables are already bunched up in this super easy to install connector I really wish this was the standard for all cases up top we have a cool exhaust perforation for a 120mm fan and a built in dust filter since the fan is already pre-installed it's kind of nice but accessing it for cleaning will not be fun now the case is large because we have a roomy power supply chamber with support for standard ATX units and a bracket is pre-installed for SFX power spice too and there's a dust filter underneath there are only two PCI slots the rear 120mm fan can be moved down slightly and behind the front panel is all of our airflow goodness with a removable dust filter and the fan bracket that you pull out after four thumb screws now it only supports up to a 240 millimeter radiator or dual 140 Miller fans and the bracket is non symmetrical so if there's only one correct way to install it with two high positions for the radiator so the lack of a to 80 millimeter rear support is totally understandable given the size of the enclosure but initially when I found out it couldn't support my X 62 it was like why and going back and we'll the feeling a little bit like a hypocrite because I want things to be smaller but yet I question why I can't support certain hardware so as you can see I have the X 62 right next to the front of the case and you can see the height here if this was to support it they would have to either move the front i/o or extend the height of the case because it's just I mean it's almost as tall as the case itself and therefore you know 240 only at the front and I am totally ok with that so coming inside I love the power supply shroud and the cable cover I think for this size of the case this division creates is perfect as the ITX board does not extend beyond the cover and hopefully you are occupying the front with the radiator I love how it wraps below the top fan and extends around the motherboard cable area and flattens out near the GPU section it does fill up the space quite a bit and it can be removed for some breathing room at the front we have 89 millimeters of clearance so you can do push-pull setups but then GPU clearance becomes a concern as with my configuration a 27 centimeter GPU is one centimeter away from the radiator now unlike on the bigger cases this SSD caddy on the side cannot be repositioned to the perforation on the shower on a smaller model because the holes here don't align and they're just for visual purposes and ventilation only at the back the power supply chamber is fully open we have awesome cable routing channels near the main entrance and up top to help control maybe some fan cables or something like that there's a dual SSD caddy and a smart hub tucked away in the corner with everything already pre routed so this is where I think the inclusion of the smart hub for ITX may be a mistake as I went ahead with my XIII 70 build an 80 600 K only to realize that majority of ITX motherboards don't actually have dual USB 2 motherboard headers my z3 70 I gaming only has the one so that's where the smart hub must be connected but majority of all-in-one coolers also require a USB 2 header for driver control so I had to keep my x52 cooler disconnected because of it so I cannot control the color of the pump nor the pump speed however the fans are connected to the Smart Hub so at least that is controllable to me the area around the motherboard is well laid out for all the cables with a long cutout on the shroud to pass anything below and my only complaint are with these 4 thumb screws for the GPU mount which are way over tightened something that's becoming increasingly common among cases and it's annoying ok so the entire build process was easy I'm satisfied with the interior it doesn't appear too large for the hardware but having SFX only support would make the shroud even smaller the built-in LED strip at the top is now more tucked away and gives off nice ambient lighting and you definitely need to have a radiator at the front otherwise the case is not being fully utilized cable guidance at the back is not tricky at all with these plastic channels and a large pocket in front and on the side the power supply but I will suggest to expand one of the main plastic channels so the thicker 24 pin cable can sit in that easy all right so with regards to the smart hub if you want check out the full extensive overview check it out on the H 700 I review it's basically the same thing but on the age 200 I devote you had you can connect up to five fans and you can just basically control the lighting of the top LED strip so as a value-added it's good because it's a combination of grid plus which is a fan controller and the hue plus which is lighting controller built into one but you really got to ask yourself if that's worth it to you and I wish that NZXT would roll out the h200 without the Smart Hub would like a nice price reduction because the case has a lot of potential especially if you're populating a radiator in the front cooling is great it looks fantastic the build quality is awesome tempered glass is nice although those thumb screws do roll away from you the Smart Hub is not for me I would personally just go ahead and plug in my fans into the motherboard but again this is an ITX thing so that you don't have that many fan connectors on 90 exports so having a fan controller built in makes sense but it does occupy that USB port so you potentially may not be able to use your all-in-one cooler with it so it seems like we stumbled upon some compromises that kind of cancel each other out in some way or another but still I wasn't expecting them and so that's it for my review of the H 200 let me know what you think in the comments below subscribe check out this other relevant content and we'll see you next week