NZXT H510 Elite Review

Conclusion

There’s no denying that the H510 Elite is one gorgeous looking case, so gorgeous that if it drove past you’d probably walk into a lamp post while you were ogling it.  But have NZXT sacrificed too much performance in the name of aesthetics?  Let’s look at the basics first shall we?  Measuring 210x460x428mm (WxDxH) the Elite is quite compact.  The chassis is made from steel with a large side and front window being presented in slightly tinted Tempered Glass.  Inside it can, of course, accommodate Motherboards up to ATX, but as you might expect, there’s no E-ATX option.  You can find a home for GPUs up to 368.5mm, CPU coolers up to 165mm tall, and pretty much any PSU you care to think of. 

Storage-wise there’s capacity for 2+1 3.5″ drives and 2+1 2.5″ drives, with most hidden round the back.  When we look at cooling we see that it comes with a pair of 140mm Aer RGB2 fans in the front, and a standard 120mm non-LED fan in the rear.  The roof has support for a single 120mm or 140mm fan, but none is supplied.  Water-cooling wise NZXT says you can fit either a 240 or 280mm rad up to 60mm thick in the front, however, while this might be true without the cable guide bar in position, our measurements had it closer to 45mm with the bar mounted.  Round the back, there’s plenty of cable management space even if the new cable guides don’t work as well as we’d hoped.  There’s also a smart Device V2 which when linked up and enabled via the downloadable app enables the control of compatible devices.

Are there any real negatives?  Nothing major, but bearing in mind that this is a £169 case there are a few niggles.  So in no particular order, we’d like to have seen some of the lesser cable management holes have rubber grommets, we’d like to have seen room for up to 2x120mm or 140mm fans in the roof, perhaps with a removable solid panel if you don’t intend to use them, because the way it is atm makes it feel like a £69 case not £169. We really do think the rear fan ought to be Aer RGB2 the same as the front fans, even if it has to be a 120mm unit.  The 3.5″ caddy is bare bones with no slide-out trays or even rubber isolators.  There’s no padding on the PSU mounts.  And last but by no means least, the instructions are totally crap

So there we have it.  Or do we?  Well the fact don’t always tell the whole story, but before we get into that we have to first think about what we would want this case for.  If you want a balls out gaming case with high airflow, plenty of room and fantastic water-cooling potential then look elsewhere.  If however you’re looking for something that will fit in nicely with the decor of your studio apartment or mature man cave, something you can do a bit of work on, and perhaps a bit of non-graphics-intensive gaming and are prepared to put up with a few minor niggles, most of which you probably wouldn’t even have noticed, or may not in fact bother you, then we think the Elite will fit your needs perfectly.

It goes without saying that the NZXTH510 Elite scoops the coveted “Exceptional Aesthetics” Award because simply put, it’s jaw-droppingly beautiful, but it lacks too many features to be at this price point so, in reality, it’s too expensive.

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