NZXT H5 Flow Case Review

NZXT H5 Flow Case Review

A clever design change

If you looked closely at the H5 Flow’s specifications sheet, you will notice that this case has support for fewer 3.5-inch drives than its predecessor. That’s because NZXT has replaced this 3.5-inch drive cage that the H510 had with a custom fan mount and intakes air from the bottom of the case and pushes it towards a user’s graphics card. This custom mount gives the H5 Flow three potential air intakes, giving the case access to more airflow than its predecessor. 

NZXT H5 Flow Case Review

While this design gives users access to fewer 3.5-inch drive bays, it is worth noting that many PC users have moved away from HDD storage, with many PC builders creating SSD-only systems while network-attached storage solutions for higher levels of data storage.

With this additional air intake, users of NZXT’s H5 Flow should be able to achieve lower thermals than with NZXT’s older H510 Flow chassis, especially if they intended to use an AIO liquid cooler with their CPU. 

NZXT H5 Flow Case Review  
How NZXT’s case design impacts thermals

Below, we are using data that was given to us by NZXT to highlight how the design changes included with their H5 Flow chassis impact overall system thermals. 

For starters, the H5 Flow’s top fan mounts allows liquid cooling radiators to be used at the top of the chassis and act as an exhaust. This allows heat from your CPU to be expelled immediately from your case. In contrast, the H510 Flow only supported 240mm liquid cooling radiators at the front of the chassis, effectively pre-heating air that is taken through these primary intakes. ]

With NZXT’s H5 Flow, air taken from the case’s front fan mounts and its new bottom fan all intake cool air. This air is then pushed through the case and out the top/rear of the chassis. In NZXT’s testing below, this configuration delivered lower CPU and GPU thermals.    

NZXT H5 Flow Case ReviewWhat about air cooling? 

When using air cooling, NZXT’s design changes have a lower impact, but they still have a positive effect on CPU and GPU thermals. GPU thermals are dropped by three degrees, and CPU thermals are marginally lower. Not a bad result, especially when the H5 doesn’t have any top mounted fans in this test configuration.    

 

NZXT H5 Flow Case Review Â