We built an NZXT H5 Flow Elite – Revisiting NZXT’s H5 Flow
Cooling Performance Â
For our custom H5 Flow Elite chassis, we will be sticking to our standard case testing methodology, though we have included some additional testing to satisfy our curiosity, which will be available to see on the next page of this review.
Thermal performance is an essential factor for any PC case. Your system may look fantastic and seem silent from the outside, but all of that is for nought if your PC has the internal temperature of an oven. Your PC case needs enough airflow for your components to remain cool under load and to prevent any form of thermal throttling. For our test, we used the following hardware using fixed fan speeds (so that only the case and its included fans can influence thermal performance).
ASUS TUF Gaming GT501
Intel i9-9700K @4.8GHz at 1.2V
ASUS ROG Strix Z370-F Gaming @ 100% Current Capacity/ LL lvl16
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition @ 9V via Fan Speed Reducer
Nvidia GTX 980 Reference @ 60% Fixed Fan Speed
Corsair LP Vengiance LP (Grey) @ 3200MHz
Corsair MP500 M.2 NVMe SSD
Corsair RM550X Power Supply
The graph below showcases Delta temperatures with a controlled ambient temperature of 20 degrees Celsius.
1000 RPM Fan Tests
Below we decided to test our H5 Flow Elite with and without the case’s bottom “toilet” fan, just to see how much of an impact the fan has. When we turn on the H5’s bottom fan, maximum GPU thermals drop by 3.6 degrees. That’s a big drop, and a clear sign that NZXT are onto something with their H5 Flow’s airflow design.
Max RPM testing Â
When we max out all of the H5 Flow Elite’s fans, we can see that while thermals continue to drop, that the impact of the case’s bottom fan diminishes. While it still delivers a 0.5 degree drop in GPU thermals, it is hard to deny that this is a minimal drop to system thermals. That said, a small reduction in case thermals is still a positive thing.
