NZXT H7 Movement RGB (2024) overview: Nice cooling in a small footprint

Whereas it’s not a revolutionary case, the brand new NZXT H7 Movement RGB (2024) makes a major tweak to the unique mannequin launched two years in the past, with a vertical PSU mount. This implies the primary chamber now has a great deal of room for water-cooling radiators, massive graphics playing cards, and CPU coolers, in a surprisingly small footprint. The $150 RGB mannequin additionally features a 360mm fan body with three 120mm followers embedded in it, which appears nice with RGB lighting shining by means of the entrance mesh panel.

This market is crowded on the subject of discovering one of the best PC case choices between $100 and $150, however NZXT has completed a wonderful job in making the H7 Movement RGB (2024) distinctive and engaging sufficient to face out from the group. It sits atop entrance and rear ledges to lift its decrease flush fan mount off your desk, and the clear facet panel practically spans from high to backside. The inside additionally appears significantly clear, due to the outside panels performing as mud filters, which additional boosts this case’s help for giant radiators.

If you wish to water cool your PC with a number of radiators, or simply use a big AIO cooler or air cooler on your CPU, there’s large potential right here for each camps, and I’ll be how effectively its three included 120mm followers carry out.

This case’s options concentrate on making it as straightforward as attainable to construct a gaming PC, together with offering tool-free panels, as you’d count on from a premium PC case. The vertical PSU mount makes a profound distinction in comparison with the unique H7 Movement as effectively, releasing the entire of the bottom for followers and radiators in the same option to a twin chamber case, however with out the huge footprint.

Specs

Design

Regardless of its vertically mounted PSU, the NZXT H7 Movement RGB has an in any other case customary format and even helps E-ATX motherboards as much as 277mm-wide. The actual fact the PSU sits in a rear chamber means there’s a great deal of room to cover cables as effectively, each in entrance of the PSU or within the quite a few routing channels peppered with Velcro cable anchors.

The case itself is sturdy and well-made. Plus, as all its exterior panels are detachable with out instruments, it’s easy to put in your {hardware}, even when your setup contains a number of extra followers and radiators. There are not any inside mud filters both, as this job is dealt with by the outside mesh panels, which would require cleansing a couple of instances a 12 months to stop them from wanting ugly, particularly should you go for the white model.

One facet we felt would have helped the construct course of, although, is a detachable fan mounting tray within the roof. Given the case’s glorious water-cooling credentials, due to a number of radiator places, this characteristic would have been a helpful addition to avoid wasting you holding followers or radiators similtaneously screwing them in place.

There’s additionally one adverse facet of the design, which stems from the vertically mounted PSU. Whereas the followers within the base are welcome, they’re offset from the motherboard by three or 4 inches, that means solely a portion of their blades really level at your graphics card. The mesh on the outside panels can be fairly wonderful, and this may occasionally limit airflow and cut back the affect of extra followers. We’ll see if so within the cooling outcomes later.

The case stands on stilts at both finish, leaving a chamber beneath it that’s begging for some RGB lighting, and NZXT gives its personal F360 RGB Core fan frames for simply that job, and you would add additional fabs or your personal LED strips too.

The bottom space has one other quirk as effectively, which is that NZXT has left a spot between the underside of the fan mounts right here and the sting of the PSU cowl, giving an unwelcome view of your energy provide and cable stowing space should you don’t fill this void with followers or one among NZXT’s fan frames, just like the one included with the H7 Movement RGB. It is a disgrace, and can actually spoil the view, particularly if in case you have a black PSU and the white model of the case.

Options

In addition to the power to suit three 120mm followers or 360mm radiators in all three fan mounting places, the entrance of the case can alternatively home three 140mm followers or a large 420mm radiator, whereas the roof may home two 140mm followers. You’re spoilt for alternative on the subject of liquid coolers or customized water cooling, and there’s 185mm of CPU air cooler clearance, and primarily limitless house for GPUs too.

The F360 RGB Core fan body, which is included with the RGB case mannequin we’re reviewing right here, can both be linked to an NZXT RGB controller, or to your motherboard by the use of a 3-pin header, and it additionally has a 3-pin fan header for energy. A single cable runs off the body to scale back cable litter earlier than splitting into these components, which is a neat contact, whereas the usual mannequin of this case contains three 120mm followers.

Additional clutter-reduction comes from the addition of a giant cable cowl subsequent to the motherboard, which could be eliminated after which changed after you’ve connected energy to all of your gear, so you possibly can conceal the likes of the 24-pin ATX connector and entrance panel cables as a lot as attainable. Neither model of this case has any rear or roof followers, so your CPU cooler and graphics card are left to their very own units on the subject of straight exhausting scorching air, although there’s a minimum of a beneficiant serving to of constructive air stress on the entrance.

In case you have arduous disks and a pair of.5-inch SSDs, then this case additionally caters effectively to your wants. There are two 2.5-inch/3.5-inch drive bays, and two additional devoted 2.5-inch bays behind the motherboard, which is sufficient for many PC fans, and these drive bays fortunately don’t have an effect on the size of PSU you possibly can set up within the case both. Lastly, the entrance panel covers all the same old fundamentals, with two USB 3.0 ports, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Sort-C port, and a headphone jack.

Cooling efficiency

In its out-of-the-box configuration, with three 120mm followers on the entrance, the NZXT H7 Movement RGB (2024) managed to maintain our Core i5 12600K’s CPU temperature to 74°C, which was 2°C hotter than the NZXT H6 Movement RGB with its three angled entrance followers, however 2°C cooler than Cooler Grasp’s MasterBox TD500 Mesh V2. Apparently, including followers to the rear, roof, and base mounts did not decrease this determine by greater than a level.

The 63°C temperature of our Radeon RX 7900 XT take a look at GPU was extra aggressive, being 4°C decrease than the end result from the NZXT H6 Movement, probably as a result of a lot bigger space beneath the GPU cooler, and the followers pointing straight on the GPU too. Including extra followers to the bottom additionally noticed an extra 3°C knocked off this temperature, so that is doubtlessly price doing should you’re going to put in a hot-running graphics card on this case.

Noise degree

The NZXT H7 Movement’s noise studying of 41dBA was slightly below the 42dBA recorded by the NZXT H6 Movement RGB, however the followers did exhibit just a little little bit of a high-pitch drone at full velocity.

We advise limiting the followers to working at 75 % of their full velocity or under, because the drone disappeared at these settings. At a extra typical 50 % velocity, the fan noise was minimize to 38dBA, which was principally inaudible above the noise made by the remainder of the system.

Worth

The NZXT H7 Movement RGB value is $150, whereas the non-RGB mannequin retails for $130. These costs are aggressive, particularly when you think about the case’s help for as much as three radiators, whereas nonetheless having room for the biggest graphics playing cards available on the market. Such a setup can often solely be achieved with a lot bigger instances, or dual-chamber fashions that take up much more desk house. The equal instances from NZXT’s personal lineup, such because the H6 Movement RGB and H9 Elite, in addition to the Lian Li O11D Evo RGB, value both the identical value or are dearer.

There are actually extra inexpensive choices with much less cooling potential, equivalent to Cooler Grasp MasterBox TD500 Mesh V2, however none of them have the identical cooling potential. Along with all that cooling energy, the H7 Movement RGB additionally appears nice and is a pleasing case to work with. It will get full marks for worth if it had been $10 cheaper, however it’s already moderately priced at $130-150.

Options

NZXT H6 Movement RGB

Should you like to actually exhibit the {hardware} in your PC, then NZXT’s H6 Movement RGB provides an aquarium-style view of your PC’s inside for a really cheap value. It doesn’t have the small footprint of the H7 Movement, however it does look completely attractive if in case you have the desk house for it. Just like the H7 Movement, this case additionally provides nice cable-tidying options and glorious construct high quality.

Learn our NZXT H6 Movement RGB overview.

Verdict

The NZXT H7 Movement RGB isn’t solely a great-looking case, however it additionally provides excellent radiator help for water cooling and comes with three RGB followers as customary. Mix this with the wonderful cooling energy on faucet, in addition to the wonderful cable tidying options, tool-free panels, and crowd pleasing design, and the NZXT H7 Movement RGB is a superb piece of PC case design.

It’s genuinely a pleasure to work with this case and construct a PC inside it, and whereas there are some areas that may very well be improved, it nonetheless has a terrific design for the cash. That vertical PSU mount principally means you possibly can squeeze a great deal of {hardware} and cooling gear into the inside however with out the huge footprint of a dual-chamber case. This case allows you to construct a cool, handsome PC, whereas additionally not taking on an excessive amount of desk house.