NZXT H510i - CA-H510i-BR - Compact ATX Mid-Tower PC Gaming Case - Front I/O USB Type-C Port - Vertical GPU Mount - Tempered Glass Side Panel

While this case is a best seller, and most reviews are positive, I read a large amount of negative reviews before buying this case. Don’t let these negative reviews stop you. This case is wonderful. And here’s why:It’s affordable. Don’t let this scare you. This case is among some of the cheapest computer cases you can get if you want something simple and modern, rather than all the crazy, bloated, ugly, cheap cases that dominate the market, especially within this price range. It’s affordable because it is small and it is made entirely from stamped sheet metal. Some reviews argue that the metal is too thin, or that construction seems cheap. I have no idea what kind of unrealistically high standards they have. If you hit it with a sledge hammer, yes, it’s going to bend. But it you bump it with your elbow or knock you microphone stand into it, guess what? Nothing happens. The metal is plenty thick and the finish is very nice and very durable.The side panel is tempered glass. No, that doesn’t mean that it’s as fragile as your grandmother’s display-only china. It means handle it with care and don’t drop it on a tile floor or try to bend or force it, because, apparently to the surprise of a lot of negative review writers, it is glass... glass is fragile. Who knew. The glass sits on two plastic pads just behind the top of the metal on the base. Remove the one screw holding the panel in at the top corner and carefully pull the glass up and out. There is a little lip at the same top corner that holds it from falling over. It’s a bit tight, just take your time and don’t force it and it’s not gonna break.A lot of reviews mention that the screws are very tight before you take any of them out. They are. You’re not going to get any of them out by hand. This is the only complaint I agree with. Just use a standard 2A screw driver with enough pressure to keep the head from stripping and they come out just fine. If you don’t have a screw driver, go pick one up, they’re good to have around.The feet of the case are solid. Just don’t try to slide it across a rough service that might get one lodged. Pick the thing up. It’s not that heavy.The case fans that come with this case are dead silent. They make zero noise. I’m very pleased with that. I recommend keeping the stock case fans and keeping them in their place, if you put a front mounted 240mm liquid cooler, chances are they move more air than the stock fans, and that will keep positive pressure in the case enough that dust barely gets into the case. Obviously some dust over a several months is unavoidable, but if like 5 specs of dust is too triggering for you, there are some holes in the case that you could try to seal up to keep airflow strictly regulated by the fans. The airflow in this case is actually pretty good. Both the front intake location and the PSU intake location have nice quality dust filters on them that can be removed for cleaning.The case does only have one USB port on top, but USB hubs are cheap and easily hidden so it’s not a big deal.And of course, the built-in cable management routing is very helpful. You don’t have to use it if you don’t want to, but it’s very simple and will work for any setup. Definitely a nice feature.So overall, this case is great. It’s a best seller for a reason. It’s affordable, it’s simple, it’s compact, it’s clean, it’s high quality, and the case fans are silent. No nonsense. This case sits proudly on display on my desk and I can’t ever stop looking at it.I might get a second one for my sever PC.

The media could not be loaded. Update: July 2022I have upgraded the CPU to a Ryzen 9 5900x (OC'd to 4500 mhz) and the GPU to an MSI 2080 Ventura (OC'd to 1825 mhz). I also added a Noctua CPU cooler. Hard gaming my thermals are 51 C on the CPU and 38 C on the GPU. I have absolutely no complaints with this thing. I absolutely love the case. I did upgrade the fans to Noctua for thier quality and silent running, however, I have tried out the NZXT fans that came with it and they are just fine as well.First off, let's talk about the pros and cons of this case. Lastly, I have a few things to say about some other reviews of this case.Pros:Great looking caseSturdyGreat cable managementLots of storage baysCons:Hard drive tray is a bit old fashioned.My build.AMD Ryzen 5 3600Gigabyte Aeorus Wi-fi X570GSkill 32 gb (2x16) DDR 4 3200 ram500 GB Silicon Power m.2 driveWestern Digital red 4 TB hard driveAsus STRIX Nvidia GTX 9802x 90 mm and 2 x 140mm nactua case fans.This case is great! Excellent! Stupendous! I did have a slight worry when the case first came because the tempered glass was a little tight and I didnt want to break it. I took my time and was able to get it to come out just fine. This did concern me for a little bit since maybe it would be this awkward Everytime I tried to open the case. Well here are some pointers: if you are really worried. Take off the back metal panel. From there you can access the two tabs that are held in by plastic pressure connectors. If you just apply pressure on the far one, the glass door will pop out easily. However, once I removed the protective plastic film, I found the door opens easily now. I'm thinking that just that little bit of extra thickness makes it a tight fit at first. So let's be honest, this thing has tight tolerances, usually a sign of a well thought design.The capstand screws for a normal ATX motherboard come pre-installed. It even has a self centering screw that keeps the motherboard in place while you tighten everything down. (Just some advice, the case requires you to be precise. Fidget with the motherboard until the back panel sits into its slot tightly, this will allow the capstands and the screw holes to line up.) Once I had all the hardware installed I then began to attach all the fan and power cables using the supplied channels and tabs. It is pretty easy to figure out. They supply some twist ties (you can clip these and use black zip ties if that is your thing.) and some Velcro straps for the main MB power cable and the graphics card power. (One review mentioned that this management system was weak and lacked anyway of holding the cables down beyond the Velcro. This is not true. There are little tabs that you can slip the supplied little black zip ties through in order to secure the cables into the channels.) Everything routed pretty easily and connected just the way it should.I will agree, coming from a 10 year old cooler master case with plastic pop out trays, that the hard drive cage seems a little old fashioned. You have to unscrew it from the bottom(4 screws) then install your hard drive into one of the bays, then screw the cage back into the case. (Let's be honest though, this is not that big of a deal) on the backside of the motherboard there are two plastic trays for what looks like to be ssd management. So those seem to be a little easier to use than any spinning drive. Most modern motherboards come with m.2 sata ports anyway, usually at least two, and with m.2 ssd's becoming cheaper and cheaper. I'm not sure this really matters much.Anyway, there are no slots for DVD writers, blueray drives, etc. This is a modern design case with clean lines. So if you want spinning media, look elsewhere. The entire build was very slick. I took my time and thought things through whenever something seemed to stick or not move as I thought it should at first. I did switch the upper fan. When the case came, both fans were set to exhaust. I think the idea was so that the case would pull more fresh air into the system from the front. Since I added two large fans to the front, I wanted to make sure I had positive pressure inside the case, as that does best for keeping things cool. So I switched the upper fan to blow in, the rear fan and the graphics card being the only exhaust. Everything seems to run very cool.No, the instructions are very paltry. If you don't have any experience system building, don't be intimidated, just look at what you are trying to do. Look at the piece you are installing, and look at the case. You will see how it is intended to work and just remember, seldom are you supposed to just force something no matter the cost.So I'm going to be a harsh critic of some other reviewers, namely some of the 1 star reviews. The reason is, I almost didn't buy this case because of some of the complaints. They made it sound like the case was cheap flimsy garbage and that the built in cable management was just a gimmick. As you can see from my system specs, I wasn't going top of the line, just building a decent system for some Photoshop, light gaming, and mostly Buisness. I decided that the case looked good, and had some positives, so I would take the plunge and get it. If the negative reviews were right, I would just send it back. Well, let me get this off my chest. Those negative reviews are bull crap. I am sure that the guy with broken feet or the one with the broken glass panel are legit. (Although I could fix the feet looking at the supplied photo) Why would you need to fix the feet, one might ask. It should come pristine. That is true. I agree, in those cases, I would chock it up to crap happens. Sometimes you get a raw deal. (I am currently working to RMA a motherboard for another build.) I have been building systems since the late 80's. Bad ram, faulty drives, etc. etc. That's kind of just par for the course.Now let's focus on one particular review. This person claimed the case was supper cheap with thin metal that would easily dent. Another review also claimed that the fan frame at the front of the case was supper weak and would bend and distort if you tried to remove it. I would say both reviewers could be considered partially correct. If you dance on this case it would probably bend, it's not as heavy duty as a Frankenstein Dell from the early 2000's I play around with. That case is a sturdy brick. But let's just say to us normal people, the case is not exactly like a soda can. It is lighter than some and the steal is thinner, but it is still plenty robust. As to the fan frame. Don't be a moron. Yes if you try and yank it out, it will bend and distort. It is not meant to be pulled and bent. If you open the other side of the case you can see where there are three contact points. Unscrew the two thumb screws holding the frame in, then with the back of a screwdriver, press these contact points and it will slip out, no problem. This or another reviewer claimed that the fan frame was soooo cheap that it rattled when he connected fans to it. This I take issue with. If it is so hard to get out, why would it rattle? Well let me assure you, it does not rattle. As to the supplied fans. Because some reviewers complained that why were loud, I went ahead and purchased noctua fans as replacements. I will not be able to speak to the noise level of the NZXT fans as the first thing I did was remove them and replace them. I have been impressed with noctua fans for a long time. Yes the uggle two tone brown is annoying. Although as you can see, they do have some gray ones now. The noctua fans are excellent. They are almost completely silent. No rattling of the case at all. If the supplied fans create excessive noise, I suggest the reviewer look at getting better fans.Wait, why should someone get better fans when they obviously bought a case that came with fans supplied? I don't know, why did you buy a budget case that looks cool thinking you were going to get top of the line fans? And to be honest, those NZXT fans might be completely fine and the reviewer might be just neurotic.Don't force the glass door, it will probably break. Take your time and ask, why isn't the door coming out? I am sure the answer will come to you. If there is sticky goo from the 'warning this is glass' sticker. Take some good gone or even fingernail polish remover on a rag and wipe it off. It's glass, it's not going to melt. (Don't get it on the paint though.)I think this case is fantastic. Everything looks clean and slick. If this is what you're looking for and you don't want to break the bank getting there, do it.Ok. Why am I being this harsh on other reviewers? Well because I almost didn't buy this excellent case. In the back of my mind I almost think some of these negative reviews come from people who work for competitive company's. (I am not affiliated with NZXT or any other computer hardware manufacturer. I have no dog in this fight.) I just am a bit frustrated by the fact that I could have gone with a humdrum case, never realizing how great this thing is.