Gather, children, and I will tell you about a miracle: New Zealand Source 340 compact mid-tower PC case with side window, product code CA-S340W-B1. Delicious gravy, I like that case. Well proportioned without being too cramped for the full size graphics card. Don’t even get me started with the upgraded Power 340 Elite. Many years have passed since these cases were no longer sold and promoted to Components Heaven, and although it took a few tries, there is finally a new chassis worthy of the legacy. : NZXT H5 Flow.
Now, I’m not saying that NZXT is completely lost. Cases like the H500 and H510 are good mid-range towers; I even asked for the latter to contain the main RPS test rig. But even with comparable specs, no noticeable airflow degradation, and the addition of tempered glass windows, they’re still not equal. pretty, do you know? In particular, the metal part is thinner and less tactile, something I always notice whether I’m pressing the power button or swapping out internals.
The H5 Flow also doesn’t completely solve this problem, so it’s closer to the H510 than the Source 340 Elite. However, it makes up for that with lots of other thoughtful touches and outright upgrades that make it feel like a much more worthy successor. I even rebuilt the RPS rig inside of it, probably permanently.
As you can imagine, the H5 Flow has an air-cooled brain. There have been higher airflow variants of previous NZXT cases, including the H510, and this model features the same mesh pattern on the front panel. I say, a change in the usual design language of NZXT, but by no means ugly. The H5 Flow then goes even further in its pursuit of good airflow, adding a curiously angled front intake fan that looks like it’s melted into the PSU Cover. It takes up space that the hard drive cage usually takes, but now that SSD almost cheap, that’s hardly a big loss, and having a second fan pre-installed at the front sounds better than mounting it on the roof. I prefer mounting AIO . liquid-cooled heatsink in the front and let their fans act as the main air inlets, so in this layout the GPU gets some fresh air that hasn’t been pulled through the hot radiator.
Speaking of coolers, the H5 Flow’s slightly wider shape makes it room for fan setups and AIO radiators at the top, as well as at the front. The H510 and even my beloved Source 340 don’t have enough space from the motherboard for more than a single fan, but the H5 Flow gives you the flexibility to place radiators up to 240 mm on the roof. That’s beyond the 280mm max at the front, if that angled fan isn’t enough for you.
The extra 17mm width also does more than you think for a comfortable build. It’s mostly felt in the cable management, with more space behind the right panel to tuck and wrap loose cables. Winding remains a strength of NZXT chassis designs, and with deeper routing channels than the H510 combined with usefully reusable Velcro straps, the H5 Flow continues the tradition. The extra space also means there’s room to mount a 3.5-inch hard drive vertically, if you really want to keep mechanical storage around. There’s also space for up to two 2.5-inch SSDs, along with an ideal M.2 form-factor drive, which should be plenty for the average gaming PC.
My only wish is that NZXT made the H5 Flow a bit longer as well as thicker. The main chassis is only a few millimeters longer than the H510, but since the front radiator mount sits slightly further back than the front mesh panel, the GPU distance has been slightly reduced from 381mm to 365mm. That seems to be turning the other way around, at a time when the lengths of Nvidia RTX cards in particular are spiraling out of control. Most GPUs will still be suitable, but be careful if you’re considering a new GPU. RTX4090 to go with your upgrade case.
Even so, the H5 Flow’s cooling capabilities make it a good match for premium components of lesser nature. Before swapping cases, I did some measurements on my test PC’s water-cooled Intel Core i5-11600K processor and GeForce RTX 3070 to see how warm they get when running games: in the H510 , the CPU fluctuates between 46-49°c with peaks up to 50°c, while the GPU is mostly unchanged from 77°c. In their new home, H5 Flow, the CPU is typically in the 43-46°c range with peaks at 46°c and the GPU at 73°c.
Single-digit differences may not seem like much, and in practice they probably won’t apply to most setups – but if you’re overclocking, they can be the difference between stability and overclocking. heat. Either way, the H5 Flow makes for a significant improvement in cooling over its predecessor, and despite the limitations of soundproofing due to the hundreds of holes punched in the chassis, the fan Its also sounds quieter than the H510.
Even on a slope £110 / $95, and even without the lovely matte finish I miss so much, the H5 Flow still makes money. The refined look and ease of assembly befits the classic Source 340, and at the same time it’s cooler, quieter, and more versatile than the H510. Would I talk about it with such reverence after it was also discontinued? You know what, kids, I just can.
