NZXT H230 Review

Written by Matthew Lambert

September 4, 2013 | 10:22

Tags: #atx #atx-case #case #cooltek-antiphon #mid-tower #release-date #silent-case #silent-computing

Companies: #nanoxia #nzxt

Cooling Performance

Our test kit includes an ATI Radeon HD 5870 2GB Eyefinity 6 graphics card and an Intel Core i7-870 CPU, which has been overclocked from 2.93GHz to 3.4GHz using a vcore of 1.305V and a CPU PLL of 1.9V. This is a modest overclock, but our test kit will spend most of its life under high load, so pushing it too far isn't in anybody's interests. More importantly, some poorer-performing cases push the CPU temperature to above 80°C, so even this overclock will prove to be too much for some cases.

The CPU is cooled by a Gelid Tranquillo CPU cooler with a Noctua NF-S12B ULN 120mm fan. The NF-S12B ULN is a low-airflow fan, so it will highlight cases with poor cooling for the CPU. We also locked the fan speed on the graphics card to 30 per cent to prevent the automatic speed control interfering with the results.

We record the temperature of the CPU using RealTemp, noting the temperature of the hottest core, and used GPU-Z to log the temperature of the graphics card. Having recorded the ambient temperature in front of the main air intake of each case, we're then able to calculate the delta T - the difference between the ambient temperature of our lab and the temperature of the hardware. To load the system, we use a combination of the Canyon Flight benchmark in 3DMark06 and the smallfft test in Prime 95.
  • CPU: Intel Core i7-870 CPU overclocked to 3.4GHz
  • Graphics card: ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB
  • Motherboard: Biostar TPower I55
  • RAM: 2 x 2GB OCZ 1,866MHz DDR3
  • Hard drive: 160GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.9
  • Heatsink: Gelid Tranquillo with a Noctua NF-S12B ULN fan
  • Power supply: Antec Signature SG-650
**Please note that while reviewing the cooling charts in an effort to trim them down to the most recent and relevant cases, we noticed a few discrepancies in the results of some older cases. As such we have retested the ones we wanted to keep in the charts and the updated results can be found below.**

Case performance - CPU Delta T

Arranged by CPU Delta T

  • SilverStone Raven RV04 (max speed)
  • SilverStone FT02R-W (max speed)
  • SilverStone Raven RV04 (min speed)
  • Antec One
  • SilverStone FT02R-W (min speed)
  • Fractal Design Core 3000 (max speed)
  • Corsair Carbide Air 540
  • NZXT Source 210 Elite
  • NZXT Phantom 630 (max speed; no HDD cage)
  • Corsair Obsidian 900D
  • NZXT Phantom 820 (max speed)
  • Chieftec DX-02B (max speed)
  • Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 (max speed; no HDD cage)
  • Fractal Design Define R4 (max speed; no HDD cage)
  • Chieftec DX-02B (min speed)
  • Fractal Design Define XL R2 (max speed; no HDD cage)
  • Fractal Design Core 3000 (min speed)
  • NZXT Phantom 630 (min speed)
  • Corsair Carbide 330R
  • NZXT Phantom 820 (min speed)
  • Xigmatek Midgard II (max speed; no HDD cage)
  • Antec GX700 (max speed)
  • In-Win G7 (max speed)
  • NZXT H630
  • Thermaltake Chaser A31
  • Nanoxia Deep Silence 2 (max speed)
  • Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 (min speed)
  • Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 (max speed; ventilated)
  • Fractal Design Define R4 (min speed)
  • Cooltek Antiphon (max speed)
  • Fractal Design Define XL R2 (min speed)
  • NZXT H230
  • Xigmatek Midgard II (min speed)
  • BitFenix Ronin
  • Antec GX700 (min speed)
  • In-Win G7 (min speed)
  • Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 (min speed)
  • Nanoxia Deep Silence 2 (min speed)
  • Cooltek Antiphon (min speed)
    • 42
    • 46
    • 44
    • 45
    • 46
    • 50
    • 47
    • 46
    • 47
    • 46
    • 47
    • 47
    • 48
    • 47
    • 48
    • 47
    • 48
    • 48
    • 48
    • 49
    • 48
    • 49
    • 49
    • 45
    • 49
    • 45
    • 49
    • 49
    • 50
    • 46
    • 50
    • 47
    • 51
    • 49
    • 52
    • 51
    • 52
    • 52
    • 52
    • 52
    • 53
    • 46
    • 54
    • 49
    • 54
    • 50
    • 54
    • 50
    • 54
    • 51
    • 55
    • 49
    • 55
    • 50
    • 56
    • 51
    • 56
    • 55
    • 57
    • 52
    • 58
    • 53
    • 58
    • 53
    • 58
    • 53
    • 58
    • 54
    • 60
    • 52
    • 60
    • 53
    • 63
    • 55
    • 64
    • 54
    • 71
    • 59
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
°C, lower is better
  • CPU Delta T
  • GPU Delta T

Case performance - GPU Delta T

Arranged by GPU Delta T

  • SilverStone FT02R-W (max speed)
  • Chieftec DX-02B (max speed)
  • Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 (max speed; no HDD cage)
  • SilverStone Raven RV04 (max speed)
  • Antec One
  • SilverStone FT02R-W (min speed)
  • Chieftec DX-02B (min speed)
  • Xigmatek Midgard II (max speed; no HDD cage)
  • Fractal Design Core 3000 (max speed)
  • Corsair Carbide Air 540
  • NZXT Source 210 Elite
  • Fractal Design Define XL R2 (max speed; no HDD cage)
  • NZXT Phantom 630 (max speed; no HDD cage)
  • Corsair Obsidian 900D
  • NZXT Phantom 820 (max speed)
  • Fractal Design Define R4 (max speed; no HDD cage)
  • Fractal Design Core 3000 (min speed)
  • Antec GX700 (max speed)
  • Nanoxia Deep Silence 2 (max speed)
  • SilverStone Raven RV04 (min speed)
  • In-Win G7 (max speed)
  • NZXT H630
  • Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 (min speed)
  • NZXT Phantom 630 (min speed)
  • Thermaltake Chaser A31
  • Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 (max speed; ventilated)
  • Corsair Carbide 330R
  • NZXT Phantom 820 (min speed)
  • Cooltek Antiphon (max speed)
  • Antec GX700 (min speed)
  • Fractal Design Define XL R2 (min speed)
  • NZXT H230
  • Xigmatek Midgard II (min speed)
  • In-Win G7 (min speed)
  • BitFenix Ronin
  • Nanoxia Deep Silence 2 (min speed)
  • Fractal Design Define R4 (min speed)
  • Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 (min speed)
  • Cooltek Antiphon (min speed)
    • 44
    • 45
    • 49
    • 45
    • 49
    • 45
    • 42
    • 46
    • 47
    • 46
    • 47
    • 46
    • 50
    • 46
    • 53
    • 46
    • 47
    • 47
    • 48
    • 47
    • 48
    • 47
    • 50
    • 47
    • 48
    • 48
    • 48
    • 49
    • 48
    • 49
    • 49
    • 49
    • 51
    • 49
    • 54
    • 49
    • 55
    • 49
    • 46
    • 50
    • 54
    • 50
    • 54
    • 50
    • 55
    • 50
    • 52
    • 51
    • 54
    • 51
    • 56
    • 51
    • 52
    • 52
    • 52
    • 52
    • 57
    • 52
    • 60
    • 52
    • 58
    • 53
    • 58
    • 53
    • 58
    • 53
    • 60
    • 53
    • 58
    • 54
    • 64
    • 54
    • 56
    • 55
    • 63
    • 55
    • 71
    • 59
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
°C, lower is better
  • CPU Delta T
  • GPU Delta T

Read our performance analysis on the next page.
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