Assembly

Installing the motherboard is done by traditional means, with the use of the black spacers and some screws. As you can see in the image above, all the hard-drive trays are missing. I had to remove them because they kept falling out of their bays with the case tipped on its side. I am amazed NZXT still uses these flimsy trays, even after reviewers and users alike commented on their fragile and soft nature. The company not listening to the community is more than unfortunate, so we will have to dock NZXT points for these from now on out. It is one thing if the trays are flimsy, another if they do not hold in place properly and yet another if we have been told, "yes, they are no good and will be phased out" a long time ago. Even the new Source 530 seems to use the same trays yet again.


NZXT is then still using these very fragile, but intricate-looking hard-drive cages. We were told that future NZXT cases will use more robust trays, but have yet to see such a transition. That said, the current trays do not require any tools to be filled unless you want to place a 2.5" unit into one. Once a drive has been installed onto a tray, simply slide the tray into the slot until it snaps into place. Connectors will face toward the motherboard, which will minimize the cable mess inside your case.


Installing an optical drive within the NZXT H230 does not require any tools. Once the bay of your choice is free, unlock the plastic lock and slide the drive into position. Last but not least, snap the lock back into place. The drive will now be held in place quite well, but you may want to apply a single screw to the opposite side to stop any vibrations these drives may cause.


Installing a power supply is done by traditional means and does not bear any surprises. Simply screw your PSU down with the provided screws.


With everything in place, the full system looks quite clean as all the cables can be hidden behind the motherboard tray. The numerous hooks in the tray create plenty of possibilities for routing and securing all the cables.

Finished Looks

The H230 makes a good impression with everything in place and the side panels back in place. The solid panels encapsulate sound quite nicely, which works well with the adequately quiet fans NZXT provided. Sure, have some extremely loud components within the H230 and you will find your system to be noisy, though the H230 still does a very good job in reducing operating noise. A white LED in the top lets you know that the system is up and running as there are no other visual elements to do so.


The black optical drive bay looks quite sexy within the white H230, and closing the door will encapsulate sound there to that area of the case. The rear does not have a lot to keep noise away, which is fine because it faces away from you, and all the connectors are where you would expect them to be. It would have been a really nice touch of NZXT to include the I/O light of their higher-end cases in the H230, but we understand their aim to differentiate each individual price point within the product range.