A Closer Look - Outside

Just like the H630, the H400 is mostly out of metal - including the front. You will also notice the lack of an external optical drive bay immediately. A pretty bold move for a case of this size, it will be interesting to see how well NZXT's decision not to include one will be received. I do like having at least one such bay, but that is a matter of personal preference.


The entire front panel is out of steel, although it comes with a plastic frame. It is completely smooth, but features a little design element similar to that of the H630 in its top-left corner. You will find a bottom-mounted PSU bay in the rear, and the H440 also comes with an all-white interior to match the color of its exterior.


NZXT included a window in the main side panel; it hides all hard drives nicely, but allows you to take a look at everything else. The window has been installed not to have any visible screws or rivets on the outside. Turning the H440 around, the other panel is completely solid.


Let us skip right to the rear of the chassis as there is nothing worth mentioning in the front. There is the aforementioned power supply bay in the bottom. It features a frame which is to be detached and placed upon the PSU. Above that are the seven motherboard expansion slots with their individual black slot covers. You will find two holes for water-cooling tubes to the right of those. There is also a 140 mm fan to push air out the back of the chassis at the very top. You may even move the fan up or down to line it up with your CPU cooler.


You will find the power and reset buttons in the top panel, toward the chassis' left edge. The I/O consists of the usual pair of audio in- and outputs and two USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 connectors. Each plug is clearly labeled, which is especially important for the audio I/O.


Tipping the chassis over, you will find a dust filter on the PSU bay's air vent. This plastic filter can easily be pulled out from under the chassis, so you do not have to put the chassis on its side to do so. Another small but nice feature are the thumbscrews holding the side panels in place as they are firmly attached to the panels, which makes misplacing them impossible.