Test System

Assembly

Adding a motherboard is done by traditional means, with screws and spacers. Thankfully, NZXT has pre-installed the latter, so you simply put the board in place and screw it down. There is very little space above and below it, which reduces accessibility of any connectors along the motherboard's edges. This is especially true for the CPU power plug, which is traditionally in the top-left corner. While the H500i can hold a CPU cooler of up to 165 mm, I used a slightly more compact unit to make the assembly process a little simpler.


Adding an SSD is quite easy due to the spring-loaded trays. Simply squeeze down on one side to pop them off the chassis panel, fill it with a drive using screws to hold it in place, and then pop it back into the case—either on the shroud or the backside of the motherboard tray.


However, the 3.5" drives are quite the contrast as you will be forced to lay the chassis on its side first to then remove the four screws holding the cage in place before pulling it out of the system. While this is a minor hassle when initially assembling things, those wanting to expand their running system will be forced to detach everything and pull the whole unit out as well. NZXT should have gone with trays for at least two of the three drive placements.


Adding a PSU is pretty unspectacular. Simply slide it in, screw it down, and connect all the components to it. There is plenty of room, so you should be able to use any unit regardless of size.


Once everything is assembled, the NZXT H500i makes a very clean impression due to the metal cover within the case. Even the backside is pretty tidy due to the cable trenches and plenty of mounting possibilities for cable ties in combination with the excellent wiring of existing leads out of the box.

Finished Looks

Once turned on, the lighting within the system turns on in white by default. The power supply LED is also white, which works quite well for this case.


Looking at the side, you can see the hue of the RGB strip behind the cable opening cover emitting an indirect light. Snapping a picture looking up at the ceiling of the H500i shows the second strip casting a glow at the top of the system.


In the rear, everything is where you would expect to see it, with the PSU on the bottom, the expansion cards all horizontal by default, and the exhaust fan pushing air out the back. On a side note: the fan in my case sample had some sort of loose contact, so I had to wiggle things around a bit to get it up and running.