A Closer Look - Inside

Simply remove the thumbscrews holding each side panel in place to access the interior. A large asymmetrical opening in the motherboard tray gives you access to any CPU cooler's backplate. Five openings on top of that allow for easy cable routing, and numerous little hooks on the tray should prove useful in pinning down cables nicely.


With around 25 mm of space between the motherboard tray and the side panel, you should not have any issues in routing most cables behind the motherboard tray. NZXT placed a fan PCB here to reduce overall cable clutter. It can take up to ten 3-pin fans. A little switch on top of the chassis also allows you to control their speed. To the right of the PCB is a single 2.5" tray, which is perfect for an SSD with the Operating System installed since it would leave all the larger trays free for use with storage drives.


NZXT combines three differently sized hard-drive cages for a total of six 3.5" or 2.5" units. Each of these is installed using NZXT's plastic snap-on drive trays. These cannot be pulled out toward the main side panel; you will have to pull the trays out toward the other side.


You may remove the cages to make room for water-cooling components in the front, like a radiator, reservoir, or pump. To do so, simply remove the thumbscrews and slide each cage out. With all of them removed, you have unobstructed access to the interior of the front, but you may also remove the sockets of these cages and clear out the entire front of the case, which would allow you to utilize the mounting possibility for a radiator at the very bottom. All drives slide into these cages through the opposite side, which means that you will have to remove the side panel there to get to them.


The three external drive bays at the top come equipped with the sturdy tool-less locks out of metal. It is great to see that these locks made it into the more affordable chassis from the premium Phantom 530.


Turning our focus to the rear of the Source 530, the PSU bay is equipped with six foam-covered mounts on which any power supply will rest. Installing even very long units within the chassis should not be a problem. Above the bay are the aforementioned motherboard-expansion-slot covers, each held in place by a black thumbscrew. You will also find the 120 mm exhaust fan with white blades in the back - this fan pulls hot air out of the chassis by pushing air out the back of the case.


You may install a 240 mm, 280 mm, or 360 mm radiator to the ceiling, or substitute it with appropriately sized fans. Unlike the Phantom variant, you can't install a 200 mm unit here. This is no real loss, though, and it is good to see NZXT include a second 120 mm fan in the ceiling, above the CPU area.


All the cables for the Source 530 are sleeved black and of the standard variety. A SATA plug is used to power the rear LED light on top of the usual set. One downside is the fact that users will have to buy their own adapter if they want to use the front USB 3.0 plugs with an on-board USB 2.0 header of their motherboard.