A Closer Look - Inside

The interior of the Whisper chassis has its roots in the Workstation/Server segment. Removing the side panels gives you access to the case. The interior is of the usual grey color and features a simple, but fairly effective layout. Turning the case over, the mainboard tray does have many cutouts. There are two to aid in cable management, but none under the CPU area. Small things like this show that the interior of the Whisper is somewhat outdated or NZXT has decided to simply use an OEM construction and put their front on the case.


The entire case is very heavy. This is not only due to the thick steel used - which is another sign of the actual roots of this case coming from server enclosures - but also the sound dampening materials everywhere. NZXT has covered both sides and the case ceiling. This is a very nice touch and should help with keeping the noise within the case.


The inside space is divided into two sections. The top compartment looks much like a midtower case and holds the mainboard and external drive bays. The bottom compartment is filled by hard drive bays and the PSU bay.


The external drive bay is a simple construction and holds the same plastic locks as found in the Guardian 921. These do hold drives in place, but not perfectly. While you will probably never lug this case around, a single screw to hold the drives in place is always a good idea. The Whisper can hold a total of nine hard drives, which is quite a bit by any standards. The front of the chassis also holds a blue LED intake fan, which actively cools the drives in front. Simple metal trays have been included to ease installation of the storage units. The biggest weak point of them are the two metal clips, which hold the tray in place within the Whisper case. They bend easily and thus cease to function properly.


The rear holds two small exaust fans, which are intended to cool the hard drives in the rear. Having such an air tunnel should create a nice air flow from the front to the rear of the case in this section. Moving up into the mainboard area, there are the two small holes for water cooling tubes. I was surprised to see such small openings. You won't be able to fit thick tubing through these. Above the seven mainboard expansion slots is a 120 mm exaust fan. This makes for a total of four fans within this chassis.


The front may be removed to gain access to the front dust filter and fan. The filter is easily removable and can be cleaned out - a nice touch. The 3.5 inch adapter is made completely of plastic but feels quite sturdy.