Showing off my NZXT H2 gaming rig

Show off your quiet rig.

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kuzzia
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Joined: Fri Jul 02, 2010 4:41 am
Location: Denmark

Showing off my NZXT H2 gaming rig

Post by kuzzia » Tue May 29, 2012 3:12 pm

My system is used for gaming (Diablo III, Mafia 2 and other non-demanding games) and other basic tasks (internet, Office etc.). I have already posted a “review” of the NZXT H2:

viewtopic.php?f=27&t=62822
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COMPONENTS:

NZXT H2 - white. Good case but have some flaws: HD’s are difficult to install and almost impossible to uninstall! Though the HD mounting system is tool-less, I had to use a screwdriver to brutally force off a HD. I even broke a HD tray in an attempt to remove the HD. Bad! Also, HDD’s are not side-mounted. The H2 also suffers from limited airflow, the magnetic cover for the top fan is shameful, and the top fan must be a 140 mm fan. Why not 120 mm compatible too? Space for HD in external HD bay is very constrainted. Not much room to pull out the HD without it hitting an edge. The front USB 3.0 feature is simply a USB 3.0 cable routed to the back. Great, if your motherboard doesn’t have internal 3.0 headers (like my motherboard). On the positive side, the construction is really good, there’s a lot of space behind the mo-bo for cable routing, built-in fan controller, 4 front USB ports (x1 USB 3.0, x3 USB 2.0). Looks good in white and 3 mounts for 5,25”, so adequate space for HDD suspension.

AMD Athlon II x3 425 2,7 GHz


Arctic Cooling Alpine 64 Pro. During installation, I had to bend some metal clips, but never risked destroying the cooler. At idle it’s silent! Even when stressed (Prime95) the fan rotated very quietly at 1000 rpm. Impressive to say the least! For quad-cores it’ll probably be stressed too much if the fan spins virtually inaudibly, but many gamers don’t mind extra noise during gaming and games don’t stress the CPU as much as Prime95. Recommended!

ASUS M4ATD-m EVO/USB3

Powercolor Radeon SCS3 5750. Passively cooled GPU, but 120 mm fan has been strapped on. Fan installation was very easy.

2 x 4 GB Corsair ValueRAM DDR3 1333 MHZ CL9.

Corsair CX400W. Fan swapped. The swapping was very easy.

Crucial M4 64 GB

WD Green 500 GB (suspended)

FAN SETUP:

I don’t used any of the stock fans.

CPU. 92 mm fan from Arctic Cooling CPU cooler.
GPU. Scythe Slip Stream 1200 rpm strapped on. Controlled via FanXpert, with a 12-to-7V resistor in between fan and mo-bo.
PSU. Same as above (shares the same mo-bo header as GPU fan via a fan-splitter)
Rear fan. Scythe Slipstream 800 rpm. 5 V, via built-in NZXT H2 fan controller.
Top fan. Same as above. I removed the fan mesh & drilled some holes in the metal frame and then suspended the fan via elastic strings.
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NOISE LEVEL:
Overall noise level: During daytime I can’t hear my system at all except for hard disk which is by far the noisiest component. The noise from the HD is not loud, but the acoustics could be more pleasant. Sometimes I can hear the HD during daytimes but that depends on the traffic. At night, I can hear the HD from over 3 m away but at this distance the noise level is low enough for sleeping. At 1 m: Not loud but very noticeable. Tolerable for me, but some SPCR users would change it. Without the hard disk I can’t hear anything from 1 m (tested at night). At one foot from the case, with the side panel off, I can barely pick up any noise! Only the faint ticking Slip Stream in the PSU is audible (keep in mind the distance).

Edit: I've configured Windows 7 to turn off the hard drive when it has been idling for 2 minutes. So it makes no noise during normal use. Therefore, I can't hear my system when sitting at the desk. The setup can be found in "power options" - "change plan settings" - "change advanced power settings" - "Hard disk"

TEMPERATURES AT LOAD:

Furmark and Prime95. Ambient temperature at 21-22 C.

CPU: 68 C
Mobo: 39 C
GPU: 59 C (~400 rpm). The temperature says it all. Even when the fan spins at a paltry ~400 rpm, the impact is enormous! Running the GPU passively it reached 95 C when I decided to close Furmark (another case fan setup, but quite similar).
HD: somewhere between 35-45 C.
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Last edited by kuzzia on Sun Jul 08, 2012 3:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

lapon
Posts: 31
Joined: Thu May 31, 2012 8:09 am
Location: Stony Brook, NY

Re: Showing off my NZXT H2 gaming rig

Post by lapon » Fri Jun 01, 2012 10:59 am

Looks like a pretty awesome set up! I would keep an eye on those CPU temps but like you say, very few games stress the CPU like Prim95 does. Sounds like a frustrating case to work in.

kuzzia
Friend of SPCR
Posts: 709
Joined: Fri Jul 02, 2010 4:41 am
Location: Denmark

Re: Showing off my NZXT H2 gaming rig

Post by kuzzia » Fri Jun 01, 2012 11:49 am

The work with the internals is actually one of the strongest points for this case. Its light years ahead of small cases with top-mounted PSU. But as you have realized, the NZXT H2 do have some noticeable flaws.

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