[section_title title=Cases]Cases
Awarded By – Ben/Gavin
Design – NZXT H440
2014 was an amazing year for PC lovers all around and one of the main highlights was the highly anticipated NZXT H440. The H440 set a nice president when it comes to design with a PSU cover running the full length of the case to allow users to really not have to do any cable management at all but still be left with a clean and tidy looking build. The exterior aesthetics of the case were also quite pleasing and the fact it comes in numerous colours is always a great selling point for any case.
Performance – Corsair Air 240
One of the stand-out cases for me over the past couple of years was the Corsair Air 540 chassis from their carbide series; it offered a level of aesthetical beauty I have been looking for in a case. It’s no surprise that its smaller sibling, the Air 240 takes the performance award today due to a couple of factors. Firstly the thermal performance was superb for a case of its size; usually smaller cases can suffer from lack of airflow etc. Secondly, the level of water cooling support in such a small form factor case is phenomonal and if Corsair were to bring out more Air 240/540 styled cases, I’m sure I would love them too!
Value – Thermaltake Core V31 & NZXT S340
For the Value award I just could not bring myself to choose only one case, so I didn’t! The reason I chose both the Thermaltake Core V31 and the NZXT S340 is they are similar in price and while they have different features and designs, they both offer users a lot of options for their money.
The S340 is like the little brother to the H440 and as such gives users the chance to have an amazingly clean looking build with little effort involved as the PSU cover runs the full length of the case, this is also where the 3.5* hard drive cages are located which again, will leave less mess and especially cables in the main viewed area of the case.
The Thermaltake Core V31 is part of the new Core series which is designed to be highly modular which allows it to be easily customized and setup to each individual’s preferences. With the Core series all comes the new LCS certification from Thermaltake take which stands for Liquid Cooling Supported and means cases bearing this certificate have been tried and tested and are designed to accommodate the needs of hardcore enthusiasts who will wanted to put a full custom loop inside.
Overall – NZXT H440
When all is said and done the NZXT H440 stole the show for the year as it was easily the best all-around case there was. It offered plenty of cooling support in an aesthetically pleasing package that took minimal effort to receive maximum tidiness and over looks. Don’t take my word for it though, Razer liked the case so much they went ahead and teamed up with NZXT to create a custom Razer version of the NZXT H440.
