NZXT has built up a distinctive product range that encompasses cases, CPU and graphics-card coolers, and even motherboards, all with a unified and distinctive design language. Today, the company is making the fruits of its design chops attainable for more builders with its H500 and and H500i cases.
The basic H500 formula starts with a clean exterior and a tempered-glass side panel. The all-steel chassis comes in four color combinations: matte white, matte black, matte black with red accents, and matte black with blue accents.
The H500 has a removable front liquid-cooling bracket to ease installation of radiators and fans. That front bracket can hold radiators as large as 280 mm. NZXT includes two 120-mm fans in the H500: one in the rear and one on the top. The case's front air intake and PSU vent are both filtered to lessen dust buildup.
The H500 also includes built-in cable-routing clips and quick-release SSD bays behind the motherboard tray for clean and simple builds. Those SSD brackets can be moved atop the internal PSU shroud to show off storage devices, too. The PSU shroud conceals a 3.5″ storage cage with room for two drives.
The H500i builds on the basic H500 formula with NZXT's “Smart Device” peripheral. This combo fan controller and RGB LED lighting hub integrates with NZXT's CAM software to purportedly adapt fan-speed curves to component temperatures for the best balance of noise and cooling performance. The H500i includes two pre-installed RGB LED strips and a vertical graphics-card mount in the box, although builders will need to supply their own PCIe riser cables to put their pixel-pushers on display.
The clean design and solid feature set of the H500 won't cost a mint, either. The basic H500 will list for $70, while the H500i's extras add up to a $100 price tag. The H500 and H500i are available for pre-order in the USA today and will become available in early June. Availability in the rest of the world should follow in mid-June.