Outside of the Case
As you can see this case is really ZEN and not meant to be the focal point, it is meant to let your build inside to be the focal point as it should be. Its pure black and white simplicity is easy to see but inside is hiding some real extras that are going get your heart rate up. The front of this case has no drive bays or controls to busy your focus and the only drive bays in this case are hidden inside the case and very nicely done. Okay but what about using that DVD or BluRay with this so just get a matching external box for it because there is no place for it here in the NZXT 340W.
When it comes to accessories they must be external and plugged into the peaceful back of this box. The front of the case is a press on cover with built in ventilation tunnel underneath for cool air to be sucked into from top and bottom and the entire front is dedicated to keeping your heated parts cool and at peace with a pair of 120mm or 140mm fans in the very least. We will study more of this feature in the next page.
This case has a really great see through window. The window is big and clear and easy to see through and there are no drive bays to hide here or ugly wires to route through a hole or hide behind the motherboard. The wires are hidden best with the pressed and labeled custom channel inside cover to hide the huge 24 pin cabling that the Motherboard requires and there are no drive wires to hide because the drives lay down low and out of the way and each SSD that can be seen is meant to be mounted for an almost wireless look. This is new for most case manufacturer’s but this type of wire management is old school Modding 101 to the Mod Men reading here as a little smile comes to your face because its all done right for us the first time and the novice beginners will look like a professional even with their first build using this case.
This side is plain and clean and this is done by simplistic engineering Zen. Lying just a few millimeters behind this clean and serene beautifully painted plain white panel is the ugliest part of any case build, the huge 24 pin cable and sata wires and fan wires that all the lines that take away from a truly professional peaceful and professional looking build but NZXT brings what the Modder’s did before to anyone now and it comes stock with case wire management being not just a top priority but a positively virtuous need. This is done to perfection here hiding all the ugliness of the build behind a nice channel on one side and access panels from the bottom like a famous magician then and a beautiful black vented Power supply cover that gives anyone that clean simplicity this side gives all and says absolutely nothing and will keep you as calm and peaceful as any meditation experience you may practice.
From the top of the case you get your black contrast. Not exactly the Ying to the white yang but there is an almost old school black board feel to the top that houses a 120 or a 140mm Fan blow hole. The fan that comes with the NZXT S340W-W1 is the stock 120mm FN-V2 fans in both the top and in exhaust back but the hole is ready for any 140mm fan the builder wants to give for more air for and more silent noise.
The bottom is one of the busiest parts of the build as the intake for the power supply is vented with a water washable vent that locks in behind side tabs but it too is simple and easy to get to sine the feet of this machine lifts the bottom of the case a full two inches or 5.5 mm off the floor for pure cool and cleaner ventilation and if you look really closely in the front there is four holes for mounting an SSD to the top side bottom from the bottom for the ultimate in concealment.
Here is a look of the filter which is the same consistancey of your drier vent in your clothes drier an probably is the very same material. its meant to be taken off and washed and replaced and since it is durable and does the job no harm no foul here.
With the filter removed the truly clean look comes back to mind and the air vents that feed the cool air to the power supply is more than enough to do a zero resistance intake into the all important heart of the machine.
The only controls are the very basic that you need for any build. From Right to left there is the lightly illuminated power button, two backward compatible 3.0/2.0/1.1 USB ports, headphone jack, microphone jack and a hard drive activation light to let you know that the system is running just in case the quiet gets too much for you.
Finally something that I had to say negative about this case and its really picky and anal retentive at best but the back pci ports have those bend off knock out covers that come with most really cheap, but the Steel is thick and strong and I didn’t like that they painted inside the PCI holes. These are not going to come with the final selling unit as I got one of their prototype units with the Steel knockouts still intact but the final version will have them removed and the vented black pci covers will be standard.
Inside the box of the case was a plain manila sealed and padded package with some really nice black ventilated PCI covers. These were also prototype and a version of vented pci covers will came with the unit that will be sold and not sold separately.
