When letting each case run with their maximum out of the box fan RPMs, the H7 and H7 Elite deliver identical thermal results, proving that the Elite’s additional fan do nothing to lower overall system temperatures. This is a poor showing for the H7 Elite, and highlights the real strength of the H7 Flow. It bests the Elite with fewer fans and a lower price point. The graphics card temperatures saw the Elite's multiple front fans offer the lowest temperature of 71 degrees, followed by the H7 flow and the H7 was 4 degrees warmer due it having just one fan. Conclusions The new NZXT H7 comes with a new side vent for the front panel to aid in providing the up to three fans with more airflow. Then there's the perforated top panel, which helps exhaust fans more easily blow out hot air. All this should provide a small improvement to cooling performance. The extra SSD trays snap onto the round holes of the power-supply shroud…or pretty much any other vent holes you can think of. But we’d rather place them here.

NZXT can fix the H7 with some tweaks that fall far short of an overhaul but right now they still have work to do. Those changes to the panels are welcome, however they fix problems that should never have existed in the first place. When we dug in further and found the specification of the fans made little to no sense it felt like 2019 all over again. The NZXT H710i measured in at an average of 73 C for gaming on the aforementioned CPU. Stress testing through benchmarks saw temperatures approach 90 C at bursts before settling in the mid-80s. The NZXT H7 saw a reduction in the temperature of about 5% across the board. Gaming saw an average of 71 C, which is better than the outgoing case, but still short of the N7 Flow. Voltage regulator temperatures show why this builder prefers to put the radiator (and its extra fans) on top, as the N515 fell well behind the H7 Flow’s clear win... If you’re looking to add a bunch of hard disks, sadly there’s just the basic two 3.5in mounts in a removable cage in the base of the case, which can also be used for 2.5in SSDs, in addition to four dedicated mounts for the latter behind the motherboard tray and on top of the PSU cover.

NZXT’s H series has been tinkered with many times over the years. And with the performance of the new H7 Flow, it’s clear the company’s iconic design can evolve and continue to impress with the changing market and growing thermal demands of today’s high-end hardware. There really aren’t many bad things to say about the NZXT H7 Flow. It’s relatively affordable, impressed during testing, and importantly in my eyes, it takes a different approach to airflow with a perforated metal front and top, rather than boring (and potentially restricting) fine mesh. FYI, their H700s were their 'fix' to this via a brute force method of 'just add more fans', while maintaining the stylish and air flow choking design of the previous cases. It worked, though it could've been better if they'd just done the H7 Flow right then and there. With the front panel being perforated, the H7 Flow’s right side panel can be completely closed off. Unlike the H7 and H7 Elite, the H7 Flow does not require a perforated right side panel for airflow, allowing NZXT to ship this model with a plain right side panel. After unscrewing and removing the second and third slot cover, our ATX build slipped right into the H7 Flow with zero issues. Placing the radiator on the top panel while using its fans as exhaust provides voltage-regulator cooling benefits, though at some cost in CPU temperature. The graph below showcases Delta temperatures with a controlled ambient temperature of 20 degrees Celsius.

We'll map the results against some recently tested large ATX cases, some of which have at least a modicum of EATX support: Cooler Master's HAF 500, Corsair's iCUE 5000T RGB, Lian Li's O11 Dynamic EVO, and In Win's N515. The dust filter at the bottom of the intake duct wouldn’t make much sense if the face panel didn’t also have a filter, so NZXT equips the H7 Flow’s snap-off front with a snap-in plastic-framed filter that covers the entire ventilated section.It was clear from the first moment the three models of H7 have been improved, starting with the addition of a Flow model that has a front panel that clearly has the potential to work well. In addition we were delighted to find the panels are tool-free as that makes life considerably easier. Our starting point for this review of the H7 family starts in 2019 with the H510 and H710, which were interesting cases that leant heavily on looks and styling, and rather less on performance. The first thing that we will note with our 600 RPM fan tests is that NZXT’s H7 Elite would not let its fans run at speeds of below 750 RPM. This is a quirk of the case’s fan controller and software, and for this reason we have not placed data for the H7 Elite into our 600 RPM fan graphs. Simply put, adding 750 RPM fan speed data would be unfair to the other cases that we have tested.

This mid-tower case is ready to bring the cool. Featuring a perforated front and top panel, alongside widened channels, hooks, straps, and toolless entry, this sleek case will keep any build cool and comfortable while offering plenty of space.

As expected, NZXT’s H7 Flow delivers much lower CPU and GPU thermals than the standard H7, so much so that the case is one of the best performing cases that we have tested with 600 RPM fan speeds. While the case does not offer cooling that is on par with Fractal’s Torrent chassis, it gets remarkably close for a case that only ships with two fans out of the box. If we added a few more fans to this chassis, maybe we could expect CPU/GPU thermals to lower even further. Impressively, the NZXT H7 can contain not one but two 360mm radiators. This won't be needed as even the more power-hungry Core i9 and Ryzen 9 processors will only really require a single 240mm or 360mm radiator, making this case ideal for AIO liquid coolers. With up to seven fans to install, it's possible to offset the restricted airflow.

Thermal performance is an essential factor for any PC case. Your system may look fantastic and seem silent from the outside, but all of that is for nought if your PC has the internal temperature of an oven. Your PC case needs enough airflow for your components to remain cool under load and to prevent any form of thermal throttling. For our test, we used the following hardware using fixed fan speeds (so that only the case and its included fans can influence thermal performance).

Since the H7 Flow doesn’t rely on a mesh front panel that doubles as a dust filter, there are filters behind the front and top panel, as well as the PSU intake. You’ll also find a tiny filter underneath the case used for bottom intake, even though there aren’t any fan mounts at the bottom.