Final Words & Conclusion

Conclusion

You know, the Standard NZXT 500 has been a bit of a classic, good design, proper features, and the tool to build yourself an excellent, but fairly compact clean looking build. Nice and minimalistic are the keywords of this review. The H500 is, in my opinion, the better option over a H500i, as you'd really need to like the CAM software and hardware for the price premium. Most components these days have their own hardware and support for RGB. The NZXT H500 is a fairly spaciously designed casing and therefore provides a lot of installation options and functionality. A large CPU cooler, multiple video cards and a radiator up to 280 mm is no problem at all. The cherry on top of the case was a decent price at say roughly 75 USD/EUR. And that is the biggest problem of the OPVerwatch edition, NZXT nearly had to double up the price, this puppy as tested today is going to cost you roughly 150 USD/EUR. And while we like the H500 very much at that 75 USD bracket, it remains very hard to recommend this product at 150 bucks. There however will be Overwatch aficionado's that understand and have no problem with the price premium. 

The Design

The NZXT 500 can be classified as a PC chassis for the mainstream to high-end build (but not enthusiast). It has a proper size and if you are digging the style, it looks great. We love the tempered glass side panel but do feel it would have been better with a bit of black coating. The storage options for HDDs are a bit limited, just two of them for HDDs and they do not get a rubberized seat. This might be an issue with resonating noises. SSD wise two in the back is simply put enough. Also, the support for up-to ATX motherboards could be something to consider, if you ever plan EATX< then this is not the chassis for you. In return, you get a very clean looking product with plenty of options to hide away cables. The airflow seems okay, the fans if configured right offer proper airflow at low noise.

The Innards

The chassis innards are done clever, we mentioned the advanced hiding options on the left side, hiding the PSU and HDD bay. You'll have a nice all black interior including all black cabling with plenty of hidden holes to work with. We appreciate the overall space for everything and that shielding, albeit simple enough, is screw based. All normal motherboards up-to ATX motherboards will fit as well as the smallest Mini-ITX ones, also the most lengthy graphics card will fit and CPU coolers can have a height of up to 165mm which is a little less than expected, but still, that is a proper tolerance. We'd advise a nice LCS with the radiator tucked away in the front side. There's space for that. The motherboard tray also has a massive cutout which has a shield on the back side as well. With the four included fans you can create enough airflow. That said, there aren't too many meshes which can restrict that fact a bit.

Final Words

The H500 is one of the more compact mid-tower designs that’ll still support an ATX motherboard in a somewhat compact design, and yeah it all comes together very nicely and what seems to be limited space at first sight. The cable management, SSD slots, HDD drive bays, and perforated PSU shroud all come together in a case worth recommending. If you are in the market for a PC case and you want something non-obtrusive and elegant to show off your components, you would be hard pressed to find something within the same price range that exudes the charm of the H500.

The H500 is loaded with good features, looks phenomenal. The overwatch edition, however .. well how to put it. I like the H500 overall, I really do like it. But if the base model is 75 bucks, and this Overwatch edition 150 USD/EUR well, that's a bit of a deal breaker. Are the extra 75 bucks justified for just that right side logo and front LED lit logo as literally that is the sole difference? Well, only Overwatch fans can answer that question I guess. This is, however, a limited special edition, and as soon as LE is written on something, there is a price premium to consider. The 500 itself at 75 USD/EUR, of course, is a really sweet and well-performing case.

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