Can we talk about the new NZXT case that is basically a PC version of the Xbox Series X?

[Brooksie359]

14 hours ago, SansVarnic said:

Its possible they provide the case for the new xbox? just a guess.

or its a total rip off, lol

How is it a ripoff? It's a rectangular prism with a design that is fairly different from the new xbox if you take the shape out of the equation and tbh I think this looks a good bit taller so I am not even sure shape wise it is all that similar. I mean 99% of all cases are the same general shape for normal ATX cases but I would hardly call them ripoffs of one another because they are vastly different in other aspects. 

[Unixsystem]

7 hours ago, RejZoR said:

I had small form factor from Lian Li. Not even these absurd tiny cases, it was just miniATX and while it looked fancy being a tiny cube, it was a literal nightmare to maintain. I had to constantly fiddle with it, redesigning cooling, its placement, then I bought graphic card which was suppose to fit, but ended up not because of PSU which was placed vertically next to it. I had enough and now I have a midiATX tower which is super silent because of all the extra insulation and covered fan intakes and exhausts and all the freedom to place anything anywhere.

 

These tiny cases are really when you build them and then throw away when its time to upgrade. Coz it's juts not worth the hassle.

This is kind of the point I'm at. As a teen I always wanted the massive full tower cases just for the epeen, and then when I did my last build I went for a 400C which is on the smaller end of mid tower. Not ITX, certainly, but with an EATX board and CLCs on both the CPU and GPU and several other PCIe cards, this thing is an absolute mess to maintain and I'm already looking into going into an O11D XL. Even in an apartment, the desk space is not worth the hassle of needing to basically disassemble the entire case just to plug a new SSD in. 

[Brooksie359]

1 minute ago, Waffles13 said:

This is kind of the point I'm at. As a teen I always wanted the massive full tower cases just for the epeen, and then when I did my last build I went for a 400C which is on the smaller end of mid tower. Not ITX, certainly, but with an EATX board and CLCs on both the CPU and GPU and several other PCIe cards, this thing is an absolute mess to maintain and I'm already looking into going into an O11D XL. Even in an apartment, the desk space is not worth the hassle of needing to basically disassemble the entire case just to plug a new SSD in. 

Yeah I helped a friend build an itx build and honestly after that experience I will never attempt to build one unless it is some sort of APU build. I made the decision to buy my last case on the grounds it was big enough to make building in it easy. I absolutely hate building pcs in smaller cases which is why I usually look for cases that are easy to build in when buying a new case. 

[GoodBytes]

The case is massive. It is in the range of the larger ITX cases. The height is from the desk to the top or near that of your monitor fully extended from a typical height adjustable arm (assuming 24-27 inch screen).

[suicidalfranco]

1 hour ago, GoodBytes said:

The case is massive. It is in the range of the larger ITX cases. The height is from the desk to the top or near that of your monitor fully extended from a typical height adjustable arm (assuming 24-27 inch screen).

put next to  a trash can mac pro it doesn't seem that massive

 

[TechyBen]

Nothing new. Smaller version of the Silverstone Fortress Mini (I had one)

https://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=333

 

[TVwazhere]

3 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

The case is massive. It is in the range of the larger ITX cases. The height is from the desk to the top or near that of your monitor fully extended from a typical height adjustable arm (assuming 24-27 inch screen).

Not really? There are PLENTY of cases larger than 13.6L

It's smaller than the Silverstone RVZ 01/03 and the Coolermasster Elite 110 by volume.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dzRY3LLsXcDX5Qt5PvQOrAJhw0EK9Cy7UtQPdyRp6PY/edit#gid=0

[GoodBytes]

1 hour ago, TVwazhere said:

Not really? There are PLENTY of cases larger than 13.6L

 

Yea, that is pretty big case for an ITX these days.

That said, If you seek an ATX easy build style (let alone be able to buy it with ease) than yes NZXT case is an excellent choice in my opinion. 

The other smaller ITX cases, you can't just throw parts together and it will work, some serious planning and research is needed. A good challenge... also needs a higher budget as the cases costs a lot more due to the limited productions.

 

I do hope the NZXT does perform well, despite its size, I would love to see competition in this space. As much as the NCase M1, Dan A4, Ghost S1 and select others, are impressive cases, the simple fact that they are not case manufactures themselves and must rely on another case manufcature (usually Lian-Li as they laser cut metal, reducing the need for custom tooling), they can only get small batch increasing the cost, mixed with the fact that you have 2 companies who wants to make a profit, really adds more to the cost.

 

[DailyProcrastinator]

11 hours ago, cluelessgenius said:

honestly the shift looks like way more production cost its more intricate. this one i see more in the budget segment

 

in general i do think the design is quite nice and minimalist personally i dont care about it looking similar to the xbox.

but the price is way too much

its literally a cube. you cant tell me its that hard to produce.

im not sure what psu it is but if its a standard sfx or even atx format then they can keep it imo

the aio im sure is somehow propriatary to exactly fit this case sooo...fine but if its not or if you could also fit a standard 120 aio in there then they can keep it aswell.

 

and then youre left with a cube.  literally 6 flat side one being glass. id spend 60 bucks tops if the powder coating is good. maybe 80 considering the glas panel

 

I like the shift more as well.

 

That said I would consider a bare-bones version of the H1 for $100-120cad for sure. Keep in mind a much more simplistic and smaller cube ITX chassis like the Silverstone SG13 or Cooler Master Elite 110 are already $55-65usd, the H1 has a more intricate layout, a TG panel, and offers better hardware support and cooling. There's no way it will/should sell for $80 or less even if it eventually is sold as a bare-bones case.

 

ITX cases have a weird pricing segment, because they are sold in low volume they have to sell them for more $$$ to make it profitable. Where as high volume TG ATX mid-tower cases can be sold for less as that is the market norm (Phanteks P300 for $60, stands out to me as one of those options). Here in Canada TG ITX cases START at $110cad, in the US they start at $80. That taken into consideration the H1 is fairly priced. But again, I would only purchase it bare-bones.

[GoodBytes]

1 hour ago, JM21 said:

I like the shift more as well.

 

That said I would consider a bare-bones version of the H1 for $100-120cad for sure. Keep in mind a much more simplistic and smaller cube ITX chassis like the Silverstone SG13 or Cooler Master Elite 110 are already $55-65usd, the H1 has a more intricate layout, a TG panel, and offers better hardware support and cooling. There's no way it will/should sell for $80 or less even if it eventually is sold as a bare-bones case.

 

ITX cases have a weird pricing segment, because they are sold in low volume they have to sell them for more $$$ to make it profitable. Where as high volume TG ATX mid-tower cases can be sold for less as that is the market norm (Phanteks P300 for $60, stands out to me as one of those options). Here in Canada TG ITX cases START at $110cad, in the US they start at $80. That taken into consideration the H1 is fairly priced. But again, I would only purchase it bare-bones.

Honestly, I don't understand the point of ATX these days (beside the ease of installation and, true, budget market).

I mean most (in the enthusiast/gaming world, make that 0 for most average users) people only use 1x PCI-E slot on their motherboard.. and that is for their graphics card. The days of Crossfire and SLI are long gone, same for integrated sound card (now it is more external ones). For storage, most of the same people are sporting 1 drive, especially if these group of people had the money to buy today. SATA SSD are real cheap these days, and I think most people on this forum would pick an NVMe drive. Regardless, many ITX cases can support (with the motherboard NVMe M.2 slot) 2 to 3 drives. So it is plenty.

 

So basically, ATX cases have just so much wasted space, it doesn't make much sense to me. Yes yes, I know, ITX are more expensive. but I mean in the sense of: If ITX was just as popular as ATX today, meaning ITX cases and ITX motherboards would drop in price by a lot, probably costs just as much as today, or  a tad more expensive due to the need  of actually doing R&D and not sticking to old designs for cases, and motherboard, being limited in size forces manufcature to use high quality components, like CPU power delivery circuit (but you'll gain better OC and/or system stability).

 

What I found intresting, is that it looks like Corsair are now making ATX cases smaller thanks to lack of need of drive cage and optical drive, like the Corsair 220T. Why have that empty space? It is the question the manufcature clearly asked, and shrink the case considerably, while still having plenty of room for ATX board, ease building and cooling.

 

 

[Jurrunio]

22 hours ago, justpoet said:

Now just to cut a slot in it for an optical drive...

Time for some angle grinda

[GDRRiley]

23 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Honestly, I don't understand the point of ATX these days (beside the ease of installation and, true, budget market).

I'm more disappointed at the shrinking mATX market. they are the perfect comprise between the 2.

I can get 2 mAXT x570 boards 7 z390 boards.

 

I can run dual GPUs and NIC or a GPU, NIC, PCIE storage in a slot.

You don't have the issues of super complicated tiny PCBs.

 

Apple making an mATX mac pro would be amazing.

[Letgomyleghoe]

19 hours ago, GDRRiley said:

looks good but is way to much even with an AIO and a PSU.

still wishing more companies like corsair sold a version of their prebuild case stand alone

With psu and an aio, it seems worth it, other fully modular Sfx psu’s  are really expensive.

 

compared to other cases this isn’t terrible, and you don’t have to drop $100+ on fans

[GDRRiley]

6 minutes ago, scuff gang said:

With psu and an aio, it seems worth it, other fully modular Sfx psu’s  are really expensive.

 

compared to other cases this isn’t terrible, and you don’t have to drop $100+ on fans

idk here is a similar size with the same things and it is 75$ less

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU Cooler	Cooler Master MasterLiquid Lite 120 66.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	$54.99 @ Newegg
Case	Phanteks ENTHOO EVOLV SHIFT Mini ITX Tower Case	$109.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	EVGA SuperNOVA GM 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply	$109.94 @ ModMyMods
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$274.92
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-02-26 23:54 EST-0500

 

[DailyProcrastinator]

1 hour ago, GoodBytes said:

Honestly, I don't understand the point of ATX these days (beside the ease of installation and, true, budget market).

I mean most (in the enthusiast/gaming world, make that 0 for most average users) people only use 1x PCI-E slot on their motherboard.. and that is for their graphics card. The days of Crossfire and SLI are long gone, same for integrated sound card (now it is more external ones). For storage, most of the same people are sporting 1 drive, especially if these group of people had the money to buy today. SATA SSD are real cheap these days, and I think most people on this forum would pick an NVMe drive. Regardless, many ITX cases can support (with the motherboard NVMe M.2 slot) 2 to 3 drives. So it is plenty.

 

So basically, ATX cases have just so much wasted space, it doesn't make much sense to me. Yes yes, I know, ITX are more expensive. but I mean in the sense of: If ITX was just as popular as ATX today, meaning ITX cases and ITX motherboards would drop in price by a lot, probably costs just as much as today, or  a tad more expensive due to the need  of actually doing R&D and not sticking to old designs for cases, and motherboard, being limited in size forces manufcature to use high quality components, like CPU power delivery circuit (but you'll gain better OC and/or system stability).

 

What I found intresting, is that it looks like Corsair are now making ATX cases smaller thanks to lack of need of drive cage and optical drive, like the Corsair 220T. Why have that empty space? It is the question the manufcature clearly asked, and shrink the case considerably, while still having plenty of room for ATX board, ease building and cooling.

100% agree with you. I've always said that 80% of users would be fine with an ITX motherboard. Some people like a big case but having owned large mid-towers, compact mid-towers, mATX mid-towers, mATX mini towers, ITX towers, ITX cubes, and SFF ITX cases, I can confidently (my opinion) say that smaller is way better. This is why I moved my work PC to the Silverstone SG13, my gaming PC to one of the smallest mATX mini towers on the market, and my main system to the Meshify C TG, one of the most compact ATX mid-towers on the market. Oversized cases are useless for most people, take up space, and half the time look worse because of all the empty space. 

 

If I had to go build a new PC tomorrow I already know I'd go ITX, and ironically I'd probably go for the Phatneks Shift Air as my choice of case because it takes up so little desk real estate, while offering a good amount of additional hardware options.

 

Yeah a few mid-towers are getting smaller now that optical drives aren't a thing, and because people are favoring SSD's over HDD's. The only time I see the use for larger cases is if you need tons of storage, but you could also use external enclosures (that's what I moved to), or if it is to accommodate water cooling hardware. Otherwise it's pointless, again, in my opinion. 

 

There's a large market gap in ITX cases because of low demand. And also in high end mATX cases, as the generalization with mATX is that most vendors only make 'entry' mATX motherboards and not high end ones. So high end mATX cases also are rare. Which I think is to bad, mATX is the perfect middle ground, you sacrifice almost nothing compared to ATX. Downside right now being that there is a big lack of options just because the market norm is ATX, I'd love to see that change. I doubt it will, but who knows.

[DailyProcrastinator]

8 minutes ago, GDRRiley said:

idk here is a similar size with the same things and it is 75$ less

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU Cooler	Cooler Master MasterLiquid Lite 120 66.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	$54.99 @ Newegg
Case	Phanteks ENTHOO EVOLV SHIFT Mini ITX Tower Case	$109.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	EVGA SuperNOVA GM 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply	$109.94 @ ModMyMods
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$274.92
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-02-26 23:54 EST-0500

 

I agree, although using the MasterLiquid lite in an example isn't totally fair haha, it has really bad reviews on Newegg, high failure rate. NZXT AIO's are far superior, and it's a 140mm AIO that's included. Which in the past year 140mm AIO's have basically disappeared off the market and now cost a ton (more than a 240 AIO). I actually tried to sell a 6-month old Cooler Master Pro 140 AIO last year and it took like 2-months to sell, at a really low price as well. So the demand is almost completely gone.

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/cpu-cooler/#W=10140&xcx=0&sort=price&page=1

 

This would be a more 'fair' representation:

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU Cooler	Corsair H75 2018 64 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	$64.99 @ Newegg
Case	Phanteks ENTHOO EVOLV SHIFT Mini ITX Tower Case	$109.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	EVGA SuperNOVA GM 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply	$109.94 @ ModMyMods
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$294.92
	Mail-in rebates	-$10.00
	Total	$284.92
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-02-27 00:16 EST-0500

 

But again, I totally agree with your point. Right now you could buy the Shift, with a PSU and a 120mm AIO and have enough for a 16GB of RAM. Which I would do personally, that or the H1 needs to be sold bare-bones for $100ish.

 

[Dabombinable]

3 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

Honestly, I don't understand the point of ATX these days (beside the ease of installation and, true, budget market).

I mean most (in the enthusiast/gaming world, make that 0 for most average users) people only use 1x PCI-E slot on their motherboard.. and that is for their graphics card. The days of Crossfire and SLI are long gone, same for integrated sound card (now it is more external ones). For storage, most of the same people are sporting 1 drive, especially if these group of people had the money to buy today. SATA SSD are real cheap these days, and I think most people on this forum would pick an NVMe drive. Regardless, many ITX cases can support (with the motherboard NVMe M.2 slot) 2 to 3 drives. So it is plenty.

 

So basically, ATX cases have just so much wasted space, it doesn't make much sense to me. Yes yes, I know, ITX are more expensive. but I mean in the sense of: If ITX was just as popular as ATX today, meaning ITX cases and ITX motherboards would drop in price by a lot, probably costs just as much as today, or  a tad more expensive due to the need  of actually doing R&D and not sticking to old designs for cases, and motherboard, being limited in size forces manufcature to use high quality components, like CPU power delivery circuit (but you'll gain better OC and/or system stability).

 

What I found intresting, is that it looks like Corsair are now making ATX cases smaller thanks to lack of need of drive cage and optical drive, like the Corsair 220T. Why have that empty space? It is the question the manufcature clearly asked, and shrink the case considerably, while still having plenty of room for ATX board, ease building and cooling.

 

 

When you rapidly run out of SATA ports, and have to resort to using old IDE+dual SATAII cards to be able to use all of your drives, ATX is still relevant (plus, you've gotta remember workstations).

[GDRRiley]

18 minutes ago, Dabombinable said:

When you rapidly run out of SATA ports, and have to resort to using old IDE+dual SATAII cards to be able to use all of your drives, ATX is still relevant (plus, you've gotta remember workstations).

true but for those workstations and systems like it will exist.

the point is moving the majority to mATX or mini ITX because they don't need any more

[TVwazhere]

14 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

As much as the NCase M1, Dan A4, Ghost S1 and select others, are impressive cases, the simple fact that they are not case manufactures themselves and must rely on another case manufcature (usually Lian-Li as they laser cut metal, reducing the need for custom tooling), they can only get small batch increasing the cost, mixed with the fact that you have 2 companies who wants to make a profit, really adds more to the cost.

This. 

 

I cant tell you how many times I've seen "Where Can I order a Loque Ghost S1?" or a "Dancase A4 or C4" becasue the website is currently out of stock, but the only place they actually sell them from. 

 

(Side note if you havent checked out the Sidearm T1, I'd recommend it. It looks awesome for what it is)

https://sidearmd.com/products/t1

[kokakolia]

9 hours ago, JM21 said:

I agree, although using the MasterLiquid lite in an example isn't totally fair haha, it has really bad reviews on Newegg, high failure rate. NZXT AIO's are far superior, and it's a 140mm AIO that's included. Which in the past year 140mm AIO's have basically disappeared off the market and now cost a ton (more than a 240 AIO). I actually tried to sell a 6-month old Cooler Master Pro 140 AIO last year and it took like 2-months to sell, at a really low price as well. So the demand is almost completely gone.

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/cpu-cooler/#W=10140&xcx=0&sort=price&page=1

 

This would be a more 'fair' representation:

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU Cooler	Corsair H75 2018 64 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	$64.99 @ Newegg
Case	Phanteks ENTHOO EVOLV SHIFT Mini ITX Tower Case	$109.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	EVGA SuperNOVA GM 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply	$109.94 @ ModMyMods
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$294.92
	Mail-in rebates	-$10.00
	Total	$284.92
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-02-27 00:16 EST-0500

 

But again, I totally agree with your point. Right now you could buy the Shift, with a PSU and a 120mm AIO and have enough for a 16GB of RAM. Which I would do personally, that or the H1 needs to be sold bare-bones for $100ish.

 

 

PC builders are just the worst demographic to market at! You're so obsessed with price/performance that you entirely miss the point.

 

There are 100 AIO models, 1000 case models and 1000 PSU models on the market today. And you call this product a rip-off because you can buy products seperately for a measly $75 less. But don't buy THAT AIO because it will fail! BUY this one instead! And the only way to know that is by reading an unhealthy amount of tech reviews on the daily. Ditto with PSUs. And ITX cases have a whole lot of compatibility issues as well. AND did I mention you're only saving a MEASLY $75!? 

 

Sure, in the short term $75 is a lot of money. But for a $1500 PC you're gonna use for 5+ years, that's a drop in the bucket. Furthermore, that NZXT case looks slick! And the added ease of building inside of it is gotta be worth SOME money. 

[DailyProcrastinator]

7 hours ago, kokakolia said:

PC builders are just the worst demographic to market at! You're so obsessed with price/performance that you entirely miss the point.

I'm sorry, but this is the most generic statement I have ever read.

 

First of all, of course people are obsessed with price to performance, why wouldn't you be? Paying a lower/better price for more/the same performance is what drives most peoples purchasing decisions for most things in life. That's like saying "You're so obsessed with price to performance, you should've bought that BMW 330 series instead of that Subaru WRX because it's a nicer car" (excuse the car analogy). But if all you want is the performance and you are price sensitive you would save your hard earned $15k and buy the Subaru, which is what most people would do. It's the same reason I didn't go to a university that cost $20k a semester, the same reason I bought my first house 10 min from my 'ideal' location, and the same reason why you would choose one sports car over another. This is basic consumerism and economics so this just a generalized statement that bears no significance. 

 

Second how does that make PC builders the worst demographic?

 

Third, what point is being missed?

 

7 hours ago, kokakolia said:

There are 100 AIO models, 1000 case models and 1000 PSU models on the market today. And you call this product a rip-off because you can buy products seperately for a measly $75 less. But don't buy THAT AIO because it will fail! BUY this one instead! And the only way to know that is by reading an unhealthy amount of tech reviews on the daily. Ditto with PSUs. And ITX cases have a whole lot of compatibility issues as well. AND did I mention you're only saving a MEASLY $75!? 

There's nothing wrong with the H1, but it's a fair justification to sate that you are paying more overhead for a system that has an AIO and PSU included versus going out and choosing those components yourself. If someone wants the H1 and they like what is included I don't think it's a bad choice.

 

However, many enthusiasts, myself included, prefer choosing specific components. Personally it has less to do with price to performance in this specific example, as I would agree $75 is not much (personally), but for others it could be a significant amount. I tend to only buy Corsair RAM, Asus motherboards, EVGA/Asus GPU's, EVGA/Corsair PSU's, Corsair/Noctua fans, I could go on, this has come down to personal preference and what I like. Personally, the choice of not buying something like the H1 comes down to the fact that I want to purchase different components than what is included, if someone is happy with what is included then by all means it is the right decision. But again, if you are concerned specifically about price to performance then you probably also would not buy this case.

 

7 hours ago, kokakolia said:

Sure, in the short term $75 is a lot of money. But for a $1500 PC you're gonna use for 5+ years, that's a drop in the bucket. Furthermore, that NZXT case looks slick! And the added ease of building inside of it is gotta be worth SOME money. 

I never stated that the H1 is a rip-off, I just think it's very limiting in who will buy it unless offered without the AIO and PSU. My second justification is that the $75 increase could be used elsewhere in a builds budget, and depending on the budget that could represent a lot, or a little of total cost. If it is not a significant amount of the budget then it obviously doesn't matter. However, I still maintain I would get the Shift over the H1 just because I want to choose different parts than what is included, and selling the case bare-bones would probably be a smart market move on NZXT's part. 

 

And yes, I agree it is a good looking case. I also expect there to be overhead for including an AIO and PSU, they obviously sought out those specific parts for that case and had to pay someone to pre-install them so I am actually okay with the price, just not necessarily with what is included. Again, personal preference here.

 

I just feel like this case is a coin flip, on one side I am paying overhead for parts that could be purchased for less, and on the other side I am getting parts I do not want (I already have a 120mm AIO and SFX PSU). So NZXT has already eliminated 2 types of buyers. But for fair arguments sake this is a 3-sided coin, third side being the buyer who likes the provided components and doesn't care about the extra $75 spent, or does not yet own the components included. 

 

I already stated earlier in another response that for $100-120 I would heavily consider the H1 if sold bare-bones.

 

 

Sorry for the rant. No hard feelings I hope!  

[7nationarmy]

2 hours ago, JM21 said:

I'm sorry, but this is the most generic statement I have ever read.

 

First of all, of course people are obsessed with price to performance, why wouldn't you be? Paying a lower/better price for more/the same performance is what drives most peoples purchasing decisions for most things in life. That's like saying "You're so obsessed with price to performance, you should've bought that BMW 330 series instead of that Subaru WRX because it's a nicer car" (excuse the car analogy). But if all you want is the performance and you are price sensitive you would save your hard earned $15k and buy the Subaru, which is what most people would do. It's the same reason I didn't go to a university that cost $20k a semester, the same reason I bought my first house 10 min from my 'ideal' location, and the same reason why you would choose one sports car over another. This is basic consumerism and economics so this just a generalized statement that bears no significance. 

 

Second how does that make PC builders the worst demographic?

 

Third, what point is being missed?

 

There's nothing wrong with the H1, but it's a fair justification to sate that you are paying more overhead for a system that has an AIO and PSU included versus going out and choosing those components yourself. If someone wants the H1 and they like what is included I don't think it's a bad choice.

 

However, many enthusiasts, myself included, prefer choosing specific components. Personally it has less to do with price to performance in this specific example, as I would agree $75 is not much (personally), but for others it could be a significant amount. I tend to only buy Corsair RAM, Asus motherboards, EVGA/Asus GPU's, EVGA/Corsair PSU's, Corsair/Noctua fans, I could go on, this has come down to personal preference and what I like. Personally, the choice of not buying something like the H1 comes down to the fact that I want to purchase different components than what is included, if someone is happy with what is included then by all means it is the right decision. But again, if you are concerned specifically about price to performance then you probably also would not buy this case.

 

I never stated that the H1 is a rip-off, I just think it's very limiting in who will buy it unless offered without the AIO and PSU. My second justification is that the $75 increase could be used elsewhere in a builds budget, and depending on the budget that could represent a lot, or a little of total cost. If it is not a significant amount of the budget then it obviously doesn't matter. However, I still maintain I would get the Shift over the H1 just because I want to choose different parts than what is included, and selling the case bare-bones would probably be a smart market move on NZXT's part. 

 

And yes, I agree it is a good looking case. I also expect there to be overhead for including an AIO and PSU, they obviously sought out those specific parts for that case and had to pay someone to pre-install them so I am actually okay with the price, just not necessarily with what is included. Again, personal preference here.

 

I just feel like this case is a coin flip, on one side I am paying overhead for parts that could be purchased for less, and on the other side I am getting parts I do not want (I already have a 120mm AIO and SFX PSU). So NZXT has already eliminated 2 types of buyers. But for fair arguments sake this is a 3-sided coin, third side being the buyer who likes the provided components and doesn't care about the extra $75 spent, or does not yet own the components included. 

 

I already stated earlier in another response that for $100-120 I would heavily consider the H1 if sold bare-bones.

 

 

Sorry for the rant. No hard feelings I hope!  

The AIO and PSU included in the H1 has custom fitted tube and cable lengths. I doubt off the shelf 120/140mm AIO will fit due to the tubes, which would be a headache to most builders new to SFF. As for the PSU, it saves you the cost of getting 3rd party cables (which I agree is optional, but does make things more convenient for many users).It's limiting for a few, but it is very convenient for the mainstream market in general. 

 

As for the rest of us who like to tinker and may have PC parts lying around, NZXT already said they will consider a standalone H1 option if there is enough demand. I guess that is the point. They probably have done their market research and made the H1 bundle for the larger, mainstream market. Look at how they are marketing this case: popular youtubers, game streamers. No marketing in SFF forum. 

 

 

[kpluck]

21 hours ago, JM21 said:

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU Cooler	Corsair H75 2018 64 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	$64.99 @ Newegg
Case	Phanteks ENTHOO EVOLV SHIFT Mini ITX Tower Case	$109.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	EVGA SuperNOVA GM 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply	$109.94 @ ModMyMods
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$294.92
	Mail-in rebates	-$10.00
	Total	$284.92
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-02-27 00:16 EST-0500

 

But again, I totally agree with your point. Right now you could buy the Shift, with a PSU and a 120mm AIO and have enough for a 16GB of RAM. Which I would do personally, that or the H1 needs to be sold bare-bones for $100ish.

 

 

While the Phanteks case warranty is better than the H1 (5 yrs vs 3yrs), the H1's 3 yr warranty on the AIO vs 2 yr on the Corsair and 10 yr warranty on the PSU vs 5 yr on the EVGA PSU surely help the H1 justify at least some of the price difference.

 

-kp

[ohaiguyz]

If you're worried about price just wait until Phanteks copies it with their subsidiary Metallic Gear for cheaper

 

Spoiler

 

[maartendc]

ITs a cool looking design, but I don't see the point in these tall "tower-like Small-form-factor" cases. They are still as tall as a regular mATX or even mid tower, so what is the point? They still look "big". They have a square footprint, which makes it harder to fit into a backpack.

 

I like the form factor of my Silverstone Sugo13 better. Which is also smaller, at 11.5 liters versus this 13.6 liters. My Sugo 13 fits into my backpack, so I can carry it onto a plane as my "personal item". Amazing. I doubt I could do that with this case.

 

Or you could go even smaller, like the Dancase A4 and similar designs. Also really clever designs IMO.