A Closer Look:

First thing you'll notice about the Whisper is that it's fully enclosed. It's a contemporary enclosure free of any gimmicks or modified components. All of the panels, except for the bezel door, are fabricated with steel. The only portion of the case not black is the rear I/O panel. Unfortunately, it's a pretty plain shade of gray steel.

Front

Back

The bezel door is plastic with the very front facade made from aluminum. I'm not sure why some designers go this route other than to add a bit of flare to the look. The actual door itself is vented which allows cooler air to be pulled in through the front by the bottom 120mm fan.

Door Open

Front 120mm LED Fan

Moving to the top of the case, there's a curious little door that pops up revealing the front panel USB ports, audio jacks, and eSATA port. It's basically spring loaded and will launch a poisonous dart at you when you first open it. (Just kidding.) It's spring loaded and uses a little tab to hold it shut.

2x USB, Audio Jacks, & eSATA Port

After removing a couple thumbscrews, you can see the black 10mm noise dampening foam can be seen on the two side panels. This, of course, is to help dampen any system noises. One might ask why they would use foam rather than something like Dynomat. Well, most any other noise dampening materials I've seen are much heavier than foam and more expensive which drives the price up. Testing will reveal whether or not the foam is enough.

Foam Line Panels

Right Up Close

Left Up Close

Looking at the chassis panels further, you can see the top is also foam lined. It appears that even larger motherboards will be at least 3/4" from the edge of the foam in case you're worried about any grounding issues. The foam has been nicely cut around the top front panel ports as well.

Foam Lined Top

Foam Up Close

Needs Organized

The internal chassis is pretty well organized even for a budget type case. There are two separate levels. This has been a pretty good technique for organizing a case as well as managing heat.

Split Level Chassis

The upper houses the seven 5.25" drive bays and motherboard. The 5.25" are tooless and work perty well with a unique twist of a tab to lock the black slider in place. The lower area houses the PSU and nine hard drives. That's a lot of drives.

9x Hard Drive Trays

7x 5.25" Drive Bay

Much of the internal chassis uses rubber grommets to also keep hard drive vibrations down. The less contact a component makes with the chassis, the easier it is to keep noise down. Using any cheap plastics will ultimately fail, so it's nice to see actual rubber materials used.

Motherboard Tray

All nine drive bay trays are removable. Simply press the two chrome tabs inward till they release and pull evenly. Unfortunately, the trays in this case stuck a bit and sound like metal dragging on metal. And some of the trays require a little too much extra effort. Perhaps a little buffing down of the chassis is in order. One thing is certain. The bays aren't going to ever slide out on their own if the case is tilted or in shipment.

Drive Bays Extended

Simple Tray Design

Technically, you could remove the two smaller cages above the PSU with ease if you didn't want them to get in the way of a larger PSU or needed extra room for something like water cooling. That can also be done for the front large hard drive cage by removing some bottom and upper screws. You'll need a little dexterity getting it out.

Two Dual Bays

Removed

As for cooling, there's one 120mm front black LED fan. So, it appears that the case is almost free of lights. In its defense, it isn't very bright at all though. The fan is a low RPM fan which means noise should be all but unnoticeable even without the fan control option. You can always switch out the fan if you don't care for the LEDs.

There is also a upper, rear regular 120mm case fan. And there two regular 80mm black fans in the lower chassis bay just above the PSU to keep the air flowing. There aren't any fans in the 5.25" bay area or any option to add one. Basically, the rear 120mm fan will be working to draw in the cool air from the front bezel and out the back. Honestly, that shouldn't be an issue.

Upper Rear 120mm Fan

Something worth noting is that NZXT includes plenty of black screws for the drives as well as all the extra screws for installation. Most you won't use, but they went the extra step and included them anyways. They even included a square rubber grommet for mounting between the PSU and case frame as well.

Screw Bundle & Extras

 

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