Installation & Testing:

Gigabyte X48-DQ6...Get one now!

Using the included standoffs and screws, nothing came up short or lacking for a quick motherboard installation. It was at this point that it became evident that the NZXT Whisper Enclosure supports extended ATX, or BTX, motherboards like the Skull Trail. That also partially explains why there are so many hard drive trays. It's very common for an extended server board to be connected to redundant RAID arrays.

Drive installation is pretty easy. Finding screws sure wasn't an issue. While having nine drives is probably a really sweet thing, that's got to add up to one heavy case. But, then, very few of us are ever going to need to install that many.

FSP 700 Watt PSU Installed

The PSU mounted pretty easily though I wasn't happy that it rests directly on a metal pad of sorts at the bottom. Oddly, the steel pad can be removed via one screw. One could easily add one's own rubber standoff or two found at the local hardware store. It would be nice if NZXT included a couple within future case shipments. (Pretty please?)

Now, the important details. The drive bays do help prevent vibrations pretty well. My extremely loud, older Seagate SATA drive could heard operating with the side off, but not when the panels were replaced. A 35dB older case fan was placed inside and closed up again. The noise dropped to roughly 19dB which isn't half bad at all. Two newer 120mm fans that are normally 24db and lower, couldn't be heard without putting my ear very close to the case.

I thought I'd try one of my newest ideas out by placing a heat gun on low inside the chassis to fill it with warm air till it reaches 60C and then power up the case fans to see how much air can be removed. The internal temp dropped back to 42 C and remained there even with the gun inside.

Conclusion:

It was interesting to see how the NZXT Whisper worked with a noisy heat gun. Earlier in the week, the gun was placed inside an older Chenming case still in use. It only has 2 front and 2 rear 80mm fans as well as a side fan. It was unable to keep up with the heat gun by pushing out enough hot air. It took some time to drop temps to 45C which proves the Whisper can reasonably cools itself.

And I have to admit that the normal system noises weren't evident. It was kind of a new experience not hearing one or more case fans. The only component that couldn't be silenced completely was the DVD ROM drive. *Sigh* Keep in mind, this is no fault of NZXT. ROM creators just haven't made as many advancements as the rest of the market.

The more serious details that could use some finishing touches were the dirty chassis and buffed up drive trays for easier operation. The trivial changes worth considering are the rubber feet, or standoffs, for the PSU to rest on, and better organization of the Front Panel case wiring. Otherwise, no one is going to see the internal chassis since there's no panel window.

To be honest, after looking over and comparing the previous NZXT cases, I'm surprised to see quality control issues missed even if the internal chassis can't be seen. The reason I bring them up is due to the price of the chassis which is about $140 at FrozenCPU and $145 at Newegg.

At present, extended ATX cases are very limited and cost a pretty premium. Only a handful are available with the cheapest coming in around the $100 mark and it doesn't have near the storage or expansion capabilities. Anything offering the same features or close to that of the Whisper are going to run you $170 and more. That's something definitely worth considering if you're in the market for a quiet, spacious super case like the NZXT Whisper.