NZXT Beta Evo Mid Tower Black Steel Computer Case

The Outside

I don’t know if I have mentioned this yet, and this will kind of bleed over into the next section of this review as it deals with the inside of the case, but the entire case is black inside and out. I know, it’s awesome isn’t it? Looking at the outside of the case we can see that NZXT has deviated from the norm a bit as they have done away with solid drive bay covers on the front of the case and solid slot covers on the back. Instead, they have employed mesh bay covers and slot covers. I am a bit on the fence about the use of mesh as it looks really really cool, but what about the dust factor? We all know that dust is a PC’s mortal enemy and this kind of seems like letting the enemy in at the gates without any opposition, but hey, we will see over time if this is in fact detrimental to the system.

As we look at the front of the case we can see that the front bezel is made of plastic and that the rest of the case is made from steel. I love the fact that the front of the Beta Evo is not overdone. It looks cool but has a very simple elegance to it. The lines are smooth and the front panel buttons are seamlessly hidden into the bezel. But one of the coolest features of the front of the case is that all of the device attachment ports (USB, Firewire, ESATA, sound) are on the top of the case and are extremely easy to access. I feel that this is a much safer orientation because it is not all that easy to walk by the case and snap off your favorite USB flash drive that is in a USB port placed on the front or the side of the bezel. And yes, I have done this. If you have kids or large dogs, that increases the snap off factor by about 100.

Now let’s talk about fans, or rather the lack of fans included with this particular case. Don’t get me wrong; I am not complaining about it as I think this is one of the ways that NZXT was able to keep the price of this case down as they have included the ability to have as many as six fans (one front intake, one rear exhaust, two side panel, and two on the top of the case) in the Beta Evo, and only included one 120mm Blue LED front intake fan instead of all six. I don’t know about you guys but I am saying “Hey, thank you NZXT for saving me some money.” For the testing purposes of this case I am only going to use what was provided with the case out of the box. In other words I am not going to add any fans to the case until after the review is done. And when I do add the fans (I know this doesn’t have anything to do with the review but hey, they are cool) I am going to be adding two to three of the world famous aluminum chassis Panaflo 120 MM fans to the case. I know I said I didn’t want a jet engine, but I am a computer geek at heart and quiet is nice, but extreme is better.

Let’s move our focus to the rear of the case. As you can see there is not too much that is out of the ordinary. One of the first things we see is the already mentioned mesh slot covers, but NZXT has also included entry and exit spots for water cooling hoses as well as a spot for a 120mm fan.