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NZXT M59 Mid-Tower Steel Case


Date
: 10/30/09 – 02:41:38 AM

Author
:

Category
: Cases

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer:
NZXT

NZXT is largely known for their cases, but they have also branched out to offer gaming mice, fan controllers and even power supplies. They make a return to Overclockers Online today following our last review of the Beta.

In today's review I'll be taking a look at the M59, a gaming oriented mid tower from their Classic series. The M59 brings a bold design and features to attract gamers and enthusiasts. I've always heard positive things about NZXT cases, read on to see how the M59 lives up to this reputation.

Page 2 : Package and Accessories

The M59 comes in an all black box with a prominent picture of the case on the front. The back of the case lists out features of the case and gives you a clear look at the interior of the case.

The sides list out the features again in several different languages.

Inside the box the M59 is wrapped in a plastic bag and encased in Styrofoam on either end.

Accessories include tool free rails for hard drives, a bag of thumbscrews, motherboard standoffs, bag of screws and a user's manual.

Page 3 : Features and Specifications

I grabbed specifications straight from NZXT's product page here..

Features:

* Immense Performance: 5 fan capability (side 120mm LED and rear 120mm exhaust included) Included 9-fin rifle bearing NZXT fans rated at 42CFM and 23db
* Night light: A ambient light sits over the 5.25′ drives to give visibility in dark rooms or at LAN parties
* Black on Black: Smoked clear window and a black interior gives the best combination of black on black
* Meshed front panel allows for more airflow
* 5.25′ stealth bay to keep a clean look
* NZXT solid state bracket allows for two SSD drives to be installed
* Wire routing: motherboard punched holes allows for quick CPU bracket removable and optimal wire routing, turned HDD also helps with managing cables
* Pre-drilled water cooling holes on the back plate
* Front mounted USB, audio, and ESATA ports
* Support for external dual radiator at the top of the chassis
* High end graphics card support, the M59 features space that is especially designed to fit longer 10.5′ cards

Specifications:

Glancing at the specifications and features the M59 contains many features common to most mid towers, however now we'll move on to explore how NZXT implements these features.

Page 4 : Exterior

The front bezel is the first thing that catches your eye with its protruding design. The M59 is definitely a love it or hate it design. There are four 5.25′ drive bays, the top one containing a stealth cover. The power button, reset button, mic/headphone jacks, USB and eSATA ports all run along the center.

Along the top side you can see the vented openings that will hold two 120mm or 140mm fans or a water cooling radiator.

The front bezel simply pulls off and reveals a space for a 120mm fan in the front. As you can see here there are two 3.5′ drive bays in the center, though neither of these has a front access so these are solely for hard drives.

The left side panel has a window that is tinted and has a 120mm fan to help cool the graphics card area.

From the back of the M59 you can see it has vented expansion slot covers, a bottom mounted PSU and two holes for watercooling. Four thumbscrews secure the side panels.

Four small feet elevate the bottom of the case. A filter situated below the power supply on the back can be removed for cleaning.

Page 5 : Interior

The side panels slide back and off, here you can see the side fan mounted on the inside of the window. Both fans included with the M59 have both a 3pin and a 4 pin molex power connector.

The inside layout of the M59 is pretty similar to most cases. The hard drive rack is situated sideways and here is where you will find the box of accessories. The accessory box is held in by a 2.5′ hard drive adapter that can hold 2 drives. There are five 3.5′ bays in the bottom and two more in the middle.

Not easily noticed here because of the black coated interior, there are cutouts behind the CPU area as well as around the perimeter for easier cable management.

With the right side panel removed, you can see the different cutouts for cable management and little notches for use with zip ties.

Overall the case is light in the weight department, but this also lends it to be a little more flexible since thinner steel is used for construction. Unless you get into aluminum this is a tradeoff you have to deal with if you want a lightweight case that isn't expensive.

Page 6 : Installation

Now it's time to throw some hardware inside. Installation for the most part was straight forward and simple. The most troublesome part was actually installing the standoffs. Typically you can just install them with your hands, but it seems when the inside of the case was painted the threaded holes were coated a bit. I had to use pliers to get the standoffs started.

As I've seen with a few mid towers, the larger heatsinks are either real tight or don't fit. The Zalman CNPS9900 LED barely fits, but the Zalman CNPS10X Extreme does not. Also if you were to install fans in the top, you would need a smaller heatsink since it is a tight fit in that area. I think the top fan mounts are better suited to an external radiator.

There is decent room to hide cables behind the motherboard tray, and while I was able to get them to fit it was a tight fit with the main ATX power cable.

With a full system installed the interior is actually roomier than I anticipated, aside from along the top.

Once you power things up the LED lights up around the top illuminating the drive bay area.

Page 7 : Testing

The following system was installed and used to gather temperatures.

CPU: Intel E8400 w/ Zalman CNPS9900 LED
MB: Biostar TPower I45
RAM: G.Skill PI Black PC6400
Video: Biostar Geforce 9600GT
PSU: Ultra X3 1000W
HD: WD 250GB SATA
DVD-Rom: Lite-On 18x DVD Burner – SATA
OS: Microsoft Windows XP w SP3
Ambient Temperature: 25-26C

Cases:

Cooler Master HAF932
NZXT M59

First up we'll do some testing to see how well the M59 keeps things cool. To get idle temperatures I started the PC up and allowed it to sit at idle for 3 hours with no processes running and recorded temperatures using Everest Ultimate.

With only a side and rear fan included I knew it wouldn't match the larger and better ventilated HAF932 but all things considered temps were not too far off.

Next was to load the PC and get some temperatures with a little more heat involved. To get load temps, I ran Orthos blend along with 3DMark06 in a continuous loop for 3 hours.

The M59 hangs pretty well when the load is on and considering you have space to add up to three more 120mm fans, I can see the performance nearly matching that of the HAF932.

Noise from the stock fans is a non issue as they are silent, but the case is an open design so any components inside that are noisy are going to be noticed.

Page 8 : Conclusion

The M59 has been my first experience with an NZXT case and overall I was happy with it. While the looks are rather polarizing, the case was easy to work in and install aside from screwing in the motherboard standoffs. Cooling performance was surprisingly good with only two 120mm fans included and with room for up to three more it can only get better.

The main area of concerns for most people would be the space up around the CPU area where larger heatsinks may not fit. While it does not feel too sturdy, this is a tradeoff you typically get with a case being lighter weight and down on the bargain scale in price.

Altogether you get a pretty good bargain for the price in the M59 so long as you like the very different outside design.

Advantages

• Light weight

• Plenty of space for hard drives
• Dual 2.5′ HD adapter
• Good cooling performance

Disadvantages

• Only two fans included

• Does not feel too sturdy
• Larger heatsinks pose problems

Overclockers Online would like to thank NZXT for supplying the M59 case for review.