NZXT Switch 810
Mar 25th, 2012 | By ChrisFirst off, a profile shot – behold the behemoth:
The face of the Switch is very simple. Glossy white plastic covers the majority of it, with sleek black borders up the sides and across the bottom. A hidden air intake vent is tucked away behind the lower half. Zooming in, there are four 5.25″ drive bays – one which acts as a cover for the optical drive (for aesthetics sake), two more for extra devices (fan controllers, card readers, etc.), and the last for the built-in 3.5″ SATA hot-swap drive bay. The “bay” at the top is in fact not a bay for optical or hard drive disks, but actually a hidden location for two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, a SD card reader, the typical headphone and microphone jacks, reset button, and LED toggle button for enabling/disabling the rear LED lights (more on that later).
Something unusual in the chassis market is a sliding cover to control fan performance and noise output. When open, air can flow out of the chassis easier with the sacrifice of higher fan noise levels, and when closed, decreases air movement, but at the gain of a quieter system, as NZXT claims. The entire top can be easily removed to gain access to three 140mm or 120mm fan mounts; one 140mm fan is already included with the Switch.
Swinging our focus down the side panels, it’s obvious that the Switch is designed to be a pristine and contemporary, yet flashy, chassis. The broad acrylic window gives view to the entire system. There is nothing worth noting on the reverse side, aside from its simple, smooth, and white-painted construction.
At the rear, we find a staggering nine I/O slots, perfectly suited for a quad-SLI system. Is the Switch made for massive builds? You know it. Next to the I/O slots are four rubber grommets for liquid cooling routing, and below is the bay for a power supply. An included 140m fan resides in the top half of the chassis’ rear, although its installation is unusual – each screw mount is secured in an elongated hole, allowing the fan to be slid up and down. This is well thought out, as some top-mounted radiators are simply too thick and obtrusive to allow for a rear fan. My favorite addition are the two rear LEDs that illuminate the rear I/O connections, making plugging in peripherals like keyboards/mice and headphones a breeze when in a dark room. The aforementioned toggle switch on the front I/O panel turns these two LEDs on and off.
Flipping the chassis on its front to view the bottom, the first thing to notice are the two mesh panels that cover the entire bottom. Acting as dust filters, they provide filtering for the power supply fan and two additional internal 120mm fans. Both slide out of the front and back, respectively.
The exterior build of the Switch 810 is really something! Since it’s already boasting so many features on the outside, how does the interior compete?