NZXT S340 Elite Review
Category : Cases
Published by Luca Rocchi on 28.11.16
At a first glance the S340 Elite from NZXT is one good looking case. The design is elegant and apart from that this particular case is available in different color combinations. It's quite clear that while developing this case, NZXT have had a strong focus on the design aspect and they wanted to come up with something beautiful. For us this is certainly already reason enough to have a thorough look at this case.
Rating |
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Cooling |
Features |
Layout |
Build Quality |
Value for Money |
| Pros |
+ Good
compatibility for watercooling and aircooling |
+ Water cooling
+ Dust filters
+ HDMI
+ Tempered glass |
+ Interior
space
+ Good space for cable routing |
+ High quality materials
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+ Well priced |
| Cons |
+ No big radiator on top |
- No Type-C |
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Preview
Specifications
| Model: |
S340 Elite |
| Case Type: |
Mid tower |
| Dimensions: |
203 mm (W) x 474 mm (H) x 432 mm (D) |
| Material: |
Steel, ABS |
| Color: |
Black |
| Drive Bay: |
5.25": |
0 |
| 3.5": |
2 + 1 |
| 2.5": |
2 + 1 |
| Expansion
slots: |
7 |
| Form factors: |
ATX, mATX, mini-ITX |
| Cooling: |
Front: |
2x 120mm / 2x 140mm |
| Rear: |
1x 120mm (1x 120mm included) |
| Top: |
1x 120mm / 1x 140mm (1x 120mm included) |
| Bottom: |
/ |
| Side: |
/ |
| Watercooling |
Front: |
240mm / 280mm |
| Rear: |
120mm |
| Top: |
/ |
| Link to the product: |
S340 Elite |
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Features
PSU Cover
In order to hide all the cables connected to your power supply, there is cover hiding away the unit. This helps creating a neat and clean looking system. |
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Dust filters
There are washable dust filters covering all big openings of the NZXT S340 Elite. Thanks to a quick release system they are very easy and convenient to remove. |
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Watercooling ready
The NZXT S340 Elite prepared this case to be equipped with watercooling gear. If you wish to create a custom loop, there is the possibility to place two radiators in this case. One of them can be a 280mm and the other a 120mm one. |
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VR support
The S340 comes with a special feature for VR devices. Thanks to the fact, that there is an HDMI port integrated into the front I/O panel of the case as well as a holder, connecting and storing VR goggles is quite a bit more comfortable than with other cases. |
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Product overview
Overview |
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| The NZXT S340 Elite is a rather genrously sized mid-tower case with clean and elegant design. The front, doesn't feature any 5.25" slots, in fact, there is only a large dust filter and behind it you find two fans. Even the top shares the same style while its front has been equipped with the I/O panel offering two USB 2.0, two USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, audio jacks and power on / reset buttons. The NZXT S340 Elite is a well-designed case and therefore it comes with a variety of useful features, like for instance easy-to-remove dust filters in the front and at the bottom. |
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Installation
Overview |
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| On the inside this case offers quite a lot, even though it's not such a big case. The fact that there is a PSU cover makes it look sleek on the inside. The motherboard tray features pre-soldered standoffs, that you can fix your motherboard without any hassle. There is also a big opening behind the socket, which allows for installing aftermarket coolers without having to remove the motherboard. The tray comes with five openings for cable management. The is also a lot of space between the motherboard tray and the right side panel. The HDDs and SSDs can be installed without any difficulty on the supplied slides. The most interesting aspect of this case is definitely the area dedicated to the power supply and the aforementioned PSU cover. As you may have noticed from the pictures, the power supply compartment comes with a cover allowing you to hide all the cables and build a clean and tidy system.
For our test we used an ATX motherboard with an air cooled CPU cooler and a high-end graphics card. Despite the height of the CPU cooler we were able to place all the components inside the case without any issues. |
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Ventilation options
Overview |
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As far as cooling is concerned, the S340 Elite offers many different options. The front panel features room for two 140/120mm fans and the back comes with a pre-installed 120mm fan. The top of the case can be equipped with one 120/140mm fan. When it comes to watercooling the S340 Elite can be equipped with 280mm or 140 millimeters radiators. As previously mentioned, there are dust filters which covering the fan spots. Regarding air cooling there is enough space for a big tower cooler, since the supported CPU cooler height is set at up to 161 millimeters. |
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Temperatures
Overview |
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For testing purposes we're using an MSI Z170I Gaming Pro AC motherboard, an Intel Core i5-6600K CPU, which receives cooling through a SilentiumPC Fortis 3 HE1425 MCE cooler as well as a MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G graphics card. To put the CPU under full load, we're running prime95 for 10 min and in the case of the GPU we use Furmark also for 10 minutes. After these ten minutes, we're going to write down the temperatures. The ambient temperature is close to 24°C. |
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All noise dampening panels installed |
Idle (°C) |
Full (°C) |
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Intel Core i5-6600K |
28 / 28 / 27 / 28 |
53 / 55 / 54 / 54 |
| MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G |
48 |
69 |
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Less is better |
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Conclusion
The NZXT S340 Elite is a mid-tower PC case designed for those who want to build a clean rig, which is offering plenty of space even for high-end hardware as well as liquid cooling. NZXT decided to use a modern design without front door and no 5.25" slots. The materials used and the build quality are on a very good level, which is something we certainly expected from NZXT.
On the inside there is quite a lot of space available. If you fit an ATX motherboard you can easily install a radiator in the front and one in the rear. Apart from that all drive bays have been moved to the lower part of the case. Testing the case as delivered with one 120mm fan in the top and one in the back, we found temperatures to be on a reasonable level, while the noise level was very low. The amount of features you get with the S340 Elite is really interesting and we appreciated the well-thought cable management. In addition we also like the holder for headsets or VR goggles, which is magnetic and therefore easy to remove. Unfortunately the support is made from rubber and therefore puts on dust very quickly.
The S340 Elite from NZXT is a PC case which we can definitely recommend. If you are looking for a mid-tower PC case with pre-installed fans that it's fully compatible with watercooling gear, this is a great product. Building a nice and clean looking rig is very simple and straight forward with this case. The NZXT S340 Elite is available on Geizhals for 99.99 Euro excluding shipping costs. The NZXT S340 Elite earns
4 out of 5 stars.
