A Closer Look
Unboxing
NZXT has provided a pretty nice box for this case. The packaging is standard and I didn’t have any issues other than the foam breaking a little while trying to un-box it. The case comes with all the necessary screws to install as well as rails for a radiator.
 |
 |
 |
|
First Impressions
After taking a few moments to examine the NZXT Panzerbox, a few things pop out. This is not an ordinary case. For starters, the entire case is aluminum, including the drive bay covers, which look like plastic in the pictures. The case is also welded and feels very solid. Every screw on the case is a thumb screw and everything is a nice sleek black. The HDD cage is mounted underneath the optical drive bays where the floppy drives would have gone 10 years ago. There is also a removable HDD rack close to the front fan. The two 190mm fans are very impressive and make the 120mm fan look minuscule by comparison.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
The weight of this case is also very impressive. NZXT used a big sheet of aluminum mesh for the front and top of the case drastically reducing the weight. They even went as far as cutting vents into the PCI slot brackets to reduce weight. I weighed one in at .1 ounces while a standard bracket weighs .5 ounces. That’s a difference of 2.8lbs by simply cutting vents into the slot brackets. This sort of detail is what I’ve come to expect from NZXT.
Design
The Panzerbox also features a very unique design. To meet NZXT’s claims, they had to redesign the standard mid-tower case layout. Instead of the power supply sitting at the top, they have positioned it at the bottom in front of the GPU (see picture), and they have made the case about 4 inches wider than a standard mid-tower to allow for room. This allows you to install a dual radiator solution in a small LAN case (you must remove the top 190mm fan to install the radiator).
NZXT has also added a removable motherboard tray for easy installation. Removing the tray is as easy as 5 thumb screws then sliding the tray out of the case. The removable HDD rack is held in with a sliding brace mechanism and one thumb screw. The top mounted ports are a nice plus too.
Decent review, but concerning this:
“They even went as far as cutting vents into the PCI slot brackets to reduce weight. I weighed one in at .1 ounces while a standard bracket weighs .5 ounces. That’s a difference of 2.8lbs by simply cutting vents into the slot brackets”
First, the actual fact why slots are vented is simply ventilation, not weight reduction. Lian-Li and Silverstone, for two, have been doing this exact same thing to their slot covers and is always promoted by them as being done to assist ventilation, not weight reduction.
Also, your math is horribly wrong. It’s not a reduction of 2.8lbs as you said, but a reduction of 2.8 ounces. Here’s the math—-regular slot cover 0.5oz, vented slot cover 0.1oz, for a difference of 0.4oz per slot cover. Multiply 0.4oz per cover times 7 slot covers and you come up with 2.8 ounces, not pounds.
You cannot get a pound multiplying four-tenths of an ounce times seven (remember, there are 16oz in a pound)……you’d have to have at 40 slot covers to achieve a single pound of weight reduction, and a whole 112 slot covers to get to your reputed 2.8 pound weight reduction…..don’t know where they put all 112 slot covers, do you?
And that’s why the covers were NOT slotted or vented for weight reduction…..simply saving a couple of ounces is not worth the work. But to improve ventilation through the case, now that’s worth the extra machining and work to vent the covers.
Cheers!