Introduction
A couple of weeks ago, we had the pleasure of reviewing the NZXT Noctis 450 which left us amazed at how much high end hardware we could install in a mid-tower chassis and still have the system running cool. The Noctis 450 also gave you the option of installing two radiators up to 360mm in the top section and front sections of the Noctis 450.
Today we will be taking a look at another NXZT mid-tower chassis, the new S340 Razer Edition. Let’s take an in depth look at the S340 and see how it matches up against the Noctis 450 and what kind of cooling options the S340 has to offer. We would like to thank NZXT for sending the S340 to ProClockers for review.
Content and Packaging
The NZXT S340 Razer Edition retail box is mostly black with the exception of NZXT. S340 in bold white letters and numbers located top left front.
Under NZXT you can see the green Razer badge and the words Designed By Razer. Dead center of the box a photo of the S340 Razer Edition with the Razer emblem and the LED light rails on the bottom of the chassis emitting an awesome green glow
The back side of the S340 box also shows NZXT S340 and Designed By Razer in the same location as the front. The photo of the S340 is smaller and over to the left hand side.
There are three more photos on the right side, with the first showing the award winning NZXT power supply shroud and the words “All Steel Construction “ in bold green lettering.
The second photo shows the top front I/O with the words “Everything You Need “ The third and last photo shows the only HDD cage and one of the LED light rails glowing green.
In our next photo you can see that NZXT used the exact same foam packaging to protect the S340 from getting damage during shipping. The foam packaging did an excellent job protecting our Noctis 450 sample as well as the S340
S340 Specifications
Case Specs
- Dimensions: W: 200mm H: 445mm D: 432mm
- Materials: Steel & Plastic
- Total Weight: 7.29 KG
- Motherboard Support: ITX, microATX, ATX
- External Features: 1x HD Audio/Mic, 2x USB 3.0
- Bays & Expansion
- Internal 3.5” 2 + 1
- Internal 2.5” 2 + 1
- PCI Expansion Slots: 7
Cooling
- Front: 2 x 120mm or 140mm
- Top: 1 x 120mm or 1400 [120mm included]
- Rear: 1 x 120mm [120mm included]
Clearance
- CPU Cooler: 161mm
- Front Radiator: 58mm
- Rear Radiator: 75mm
- GPU: 364mm / 334mm [Without Radiator]
Warranty Term: 2 Years
Features
- NZXT Award Winning Power Supply Shroud which also supports dual SSDs
- Cable Management Bar
- Water Cooling support for 120mm Rear. 240mm & 280mm front
- LED Lighting for under carriage LED light rails
- LED lighting for front Razer emblem
- Removable Magnetic Front Filter helps keep dust out of your system, and makes it easy to remove and clean. Filter is also washable.
- Support for 364mm long GPUs or 334mm with front radiator installed
Accessories Package
The included S340 accessories package is a little sparse to say the least
- One package of 21 / 6-32 x 5mm screws
- One package of 12 / M3 x 5mm screws
- One package of 8 / KB5 x 10mm screws
- One motherboard standoff 6-32 x 6.5+4mm
- Motherboard Standoff Wrench
- One package / 10 Cable Ties
- NZXT S340 Mid Tower Manual
- Two Razer Emblem Decals
Let us move on to taking a look at the exteriors of the S340 on the next page.
Closer Look - Exterior
Let’s take a look at NZXT S340 Razer Edition chassis exterior by starting with the right side. There’s a vent at the top and bottom of the front panel to allow cool air to be drawn in by the 140mm fans we installed.
The front of the S340 has the Razer emblem which lights up once your system has been powered on, the same goes for the LED light rails on the bottom of the chassis.
The top panel has the air vent we talked about earlier which provides air to our 140mm fans which our installed on the NZXT Kraken X61 CPU Cooler
The power switch is located to the right front I/O next we have two USB 3.0 ports, HD audio output & Mic input, last the power LED
Here’s an angle shot of the front panel and the windowed side panel
As you can see the right side panel has a lot of space, more like an open canvas waiting for you to add some custom paint, or apply some vinyl with graphics from your favorite game
In the next three photos we will take a look at what’s happening on the rear of the chassis. Over to the left, the rear I/O an on the right the grill for the rear 120mm fan. Below the fan grill we see seven thumb screws for securing your PCI devices in place and seven expansion slots with vented covers. The very bottom of the rear is the power supply bay.
In our next photo a close up of the N340 power supply bay which runs almost the entire length of the chassis
As we mentioned earlier, the photo below shows the seven thumb screws for locking down your PCI devices, as well as the seven expansion slots with vented covers.
Let’s move on to the bottom of the S340 Razer Edition and see what’s going on. The green LEDs are located behind the white strips on both sides of the case and the four rubber feet do a decent job preventing the chassis from moving . There's a filter on bottom of the power supply bay to stop dust and animal hairs from entering the chassis.
Closer Look - Interior
Starting with the left side, there’s an extra large cut out for installing CPU cooler back plates. You may have noticed the lack of cable routing holes, this is due to NZXT replacing them with the cable management bar which is located on the right side on the motherboard tray. I have to admit that it does a great job with your cables, which you will get a chance to see in the build section of our review
NZXT provided a removable magnetic fan filer for the front panel, however the S340 does not come with any fans, so the 140mm fans you see in the next couple of photos are from the installed Kraken X61 CPU cooler.
Here’s another photo on the front panel with the filter removed.
In our next photo you can see just how large the cut out actually is , as well as a better view of the cable management bar. There’s a couple of cable routing holes in the top of the power supply shroud. The two in the rear are used to run SATA cables to each of the SSDs the last hole on the side of the SSD tray is used to run PCIe cables to your video cards.
The SSD mounting for the S340 is located on the top of the power supply shroud which makes it easy to display your prized SSDs and also very easy to remove each tray .
With the trays removed, I can easily install my Kingston HyperX Savage 960GB SSDs and reinstall the each tray on top of the power supply shroud.
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Build and Installation
System Specifications
- Gigabyte Z97X-UD5 Black Edition Motherboard
- Intel i7-4790K Overclocked to 4.8GHz
- NZXT Kraken X61 AIO CPU Cooler
- Kingston HyperX Savage 2400MHz 32GB Memory
- OCZ RevoDrive 350 480GB PCIe SSD Boot Drive
- Two Kingston Savage 960GB SSDs for storage
- Two PowerColor R9 270X OC Devil Video Cards with Crossfire enabled
- OCZ Fatal1ty 1000 watt power supply with black sleeved cables
- NZXT S350 Razer Edition Chassis
Installing our Z97 Crossfire build in the S340 was a breeze, I didn’t run into a single issue throughout the whole build. At first I thought the Kraken X61 was going to be difficult to install due to cable management bar but it ended up being an easy install with close to a half inch left between the cable management bar and the Krakens 280mm Radiator
Next, a photo of our completed Z97 water cooled Crossfire build.
Cleaning up the cables was fast and easy leaving us with a clean looking build, I wish other company’s would pay attention and realize that no one likes a messy looking build.
Let's move on to the next page for the conclusion.
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
NZXT has done a great job with the S340 Razer Edition Mid Tower Chassis, the overall build quality is good, and the black finish does not leave fingerprints, and believe me I handled this case a lot throughout the photo shoot and the build.
Cable management is excellent mainly in part to the new NZXT cable management bar, which made cable routing very easy and left us with a nice clean looking build. The LED rails on the bottom of the chassis throw off an awesome green glow on any type of table top, and you have to love the way the Razer emblem light up on the front panel. The green LED lighting looks cool as you turn on the system, certainly a huge plus for Razer fans out there looking for a green themed build.
I can’t say enough about the award winning NZXT cable shroud, except that every case company should design their own power supply shroud. And let's not forget how easy and fast it is to install a couple of SSDs on top of the shroud. If I had to complain about something, it would be the top panel, NZXT should have made it possible to install a second 240mm or 280mm radiator.
Now let's talk about the price, at $99 you do get your money's worth but with the lack of being able to install a second radiator up top and the fact that the S340 does not come with 140mm fans up front makes me feel that $79.00 would be a better price for the NZXT S340 Razer Edition. You can pre-order the S340 Razer Editor at the NZXT Armory Store on this link.
