A few days ago I took a look at the NZXT Guardian  921 PC case, today I’ve got another from NZXT as well, the Beta. The Beta chassis is meant to be more of a budget case, coming in at around $50, but it’s got features of more expensive cases and overall it’s a very nice case. The Beta features a tool-less installation for the optical and hard drives, enough room for four fans to keep things cool, and it’s very aesthetically pleasing. So without further chatter from me, read on to learn more about an excellent case from NZXT…

The NZXT Beta PC Case comes in a plain brown box basically with black lettering on it, inside we find the case packed very well with styrofoam and wrapped in plastic for protection.

The Beta is all black in color with four 5.25″ bays available, but you’ll notice there are no 3.5″ bays on the front. The left side of the case case has spots for two additional fans to be mounted.

On the front bezel you’ll find power and reset switches that somewhat blend into the case, and on the top of the case, right behind the bezel is located the USB, audio and e-SATA ports.

On the back we find the standard stuff with the addition of two holes for tubing for a water cooling setup there, the PCI slot covers are also not your standard solid ones, these are mesh.

The bottom of the case has four rubber feet, nothing special going on here.

The front bezel pops off very easily to reveal that the there are no cut-outs to be removed from the 5.25″ bays, this is something I think is nice, I hate having to remove them. Once the bezel is off you’ll see the front 120mm fan, and you’ll notice there is a filter as well for the fan to keep dust out of your system.

The right side of the case is secured with standard screws, and the HDD cage is open all the way though to allow routing wires easier.

A nice added touch I think to the Beta is that the interior of the case is painted black, this is something that you don’t se often and usually on higher priced cases. The motherboard tray features holes to run your cables though if you wish, but there aren’t really any places to tie down your cables.

The hard drive cage can accommodate five hard drives, you’ll notice there is a spot for a 3.5″ bay device but there isn’t anywhere on the front of the case for it to come out. Of course we also find the standard set of motherboard connections for the motherboard headers along with the e-SATA connector.

We of course find the accessory box with screws, rails for the hard drive and locks for the optical drives.

Here’s a look at the back of the case from the inside:

Specifications:

BETA Classic Series

Midtower Steel Chassis
Announcing the BETA, a mid-tower steel case that delivers gamers a chassis designed for tremendous value without sacrificing performance. Built for maximum expandability, BETA expansive jet black interior provides ample room for 4 external 5.25″ drives, 5 HDD racks, and fits large 10.5″ performance graphics cards. NZXT continues their expertise in effective cooling by offering BETA users expanded cooling that directly cools video cards and CPU with 4 120mm fans(1 front, 1 rear, and 2 side) and a meshed front panel that improves airflow. The front 120mm fan can fit thicker fans like the Scythe Ultra Kaze that can help maximize airflow. Additional features like screwless installation for 5.25″ drives/hard drives and top mounted USB/Audio enhance ease of installation and convenience for gamers.

Features:
* Fits ATX standard motherboards and power supplies
* Fits large 10.5″ performance graphics cards
* Expanded cooling directly cools video cards and CPU
* Screwless installation for hard drives and external 5.25″ drives
* Black internal finish for sleek look
* Meshed front panel allows for better airflow than traditional cases
* Top mounted Dual USB/Audio/ESATA for convenient usage

MODEL: Beta Series
CASE TYPE: Mid Tower Steel
FRONT PANEL MATERIAL: PLASTIC
DIMENSIONS (W x H x D): 200 X 430 X 501 mm / 7.87″ x 16.9″ x 19.7″

COOLING SYSTEM:   
FRONT: 1 X 120mm Blue LED (included)
REAR: 1 X 120mm
SIDE: 2 x 120mm
DRIVE BAYS:
-9 DRIVE BAYS
–4 EXTERNAL 5.25″ DRIVE BAYS
–5 INTERNAL 3.5″ DRIVE BAYS

Screwless Rail Design
MATERIAL(S): Steel with black finish
EXPANSION SLOTS: 7
WEIGHT: 7.28 KGS (W/O Power)
MOTHERBOARD SUPPORT: ATX, MICRO-ATX, BABY AT

There’s plenty of room inside the Beta even though it’s a smaller case, I had no problem getting everything in there. I did install one fan on the side, and an exhaust fan of course, since the Beta does not come with one.

The video card I used for this setup is a larger style card, it’s an older ATI X1800 GTO, but the system is just going to be used for internet and word processing basically so nothing powerful was needed. The X1800GTO is about 9 inches long inside of the case, and there’s a little room to spare so you should have no problems getting newer, bigger cards in there.

Once you power up the system, you’ll find that it’s not very flashy, there is blue LEDs in the front fan, but they aren’t very bright, very subtle lighting.

The one included fan is quiet, and even when I added two more fans the system was still nice and quiet, though the fans I used are 1200RPM fans that are meant to be silent.

One complaint I could have about the beta is that they included a front intake fan, but not the exhaust, it would have been better to have it installed as the exhaust fan. Also, since the Beta has all of these spaces for fans, you’d expect there to be fan screws included but there aren’t, why I’m not sure.

Installing the hard drives and optical drives are fairly easy with the tool-less rails and clips. The DVD/RW drive I installed fit right in with no problems. Some cases with this style of mounting system for the 5.25″ bays usually only use one clip on the left side, but when I tried that the drive felt very lose. I opened up the right side of the case and found the you can put another clip on that side, adding the other clip made the drive much more secure. So basically you’ll have to use two clips with your 5.25″ devices, one on both sides. Seeing as how you’ll have to take off the right side of the case for installation, I have to wonder why NZXT didn’t include thumbscrews for that side of the case as well…

Conclusion:

The NZXT Beta is a nice basic case that’s inexpensive and nicely made, personally I really like it, it’s simple and subtle but yet very well designed. NZXT paid attention to detail with the Beta and it shows all though the design, from the tool-less installation to the interior painted black.

For what it is, the NZXT is a great case that I can recommend to anyone looking for an inexpensive but well made case.

Pros:
+Lightweight and well made
+Inexpensive
+Inside painted black as well looks nice
+room for lots of fans
+Easy installation
+Tool-less installation

Cons:
-Must remove right side of case for installation
-No exhaust fan included
-Wires are short

Grades:
Overall
Design
Performance