NZXT Switch 810 Special Edition Gunmetal Case Review

A Look Inside
Looking inside the case, you can see that NZXT has continued their tradition of attention to detail by color coding the inside of the case with the exterior. No exposed metal motherboard trays here, and the gunmetal color seamlessly blends with the chassis and chassis panels.

NZXT Switch 810 Special Edition Gunmetal Case

Starting with the motherboard tray, the first thing you notice is the exceptionally large CPU cutout. This will allow you to install an aftermarket cooler onto your motherboard with ease, no matter what socket type you’re using. There are a total of 10 rubber routing holes with rubber grommets attached to the motherboard tray, 7 of which directly surround the motherboard mounting points for easy and clean cable management.  The remaining three are aligned so you can perfectly tuck the cables from your power supply into the cable routing space behind the motherboard. Angling your head slightly, you’ll see the two previously mentioned 140mm fans, as well as the well-sized CPU power cut out for routing your EPS cable.

NZXT Switch 810 Special Edition Gunmetal Case NZXT Switch 810 Special Edition Gunmetal Case NZXT Switch 810 Special Edition Gunmetal Case

Moving to the right are your four 5.25” bays. As mentioned before, the top is separated from the rest to allow you to remove it to accommodate larger radiators should you wish. You will also notice that the tool-less installation clip is slightly further back than the others; this is to allow the fact that your optical drive will not be flush with the front of the case so as to make use of the color-coded special bay cover that NZXT have provided you with. Moving down we have two standard 5.25” bays, and then finally the fourth, the hotswap bay. There’s a small PCB here, with molex power and a SATA data cable connector. If you opt to not use this case feature, you can of course remove the hot swap bay and use it as a normal 5.25” bay.

NZXT Switch 810 Special Edition Gunmetal Case NZXT Switch 810 Special Edition Gunmetal Case NZXT Switch 810 Special Edition Gunmetal Case

Moving down you have two detachable hard drive cages, each cage allowing the use of three 3.5” or 2.5” drives. The provided drive trays are tool-less, and it’s very simple to install your drives. Mounting holes are provided for 2.5” drives too. In early iterations of the NZXT Switch 810, these drive trays had a second bar on them, which prevented the use of 90 degree SATA connectors (visible here). This problem has been rectified in the NZXT Switch 810 SE.
It’s easy to remove the cages if you desire, you simply unscrew the thumb screws holding them down then pull the fold-out handles and out it slides! Removing them, or even one, will allow room for a 240mm radiator in the bottom, or a 280 if you’re able to drill mounting holes yourself.

NZXT Switch 810 Special Edition Gunmetal Case NZXT Switch 810 Special Edition Gunmetal Case

Attached to each drive cage is a unique feature that NZXT have incorporated into the Switch 810 SE – a 120/140mm fan mount, that you can tilt slightly to angle airflow at your important components. NZXT have kindly supplied another 140mm fan mounted to one of these, bringing the grand total of included fans to four.

NZXT Switch 810 Special Edition Gunmetal Case NZXT Switch 810 Special Edition Gunmetal Case

Moving along there is a location to mount your power supply, complete with six rubber risers that will absorb any vibration from your power supply and also allow air beneath it. The risers themselves are in locations to support both standard ATX power supplies and longer units. The elongated power supplies are becoming more popular as they can offer additional benefits such as higher wattages, or even modularity.

NZXT Switch 810 Special Edition Gunmetal Case NZXT Switch 810 Special Edition Gunmetal Case

Above the power supply mount are your motherboard expansion slots; attached with thumb screws. Additionally, you can see the four large water tubing cutouts, and the mechanism for the door detachment lever. You can also see a key for mounting your standoffs depending on your motherboard type engraved on the motherboard tray.

NZXT Switch 810 Special Edition Gunmetal Case

The NZXT Switch 810 SE uses a USB 3.0 header, a 2x USB 2.0 headers, and of course power/reset cables, HDD activity and power LED cables for its front panel connections. The whole front panel is powered by a single SATA power connector. Whilst this may seem strange to you, some case and peripheral manufacturers are trying to move away from MOLEX power connectors, as SATA power cables are better suited (and more low profile) for connections such as these.

NZXT Switch 810 Special Edition Gunmetal Case

Rotating the case to show us the back of the motherboard tray, we can see an abundance of little hooks that you can use to loop cable ties through for easy cable management. There is ample room for even the largest of cables (I’m thinking of you, 24-Pin!). In the middle of the motherboard tray there is a small 7-channel fan hub. The four supplied fans are connected here, leaving you three unused fan connecting points if you wanted to use them. The fan hub is powered by a single MOLEX power connector. Fans connected here will run as if connected directly to the power supply, meaning they will run at 100% all the time. The cutout at the top of the motherboard tray for your 4/8-pin CPU power connector is an ample size and will be more than sufficient for easy cable routing to connect to the required header.

NZXT Switch 810 Special Edition Gunmetal Case NZXT Switch 810 Special Edition Gunmetal Case NZXT Switch 810 Special Edition Gunmetal Case NZXT Switch 810 Special Edition Gunmetal Case

You may also notice the small white box tucked away in the bottom hard drive tray. In this box are all the accessories you should need for installation in the NZXT Switch 810 SE; screws, standoffs, cable ties and a little extra; an 8-Pin EPS cable extension from NZXT’s Premium Cable line. I like that NZXT knows their case is big, knows that 8-Pin cables often will not reach the top of a full tower, and have given you the tools to make it work.

NZXT Switch 810 Special Edition Gunmetal Case