NZXT Switch 810 Special Edition Gunmetal Case Review

Overview
The Switch 810 Special Edition is a full-tower chassis, meaning you can expect plenty of space for your core components and then some more. Measuring at 9.2 inches (D) x 23 inches (D) x 23.4 inches(H), it certainly fits the bill. The chassis itself is made of mostly steel, though the top and front panel are plastic, some of it accented with a rubberized coating.  It comes in two colors; matte black and gunmetal. The standard edition is also available in glossy white and glossy black. Gunmetal and other metal colors are becoming more popular amongst the common black or white crowd, and this case is one of the pioneers of that color scheme. The overwhelming majority of the case is the Gunmetal color, though some of the plastic panels are accented with black, creating a contrasting look.  The plastic top and front panels color match the steel chassis and side panels almost seamlessly, which can be hard to achieve with different surface types so close together.

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

We’ll start with the front of the case and work our way around.  At the top of the front panel, curved over to the top, is your power button. Beneath this is a stealth cover that you can flip open to reveal 2x USB 2.0 ports, 2x USB 3.0 ports, an SD card reader, headphone and mic inputs, a reset button, and a button to turn the white LED at the rear of the case on. Continuing down from this there are 4 external 5.25” bays. The first of which has an optical drive cover to keep any optical drive you opt to use matching the color scheme of the case. This particular 5.25” bay is also separated from the rest, which you will see as we continue around the case. There are then 2 standard 5.25” bays, and then the final 5.25” bay is a 3.5” drive hotswap bay. Removing the plastic covers of the 5.25” bays is as simple as pressing your finger against the sides to “unlock” them, and then just pulling them off.

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

Staying with the front for the time being, below the 5.25” bays is a removable panel, inside which you can mount 2x 140mm fans for intake. This panel is dust filtered, and has an air intake at the bottom, protected by mesh. NZXT has provided you with one 140mm fan for this area. There are mounting holes for 120mm fans too, if that is your preference. At the bottom of this area is a small pressure button. Pressing this button will release another fan filter for the bottom of the case. This is here if you choose to mount a radiator or intake fans on the floor of the chassis.

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

Moving around to the side of the case, here the overwhelming feature is the frankly HUGE window. This will show pretty much your entire set up, as it shows the power supply mounting area, the motherboard tray, and even your drive bays.

NZXT Switch 810 Special Edition Gunmetal Case

Next up, the rear of the case. First, your rear exhaust fan mounting point. NZXT has provided you with another 140mm fan here. What’s special about this part of the case is that you can mount the fan in a variety of different vertical positions, depending on what you need. You can align it with your CPU air cooler for optimum airflow, or you can mount it with water cooling in mind, making sure that you have enough room to accommodate large radiators on both the top and rear mounting points of the case. Next is a cutout for your motherboards i/o. Simple enough, right? Wrong! NZXT have added an LED light, that I mentioned before, that you can turn on and off as you desire. No more moving your connectors around the rear of your motherboard until you find one that “feels” right – this very simple yet genius feature makes it so much easier to connect cables to your rear panel. There’s another one above your expansion slots, too!

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

Below these you have nine expansion slots – room to accommodate extreme multi-GPU setups with ease. Next to these, four large water cooling cutouts make routing tubing very easy if you wanted to take that path with your cooling setup. At the bottom of the case is your power supply cut out. There are 8 screw points here; allowing you to mount your power supply with its fan facing either up or down. Below this is another pressure button, and another easily removable fan filter. The final feature of this rear section is one that is frequently overlooked; the case is secured with thumb screws, but the middle thumb screw can be unscrewed slightly and then acts as a spring lever. You can push this screw down and remove the panel, then it will spring back into position. Replace the side panel by pushing the screw down again, and then once in place the screw will spring back into a locked position.

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 NZXT Switch 810 Special Edition Gunmetal Case

Finally, we have the top of the case to go over. At the back, there is a push/pull lever (or Switch) that will open or close the vents at the top of the case. The main purpose of this is to optimize your build for either airflow, or silence. Of course, in making a choice of airflow, noise levels will suffer, and vice versa.
At the other end of the top panel, as previously mentioned, is the power button.
Two pressure buttons at the rear of the gunmetal panel allows you take the entire venting section off to clean or install fans. There are room for 3 fans inside the top panel, or you can choose to mount them below, if you so desire. NZXT has provided another 140mm fan here for your use. A good feature here is the ability to natively install 360mm radiators, in push/pull configuration, whilst retaining enough space to fit your motherboard and not have it hit the VRMs or memory modules with your fans. You can also fit some 420mm radiators natively, though some others will require you to drill your own mounting holes.

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 NZXT Switch 810 Special Edition Gunmetal Case

To bring our overview to and end, and to help you decide between colors of the NZXT Switch 810 should you decide to purchase one, we have included a few comparison shots between the White and Gunmetal variants of the case.

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