NZXT H9 Flow RGB+ case review

This is not a cheap case. Not by any stretch of the imagination. At $290 for this particular variant, it's verging on the absurd. To the point that even the most enthusiastic of system builders might find it hard to justify this thing in their cart. But NZXT believes it's worth it. It believes you're willing to stump up the cash. And I reckon it might be on to something here.

The H9 lineup is, without a doubt, NZXT's crowning glory. The flagship, the pinnacle of everything it can throw into good chassis design. I built with the most recent one, in its Elite configuration, complete with far too much glass and not enough intake, plus a Ryzen 9 9950X and an RTX 5090, and what I learned from that experience was that it seriously needed a lot more modern touches in terms of both cable management and how its cooling was handled. Yeah, it was good, but certainly not best case of the year kinda good; that's a fact.

Fortunate for me, then, that this little number turned up in my inbox. Getting to test the new and improved, redesigned, and redeveloped H9 Flow was too tantalizing to throw up. For those familiar with NZXT cases, you might immediately recognize this as being remarkably similar to the H6 Flow that the company launched way back in 2024.

Indeed, in many ways it feels like it's just that case but scaled up. You get the same recessed bottom mount fan slots. The same angular side vent and the same sweeping design aesthetics internally as well. Poke your head around the rear of the case, and you'll spot a remarkably similar internal layout there as well. Complete with Velcro straps and cable management doo-dads too. It's got the works.

But a lot's changed here. The biggest thing being, of course, those included fans. The H9 Flow is designed with 140mm fans in mind. The Flow RGB+ I've got in for testing here comes with two sets of NZXT's brand-new F420 Core RGB fan grids installed as standard, all routed and ready to go and plumbed into an included fan controller. These are monstrous, and, thanks to that chassis design and frame combo, look stunning. In fact, it's incredibly reminiscent of what Phanteks did with its Evolv X2 earlier this year and, of course, NZXT with its own H6 and H7 Flow.

Cable management has seen significant improvements back here as well. There's full compatibility with back connector motherboards now as standard, and NZXT's also done a lot here to improve that particular building experience too. Very specifically, if you do decide to not go with BTF, it includes a pop-out plastic panel that will allow you to run your "old-school" 24-pin cables through instead. Go full prima donna mode, though, and the cover just stays there looking entirely flush.

NZXT's also included a magnetic, screw-secured door here, along with a variety of SSD mounting points on it, plus some nice little cable management additions here as well, and if you look just close enough underneath the bottom left-hand side of the rear tray, there's enough space to tuck some of those unwanted front I/O cables out of the way. Nice.

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CPU: Intel Core i7-14700K | RAM: 32 GB (2x16 GB) Corsair Dominator Titanium DDR5 @ 7200 C34 | SSD: 4TB Samsung 9100 Pro M.2 PCIe 5.0 SSD | GPU: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5070 Ice SFF 12G | Motherboard: NZXT N7 Z790 | CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken Elite 360 RGB | PSU: 850W Phanteks Amp GH 850

Cabling aside, It's remarkably spacious to build in, and, if you keep those F420 RGB Core frames, super quick to complete, particularly as everything is already pre-routed for you. Plus, with that larger PSU enclosure (it's much heftier than the one found on the H6), even if you don't fancy cable-managing everything to the nines, you're not about to see any of it anyway, and you can just cram the lot in the back. Everything is well ventilated, and it all just works. The H6 Flow was a good case, and it turns out if you scale it up, the same basic principle applies.

The major downside, of course, is that price. The standard H9 Flow starts out life at $170 or £150, going all the way up to $290 / £250 for the full RGB+ suite. You can kind of justify that, given you effectively get a case with seven fans plus a decent controller, but it's still a heavy investment straight out of the gate, and it's not all brilliant either; the H9 Flow does have problems.

The topmost radiator mounting location still doesn't have a removable bracket (although the angled side intake does); the F120 fan in the rear, compared to all of the F420s in the chassis, feels cheap and lackluster and just hasn't had a refresh yet like the other dual+ fan solutions (it lacks the side illumination and cleaner look); and the internal paint job just feels like the same you find on an $80 case, not ideal for what it is.

Still, these are all fairly minor quibbles in the grand scheme of things. If you can pony up the cash and don't mind NZXT's F Core fans, this thing is an absolute treat. Not only does it look the part, but it keeps things seriously chilled and controlled while it does it. No fuss. No mess. Just a simple, easy rig.