BUILD YOURSELF A COMPACT, CONSOLE-LIKE LIVING ROOM GAMING PC.

LENGTH OF TIME: 4-5 HOURS

LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: MEDIUM

1 WHAT’S IN THE BOX?

WE STARTED THE BUILD by tearing into the NZXT H1 v2 box to see what we were dealing with in terms of design and space. First impressions are great—the case easily and neatly comes apart with a back panel and glass panel that easily pop off, then a U-shaped chassis that lifts off the top. All of the case’s accessories are stored inside the case itself in a box sitting where the GPU will go. Other gaps in the case are protected by polystyrene blocks, giving you the confidence that the case has been protected since it left the factory. That first impression is soured somewhat by NZXT’s short instruction manual that’s light on details. Undeterred, we instead decide to just whip everything out to give us some room to build in.

2 MAX PC UNPLUGGED

THE FIRST THING we removed was the PSU, which is prescrewed into the case. With the PSU freed, the next step is to take out the modular power cables. This was actually much easier than it looks in the photo below. NZXT’s case is really well designed, with a panel just behind the cables housing the case’s fan controller, which folds neatly outward to give you more space to pull cables out. You might not need some of the power cables if, like us, you aren’t installing any SATA drives. This is where the compact size of the case is a bonus though—all the components are so close together that the cable lengths are really short, so there’s not a lot of excess cabling you need to manage.