NZXT M59 Classic Series PC Case

Today for review I’ve got another product from our friends at NZXT, this time it’s the M59 Mid-Tower Gaming Chassis. The M59 is a sleek looking case, I honestly really like the look and style of it, so much so that it has become the home for my gaming PC hooked up to my 47” HDTV. It’s small in size so it won’t stick out, but yet there’s plenty of room for hard drives and large sized video cards inside. NZXT has included a 2.5” to 3.5” hard drive adapter for those, like myself, that use SSDs for their computers. The M59 is nicely designed and fairly well made, but it’s not without it’s faults, it’s a budget case yes, so some faults are to be expected, but for a budget case it’s worth it despite the problems.. So read on to learn more…

Specifications:

M59 Classic Series

Mid tower black interior chassis

Announcing the M59 gaming chassis. M59 delivers optimal airflow with 5 powerful fans with the option to station two fans on the top(rifle bearing side 120mm LED fan and rear 120mm exhaust included), side intake for GPU cooling, a mesh front panel and a bottom mounted PSU draws cooler air from the bottom of the case. The sleek aesthetics are highlighted by an all black interior and smoked clear window along with a 5.25″ stealth bay gives a clean, but powerful presence. NZXT enhances the PC building experience with features that help make the installation process as painless as possible with pre-drilled water cooling holes and punched holes in the motherboard allowing for quick CPU bracket removal and immaculate wire routing. Additional advanced features include space for two SSD drives and higher end 10.5″ graphics cards along with an ambient night light sitting over the 5.25″ drives for constant visibility in dark rooms or at LAN parties.

Features:
* Immense Performance: 5 fan capability (side 120mm LED and rear 120mm exhaust included) Included 9-fin rifle bearing NZXT fans rated at 42CFM and 23db
* Night light: A ambient light sits over the 5.25″ drives to give visibility in dark rooms or at LAN parties
* Black on Black: Smoked clear window and a black interior gives the best combination of black on black
* Meshed front panel allows for more airflow
* 5.25″ stealth bay to keep a clean look
* NZXT solid state bracket allows for two SSD drives to be installed
* Wire routing: motherboard punched holes allows for quick CPU bracket removable and optimal wire routing, turned HDD also helps with managing cables
* Pre-drilled water cooling holes on the back plate
* Front mounted USB, audio, and ESATA ports
* Support for external dual radiator at the top of the chassis
* High end graphics card support, the M59 features space that is especially designed to fit longer 10.” cards

Specs:
MODEL: M59 SERIES
CASE TYPE: MID TOWER Black interior chassis
FRONT PANEL MATERIAL: Steel
DIMENSIONS (W x H x D): 190 X 449 X 508 mm

COOLING SYSTEM:
FRONT: 1 x 120mm
SIDE: 1 x 120mm LED fan@1200RPM, 23db/42CFM (included)
TOP: 2 x 140/120mm
REAR: 1 x 120mm, 23db/42CFM (included)

DRIVE BAYS:
11 DRIVE BAYS
4 EXTERNAL 5.25″ DRIVE BAYS
7 INTERNAL 3.5″ DRIVE BAYS

MATERIAL(S): Steel Construction
EXPANSION SLOTS: 7
WEIGHT: 6.5 KGS (W/O Power)
MOTHERBOARD SUPPORT: MOTHERBOARDS: ATX, MICRO-ATX, BABY AT

Unboxing:

The NZXT M59 case comes in a stylish box with pictures and specs listed, the case itself is packed well with styrofam and plastic covering it.

The M59 is basically all black both inside and out, it features a side window on the left side with a pre-installed 120mm cooling fan. The side view of the case show how the front bezel is designed, it’s hard to describe, but it’s a lot of angles, and I personally like the look of it.

The front feature a sort of stealth optical bay built into the case, under that are three more 5.25” bays. Directly above the top optical bay is a light bar that comes on where you power the system on for ambient lighting, it’s a nice touch and a feature that I like quite a bit. In the middle is where you’ll find the power and reset buttons along with USB, eSATA and your audio ports. The bottom half is grilled for ventilation and you’ll find a metal NZXT badge there as well.

Removing the front bezel you’ll find a space for a 120mm cooling fan, there isn’t one included.

On the top of the case you’ll find spaces for two 120mm or 140mm fans.

The right side of the case is just plain black with an indentation to allow for easier removal of the side panel.

On the back you’ll find large thumbscrews on both sides of the case for easy access. The M59 is a bottom mounted power supply style case, you’ll find the usual stuff back there, PCI slots, I/O port, but NZXT included rubberized holes at the top of the case for liquid cooling installation.

On the bottom of the case you’ll find four rubber feet and a removable filter where the PSU is installed.

Taking the right side of the case of we find that the motherboard tray has a very large hole in it where the CPU is mounted, this is to make life easier for swapping coolers, this is a great feature to have in any case. The motherboard try also has plenty of room to route wires through and several spot for securing them as well.

Removing the left side panel we can get a better look at the fan, it actually has blue LEDs in it, which you’ll see lit up later in the review. The side panel isn’t clear, more of a smoke colored.

Once the side panel is off we get a better look inside. You’ll find plenty of room for hard drives in there, along with the SSD adapter that I mentioned earlier. With the adapter you can fit two SSD 2.5” drives in the case. The connections you’ll find are the same as other cases with the exception of an additional moles power connector for the front light.

The little brown box is where you’ll find the accessories including screws, stand-offs and drive rails. It’s interesting that there’s a whole bag of thumbscrews, these are what you’ll use to secure your optical drives in the case.

Installation, Performance, Comparison

For the installation I ran into my first problem with the stealth drive bay, when you install the optical drive it blocks one of the top fans. You will not be able to install a 120mm or a 140mm fan in there, and there’s no way you’ll get a double sized radiator in there for liquid cooling.

The next problem I ran into was installing the motherboard and connecting it up. Yes, the CPU cooler I’m using is rather large, but even a small one will cause a problem. I ended up having to take the cooler off to connect up the second power cable and get the top left screw in the motherboard. The video card I’m using is a Diamond 4870, it’s large and makes for a rather tight fit, but that’s primarily because the power connectors are on the back edge of the card. Still though there’s more than enough room between the card and the drive cage.

There’s plenty of room to install your hard drives, and I’ve got three installed including an SSD for my operating system and two 500 gigs drives as well.

Here’s the case all lit up next to my entertainment center and some other views as well. As I mentioned I use this as my gaming PC, but I also use it to capture video from the Nintendo Wii and my Xbox360 for reviews as well. I didn’t like the stealth bay, so I got out my Dremel and ‘fixed’ the case a bit. The top of the drive bay is rounded and there are little tabs that stick out preventing the Blu-Ray drive from coming forward, a few minutes with a Dremel cured the problem and I got my optical drive installed fine.

As far as noise is concerned, the two included fans are virtually silent. I did install another fan in the front of the case as well for added ventilation and peace of mind, but you really don’t have to as the cooling is fine without it.

I also installed a 3.5” card reader as well in the M59, it should be noted that NZXT did not include an adapter for this, I used one that I had lying around for my installation.

Conclusion:

The NZXT M59 case is well designed and stylish case that will make any gamer happy. It’s a budget minded case that’s big on features, for the price it’s well worth it.

You should be able to fit most any system in there, but just be aware of the issues that I mentioned.

Pros:
+Excellent look and design
+Room for the large video cards
+Includes 2.5” to 3.5” adapter

Cons:
-Top drive back blocks installation of top fan
-Must use the included stealth drive cover or modify the case
-Little room on top of case around motherboard
-No front fan installed
-No 5.25” to 3.5” bay adapter included

Ratings
Overall: 4 out of 5
Performance: 4 out of 5
Aesthetic: 5 out of 5
Build Quality: 4 out of 5

I would like to thank NZXT for the opportunity to review the M59 Classic Series PC Case and for their support of Bona Fide Reviews.

Tagged as: Chassis, Gaming, M59, nzxt, PC Case, Review