Setup and Performance

The Whisper was pretty easy to setup, and for experienced builders, referring to the manual will likely be unnecessary. The hard drive trays need to be removed of course to install the 3.5" disk drive of your choosing.

The drives are bolted down via the bottom screw holes and once done, just slide the drive back in. As there is no motherboard tray, just ease your board into the case. If you have some sort of specialized cooler, that needs to be installed first.

The potential for installation issues lies here as you can see above the edge of the motherboard comes right up to the interior of the case. If your specific cooler passes the edge of the motherboard, you will not be able to install it with the whisper.

We tested with two different setups. The consistent components were an Intel E6750 at stock speeds, Seagate 7200.10 500GB drive, Samsung DVD-r, and an Asus Silent Square cooler and a Corsair 600W PSU. We used both a silent NVIDIA 8600GT and an AMD 4870. Neither video card impacted the cooling performance of the case much, but the noise was certainly something we noticed.

Compared to a Cooler Master Stacker's 38C system temperature, the NZXT Whisper was 41C. Acceptable in our books considering the Stacker is perforated and designed more for cooling in mind. However, the noise difference was large as the Stacker was unbearable when on the desk while the Whisper was hardly audible, even with the 4870. 

Final Words

The  accomplishes the goal it set out to do. Conquer noise. With a quietly designed system, unless I looked at the case and saw the lights, I'd be hard pressed to tell you if the system was even on. When we put our performance system together, with the noisy AMD 4870, the system was still quiet, even under load. The whining noise of the 4870 can still be heard but at a much lower level. My girlfriend used to complain about my system when I'd be gaming as she sits less than 10 feet away when watching TV. This forces her to turn up the television which really doesn't bother me as I wear headphones, but it irritates her.

She noticed the NZXT Whisper when it sat on my desk, but still asked if I purchased a new system. When I replied no, she seemed surprised as from where she was, she hardly heard anything while I was playing Call of Duty. Only when she muted the television, was she able to hear the now faint whir of the AMD 4870, so that alone has made her a big fan of the NZXT Whisper.

Aesthetics are solid, provided you do not like a lot of flash. Overall, I found the NZXT Whisper decent enough that I didn't mind showing it off, but the design is not the most exciting. That said, access to the top inputs and outputs were simple to reach and the front facade door does hide what would normally be unsightly optical drives. For those who prefer to stow it away, it is a very large case and there was no way it would fit in the PC compartment of my desk. As my desk is quite sturdy, it held up to the NZXT Whisper's weight, but this is easily the heaviest case I have worked with during my time here at Viper Lair.

Cooling is an important feature for computer cases as something stifling too much heat will not bode well for your PC. Overall, the NZXT Whisper was acceptable, but not great. We think the better than expected performance here was due to the spacious interior, which compensated for the quieter fans. The case doors did not feel warm to the touch, so it is our opinion that the dampening foam does not contribute to any heat being retained in the case. Again, we will have to point out that "fatter" coolers that extend past the case will not fit with the Whisper.

Anyone looking to build a silent computer should certainly give the  a look. You still need to use silent components for a truly quiet to no noise setup, but just the  alone will quiet down what would otherwise be a noisy setup.