MSI Nighthawk Case Review

The Front Panel

The MSI Nighthawk has four external 5.25” bays, with meshed covers and air filters, and an external 3.5” bay, which comes with a memory card reader installed.

Figure 4: Front panel

At the bottom part of the front panel, the MSI Nighthawk has a 120 mm fan. This fan has an air filter in front of it; however, it can’t be easily removed. Unfortunately, the manufacturer doesn’t publish the specifications for this fan, which uses a standard peripheral power connector, so it needs to be connected directly to the power supply. This fan glows blue when turned on.

Figure 5: Front panel

The case comes with one USB 3.0 port, two USB 2.0 ports, and the traditional audio jacks on the top part of the front panel. The USB 3.0 port uses an internal connector, so make sure you install a motherboard with an internal USB 3.0 header. We couldn’t understand why this case didn’t come with two USB 3.0 ports, since the internal USB 3.0 header supports two ports.

Figure 6: Buttons and connectors

One of the highlights of the MSI Nighthawk is the presence of a 12-in-1 memory card reader, supporting the MS, MS Pro, MS Duo, MS Pro Duo, CF I, CF II, MD, SD, microSD, MMC, RC MMC, Extreme Digital, TF, and M2 standards. It also has another USB 2.0 port.

Figure 7: Memory card reader