News Got an NZXT H1? You might want to RMA it.

I'm assuming most NZXT H1 owners have heard of the potential fire risk with its riser ... well, it's worse than NZXT is willing to admit. The riser cable has a major, major design flaw, with the +12V voltage plane being essentially exposed to the hole where the riser's mounting screws go, which ... well, are grounded through the case. NZXT's "fix" (shipping nylon screws and washers to mount the riser instead of metal screws) is fundamentally flawed, as a) those screws are brittle and will break, prompting replacement (with metal screws, most likely), and b) it's at best a band-aid fix on a major fire hazard. Cases sold second-hand or rebuilt at a later point are significant fire hazard. There is no reason to expect any risers are safe from this: properly made risers have plated holes for their mounting screws and proper ground connections for those, with significant clearance between it and the +12V plane. These don't, and instead have unplated holes that are too small for the screws, making the screw chew through the PCB and into the far-too-close +12V plane.

If you have one of these (and it hasn't caught fire yet), don't touch the riser's mounting screws(!), send an RMA request to NZXT asking for a fixed riser or demand your money back. A case isn't worth risking your life or the lives of the people you live with. And NZXT clearly isn't going to rectify this properly unless people actually force them to do so.

(Oh, and please ignore the silly YT thumbnails, we can't blame people for having to cater to the idiotic "attention economy" alogrithms running these sites.)

I don't think I've ever seen Steve get quite that mad. And it's for a very good reason. NZXT is clearly trying to downplay this, and are using underhanded tactic to make themselves look better rather than addressing the problem.

Original investigation:

 

[Skripka]

What Steve didn't get into.....was NZXT trying to softball this entire issue from the beginning. When this first came out a couple months ago. NZXT posted a note on their website asking users to contact them about a non-specified 'safety issue'. That is right. NZXT sold a flawed-by-design product, that could burn users houses down, and didn't tell users what it was--only to contact them in a note they only saw if they checked the NZXT website. They also seemed to have been dodging involving the US Consumer Product Safety Commission with that response, too.

The most aggravating thing....beyond the possibly criminal safety response handling and PR...PCB design tools are smart. Seriously, there are safety systems built into software to avoid exactly this--to tell you you're putting traces too close to screw/fastener holes whether they are grounded or not. Which, yea, they should have been lined/grounded too. Someone had to know at the designer's desk this was wrong. The NZXT got the prototypes and tested them--and saw the wrong screw fit, and green-lit it anyway.

 

[Phuncz]

Quality control should have found this before and during production. For 350$/€ I do expect a top notch PCIe extender and not something this badly designed.

 

[Valantar]

Quality control should have found this before and during production. For 350$/€ I do expect a top notch PCIe extender and not something this badly designed.

Yeah, this riser should never have gone into mass production in the first place. I can't even really understand why the 12V plane extends that far out at all, but then I'm not an electrical engineer. But they could have let it cover as muc area as they wanted if they just provided sufficient separation...

 

[Skripka]

Quality control should have found this before and during production. For 350$/€ I do expect a top notch PCIe extender and not something this badly designed.

Now that I think about it....NZXT surely had to get UL or CE certification on the end product. Makes me wonder how they (UL or CE) didn't catch this. You loosen that one screw and see PCB dust--you should know something is very wrong--whether the PCB internals are kosher or not.

 

[thelaughingman]

I've also been spreading GN's videos as much as possible in my local SFF community and PC hardware. In Vietnam there's basically zero consumer protection so it's more to ward off new buyers instead. For the current H1 owners in Vietnam I don't know how they could get any recourse since the retailers / distributors hold so much power and of course they will not want to have to refund / return items unless NZXT comes out and pays for all of it. To add insult to injury, many of them seems to be ignorant of the issue so there's that.

 

[Valantar]

Well that was ... slow, but then suddenly quick:

So, if you have an H1: Contact NZXT and ask when and how you will be getting your replacement riser. Here's the form to request a replacement kit.

And once again, GN demonstrates how quality investigative journalism actually makes a difference.

 

[Skripka]

Good on GN....and good on NZXT for finally doing what they should have, months ago.

 

[kamanshaman]

I own one and only found out about this a few hours ago. Thank you GN. I removed the one header screw until I get the replacement. Jeez

 

[kamanshaman]

Side note. I agree that a 3 riser is fine. 4 would be great but again not what I bought originally.

 

[Solo]

Even without the 12V plane being exposed by the screw boring out the PCB, who the hell at NZXT was like, "yeah, the screw threads cutting into the riser is fine don't worry about it bro."

 

[kamanshaman]

I was ready to call it a day and watched the GN video and decided to pull the second screw out. Took their advice and zip tied it for the time being. Two days ago my wife was telling me she smelled and electrical burning smell!?!?!? No time to take a chance. Can you imagine trying to collect what you spent on your new build, the desk, the walls................and hoping no one injured either.