The NZXT Source series was willed into being by NZXT as an affordable line of enclosures that still look good and come at an affordable price. With the Source 530, the company has grown the chassis in size as an illustration of how the series has now matured to really offer a solid feature set at an affordable price, especially considering how spacious of a case this is. The Source 530 offers metal tension locks for its optical drive bays, but still has to make due with the flimsy plastic hard-drive trays. NZXT is luckily doing away with these in all cases to come, so this chassis should be the last to use such an implementation.
Allowing for a full 360 mm radiator in the ceiling and multiple smaller ones within the chassis itself, the Source 530 also really shines with its liquid-cooling compatibility. Its hard-drive cages are also modular enough so as to make the most out of the space while offering up enough flexibility to opt for more elaborate cooling configurations. The ability to install a lot of radiators also means that these need to be cooled, which is where the included fan PCB comes in handy as it allows you to connect a greater number of fans. While this is great, it would have been nice to see an update to allow for PWM-based fans as well.
The design choices in the Source series are questionable as the entire front of the 530 chassis consists of metal mesh, which will require regular cleaning and does not offer the same level of sound encapsulation as a solid front panel. The top of the chassis is also wide open, which again allows dust to enter freely while offering no noise encapsulation. An additional, 3rd fan in the front - just to really get the airflow going and to make this case one of ultimate value - would have been on my personal wish list. It would have also been great to have some USB 2.0 connectivity in addition to the two USB 3.0 ports, but NZXT equipped past Source cases with the same amount of I/O as on the 530, so we were not expecting more connectivity options.
The NZXT Source 530 ultimately offers a solid list of arguments and a lot of space, and its implements most of its features incredibly well - all at a good price, which makes it a chassis I can easily recommend.