The Noctis is wonderful. Don't have a clue why your page says it costs $285 but the link goes to page that says $139.99.
This is my first NZXT case so I'm not a fanboy when I say your review was weird: making up hypothetical problems (about dual radiators and such) that weren't tested by you, not part of your setup. Wazzup with that? I installed 2 other fans (top, intake) I had laying around that are nothing special at all and I can only hear the air blowing through the case pleasantly (and it's on my desk about 2.5 feet from me). I run all fans as intake except the rear and it's crazy good at cooling, not coming close to needing a radiator with i7-4790K, Cryorig H5A (why are you using that cpu 5930?? I hear it's not very efficient but to each his own, though most mortals looking at a case like this wouldn't be picking something for super duper multi-thread video rendering, just sayin, and folks using that 5930K seem to need watercooling to overclock it to even 4Ghz, hungry beast that it is).
Oh, the Zalman you keep comparing it with is nowhere near as sexy or as good. Do y'all even read newegg reviews? It has no screen over the top so anything can fall or climb right into it. The side fans suck out the air the front fan is blowing in - no wonder it's quiet, there's no air moving through it.
Who in the heck uses a reset button anymore? The power button does the same job anyway (maybe it's a linux thing?).
Yeah, yank that darn front panel off, don't hesitate, don't be scared, just grab it and yank! It's annoying because the case is so pretty that one doesn't want to hurt it in any way; next time I clean filters I'll probably dremel out the holes a bit, as others have suggested, to ease the worry of causing distress to my beauty.
Oh, I have the white one and it's a great color; never had anything but black and it's a welcome change and even in a dusty shop nothing sticks to it.
When I bought it I was shopping for airflow and dust filters, both of which it does very well. Looks are just a sweet bonus. I have an external DVD drive I've used twice last year, normally lives in a drawer. Before getting that I once opened the side panel, set a 3.5 drive on that lovely shelf above the power supply, and connected it that way (left it in there till I got the external but don't use either anymore, just USB). So mostly the case is empty and a perfect wind tunnel from the front to the cpu cooler and video card to the rear exhaust. Perfect.
Oh, forgot to mention the PWM controller: works perfectly for me, sorry for your problems and your "heat soaking". Did you block or leave in all the trays? You said you were just using the 2.5" drive so didn't need them at all - removing any unnecessary trays does help much.
Your motherboard, as with mine, has 2 CPU fan slots. The directions included with the Noctis describe using these so that you can control the main cpu cooler and the PWM fans separately. Give it a try next time or get someone who likes to read well thought out instructions.