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With the introduction of the Phantom, NZXT have made some noticeable improvements when it comes to the installing and securing optical drives. Some clever thinking went into the development of the sliding latch for removal of the bay covers. If they are able to withstand multiple system builds, they have made a major improvement in that area over other manufacturers. In the past when reviewing NZXT cases the locking mechanism for optical drives was one of their weaker points. Once again they have addressed that issue and created a revamped approach that so far has proven to work very well. I wouldn't be surprised to see the other case manufacturers scrambling to release something similar very soon.
They have also changed their airflow approach … instead of drawing cool air in through the front panel of the Phantom they have opted to use two fans on the lower right hand portion of the side panel to draw cool air over the hard drives. This has proven to be effective keeping our drive temperatures very good throughout testing. The components we used in the system build were previously inside the Tempest EVO and the temperatures were lower within the Phantom. We believe with the addition of a side intake fan to direct airflow towards the GPU and motherboard, we would be capable of reducing our temperatures even more.
While it is not perfect, NZXT have made noticeable improvements to their feature set and have excelled when it comes to the cable management. The one area we feel they could improve on is the fan controller. It is a handy feature to have, but leaves you with no way to monitor the actual RPM's of the fans.
If there was a display window to monitor that information we would score the Phantom even higher. To wrap things up we rate the Phantom as a must have product. We think that NZXT has a winning combination with the Phantom and would like to see them consider a “Deluxe” model that comes with a full compliment of fans, the Sentry LXE fan controller and for good measure an assortment of their premium cables.
KitGuru says: An excellent all round design from NZXT. Share your views.
This is without doubt NZXT’s best chassis on the market, its a very good case.
Fantastic chassis, I worry about the build quality long term however. They are known to fall apart in places.
very impressed with this chassis, saw a review on several other sites recently. Not sure I would buy it mind you, but its impressive for such a small company.
As a Lian Li and Silverstone fan I gotta say this doesn’t appeal to me on a design level at all but it seems popular with our audience.
It is a pretty cool case, I love the accenting, very dramatic.
Excellent review Steve, how is noise, seems to be quite a few fans in it.
I almost bought this last week, still undecided. its a fantastic looking case, just not sure its the best for the money, very expensive in UK, £130.
Like the curves, but its a bit expensive for what you get.
Shame about lack of noise testing in this one, but I know steve hasn’t access to the lab. Can you give us some real world feelings about noise Steve please?
Thats most impressive, It appeals to the gamer in me 🙂
Quite a nice design, bit complex for my own tastes though.
I was not able to get access to the required tools to accurately measure the fan noise level but I dont find the case loud by any means
Steve, good review, and its a nice enough chassis. looks well.
How many cases are NZXT selling right now ?
For those of you that don’t frequent the forums I was not able to get access to the required tools to accurately measure the fan noise level but I don’t find the case loud by any means
I see about 22 cases listed on their site