NZXT Phantom Enthusiast Steel Full Tower Chassis Review

External Overview

From NZXT:
“NZXT presents the cutting edge Phantom Full Tower Chassis. Designed with sleek, pristine contours, the Phantom radiates personality and quality. As with all NZXT products, we strive to set apart our customers from the rest with unique, original designs – we run the extra mile so you won’t have to settle with the typical rectangular box.

The Phantom delivers high performance cooling advantages with 7 fan cooling options, dual radiator support, quad watercooling cutouts, and five 20W per channel fan controls. An innovative 5.25” screwless system, vast space to encompass 7 hard drives, and five 5.25” bays enable smooth customization. Establish your power, your presence.”

The piano black finish on elegant contours is probably what will stick out most when you first see the Phantom; this isn’t your standard flat fronted case.  Towards the bottom of the front bezel resides a fan grill on the right side and triangular contours on the left.

The five 5.25” drive bays are hidden by a hefty sized door which has strong magnets to keep the door shut. You start to see the ease of installation when you take a look at the 5.25” bay covers.  Each bay cover has a slide button which allows you to easily remove the cover, without even having to remove the front bezel.

The top of the chassis gives the Phantom that enthusiast look. The contours easily flow from the front of the case to the top of the case and vice versa.  Mounted in the rear is a large grill covering up about half of the top panel.

On the left front of the panel are your power/reset buttons and activity LEDs as well as the easy access ports which include two USB, eSATA and mic/audio jacks. On the right front of the panel is a unique fan controller which fits perfectly with the case. Five slider switches control the front fan, two side panel fans, larger side panel fan, two top fans and the rear fan. You’ll notice that two of the slide switches control more than a single fan. Another cool feature NZXT added was the illumination of the LED next to each switch so that you know exactly which ones are powered on.

The side panel houses two trapezoidal shaped fan grills, the larger with similar indentations in that on the top panel.  The side panel can house two 120mm fans (included) and can also support a larger 200mm or 230mm fan (not included).

The opposing side panel also houses a smaller trapezoidal grill, which presumably is for air flow over the hard drives.

The rear panel is similar to that of most cases: I/O slot, rear fan grill, 7 expansion slots, and a bottom mounted power supply.

The back panel houses four water cooling holes, top fan LED on/off button and support for water-cooling brackets (included).

Of course, both panels are secured by thumbscrews.