Inside the Case
First let look at the bare preliminaries. The first thing we need to go over is the accessories and extra parts that you get when you open the Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV case. Actually the way you get everything shows that the companies expectation is that you will be having this case for a long time and if you ever need to upgrade anything even the most obsessive compulsive of us will like the way Phanteks provided things. First thing all is conveniently boxed up in a nice corrugated box.
Then inside is an amazing amount of great accessories. Over all there is the…
– D5 Laning rubber coated water pump mount
– a very nice thick screw caddy with lots of different screws that you will need for almost anything you will need to do now and in the future.
– A user’s manual that is small but packed with great information
– The web site is even better about the internal workings of the case. Larger print for us older generation modders on the site in .pdf script is great.
– The modular 5.25 inch removable bays comes removed and in the box
– 2 X Velcro straps for water lines or any other larger than usual amount of wiring.
– 6 complimentary wire ties. This will actually be enough for your build because of the wire management straps we will see later in the building phase take care of most of your needs and are removable and fastening repeatedly is not an issue, so multiple times unfastening has virtually no effect on the fastening power of these preinstalled back straps.
– Last of all is the customer discretion available LEDs that you get with the Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV case. There is a white, blue, green, and a red led with a pig tail connector you can use to change at will when you need a new look for the case front. It only lights up the little small oval slot at the bottom but is a great addition to a great looking very upscale computer case.
Popping off the front cover is truly as easy as opening up the hinged side panel doors. Its literally a snap and what you see is not everything that you get. The front comes off just like a high quality speaker grill and the options of this front end is not just a huge 200 mm. fan, but room for a 120 X 240 Radiator or 140 X 280 or 2 x 120 fans or 2 x 140mm fans or just leave the preinstalled 200mm fan that is already in the front.
The front air filter is a dryer vent type of material and is water washable safe. Removing it is four snap in fit tightly and very well engineered steel base. The filter uses the same areas that the front panel does so the filter has more stability during operation and air tight filtration.
The front 200mm fan is extremely quiet and great for kicking up a lot of airflow inside the case as of now but there is no end to the alternatives you can work with the Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV Tank, I mean … computer case.
Only time will tell as far as how long this framed dust and lint screen will last. It has the same consistency of a thin clothes drier lint filter that you have on your clothes drier so it should work very well at stopping particulates as small a few micros in size and the water washable outside keeps the inside clean and nice for someone that doesn’t like to take down the entire unit to blow it all out for internal cleaning. This case is so filtered that not much of anything is getting past all the filtering that goes on in this case.
Even what you think you see as normal is something completely different. This side drive panel is not just for 2 SSDs or 1 mechanical 5.25″ HDD or a custom water cooling and accessories mounts. All in one tough steel plate. This is a one panel fits all or take it out you don’t need it part if you decide.
This one picture here is really the only regular thing about this computer case. The Standard motherboard tray is made for both mini ITX or a larger Micro ATX dual SLI or Crossfire video card setup and there is no problem with room inside this case’s interior. There is plenty as you will see in the build phase of this review.
The power supply cover is soon becoming a very frequent new addition to all quality cases starting originally with the Cooler Master Storm Scout Club (CMSSC) members on OCN.net. Then Cooler Master took the Idea and ran with it with the first HAF-X mega case. Yes, they got these ideas from seasoned modder’s of the last generation and I feel very lucky to be a great part of this one.
The other unique part of the top of the PSU wire cover a secret trap door in the front of the case to allow for the motor of a custom D5 laning style water pump to fit in the place of the mechanical hard drive bay. The mount has thick covered rubber frame where it fits to the case for the ultimate in noise control.
Here is the picture of the D5 style Pump mount that comes with the Phantek Enthoo EVOLV Case. It is rubberized on the bottom for anti vibration and its made of something close to Pig Iron. Its super heavy and super strong and not going to bend or give under any amount of weight unless you put it in a car crusher and it still it might just leave a dent in that big beast.
Also if you absolutely have to have that 5.25 bay device. Phanteks made room for that in the back of the EVOLV case. Now that Blu-ray drive can still be played or if you want a bay sized reservoir for your water cooling solution at the top of the case you are in business.
The modular 5.25 inch drive bay is the first that I have ever seen, but I was told by a knoleagable friend that this was not the first. It does not come pre-installed in the Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV case back, but its ready to install at a moment’s notice and when installed it is sure to be strong as the rest of the case.
Behind the door of the back of the Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV case is very much like a short version of the usual tried and true case design. I have built many different m-ITX cases in the past and this, by far, has been the easiest to build into to my knowledge. It’s almost effortless except for the planning of the components you plan to use. Don’t worry either about the parts you will need to use; Whatever you plan to use, within reason, will surely fit into this case.
There is plenty of room and it doesn’t take a mechanical engineer to make it fit and work right. It’s not tight and confining as most and its designed for professional custom water cooling loops that I will be adding to this case as I have decided to keep this one as my own m-ITX gaming build.
The fact about the way this case is built is that some of the parts will probably be removed because you just don’t need them but it offers so much extra and that is really unique in its own way. You can make your build as complex or simple as you want and this case will not give you a moments problem.
One negative that I have but not a big one, is that Phanteks only comes with one Drop-N-Lock SSD Mount instead of the two that the case is made for. The placement of this option is perfect behind the motherboard tray and I will be using this one that that I did get with the case for my OS boot drive and use a WD VelociRaptor 600 GB for mechanical storage and game mounting and I am still not sure where I will mount that drive as I will be adding a custom loop system to this system as well.
This is an interesting and as I remember when I had a fellow Modder bring to me this idea of a side plugging multi Molex bus for behind the motherboard tray but this one is for the LED and the internal fan speed control and is controlled your way too. Actually you can work this little module in two ways. You can power it off the PWM motherboard CPU fan socket so you can control the speed of the all the fans by the CPU Temperature from the board sensor or you can hook it straight to a SATA power connector for full time, full speed as long as the system is running for those overly clocked CPU and GPUs.
