NZXT Phantom Full Tower ATX Case Review

A Detailed Look – At the Outside

The Phantom is definitely a sight to behold, but that’s not what first caught my eye when I took it out of its retail packaging. I was pretty surprised that the case itself is quite light for an full tower case, but it seemed sturdy enough to house my high-end hardware. I know it’s a balancing act between how much steel and aluminum you use in the chassis, but the Phantom seems to keep the weight down while creating a well constructed case at the same time.

The next feature that caught my attention was the top panel ports for USB 2.0, eSATA, audio/mic jacks as well as the power and reset buttons. They were inlaid very well into the left side of the top panel and are slanted at an angle to match the overall design of the Phantom.

The built-in fan controller is quite unique and can manage up to six fans. The LEDs next to each button light up when there is a fan connected and on high and low settings. This visual element is very helpful to troubleshoot cooling issues and pinpoint fan failures too.

I opened the magnetic door on the front panel and was greeted with five 5.25″ optical bays that included easy-access bay covers that can be detached from the inside with a touch of a button. This is usually a tedious task that involves opening the case itself. Kudos for a small, yet helpful feature for case builders.

The plastic front panel is very sleek and includes a glossy black finish and a good size vent on the bottom-right of the front panel for the 120mm intake fan. The optical bay door has a small lip to open it and this is where NZXT choose to add their logo.

The left side panel ditches a typical acrylic window for two custom-shaped, mesh windows that hold two 120mm fans and one 200mm fan. This is a pretty bold design and really gears this case toward excellent airflow properties versus being able to see all your high-end hardware through windows in the side and top panels.

The back panel wasn’t very interesting until i noticed four holes for liquid relay lines from an exterior water cooling unit for the CPU and video cards. I also noticed a small button on the top-left of the back panel for during the LEDs on the top fan on and off. Very cool.

The right panel is very glossy like the rest of the Phantom case, and includes another odd-shaped mesh window to add more ventilation for the two hard drive cages at the bottom of the case.