Internals and Build Process
Readers of the previous Phanteks enclosure review here at PC Perspective, the EVOLV ATX, won't be surprised by the interior of the Enthoo Pro M. It is, as far as I can tell, the identical steel internal chassis as the EVOLV ATX, and that's a good thing. I awarded the EVOLV our Editor's Choice award in part due to how smoothly the build process was, and that is identical here.
Starting out with a closer look inside the empty enclosure, towards the back we have a 140 mm fan pre-installed.
Next we'll take a closer look inside the front of the enclosure, which (unlike the EVOLV ATX) does not include any intake fans.
Side panels are thin steel, but slide and off just fine and get the job done.
And now for one of my favorite features of the chassis design from Phanteks: the slide-out upper fan mount.
Mounting a top radiator with this bracket is as painless as you will find in any enclosure. I used a Corsair H100i GTX liquid cooler for the build and it was a very simple install.
Next we'll cover a quick build. This is literally the same process as the previous EVOLV ATX review, so I will highlight the basics here starting with the motherboard.
I used a micro ATX board here but the design supports ATX and E-ATX "up to 264mm wide" as well. With the completely open internal layout there was nothing preventing an easy install, and there are sufficient cable routing openings and space around the motherboard to make the rest of the build painless.
Next up I installed the CPU cooler and graphics card. For cooling the FX-6300 used in this build I installed a 240mm Corsair H100i GTX liquid cooler on the top bracket (yes, a $109 CPU cooler is overkill for a $99 CPU, so just play along!). Being able to slide this allowed easy installation of the pump/waterblock assembly to the CPU, as the radiator could very easily move with the bracket to provide clearance when needed.
Storage
There are a few options here, starting with the typical drive trays. These are located on the back of the enclosure and slide out without tools. The construction of the tray itself is also toolless and works well.
The next option for hard drives is the interesting shelf-like bracket that Phanteks makes, one of which is included in the box.
This hangs from the inside of the enclosure to the right of your components…
…and access to the power and data connections is possible with a plastic panel removed behind the drive.
The other storage options center around 2.5" drives, and the SSD mounts (only one bracket is included, unfortunately) can be placed behind the motherboard or up front below the components. It's worth noting that this front mount made a lot more sense with the EVOLV ATX's special window cutout to show off the SSD, where it will be hidden by the solid part of the door here.
The build is almost complete but we need to mount a power supply. The PSU mount has four soft feet to prevent vibration from the PSU, and the cover below the motherboard will hide any cable mess from the front of the case.
Next we'll check out the completed build and then see how the Enthoo Pro M performed!
Front would look pretty
Front would look pretty badass if it didn’t have the optical drive.
Reminds me of the Fractal
Reminds me of the Fractal Design Arc Midi case, especially the front panel design. Does anyone have sound level comparisons with the Define S case? The review says it’s nearly silent, but the open front and top panels should hurt it’s noise levels.
I’ll be re-testing this one
I'll be re-testing this one along with the Define S (and a few others) with a new, improved system soon. The enclosure was very quiet, but that was with very quiet components though the included fan made no audible sound at idle.
On page two, you say that you
On page two, you say that you installed a H110i GTX, I think you meant a H100i GTX.
You’re right! Fixed. Thanks
You're right! Fixed. Thanks
surprised to see clc’s still
surprised to see clc’s still mounted to the top, this case looks like it could support the rad in the front, and after many, many different tests done personally, I found that mounting clc’s to the front of the case makes a viable difference in temps and still gives the system adequate cooling. anyone else noticing this? nice case btw, love the clean design
This case may have been
This case may have been designed with AIO (clc?) intended for the front. The sliding top fan mount although cool doesn’t seem to have the height I would like with the config in this build. It seems to descend into the upper motherboard area too much. I suppose you could pull that sliding fan mount out for memory swaps, etc. Currently I’m more interested in pushing my graphics card rather than my CPU so I like the AIO exhausting out the top. As a Fractal owner this one is definitely on the short list for the next build.
How many fans did you use in
How many fans did you use in the Evolv ATX when doing the noise test?
All 3 140mm as mounted from
All 3 140mm as mounted from the factory were used for EVOLV testing, and just the one included fan was used with the Enthoo Pro. I used the upper bracket for the cooler installation with the EVOLV ATX so I could test temps/noise without removing any fans. The EVOLV has a big noise advantage with components under load because it has very sparse venting along the edges, and the Enthoo Pro M has the big front/top vents.
This case doesn’t know what
This case doesn’t know what it wants to be. While the slide out components and magnetic filters show an aire of modular design for people who like playing with new parts, the SSD mount and harddrive solutions seem clunky at best. The metal looks quite thin in the photos, and the idea that I need to take both sides off to do heavy work shows they got half way to a new design and filled in the holes with today’s defacto placements. While the harddrive plate sticking out is a nice minimalist design feature, I cant imagine they used high enough quality materials at this price point to make it feel solid enough for me to feel better about suspending a $150 drive.
They tried, they had a couple of evolutionary ideas, but nothing that changes the game. It makes me wish my corsair case had a slide out tray and magnetic filters, but not enough to purchase this case in its stead. Is this alot for a case these days? For under $100 There isn’t much to complain about as far as price to feature ratios, but I would gladly pay more for a solid feeling version with more HDD trays included.
Still deciding on whether I
Still deciding on whether I should replace my Lian Li (Lancool) PC-K7B I have had for years now. I like many things about this case, but there are things that wouldn’t get me to buy this to replace my current case. I wonder why the put the front port stuff on the side of the case. Why didn’t they put it on the top like Lian Li and Fractal do, or on the front. It seems very impractical to me where they put the ports. If you have the computer standing on the floor, next to your desk, accessing those ports would be extremely inconvenient. I would be much more inclined to get another Lian Li or a Fractal Design case, at least for where my computer sits.