A solid performance from the Phantom and I wouldn’t have expected anything less from the Phantom range, or NZXT for that matter. While sure its not as spectacular in terms of scale and features as the new Phantom 820, it does still reach a high standard that you would want in any premium quality chassis. You get most of the features of the Phantom 820 but at less than half the price.
The style on the Phantom is a tricky one, I personally think it looks fantastic but on the other hand it would look ridiculous next to my desk. Some people love the “in your face”, almost futuristic approach to the chassis design that you find on the Phantom, not to mention a full tower finished in gloss white doesn’t exactly go unnoticed. For the most part though, the style and features of this chassis serve a purpose too, providing extra space for after market cooling solutions such as fans and water cooling radiators.
This chassis can hold some serious hardware and it doesn’t take a long search on Google to turn up literally hundreds of amazing gaming systems that put this chassis to good use. Its also proved itself popular with many chassis modification enthusiasts too, something NZXT have been happy to play along with by supplying an after market windowed side panel, perfect for those that love to not only show off their new components, but also enjoy taking a peek through the perspex window themselves.
After spending a few hours playing around with this chassis, it’s easy to see why it was so popular upon its release and why it remains so even today. It has compatibility for all the latest hardware, multiple graphics cards, extreme levels of cooling thanks to its plentiful air intakes and fan / radiator mounts, it looks fantastic (if a little extreme for some) and it does all this for around £70. This is something that is hard to do with most new chassis’ on the market and its why I am happy to award the Phantom Full Tower with our eTeknix Bang For Buck Award. Upon its release this chassis would have been an eTeknix Editor’s Choice winner, but it has been superseded by newer models and while they do cost more, they are better, the Editor’s Choice Award is about the stuff we love, not just value for for money.
After all this time it’s still a nice case but when you compare it to their new 630 it’s obvious NZXT are fast learners.
I like so much its shape! 🙂