NCXT has come so far. The original
Phantom was an okay plastic case. Its
successor, the Phantom 530, is still made of plastic and still has that kind
of retro Alienwareesque look, but it is so much more than okay.
With its factory tuning and data center DNA, an Intel 730 series SSD is an
amazing choice for gamers and performance enthusiasts, which doesn't
make it immune to criticism. I'm aware of the cost benefits of using hard
packing foam, but this is how my case arrived. Hard foam is good for one solid
impact, then will be destroyed by a subsequent one. Fortunately, this one
only got hit once, so the case arrived in perfect condition. At least that hard
foam is nice and thick. The manual is pretty good and has an extremely
detailed list of all the parts included with the case and their purposes. This
is something a lot of manufacturers miss and it helps out novice builders a lot.
And I also noticed when going through the included items that it comes with a
ton of zip ties. With most manufacturers, it feels like they
include them just to make sure they can tick off the marketing bullet point.
NZXT seems to actually intend for you to cable manage your system with them.
Kudos there. External features of this case are pretty straightforward.
Aesthetically, they've updated the lines and curves in a way that I find more
pleasing. And they've added a shaped side panel window that I appreciate as
well. Functionality-wise, they've added an eighth PCI slot, and implemented
their signature rear LED illumination to make plugging things into the back much
easier. On the top, we find a 30 W fan controller, front audio, and front USB 3
ports. Then tucked away behind the solid feeling front door, we've got three five
and a quarter inch bays that use a pretty clever release lever system and a
reset switch that's both easy to get to and impossible to hit by accident.
Moving inside, sort of. Let's talk liquid cooling options. The Phantom 530
has strong water cooling support. Triple 120 or dual 140 in the top, dual 120 in
the front, dual 120 in the bottom. So, of course, I used an AIO liquid cooler
for my test build. First impressions of the rad mounting in the top were strong.
The very open mesh up here is great for air flow and an opportunity for accent
lighting with LED fans, or you can just put black in there to not draw attention
to them. Then things got a little bit rougher. The fans or the radiator need
to go in the hump up here at the top of the case to avoid clearance issues with
the motherboard, but the top bezel to access the top fans is very difficult to
remove. After some persistence and force, I got my first look at the
extremely flexible fan mounting points on the top though, and it kind of made
it worthwhile. I actually don't remember who started this trend, but using slits
instead of holes is a great inclusion for water cooling efficiados. And this
system saved my bacon here because I hate moving optical drives below the top
mounting position. So, I needed my RAD in the very, very back position at the
back of the case. Managing the radiator fan connectors down to the integrated
fan controller is a treat. NZXT strategically avoids openings in the top
of the motherboard tray where they're not needed. So, it's very clean looking
in theory. Unfortunately, the built-in fan controller, which supports 10 fans
or 30 watts max, whichever comes first, is DC only and not DC only, like four
pin PWM fans will be DC controlled, like the plugs are too close together to use
four pin fans and they physically won't fit unless you get adapters. Also, the
included extension cables would need to be chopped up to work with a four pin
fan. But don't interpret that as me hating the integrated fan controller. I
wish it was a little bit more flexible, but its weaknesses affected my build
very little. And when it is usable, it is a fantastic value ad that comes with
the case. And it gets better. I love how it and all the other front panel stuff
are pre-wired into the case and pre-cable managed. But there's even an
extra bonus. I've been saying for a long time that we should be using twist ties
instead of zip ties for cable management. It's just a little bit less
plastic to throw away every time because they're reusable. And that's exactly
what NZXT is using, which is great because unlike a zip tied method where
I'd have to cut them all, and then throw them all away, and completely reable manage it anyway when I build my system,
this way I can open them up, add a few more cables as needed, close them back
up, reroute things, and all of that without having to even break into the
zip ties that come with the case. Awesome. Speaking of cable management,
it's the strongest point of this case in my opinion. The rubber grommets
internally are improved over older designs. They're harder to accidentally
knock out when running cables through them due to
due to the deeper channels around the edges. I'm just going to keep going.
There's ample cable management for the 24 pin and more behind the mobile tray,
which is quite strong actually in spite of its oversized CPU cutout for easy
cooler installation. And then also back here we find a ton of cable loops for
pinning everything down nice and flat. And we also find what is still my
favorite system for a traymounted SSD. Corsair spring loaders are a lot faster
to use, but they just don't feel as robust, especially with slimmer drives.
Not that it really matters. SSDs aren't fragile, just a personal preference
thing. Onto the rest of the inside. The tall case feet combined with the little
support pillars that keep your power supply raised up a little bit are, in my
opinion, a great feature. It means that the PSU isn't necessarily drawing in all
fresh cool air through the filtered bottom intake, but it also can't
suffocate from being installed on a thick carpet. And as someone who
accidentally killed a power supply that way once, it's a trade-off that I'll
take. Drive mounting is great. The 5 and a/4 inch bays use a totally overbuilt
steel design. And I love the 321 hard
drive cage configuration. You can stack up from the bottom, stack down from the
top, or fill the whole thing to put in up to six drives wherever you want. Or
you can remove the bottom mounting entirely and put rads on the front and
the bottom. Very nice. Now, I don't understand though why the 3 and 1/2 in 2
and 1/2 in cages slide in from the right side. That means I have to take off both
side panels whenever I'm upgrading a drive. Now, arguably, most people will
take off both anyway since it makes cable management a lot easier. But if
I'm in a hurry, I can just run it through and not bother. And if I'm a
good builder, when I build my system in the first place, I could leave those
cables in the right place for myself. So, if I could slide the cage in from
this side, I would only have to take off one panel. Honestly though, that's one
of the only ease of use complaints I have about the case. The pre-installed
motherboard standoffs, thumb screw heavy design, and safe rounded internal
corners make the case a really, really easy one to build in. And it looks
great, too. The finish and color matching between the plastic and painted
steel has improved a lot since the first Phantom I looked at. And if I had to
complain about the looks, um, I guess
the fan mount on the side panel hurts the overall aesthetic a little bit for
me. And I don't really feel like it's going to cool these drives much better anyway. Likely it's only useful if
you've installed that weird uh hinged fan thing that's kind of like a spot
cool to point at your graphics card. Um, another thing I don't really feel like
ruining the looks of my system over. But that's about all I can find to gripe
about. So, I guess all that's left is to give this case a hearty recommendation.
The Phantom 530 is a great case. It's a bit older now, so I'm probably not the
first reviewer to come to this conclusion, but better late than never,
I hope. Right, guys? Uh, thanks for watching. Don't forget to like this
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