The Phanteks Enthoo Pro Case Review
by E. Fylladitakis on March 30, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Full-Tower
- Case
- Phanteks
The Exterior of the Phanteks Enthoo Pro
Phanteks based the Enthoo Pro on a postmodern design, using basic geometric shapes and straight lines. It is a relatively simple and elegant case with a metallic brushed faceplate, coming across not too minimalistic but not extravagant either. Only the double window left side panel is spoiling the seriousness of the Enthoo Pro; users that want a more subtle appearance should opt for the version with the solid panel. Measuring 53.5cm tall and 55cm deep and with a volume of 0.0691m3, the Enthoo Pro is a rather large and bulky case, which is to be expected from a tower capable of housing EATX motherboards.
When seen from afar, the brushed metallic appearance of the faceplate and its 5.25" bay covers generate feelings of sturdiness and quality, making it perhaps the most important stylistic feature of the Enthoo Pro. Regrettably, that is nothing more than an illusion, as the faceplate is plastic that has been treated to look as if it is metallic for aesthetic purposes alone. Nevertheless it is fairly strong and sturdy and of quality on par with the price of the case. The faceplate of this sample was seriously damaged during its transportation, half due to the poor packaging and half due to the "overzealous" courier company.
Nearly half of the faceplate is covered by a metallic mesh, with extra ventilation holes at both sides. Four solid metallic 5.25" covers dominate the top half of the faceplate. There are actually only three 5.25" bays available for devices as the top 5.25" cover is a door hiding the front I/O ports (two USB 3.0, two USB 2.0 and 3.5mm headphone jacks) and the reset button. The oval power button is at the top of the case, near the front, surrounded by an LED light.
The rear of the case reveals the black chassis of the Enthoo Pro and that the PSU compartment has been moved to the bottom of the case, which is common for high performance designs nowadays. Thumbscrews with rubber rings hold the side panels in place and the reusable expansion slot covers are vented.
Nearly the entirety of the Enthoo Pro is focused on cooling - ventilation openings and fan mounts can be seen virtually everywhere. Six tall sturdy feet on the bottom elevate the case significantly, as the bottom of the case hosts the PSU fan intake and ventilation openings where two 120mm fans or a single 140mm fan can be installed. Separate nylon filters cover the PSU intake, the bottom and the front ventilation openings. Most of the surface of the top panel is covered by a metallic mesh as well, with three fan mounts behind it, but there is no filter. This is what we would expect to find as these openings are intended to function as exhausts.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
50 Comments
View All Comments
mr_tawan - Monday, March 30, 2015 - link
This case has a (Samsung-designed) home button on the top :-).Babar Javied - Monday, March 30, 2015 - link
I really wish more cases would loss the 5.25 inch bays. Not only can you then add larger radiators but they will not interrupt the sleek design.Zak - Monday, March 30, 2015 - link
Not just that. I want more cases that completely ditch anything beyond 2.5" bays for SSDs.I know there are few like that but I happen not to like the designs overall.Samus - Monday, March 30, 2015 - link
Say hello to the ancient FT03-mini, ahead of its time in many ways.Impulses - Monday, March 30, 2015 - link
Or the Corsair Air 540, tho you could argue there could be a second 2.5" cage in the mostly empty right hand compartment (cause who doesn't want 8 or 10 SSD!). The current Silverstone Raven would've been brilliant if they just top mounted a single 5.25" bay instead of an oddball sideways laptop slot drive.Gigaplex - Monday, March 30, 2015 - link
Having a ton of SSDs in a single case is very niche. It's not cost effective and SATA based SSDs are going to be superseded by PCIe very soon.Samus - Tuesday, March 31, 2015 - link
But 2TB laptop 2.5" drives are pretty cheap (not as cheap as 3.5" but still relatively cheap) so unless you need a lot of space (in which case, NAS?) a pair of 2.5" bays made out of one 3.5" bay works quite well for an SSD+HDD. With most high end boards equipped with M2 now, only a single bay is necessary on higher-end builds. I think the days of people putting a bunch of drives in their case is nearing an end. Definitely niche. But at the same time, for some reason, so is ITX. And it shouldn't be. ITX is perfect for 90%+ computer users, most of which will likely never even use the PCIe slot (basic home and office PC's)Jorgisven - Tuesday, March 31, 2015 - link
NAS doesn't work as well with the gaming community. If you've got a slow connection, downloading those 40GB games (that you have a dozen or two of, plus 30-50 other smaller games) is a process you only want to do once. While it's theoretically possible to do with a NAS, it gets really complicated in a multi-computer network that shares a steam library via library sharing. Niche, to be sure, but not unreasonable.Haravikk - Wednesday, April 1, 2015 - link
How many of those games need to be installed at once? A 1tb 2.5" HDD costs what… £40? Or £65 if you opt for the slightly faster SSHD, that's enough for 20-25 games at 40gb each. I can't imagine anyone really needs all of those installed at once, and with digital downloads you can just clear some space and download a title overnight ready to play the next day, if your connection is too slow to handle that, then why is that the case?There are also 2tb drives coming soon, and if you still have to you could stripe two 2.5" disks together for extra capacity (and performance) and just use the NAS for backup.
NLD - Wednesday, September 16, 2015 - link
Get an imagination, I have over 100 installed....But I do have 12 TB of storage...
Before you ask I'm a video editor and store GB of data in edit, 12TB is a puppy to me....