Gadgetory

hey everyone this is Steve from gamers Nexus Donna and today we're reviewing the NZXT phantom 530 case this case uses a very similar chassis to the Phantom 630 and H 630 both by NZXT so most of the changes between this and the previous reviews of those cases will be relegated to stock cooling and cable management space as always we'll start with a case walkthrough before going into any of my opinions and benchmark data so let's jump to that the phantom 530 is a mid tower mid-range gaming case priced at around $130 the case ships in black white and red variants and as you can see our review unit was a glossy red on the outside we've got the standard NZXT phantom aesthetic with front top and side grills for fans and airflow of course and the side panel features a large ish window that'll expose the CPU and video card but hides the dry of scaffolding pretty well so you don't get that ugliness in your view front I Oh includes standard two audio ports and two USB 3 ports the top of the case features a three speed fan controller that fazes power in high medium and low settings I tested all three of these settings in the benchmark and I'll have that data for you in a moment dust filters are also present in the front intake and PSU intake sections and internally we've got two stock fans a 200 millimeter intake and 140 millimeter rear exhaust fan with room for additional 200 millimeter top mounted fans a side mounted fan and internal directional fan that mounts to the drive scaffolding so if you want to point it out the video card you can do that radiators up to 360 millimeters in length can be fitted to the compartmentalized radiator slot in the top of the case but you won't have room for a push-pull configuration without mounting the radiator below the top compartment so do keep that in mind if you want to fans on your rad and everything else is pretty standard decent cable management pass-throughs with appropriate cable anchors on the rear side lots of cable routing space behind the motherboard tray and two lists drive bays make installation pretty quick so very standard features for NZXT at this point we really have come to expect those from them as for opinion quite honestly it's really it's it's nothing disappointing or spectacular it's just right in the middle of what we expect from NZXT what we expect for $130 the framing specs are so similar to other current-gen phantom boxes that I really as a reviewer I wasn't blown away because I look at these all the time right but don't let that take away from the value of the case it's really got quite solid build quality honestly on the whole and especially at the price and it has good cable this panel design that makes disassembly very easy if you want to take it apart the plastic does kind of look cheap in the glossy red finish I will definitely complain about that but that's my only real complaint for the entire product in actuality the plastics and metals are actually pretty they're pretty standard for mid-range cases and will withstand many build cycles so the quality is pretty good especially at 130 bucks it's not like it's kind of fall apart on you the airflow is good and it'll do everything you need it to do and that's exactly what I say in the review the case does everything it intends to do no more no less experienced builders will be able to get a great system together in a couple of minutes and Kaiba will manage it all within 45 minutes the case facilitates cleanliness so anyone who gets excited about cable routing will be happy to work with this one a rear side fan hub does make managing additional fans a bit easier especially when connecting them to the front fan speed controller definitely a nice feature if you're loading the system with lots of fans and want to control the noise so let's quickly hit the benchmarks before concluding you can read about our testing methodology on the full review linked in the description below along with all of our other all my other thoughts and opinions about the case this is the CPU benchmark the phantom 530 performs dead center of the pack with the high fan setting placing it within margin of error of both the 820 and 630 on high settings this isn't too surprising looking at the similarities between the actual underlined chassis underneath all of the the paneling its I think the H 630 and phantom 630 have an identical chassis the phantom 630 and phantom 530 have very similar ones and the 820 is a bit taller and skinnier this isn't too surprising so I wouldn't let the CPU temperatures on this case dictate my it's really not a limiting factor given the average performance average isn't bad it's not good just you know look at your other options a bit more extensively it's definitely not an RV zero - but it's not bad so here's what we've got four GPUs once again the tests indicate pretty Center PAC performance with nothing to complain or rave about larger video cards will likely feature larger Delta's between the cases and I do think the Phantom 530 will probably perform better with a large video card especially if you're utilizing that additional side or scaffold intake overall from the build quality and ease of installation perspectives I'm happy with the case it's a great option for new and experienced builders it won't really leave you wanting a whole lot and the closest competitors I would consider the price range would probably be the Thor version - Corsair C 70 and Corsair 500 are those are the closest ones I would consider along with this one I've linked all these in the description below if you're curious at the end of the day your selection will really hinge on what sort of style and theme you're going for with the build you're gonna be looking at this for years so what do you want to look at because all these cases I've just listed and the Phantom 530 are very solid performers I personally don't really like the plastic --red look but you know white and black are also options so those seem fine that's all for this time the full review is linked in the description below and I will see you all next time peace