Gadgetory

this video is brought to you by NCI XCOM great technology selection and service the beach phoenix pond or enclosure is one of those interesting attempts to bring extra excitement into the case category the original micro-atx pandora had some unique design choices inside and out and to continue this momentum beat phoenix has released the ATX version trying to wow individuals who love this exterior design language the pandora TXS price at 150 dollars with a front display a key ad icon and $130 without it making this a TX tower sort of in line with competing for towers price-wise now I really love the exterior direction they've decided to take with these curved side panels that wrap around the front creating unmistakable brand recognition with the Pandora Line the gap between the metal panel and the front plastic panel allows the air to enter thanks to large intake ports on both sides of the glossy surface the original Pandora took the aluminum route which proved to be difficult for Beach Phoenix to get right so instead they've stuck to metal this time around and one thing that I still don't find satisfying is the overall build quality and how the chassis feels the side panels in particular are massive and very thin creating these lovely wave forms of the metal when handling the side panel and the attachment mechanism includes two pegs in the front and two attached thumb screws in the back which surprisingly with just these few points of contact they are so difficult to attach at the back of the case and also the front which in turn fueled is unsatisfying built quality perception of this entire Pandora lineup the window is large enough though to reveal all the goodies inside of it but falls victim to my nail scratch test you gotta be careful when handling that side panel the IO is at the top with included PR buttons 2 4 USB ports and audio then the entire top is covered with the dust filter that is removable in this open from the sides fashion which is nice and easy and inside we find pretty deep clearance for triple 120 or dual 140 millimeter fans and their respective Reed sizes so the intent here is to install everything above the frame because the motherboard is right below those contact points and this space is tall enough to accommodate for thick olan ones with a set of fans but first of all the frame itself is restricting in its nature so in my example when I'm trying to install the radiator first the tubes interfere the second issue is the metal frame itself it is so thin I could easily bend it one way or another and we again come back to this point of poor execution of build quality and then this price point it is a massive turnoff the airflow options for the front are satisfactory with triple 120 or dual 140 mm outs the panel moves with ease you just gotta be mindful of the icon display and not pull out the cable here a dust filter is present and needs to be removed from the bottom and you can see it's not fun at all and also only covers the fan portions leaving the five and a quarter inch slot above it open to incoming dust fortunately I found this space to work great as a handle because at the back we have this a reinforced handle just in case for transportation while nothing at the front so you can use that opening and not rely on the plastic cover because that can easily pop out now despite the rounded front panel having enough depth clearance for a set of fans to be installed outside of the frame because of the notches for the dust filter all of your fan mountings will have to be kept exclusively for the interior which is fine as the floor on the power supply chamber is cut to accommodate for a 360 mm ER radiator with a single set of fans but no push pull with a 360 rad now here I installed three 120mm fans for intake but the Pandora ATX comes with a single 144 intake and a 124 exhaust coming inside here we find a common chamber separation which in my opinion is great to remain competitive and no dedicated hard drive cage to allow that front intake to be least restrictive on top of the bottom chamber we find two brackets one for water cooling so for pumps and reservoirs and there's also a bit of a soft padding here to avoid vibrations and the other one is for your drive so either an SSD or a three and a half inch drive there are no cut outs right outside of the SATA connector so keep that in mind for cable routing and also the height of the drive interferes with the bottom two PCI slots and blocks access to those bottom motherboard connectors but at least it is easily removable if you need to access that point on the motherboard to the side of the motherboard we have two SSD brackets that mount vertically so you're OCD might kick in if you prefer text and proper orientation especially if you want both drives to face the same cable cut out for easier connectivity as one will be facing up and the other one will be facing down but one thing I noticed is how far these SSDs stick out overlapping with the area where a radiator would be installed at the front and you can see that here SSD is further out than where the 120 moment of fan frame stops so this is very unfortunate because in case a front radiator is installed you lose both SSD mounts as they simply will not fit coming around till we find two more SSD brackets so these might save the day and we have also two more three and a half inch drive brackets on the floor in front of the power supply and I appreciate this modular approach for spreading a storage but if only the interior SSD brackets weren't compromised by a potential radiator now the build itself looks fine although I really dislike these rubber grommets because they fall out with just a breath of air and also one thing to keep in mind is CPU tower clearance as I initially mounted the new master air maker eight cooler by cooler master which is way too tall so stick to towers 160 meters in height or shorter cable management is a strong point for the Pandora ATX so thumbs up we have these large velcro straps and an appropriate amount of cable ties all around to secure all of your mess at the back and this enclosed power supply chamber is a great time saver oh and also there is a removable dust filter underneath the power supply now as for the icon display it connects to an internal motherboard USB and can display PNG graphics only which is kind of cool to customize the face of the case but it's not the best of quality with poor viewing angles and lacks the ability to show any meaningful information like temperatures or time you know incoming email whatever so we can only do graphics here no animation is possible and if you want to show brand loyalty a bit Phoenix adhesive logo is included for preferred placement and that is the story of the Pandora ATX I like the consistency in design language with unique wraparound side panels and this strive that you can feel that they're trying to be competitive with decent interior options and modular approaches but there is one area where improvements must occur and that is build quality big Phoenix to me always fell within the lower tier in the build quality department and unfortunately that has not changed with the Pandora ATX especially with those few minor compatibility and clearance issues for the top radiator inside SSD brackets and all the thin metal all I can say is the case is unique in some ways but it's not unique enough and so that concludes this review thank you guys so much for watching don't forget to subscribe for more similar content and we'll see you in the next video