Gadgetory

n60 has delivered some remarkable cases in the past and you have to appreciate this drive towards improvement the switch 8:10 for example had introduced some new standards for the Chasse C's market and we are very excited to check out their new flagship case the Phantom 820 this full tower holds a lot of features that is reflected in the relatively steep to $150 price tag so there's lots to cover let's dive right in so the exterior is one to impress with its armoring characteristics there's plenty of plastic incorporated into the construction but it is of high quality you also have three choices of color all of which are the same price the gunmetal gray the matte black and a glossy white so let's start off with the front panel here we have a swivel door that opens just past 90 degrees and from what we have seen in the past this is not the best design as it might get broken and behind the panel here we have for optical Bay covers that can easily be removed from the front and also the controls to fully adjust the lighting system for the p8 20 now this is something new and we haven't seen anything like that that comes standard within the chassis so let's go over the lighting system well you have different lighting modes you have the rear LED on the back to allow visibility in the dark for the i/o shield you have the color wheel so you can customize the exterior and interior lighting based on your hardware configuration and really just your color preference and an included SD card reader is also a bonus and this level of lighting customization is very welcoming so you don't have to fiddle around with all the wiring as it's all already set up the LEDs are located above the windows so it illuminates the interior in a very appealing way and the top also has some lighting which is just extra icing on the cake and it is all wired through this LED hub now unfortunately some of the connections were faulty and some LEDs didn't light up I was expecting all the wiring to be top-notch for that price and hope NZXT makes appropriate measures with regards to quality control and all the connections are at the top and being this is a full Tower it is quite tall so you might run into trouble placing this under the desk while maintaining clearance for those USB ports and in total we have six USB ports included two of which are USB three on the other side we have the power and reset buttons buttons for the integrated fan controller for adjusting the speed and switching between the fans in the system and of course your audio jacks the fan controller supports up to 15 watts per channel and the fan LED corresponds to the speed of that fan which is very nice and you have the option to completely shut off the fan and moving on the front panel can be removed to reveal and include it to 100 millimeter intake fan with the removable dust filter on the panel and a dual dust filter for the bottom next up is a side panel this gives a hint of what's inside with this acrylic window with the included mesh to allow for an additional 200 millimeter intake fan and taking a look at the back we have an adjustable mounting system for the exhaust fan in case you're doing any water cooling this would allow you to have enough clearance then the i/o panel nine PCI expansion slots water cooling holes and then bottom mounted power supply with a dust filter and the top panel can be removed to reveal a third 200 millimeter fan with the same sized filter on both slots and the top also supports triple 120 mils or a dual 140 millimeter fan and finally it's really what's on the inside that matters when it comes to enthusiast configurations so this scene looks very familiar that's because they've kept an almost identical layout as on the switch and ten that's because it was successful in pretty much all the aspects here we have four tula secure brackets for your optical drives very clever design for the hard drive cage and an abundance of rubber grommets that can accommodate for extra-large and extended ATX motherboards looking in the back a very large CPU cutout is available we have plenty of Kabletown notches for clean wiring and an inch of room to work with in the back so no problems in cable management department and it's always nice when the full Tower comes with its own 8 pin extension and it's especially nice when it's braided alright so let's check out the drive system they're all facing the back meaning you only have three of one side panel when trying to switch the drives and n61 back to the drawing board and redesigned their drive trace unfortunately there's nothing special about these except that SSDs now are in the center and they appear to be a lot more flimsy and weak for example one of the brackets snapped as I was putting in the 3.5 inch drive so just make sure to be careful with these the drive cage itself is divided into two sections the top housing four drives and the bottom only two it's nice to see they've kept the same angled fan bracket to direct the air flow towards two main components which supports both 120 and 140 million fans so the bottom portion of the cage can be completely removed to allow a dual radio or fans to be installed and as this is mainly targeted towards enthusiasts let's see how well it stacks up with water cooling and hardware so installing a dual radio at the bottom there's still plenty of room above and below the radiator to pull on air and power supply is up to 200 millimeters will still have clearance graphics cards up to 13 inches are supported even with the additional fan installed so you get the scale of this massive interior and what are cooling support to the top is really well thought through first the triple rater is supported with the ability to do a push and pull configuration and you can move down the rear exhaust in case it's on the way now native triple support for full towers is declining and it's refreshing to see a full tower that can finally handle two sets of fans a thick Raider in between while all being housed inside the chassis and if you wish to mount the triple rat at the top you can take the top off completely by removing some screws mounting the rad onto the panel and placing it back now this would appear to be the easiest method also NZXT has made some holes in the top optical panel so the fan closest to the front can still draw air from below and as we start the assembly we notice that the all screws and zip ties are held in this plastic toolbox it's not your conventional cardboard box so they're really trying to add as much as possible to make this worth your money and fitting in our standard ATX motherboard it looks miniscule in this massive enclosure so getting everything set up as I'd expected was absolutely hassle-free you might run out of hardware before you run out of space to fill inside the 820 and with lots of room to work with at the back cable management becomes almost enjoyable to do so the new phantom 820 is one impressive case from NZ XD that brings a lot to the table with an awesome customizable color system water cooling capabilities they take advantage and fully utilize its large stature plus an integrated fan controller that always is a bonus and obviously future proof in the hardware department but I can't help but notice a huge resemblance between this and the switch 810 now they have obviously improved on construction quality slightly modify the hard drive gauge and added more icing to the already sweet cake with their lighting system and fan control and that's all for an additional $80 when compared with the price of the switch 810 and also the new and redesigned hard drive trays are weakened flimsy and the circuit board for the LEDs had some faulty connections which didn't light up all the LEDs so in terms of a practical and the fully loaded full tower the Phantom 820 definitely fits that category but at $150 there surely competing with their own switch 810 as it's an almost identical case but from an overall market perspective I would say NZXT holds major grounds when it comes to market competition for full towers and desserts the hardware conducts damn good a word and that concludes our review for the phantom 820 from NZXT thanks guys for watching they will see you next one