Bitfenix Phenom Series Compact Computer Case Unboxing & Overview
Bitfenix Phenom Series Compact Computer Case Unboxing & Overview
2013-10-17
the fractal design define our for case
gets featured on the when show build
logs of the week section more than any
other case click now to learn more about
it I'm going to spare you guys the
unboxing portion of this unboxing
because we have a lot to do it comes in
a pretty decent dual-layered box and has
hard foam inside which normally bothers
me more particularly with larger cases
but with smaller cases it bothers me
less because there's less concern that
they're going to be extremely heavy and
cause breakage when in shipping so this
my friends is the BitFenix Phenom or
phantom or however you prefer to
pronounce that word like the older AMD
processors but these are all new sort of
they're based very closely on the
original BitFenix prodigy but with a
couple of upgrades that I personally
think are very very nice so let's take
the white one it's available in a
variety of colors just like the prodigy
and we're going to have black and white
here in the showcase and we've got a
nice little bit Fenix logo that to me is
a lot more subtle than the one that was
on the original prodigy that really
popped out of the front ventilation wise
it's also taken a bit of a middle row
the original prodigy had either like
little tiny vents along the sides or it
had a full mesh front
well the Phenom or fennel has reasonable
sized vents on the sides here and then
it has a closed front just like the
white version of the prodigy that I
think gives it a very sleek very classic
look but doesn't compromise on cooling
to nearly the same extent the white
prodigy did IO is still on the side
wouldn't have minded seeing this move to
the front or the top but every position
has disadvantages like even on the top
you know your cat can step on it or
whatever else I have had that happen so
there you go neither of them are
windowed variants you've got the same
kind of accents up here on the top that
you've got on the side with little
grills and then on the top of the case
you've got that same removable fan
grille that we saw on the prodigy that
gives you access to is radiator support
so you can check a dual 120 millimeter
radiator in there no problem which leads
us
to the back of the case so this is where
not all fiends are created equally there
are two versions just like The Prodigy
now where there's one that supports
mini-itx motherboards at most so that's
the one right here on your left and
there's one that supports micro ATX so
that is for expansion slot motherboards
as opposed to just one
but compromises some of the other expand
ability with respect to drives and water
cooling radiators and other stuff like
that so let's break these babies open
and compare them internally so I've
loosened all the screws and it's time
for the big reveal much like the
original prodigy the build quality is
very solid nice strong side panels
almost no flex to them whatsoever
they've got some nice weight to them
which unfortunately does make the cases
a little bit heavier but what do you
want you want it to be light you want to
be strong you want it to be cheap you
know you got a bit compromising
somewhere alright so removing these side
panels we are going to reveal a couple
of things number one is the SSD mounts
that are built into the sides here you
can put two two and a half inch drives
there no problem as well as all the
interior isle that USB 3.0 port can be
adapted to USB 2 there is an included
adapter there's a custom PCB here that
handles all of the i/o so we find the
same thing on the other one and whoa
everything else that's inside these
cases looks pretty darn different and
yet familiar so this one right here what
do you recognize that from well that is
the interior of the original BitFenix
prodigy so you've got fan mat here at
the front lots of room for intake
whether you want to mount you know dual
120s or I think you actually have to
remove the five and a quarter inch maybe
but you can do that you just remove the
front bezel and pull that off you can do
a 120 s or a radiator in there you can
do you know 140 s I believe it can do
160 s and/or 180s there's lots of
different options in there for fans in
the front you've also got five expansion
Bay's here that are compatible with
either 2 to half inch or three and a
half inch drives a five and a quarter
inch expansion bay that can be used for
something else should you so desire in
fact it comes with a three and a half
inch plastic adapter in it and that
pretty much does it for this side live
with a cable management room here and of
course that attention to detail see the
way that they folded over the metal here
so it doesn't leave any sharp edges I'm
going to go
head and give you another angle on that
that means you're not going to cut open
the power supply cables that you're
trying to run through here in cable
management is good because this is an
extremely tight fit for your power
supply in this particular case they have
a fan filter on the bottom of the venom
that has the ITX layout because that is
that means you are intended to install
your power supply with the fan facing
down so the heat doesn't interfere with
any other components in your system and
over here on the other side you find a
little bit more room for cable
management as well as I yes if you were
to remove and check this out all screws
very few rivets on this case if you were
to remove all your drive cages you could
actually make room for radiators here at
the front and you could just mount your
to a half inch SSDs to see inside here
you could mount them to the other side
of the power supply and motherboard tray
enclosure and you could add SSDs that
way so you can throw four SSDs in here
having actually removed all of the drive
cages giving you lots of room for water
cooling it has support for a single 120
or 140 millimeter fan in the back and
two expansion slots which might seem
weird because ITX only has one but that
my friends is because you can install a
dual slot graphics card without having
to do any modding or anything like that
so there you go that is the ITX Phenom
or phantom whichever you prefer now
let's go through the n ATX film or
phenom whichever you prefer
so you can see right here that our five
and a quarter inch sled seems to have
been attached to here for some reason
these are engineering samples so it's
possible that the packaging wasn't quite
final because I know for a fact that
this box is supposed to be there and top
this guy right here so this is a five
and a quarter to three and a half inch
or two and a half inch adapter just like
we found in the other case and it can go
up here in the five and a quarter inch
cage
you also can install either using the
vibrate anti vibration mounts here two
three and a half inch or two two and a
half inch drives using the hooks as well
as the oh looks like three oh my bad
sorry about that so three two and a half
inch drives if you prefer to go that
rate using the hooks um
a screws right here you can also see
that the fan layout is extremely
different there's no power supply at the
back so there's 120 or 140 here five
expansion slots which is great because
some mini ATX boards even though they
only have four slots have their full
speed PCIe right on the bottom so if you
want to put a graphics card in there
running an sli or crossfire you're going
to have to make use of that fifth slot
great a bit Phoenix to think of this
your i/o your tool lists removal of
these slot hold downs as well as oh yeah
there's a power in but hold on a second
where does that go okay it goes here so
there's an extension cable here that
actually runs to the power supply which
is boom on the bottom of the case so
that means these feet are important
you're going to be taking up air into
the bottom of the case this heat shield
is for use if you install hard drives as
opposed to fans in the bottom here
although I personally don't anticipate
that that'll make much of a practical
difference to the performance of the of
the you know cooling those drives or
anything like that the rest of the
interior is pretty straightforward so
you can find your n ATX motherboard tray
over here cable management should be
relatively straightforward in here you
should be able to hide most of it either
up here in the top and the five and a
quarter inch bay that you're unlikely to
be using because whoa there is no five
and a quarter inch front
ha so guys remember the five and a
quarter inch they internally is because
a lot of these components have a lot of
the design has been reused from The
Prodigy so you're really meant to just
install drives with the adapters alright
so you can see here so you can hide all
your cables over here your n ATX
motherboard tray is reasonably strong
considering that it has an extremely
large CPU cutout again with that folded
over metal so you're not going to
accidentally cut anything on it you can
also install more drives so there's anti
vibration mounts here as well as more
fans down in the bottom of the case
should you see fit so you can put dual
120 s down there it should be noted that
the water cooling options are not nearly
as extensive for the n ATX version and
if you wanted to install a dual 140
millimeter rat in the top while you
could you would be a little bit limited
in terms of which expansion slots you
can use because there would be some
interference there so if you really want
to fill it full of water cooling
radiators you might want to go with the
MIT X version you can of course still
install
all a single 120 millimeter radiator the
back without any difficulty I think that
pretty much covers it other than the
accessories that are included and I can
tell you what's in here before I even
open it so there's a USB 3 2 USB 2
adapter for the built-in i/o and there's
a bunch of screws and some cable ties
don't forget to subscribe - Texas from
boxing's reviews and other computer
videos like this video if you liked it
dislike it if you disliked it leave a
comment if you thought it was kind of
weird that I unboxed two different
colors of two different cases within the
same video and if you're ok with it let
me know if you weren't okay with it and
let me know about that too check out the
Linus tech tips form if you want to
discuss any of the latest cool
technology that we've unboxed on this
channel and as always I think I already
said don't forget to subscribe and I
have completely lost track of what I've
said and haven't said at this point so
yeah
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.