Gadgetory

NZXT has come so far the original phantom was an okay plastic case its successor the phantom 530 is still NATO plastic and still has that kind of retro Alienware esque look but it is so much more than okay with its factory tuning and data center DNA and Intel 730 series SSD is an amazing choice for gamers and performance enthusiasts which doesn't make it immune to criticism I'm aware of the cost benefits of using hard packing foam but this is how my case arrived hard foam is good for one solid impact then will be destroyed by a subsequent one fortunately this one only got hit once so the case arrives in perfect condition at least that hard foam is nice and thick the manual is pretty good and has an extremely detailed list of all the parts included with the case and their purposes this is something a lot of manufacturers miss and it helps up novice builders a lot and I also noticed when going through the included items that it comes with a ton of zip ties with most manufacturers it feels like they include them just to make sure they can tick off the marketing bullet point NZXT seems to actually intend for you to cable manage your system with them kudos their external features of this case are pretty straightforward aesthetically they've updated the lines and curves in a way that I find more pleasing and they've added a shaped side panel window that I appreciate as well functionality wise they've added an eighth PCI slot and implemented their signature rear LED illumination to make plugging things into the back much easier on the top we find a 30 watt fan controller front audio and front USB 3 ports then tucked away behind the solid feeling front door we've got three five and a quarter inch bays but use a pretty clever release lever system and a reset switch that's both easy to get to and impossible to hit by accident moving inside sorta let's talk liquid cooling options the phantom 530 has strong water cooling support triple 120 or dual 140 in the top dual 120 in the front dual 120 in the bottom so of course I used an IO liquid cooler for my test build first impressions of the rad counting in the top we're strong the very open mesh up here is great for airflow and an opportunity for accent lighting with LED fans or you can just put black in there to not draw attention to them then things got a little bit rougher the fans or the radiator need to go in the hump up here at the top of the case to avoid clearance issues with the motherboard but the top bezel to access the top fans is very difficult to remove after some persistence and force I got my first look at the extremely flexible fan mounting points on the top though and it kind of made it worthwhile I actually don't remember who started this trend but using slits instead of holes is a great inclusion for water cooling aficionados and this system saved my bacon here because I hate moving optical drives below the top mounting position so I needed my red in the very very back position at the back of the case managing the radiator fan connectors down to the integrated fan controller is a treat NZXT strategically avoids openings in the top of the motherboard tray where they're not needed so it's very clean-looking in theory unfortunately the built in fan controller which supports 10 fans or 30 watts max whichever comes first is DC only and not DC only like 4 pin pwm fans will be DC controlled like the plugs are too close together to use for pin fans and they physically won't fit unless you get adapters also the included extension cables would need to be chopped up to work with a four pin fan but don't interpret that as me hating the integrated fan controller I wish it was a little bit more flexible but its weaknesses affected my build very little and when it is usable it is a fantastic value add that comes with the case and it gets better I love how it and all the other front panel stuff are pre wired into the case and pre cable managed but there's even an extra bonus I've been saying for a long time that we should be using twist ties instead of zip ties for cable management it's just a little bit less plastic to throw away every time because they're reusable and that's exactly what NZXT is using which is great because unlike a zip tie method where I'd have to cut them all and then throw them away completely REE cable manage it anyway when I built my system this way I can open them up add a few more cables as needed close them back up reroute things and all of that without having to even break into the zip ties that come with the case awesome speaking of cable management it's the strongest point of this case in my opinion the rubber grommets internally are improved over older designs they're harder to accidentally knock out when running cables through them due to due to the deeper channels around the edges I'm just going to keep going there's ample cable management for the 24 pin and more behind the mobo tray which is quite strong actually in spite of its oversized CPU cut out for easy cooler installation and then also back here we find that ton of cable loops for pinning everything down at nice and flat and we also find what is still my favorite system for a tray melted SSD Corsair spring loaders are a lot faster to use but they just don't feel as robust especially with slimmer drives not that it really matters SSDs aren't fragile just a personal preference thing on to the rest of the inside the tall case feet combined with the little support pillars that keep your power supply raised up a little bit are in my opinion a great feature it means that the PSU isn't necessarily drawing in all fresh cool air through the filtered bottom intake but it also can't suffocate from being installed on a thick carpet and as someone who accidentally killed a power supply that way once it's a trade-off that I'll take drive mounting is great the five and a quarter inch bays use a totally over built steel design and I love the three to one hard drive cage configuration you can stack up from the bottom stack down from the top or fill the whole thing to put in up to six drives wherever you want or you can remove the bottom mounting entirely and put rads on the front of the bottom very nice now I don't understand though why the three and a half inch two and a half inch cages slide in from the right side that means I have to take off both side panels whenever I'm upgrading a drive now arguably most people will take off both anyway since it makes cable management a lot easier but if I'm in a hurry I can just run it through bother and if I'm a good builder when I build my system in the first place I could leave those cables in the right place for myself so if I could slide the cajon from this side I would only have to take off one panel honestly though that's one of the only ease-of-use complaints I have about the case the pre-installed motherboard standoffs thumbscrew heavy design and safe rounded internal corners make the case a really really easy one to build in and it looks great to the finish and color matching between the plastic and painted steel has improved a lot since the first phantom I looked at and if I had to complain about the looks I guess I the fan mount on the side panel hurts the overall aesthetic a little bit for me and I don't really feel like it's going to cool these drives much better anyway likely it's only useful if you've installed that weird hinged fan thing that's kind of like a spot cool to point at your graphics card another thing I don't really feel like ruining the looks of my system over but that's about all I can find to gripe about so I guess all that's left is to give this case a hearty recommendation the Phantom 530 is our great case it's a bit older now so I'm probably not the first reviewer to come to this conclusion but better late than never I hope bright guys thanks for watching don't forget to like this video if you liked it dislike it if you disliked it leave a comment 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