NZXT Phantom 820 Full Tower Gaming Case Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
NZXT Phantom 820 Full Tower Gaming Case Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
2012-10-21
ha funny story guys
I already unboxed this but I was wearing
a shirt that was a brand that NZXT
competes with can you imagine how they'd
feel about that so we are refilling this
is the NZXT phantom 820 gold on and
beyond your maximum cooling is the
tagline that goes with it and on the
side this is a 30 pound case guys and
I'm unboxing it again I'm like weight
training today alright on the side we
find a whole bunch of information about
cooling this thing has three 200
millimeter fans included on the top
front top and side it has a rear 140
included as well but you can swap it out
to a 120 if you want to use a radiator
size that's more readily available
bottom 2 by 140 or 2x1 20 meaning you
can do a bottom mounted dual 120
millimeter radiator so you can have up
to 360 mm rad on the top a 120 in the
back and a 240 in the bottom Wow mine
alone
they give you specs in terms of how
large your CPU coolers can be your video
cooler can be an how much room there is
for cable management let me tell you 3
and 1/2 centimeters is a lot of room for
cable management you shouldn't have any
trouble with that at all
construction there's that 32 pound
weight it's fully XL ATX and ATX
compatible meaning you can put pretty
much whatever you want it the original
phantom has been replaced includes a 4
channel digital fan controller with 15
watts per channel that means you can do
high powered fans or even multiple fans
per channel to create cooling zones
within your system you can also use
their hue lighting system and
illumination system for exterior and
interior and interior lighting of your
enclosure very cool stuff and you can
have an infinite number of possible
colors using the integrated adjustments
and controls this is more about the
cooling which I kind of covered already
although the pedestal that it sits on
actually enhances the cooling potential
because it means that you can get more
air coming up from the bottom it's not
just for looks
that's a reviewers guide you guys don't
need to see that this is a nice touch
check this out instead of including a
cardboard box with all the stuff you
need they have included a like badass
plastic box it has everything all
compartmentalized and sorted
fan sighs and you got your thumb screws
and your radiator mounting screws your
cable ties all that is included a nice
little new sealable box for you that's
pretty cool they've also got what
appears to be I don't know some kind of
user's manual with like labels and stuff
okay we'll figure it out as we go and
finally you've got a little brochure
about how NZXT is sort of ballin and
they have sort of ballin products and
you can buy them there you go next thing
is to take this down and dump it out and
I'll just do that the size makes it a
little awkward part of it is that the
case is big part of it is this I'm a
little small now while I would have
preferred to see a soft foam as you can
see our packing foam did get damaged in
shipping so this corner took a
significant blow however there was no
damage to the case so NZXT has a lot of
experience shipping fully assembled
systems in their cases so I would hope
that whatever they've done to design the
packaging in this case they have
considered that you can see it's up to
two two and a half inches thick in some
places so as long as it doesn't get hit
in the same place really hard a couple
times in a row you should be okay just
something that you want to let's see if
I can so just something you want to
consider guys if that this Phantom 820
did get shipped to me by round from the
US so this is pretty much I don't know
you'd like a you can't say worst-case
scenario because I'm the courier will
always find another way to to beat
something up more in transit but this is
this is not something that was shipped
on a pallet and was 100% protected
during transit so while I love soft
packing foam the packing material outch
wool that got me really good did you
hear that the packing material did hold
up in transit so I can't criticize it
too much let's go ahead
for plastic this is as far as we got
last time so this is my first time
actually seeing the case itself as you
can see it's wow that was quite the
static something yeah oh it is quite
large it is here we'll start at the back
actually because that'll give you guys a
better idea of how freakin big this is
so that is like hold on a second how
does this work give me a sec guys and I
get it so you can move around the 120
millimeter or 140 millimeter cooling fan
that's a neat feature so if you if it's
going to interfere with a radiator you
can move it down if you want it closer
to your vrm you can move it up very cool
stuff for included water cooling
grommets and one two three four five six
seven eight nine PCI slots meaning you
can install even the longest XL ATX
motherboards with no difficulty bottom
mounted power supply with very very high
pedestal check this out so you can see
these these pieces right here that
support the power supply keep it nice
and high off the bottom of the case plus
the fact that the entire case sits on
the little pedestal meaning you're going
to get lots of cooling into your power
supply I actually recently had a power
supply die due to not getting enough
cooling through that bottom fan because
it was sitting on carpet and the case
did not have a pedestal here's the fan
filter that can be easily removed and
clicks into place which is very
convenient for those of you who like to
remove things without you know tools and
hassle all right let's have a look at
the side panel so side panel has that
200 millimeter cooling fan very neat
shape to these vents actually see that
they've got some 3d sort of pop to them
some texture to them so it looks uh
looks really neat there we go see you
guys can see that and then the window I
usually like to see a bit bigger of a
window although they are at least
showing the parts that like the key
parts that matter around that CPU socket
area where you're going to have lots of
cool liquid cooling tubes and all that
kind of good stuff let's go ahead and
took this bad boy down now got another
200 millimeter cooling fan right there
remember you can do up to a triple
radiator up here and the way they've
designed the top of the case this time
is all about cooling so you see this
mesh here more mesh down there and this
is all ventilated so you'll be able to
get an ample amount of airflow coming
out of the top of the case front USB pay
are not skimping on for us
2.0 ports two USB 3.0 ports and then all
the ports that you could ask for over
here so this looks like switching
between the various you know what I
don't have to figure out how this works
but there's your front panel headphone
and microphone that's your power switch
there's your reset switch here is some
of that included lighting effects stuff
that they got going on let's go have a
look at the front so the front reminds
me very much of the original phantom in
fact not a whole lot has changed about
the styling although there's more
filtered intakes which you can go ahead
and pop right back into place
there are four five and a quarter inch
base ah
cool card reader love that SD card
reader is included you can change the
led modes change the hues using ah using
the dial right here and then you can
control the i/o LED off that's really
cool neat seekeen and there's more
lighting effects here and under here
here check this out
so there's more lighting effects right
around there very very cool okay so
going back to the front ah what else we
got here so very nice finish NZXT is
done traditionally a really good job of
color matching their plastic to their
metal so check this out this is about as
close as you can get see the challenge
is that the plastic has a much smoother
finish than paint so you end up with
well you know you end up with no matter
what you do different but as soon as you
get more than I'd say about two to three
feet away you can't tell the difference
at all which is about as good as it gets
other side panel has some again some
like some texture some 3d is to it so
this pops out this gives you lots of
room for cable management and anything
else you'd need to get over to your
drives in all likelihood let's finish
with a look at the bottom of the case as
I mentioned before is sitting up on this
pedestal that has lots of holes in it
for ample airflow to get in the sides
here
there you go see the sides as well as
through the bottom if it if it is if it
needs to there's all that filtered
intake whatnot and there are the rubber
feet that the entire case sits on
I mean you know what let's turn the
camera off while I open it up and we'll
be back in a moment actually this is
something I recognize from the switch so
you take these two screws out and then
you can actually turn the the side
panels into a bit of a tool this thing
here so you just go ahead and move that
down pop the side panel off and then you
can lock it back into place just like
that
now the inside of this thing is actually
fairly modular so I want to start with
those features at the very beginning
here so you can actually slide out this
entire bank of hard drive cages so the
included hard drive sleds can support
either three and a half inch drives
completely to lessly or two and a half
inch SSDs on the middle of them without
without any difficulty so you just kind
of slide those in from the back you'll
have to open up the sort of the opposite
side panels from what you'd normally
expect in order to install a drive and
once you actually get a drive mounted in
these there'll be quite a bit more rigid
so you could just have to kind of
arrange them carefully one time and then
there you go so those are sitting in
there once you do that you can actually
remove four screws take this piece out
and that's how you're going to mount
that dual 120 or dual - or dual 120 dual
120 or dual 140 millimeter radiator in
the front that's going to draw air up
from the bottom of the pedestal here
this one doesn't come out by the look of
it oh yes it does oh cool okay so you
can pull this one out too you can mount
a 120 or 140 millimeter fan here using
just two holes and then you can actually
adjust it if you want it to point here
then you just tighten the screw you
loosen the screw if you want it to point
up more towards the CPU socket you go
ahead and tighten it right there and the
final sit kind of like that pulling air
away over the hard drives and then up in
this direction
lots oh yeah great so you can take out
these three five and a quarter inch bays
as well and you can see inside here that
there's a secondary sort of top here so
you can just yeah move things around and
take them out as you see fit I mean
obviously you can't like I don't mean
move things around but move them started
physically out of the case if you don't
need drive mounting here and you just
want that 200
your fan blowing air right in so that's
very cool stuff I mentioned this before
but you've got ample ample support for
no matter what kind of power supply you
put in here and the cable routing
options are fantastic so I often
complain about this when you've got a
billion cable management holes up here
and then you've got like one right next
to the power supply because it's pretty
simple math what goes in here must come
out there at some point NZXT has taken
that sort of to the next level here and
they've got three cable management
options right next to the power supply
one slightly above it this is more like
for your front panel audio or whatever
else and then you've got lots of
different options up here for where it's
going to come out that triple 120
millimeter radiator that I talked about
before that'll go right here but right
now there's a 200 mil fan that's mounted
in the top in its stead so you can
easily pull that out here's the included
case lighting strip so that's going to
light up your case well that's what case
lighting does I suppose um and let's
have a look at how many more three and a
half inch or two and a half inch drives
can be mounted in the other side here oh
I just stepped on a molex connector I'm
gonna need that later but not now al
that hurt okay I'm good I'm okay thanks
for asking
for three and a half inch sleds or two
and a half inch sleds whatever you
prefer are in there then from the back
you can see there is tons of room for
cable management because you've got all
this space that is trying to hold these
out of the way all this space here
remember it starts here and actually
bulges out over here so all this space
here plus the space that's in here as
well so that's a total of three and a
half centimeters no big deal huge CPU
cut out hole so that's really convenient
because you won't have to remove the
motherboard in order to mount a
different CPU cooler that has a
backplate and check this out they
include an individually sleeved eight
pin cable extension that's fantastic
so they're assuming you got this super
long case and our super tall case and
your power supply probably won't have a
long enough eight pin they go ahead and
throw that in for you I think that's
like a six or eight or $10 value or
something
like that that's what typically these
individually sleep things get charged so
yeah oops that's awesome included cables
I mean look at this because of all the
different stuff that this case has going
on there are a lot of included wires
that you're going to need to route so
this is power 4 in all likelihood you're
included fan controller and/or lighting
system these oh boy you know what I
don't actually necessarily want to
speculate as to what each of these
individual power connectors are powering
but you've got a SATA power and a molex
power I'm going to assume you need those
for something you've got fan there we go
fan harnesses that you can go ahead and
plug fans into if you want to use them
with the integrated fan controller you
can see they're actually labeled F R F T
so front/rear top and then there's
probably one more zone I'm trying to
look for a for a B one is okay sure
whatever so there's a ton of those
you've got the integrated USB three
you've got and must have two headers for
front USB two so here's one of them
there must be a header somewhere here's
the help one for front panel audio which
is no USB to USB to USB 2 oh right sorry
three USB 2's okay given how many
motherboards have three USB two front
panel headers it makes sense I guess HD
audio and yeah you guys are going to
want to work on your cable management a
little bit the good news is NZXT
includes lots of cable management
anchors here so all B's here here here
here here here here here here and just
generally all over the place allow you
to anchor down cables just like they've
done here to make sure that everything
lays flat enough that you're going to be
able to close the case once you are done
with it I think that pretty much covers
everything I wanted to say about the
back so the last thing I want to do is
throw a power supply in here just to
check out this included lighting system
the integrated fan controller is
outstanding so that turns out it turns
out that that's the molex plug all you
got to do is use the selector up here
which is the middle one to
okay so to front/back so here we can
actually say see the brightness of the
LED indicates how much power is being
delivered to it to the fan so go around
and check out the background I'm going
to turn it all the way down and it's
actually going to turn that fan right
off
very very cool although the included
fans are very quiet anyways here I'm
turning it back on now so that's that's
a really neat feature and it turns out
the SATA power is for the integrated LED
lighting so let's go ahead and turn that
on so you can see things are lit up
green I'm going to go ahead and sort of
kill the lights in here so I can give
you guys a better look at how this case
looks with the integrated lighting
effects so actually it lights it up
really really well you get a nice even
glow inside and I'm gonna go ahead and
see what we can do in terms of changing
things so I don't know what this does
okay oh cool that's neat
so going all the way up to white there
you go and don't forget it's up here as
well so there's ah there's lighting here
did you see the one over here I don't
know if you ever saw that one so there's
one here so that changes colors as well
and then the ones inside and then you
can also ah there's the IO LED so if you
want to find a way to plug your cables
in in the dark there's just a front
switch there including your PCI slots
this is very very cool as well and then
there's LED modes so there's okay there
we go so we'll cycle through these so
there's none inside only which turns off
the one over here and then there's
inside and outside so let's go ahead
cycle through those colors a little bit
very very cool that's the one I'd build
that looks awesome I think I'm in the
wrong mode
haha there we go nice like fuchsia
interior lighting ballin thank you for
checking out my unboxing and first look
at the phantom 820 from NZXT don't
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