NZXT Phantom 630 Case Review: The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection
by Dustin Sklavos on January 20, 2013 12:01 AM ESTConclusion: The Enthusiast Chassis of Choice?
I think it's important to note that NZXT's flagship Phantom 820 was only released about three months ago. I'm not quite sure how NZXT was able to hit the kind of turnaround time they did with the Phantom 630, but this new release effectively obsoletes the older, more expensive model. That's no mean feat when you're talking about the successor of a case that won our Bronze Editor's Choice award, but what makes the Phantom 630 so impressive is the fact that it's able to meet or surprass the 820 in every meaningful way while costing $70 less.
The Phantom 630 is in this editor's opinion a better looking, better designed enclosure capable of providing top shelf thermal performance with very reasonable acoustics. This is the kind of case I'm talking about when I talk about the stratification of the enclosure market: below $100 you're going to see a balancing act of noise and thermals that tends to favor thermals, between $100 and $150 you're going to see better noise performance but the same balancing act, and when you go north of $150 you can and should expect a case that's both quiet and efficient. At $179, the 630 offers superior cooling performance with better-than-average acoustics. If noise is your utmost concern you're never going to really beat the Nanoxia Deep Silence 1, but the Phantom 630 is incredibly compelling otherwise.
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So why isn't the 630 Silver or Gold Editor's Choice material if it's directly better than a Bronze winner while costing less? For starters, $179 still isn't exactly a "value" price tag, even if you really do get what you pay for. Editor's Choice is about getting more than what you paid for; for example, an MSRP of $149 on the Phantom 630 might be unrealistic, but it would also be bulletproof (so keep your eye out for a good sale). The price is a nitpick; where the 630 loses points is in its continued use of those awful drive trays, and the strangely too-small routing hole for the AUX 12V line. The windowed side panel looks better than its predecessor and obviously contributes to the case's killer performance, but it's still a little ostentatious.
I pick nits with the 630 because it's my job and because NZXT has built tremendous momentum as of late. My ideal refinement of this enclosure would be a reduction in the number of 5.25" bays from four to three or even two, allowing for increased and even more direct front intake, along with completely closed side panels. A little acoustic padding wouldn't be out of place, either. Add a mounting post to the motherboard tray, fix the AUX 12V routing hole, get sturdier drive trays, and find some way to make picking up the case without accidentally popping out the bottom fan filter easier.
If you like or at least don't mind the way the it looks, and you're in the market for an enthusiast class case with substantial liquid cooling potential, I'm really not sure you're going to be able to beat the NZXT Phantom 630. SilverStone's FT02 might still be better for air cooling (at least for air cooling the CPU), and the Thermaltake Level 10 GT and CoolerMaster Cosmos II might both be bigger and fancier, but the Phantom 630 is more feature rich, easier to move and assemble, and ultimately more forward thinking. Other companies should be keeping a close eye on what NZXT is doing. Absolutely recommended.
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sna1970 - Sunday, January 20, 2013 - link
I wonder why people cant design REAL good looking cases ...if the Japanese can ...
hey Anand ... take a look at Abee PC cases for a change ...
http://abee.co.jp/Product/index.html#case
awg1031 - Sunday, January 20, 2013 - link
wow, i hope anand can hold of abee's product..even look at the i-phone case..nice~
meefer - Sunday, January 20, 2013 - link
They look like clean designs but they aren't terribly interesting- all crisp but cold right angles. I'd like to find a nice balance between the old beige box look (like Abee Smart) and the ridiculous 1990s Mega Bass boombox look (like the CoolerMaster HAF).It doesn't look like Abee have distributors in the US, too bad. Their phone and tablet cases look awesome.
3ogdy - Sunday, January 20, 2013 - link
The right angle design and sharp edge design is back for some - they think that if they add a nice shiny painting they can pretend to be the latest craze and well, "simple, yet awesome design" -which they're not. Those look like those second hand PC cases people throw away for $30. But hey, I was against Alienware's case redesign (their cases were by far some of the best looking one on the market), yet they went on and came up with something that looks a lot worse than their previous design...it seems taking steps backwards is the new fashion now.meefer - Sunday, January 20, 2013 - link
Good point. For what it's worth, I think the bland right-angle design works much better in the small form factor cases from Abee. Example:http://abee.co.jp/Product/nuc/index.html
3ogdy - Sunday, January 20, 2013 - link
I really don't get it:Do you really mean those UGLY cases from the link you posted look better than the NZXT design?
Wow!
I understand it's a matter of taste but hey, the Abee cases have absolutely no design at all - they're simply a bunch of unpolished Pentium 3-style cases.
So why did you use them as an example against the NZXT Phantom, which OBVIOUSLY and DEFINITELY looks a ton better. Even if the NZXT Phantom cost twice as much as those cases, I'd still get the Phantom. It looks better and it is functional-enough.
Bob Todd - Sunday, January 20, 2013 - link
I bet you thought the MSI GT660 looked better than a MacBook Pro too...kyuu - Sunday, January 20, 2013 - link
30gdy is right. How exactly are *those* cases good-looking? They look like the towers from the P4 era and back. If you really loved your old beige-box, great. But I think most people agree those are far from aesthetically pleasing.I'm not a huge fan of NZXT's aesthetic design either, but at least it *has* a design.
kyuu - Sunday, January 20, 2013 - link
Their iPad/iPhone cases on the other hand, now *those* look nice.JPForums - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
These are most certainly not unpolished Pentium 3-style cases. Take a look at the list Ugly posted below for a valid point of comparison. The looks are definitely understated, but the combination of brushed aluminum exterior and what appears to be a well constructed and modern internal design (looking at the X3) counts as polish in my book. There is a market for designs such as these, especially in a business oriented setting.
That said, the understated look isn't for everyone. I'd expect cases like these to appeal more to fans of the classic Lian Li enclosures than fans of Coolermaster's HAF series or NZXT chassis in general. I probably wouldn't use one of these for my gaming build, but I could see myself building a workhorse for the office in one of these if the performance keeps up. I'd like to see Dustin review one of these if he gets the chance.