Phanteks Enthoo Primo Case Review
by Dustin Sklavos on August 10, 2013 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Water Cooling
- Phanteks
For testing full ATX cases, we use the following standardized testbed in stock and overclocked configurations to get a feel for how well the case handles heat and noise.
| ATX Test Configuration | |
| CPU |
Intel Core i7-2700K (95W TDP, tested at stock speed and overclocked to 4.3GHz @ 1.38V) |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD4H |
| Graphics Card |
ASUS GeForce GTX 560 Ti DCII TOP (tested at stock speed and overclocked to 1GHz/overvolted to 1.13V) 2x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 in SLI (full fat testing only) |
| Memory | 2x2GB Crucial Ballistix Smart Tracer DDR3-1600 |
| Drives |
Kingston SSDNow V+ 100 64GB SSD Samsung 5.25" BD-ROM/DVDRW Drive 3x HGST DeskStar 3TB 7200-RPM HDD |
| CPU Cooler | Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo with Cooler Master ThermalFusion 400 |
| Power Supply | SilverStone Strider Plus 1000W 80 Plus Silver |
Each case is tested in a stock configuration and an overclocked configuration that generates substantially more heat (and thus may produce more noise). The system is powered on and left idle for fifteen minutes, the thermal and acoustic results recorded, and then stressed by running seven threads in Prime95 (in-place large FFTs) on the CPU and OC Scanner (maximum load) on the GPU. At the end of fiteen minutes, thermal and acoustic results are recorded. This is done for the stock settings and for the overclock, and if the enclosure has a fan controller, these tests are repeated for each setting. Ambient temperature is also measured after the fifteen idle minutes but before the stress test and used to calculate the final reported results.
For the "full fat" testbed, the GTX 560 Ti is swapped out for a pair of GTX 580s, and three hard disks are added to fill out the case.
Thank You!
Before moving on, we'd like to thank the following vendors for providing us with the hardware used in our testbed.
- Thank you to Puget Systems for providing us with the Intel Core i7-2700K.
- Thank you to Gigabyte for providing us with the GA-Z77X-UD4H motherboard.
- Thank you to Crucial for providing us with the Ballistix Smart Tracer memory.
- Thank you to Cooler Master for providing us with the Hyper 212 Evo heatsink and fan unit.
- Thank you to Kingston for providing us with the SSDNow V+ 100 SSD.
- Thank you to CyberPower for providing us with the Samsung BD-ROM/DVD+/-RW drive.
- Thank you to HGST for providing us with the trio of hard drives.
- And thank you to SilverStone for providing us with the power supply.
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Pooter - Sunday, August 11, 2013 - link
I understand that there's some validity to test the case out of the box in factory configuration... but do you not have watercooling equipment to test these obvious cases that are aimed at watercooling enthusiasts? Same goes for the 900d review. All the options that make this case exciting is simply glossed over if you're going to not play with all the fan/radiator/reservoir options.f0d - Sunday, August 11, 2013 - link
exactly.!if i diddnt have custom watercooling and a ton of hdd's and sli graphics cards there would be hundreds of other cases to choose from
these enthusiast cases really need to be tested with pumps radiators reservoirs and push/pull fans with multiple graphics cards and 8 or so hard drives
C.C. - Monday, August 12, 2013 - link
I have long hated this about Anandtech's otherwise great reviews..This case was made FOR WATERCOOLING. There is no other way to say it. You can install 5 different radiators if you choose, depending on your needs. Yet you guys can't afford to take 10 minutes to at least toss in a freaking H100/H220 for the cpu at least? Seriously, stop slacking on this watercooling cases and test them the way they were meant to tested!lwatcdr - Sunday, August 11, 2013 - link
I am so sick of black. Yes Black goes with everything but why not Red, Blue, Green, Orange, and Yellow cases? At this point I would even praise White, grey, and gunmetal.JamesWoods - Wednesday, August 14, 2013 - link
They sell this thing called paint...and you call yourself an enthusiast. Where's the enthusiasm in DIY?waldojim42 - Wednesday, August 14, 2013 - link
Can you not paint?I have painted more than one at this point, it really isn't all that hard. And you get exactly what you want!
Ilias78 - Sunday, August 11, 2013 - link
I just found my new case. Thanks Dustin.adriangb - Sunday, August 11, 2013 - link
I like how the fan controller works. I've always thought it cool to split a MB PWM into multiple fans. It would also be nice to 'digitalize' it, i.e read just the load and then set a specific RPM for what the MB demands, some MB don't have very good PWM.InfiniteImp - Sunday, August 11, 2013 - link
Excellent review - thanks for this. Since I plan on a liquid cooling setup, looks like the case's one shortcoming (CPU temps) should not affect me. Can't wait to see this in Canada. This will be a worth replacement for my old faithful HAF X. Now I just need to find someone who plans to stock it!toyotabedzrock - Monday, August 12, 2013 - link
Can someone tell me why case designers have not run premade custom flat wires for every fan slot and drive slot by now? For that matter most motherboards have almost identical placement of their power connectors and the gpu power plugs are all around the same area as well.There is no excuse for the mess. We have had the atx standard for a decade.