Phanteks Enthoo Primo Case Review
by Dustin Sklavos on August 10, 2013 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Water Cooling
- Phanteks
The Phanteks Enthoo Primo is, frankly, quite a case. At $249 it's definitely a luxury item, but I get the sense that Phanteks is following Corsair's lead in the enclosure market: start at the top and work your way down. You'll remember the Corsair 900D was warmly received, and the Phanteks Enthoo Primo is without a doubt going to earn a fairly healthy following.
Externally, this is definitely one of the more attractive cases I've tested. While I'm starting to feel a little bit of black box fatigue, there are clearly still ways to reinvent the wheel. There's a beautiful blue line of LEDs that lights up along the trim on the right side of the case when it's powered on, very subtle but very attractive, and if you don't like them you can just turn them off. Overall there's a lot of good geometry and fairly smart ventilation design.
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The internal design of the Enthoo Primo is a little trickier. I feel like Phanteks is on solid ground; the way the power supply bay is oriented and separated from the rest of the interior is smart, and there's plenty of space for routing cabling. The problem I think we run into is that the front intakes are somewhat obstructed, causing the Enthoo Primo to rely more on the bottom intake. That's not so bad, but the result is that the flow of air is a little awkward. The radiator plate is also a nice touch, but needed to be thought out just a bit better to accommodate the types of high end graphics cards that are likely to find their way into a case like this.
What are we left with? Excellent build quality, smart thermal-acoustic balance owing to the PWM-driven fan controller, good looks, esoteric design, and a high price tag. The Phanteks Enthoo Primo is a project case similar to the less expensive Corsair Carbide Air 540, but lends itself much more to watercooling. At the $249 price tag, you essentially place it as a less expensive alternative to the monstrous Corsair Obsidian 900D, and I think it compares very favorably in that respect. Unless you need fifteen hard drives, four graphics cards, and/or a dual-CPU motherboard, the Enthoo Primo is going to be a more ideal option.
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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.