NZXT Phantom proves there's still life in chunky desktop towers
By Vlad Savov 
posted July 29th 2010 7:23AM
posted July 29th 2010 7:23AM
NZXT Unveils Phantom Enthusiast Full Tower Chassis
Flagship enclosure offers exhilarating design with unrivaled combination of high performance cooling advantages, extensive expandability, and innovative screwless installation
El Monte, CA – July 28, 2010 – NZXT, a company built on realizing the dreams of gamers worldwide, is proud to announce Phantom, the company's most elegant and intelligent chassis design to date. Phantom exudes sophistication with pristine contours and a robust menu of high performance features that will satisfy the demands of even the most discerning PC enthusiast.
High Performance Cooling Advantages – Phantom's extensive cooling capabilities include 7 fan cooling options with dual 200mm, single 230/200mm, triple 120mm, and front 140mm fans. For enhanced control and expandability, NZXT includes dual radiator support, quad watercooling cutouts, and an integrated fan controller with up to five 20W channels.
Extensive Compatibility and Expandability – Features support for larger heat sinks, graphics cards, and E-ATX motherboards enabling enthusiasts to include any of today's hottest components. Vast space within the enclosure allows for 7 hard drives with SDD support and up to five 5.25" bays.
Simple Installation – Phantom celebrates an array of innovative features designed to enhance every stage of the build. Meticulous wire management is easily attainable with large spacing behind the motherboard. The innovative all-new 5.25" screwless rails make installing and swapping HDDs an effortless process.
Additional Advanced Features – Further distinct features include an LED on/off button to control case lighting, rubber PSU and case feet to reduce vibration, easily removable front and top panels, and top mounted USB, Audio/Mic, and E-SATA ports.
"This is the most intelligent and elegantly designed chassis we've ever conceived" said Johnny Hou, Founder and Chief Designer at NZXT. "The profoundly unique contours combined with a highly functional, robust feature set solidifies Phantom as one of the most innovative case designs on the market."
NZXT reached out to the enthusiast community and enlisted the design input from the renowned modder of the L.O.S.I.A.S., Rogue, and OSIDIAS Projects, Craig Brugger, to aid in the creation of Phantom. "NZXT has shown that there are still companies willing to listen to the community, and that collaboration can lead to innovation and a product with few compromises," remarked Brugger.
Phantom will be available in early September in White, Red, and Black for the MSRP of $139.99. For more information visit http://www.nzxt.com/new/products/crafted_series/phantom.
I can do all my work on my laptop, thank you very much! Saves me one room in my flat!
@Marko while that might be true for alot of people
but your laptop has a tenth of the CPU/GPU/HDD/Sceen size/
@Marko: Laptops are nice, but I like my 26 inch monitor and changeable graphics card more.
@Marko I used to, but you just can't beat the power of a desktop.
I love me some good desktop.
@DefPoet - That was the case 10 years ago. Now you can get a laptop that can run most modern games for decent moneys. OK, it is still 1/2 the power of a similarly priced desktop, but certainly not 1/10th! And as I said, it does all my work, which is what you use computer for. Right?
@216
Not saying that my laptop is at all superior to your desktop, but my lenovo T500 has switchable graphics cards as well.
@AdhesiveWombat Changeable not switchable as in you replace it when there is a newer faster one you want.
@Marko
Desktops are twice the power at half the price of a laptop. Explain to me why I would want to give up my high-power rig, dual-screen setup, etc. for a Laptop that would give me a tiny screen and crappy graphics. My assumption is that you are not a gamer thus this article really doesn't apply to you or your laptop preference. It's a chassis for high-power rigs, not Microsoft Office.
And about the chassis... it will be mine! This thing is gorgeous and I could really use the cooling, organization etc., in this compared to my chassis at the moment. I always love what NZXT comes out with and this is no exception.
@DefPoet
My 3 year old XPS 17'' lappy is still head and shoulders above most new desktops.
@Niazac
I don't see the need for the flamming of Marco... I too own a laptop that does indeed meet my GAMING needs. Not only can I play my games at high settings, but I can attach it to my 26' monitor through my HDMI port... AND its portable to bring to friends/family's homes for the day instead of lugging a 30lb tower...
And before you ask: LFD2, TF2, LOL, SCII.. yes SC2 and others...
The phrase "To each his own" comes to mind...
Either way this is a beautiful case, and a part of me would love to build a new beefy desktop.
@A25i
Hahaha... no.
@Niazac
My 3(!) year old Dell XPS M1710 running Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T7600G (2 CPUs) with Dell supported over clocking @ 3.16GHz with 4GB RAM; a NVIDIA GeForce 512mb 7950GTX running dual 32's and it's own 17" monitors at a res of 1920x1200 - is why you dont need a big clunky desktop anymore.
And I can bring my gaming anywhere with me. So long as I have a plug.
As a gamer, I found bringing this to a LAN party (in a backpack with all my perifs) was a lot easier, and in most cases, looked cooler than any other setup that required 2-3 trips to the car and back.
http://www.xfire.com/profile/
http://www.xfire.com/blog/agent25i/394192/
@archkron
hahaha yes.
@Slug
Flaming? How? It wasn't my intention to be rude. I was just commenting on the fact that his personal taste really isn't relevant to this article. He said he used his laptop for work and this chassis is meant for a high-power rig which you probably wouldn't use for work (well, most people anyway...)
Also, part of my argument was the price of a laptop. I'm not saying that "OMFGZ LAPTZ R TEH SUKZ" but I am saying that for the price of buying a desktop and maintaining/upgrading it, I would much prefer a desktop over a laptop. It is a personal choice because I just can't go buying a new laptop when a new piece of tech comes out. With a desktop, you can just pop the graphics card/processor/etc. out and swap it. Nobody needs to upgrade their tech every year though...
As much as I love my PC-P80B, this is pretty damned great, nice, accessible 'n toolless. (Had to add a new HDD recently; god, what a pain in the ass.)
That said, I find the lack of a dustfilter and the ammount of plastic incorporated disturbing...
@A25i
A 7xxx series in 2010? Ha.
@AdhesiveWombat
Does you laptop have 8.5TB of disk space?
@zeroinfinity2
I did* say three years old.
And yes, it runs games at full settings quite well. (crysis 95%) I may not be getting 7 Billion frames a second, but more than enough.
@A25i
You don't have two CPUs, you have a dual core processor. Not remotely the same thing.
@Marko I'm a laptop user (not by choice), and I echo the sentiments of all the desktop users here.
On topic, those are quite nice cases.
@Niazac You can use dual or triple monitors on a laptop(if you I count the screen of the laptop itself).
@Marko
Your laptop has room for 7 hDD ?
no ? then you're off topic "thank you very much byebye"
@A25i Um, those be some pretty crappy specs bud... even though I take up camp with the laptop side of things, (Envy 15, i7 720q, 6GB DDR3, ATI M Radeon 4830 1GB- I just like to brag) I too am looking into building a desktop for more serious gaming and rendering needs. And I'm pretty sure that whatever games you're playing on that are either extremely outdated or at ultralow graphics settings :/
The White is such a good lookn case, do want!
@TehSilentWolf Yes, I concur!
@TehSilentWolf - It'd look perfectly natural with an Aperture Science logo on it :-)
@TehSilentWolf
It kind of looks like the white Lexus LFA that everybody's been testing.
It looks like it would eat your children when you aren't looking.
@SolidSnake Or format them.
@Atkins
Into what? Husks that kill every human on sight?
Oh dear... The end is close!
But seriously. Acer's pretador line looks much more capable of doing that than this case. This case is just nice.
@Firewave
oh alienwares are also good looking especially the area 51 model
The black one looks kinda nice.
As long as Nvidia and AMD keep making 12" long video cards, there will still be life in chunky desktop towers.
Why are so many blogs and self-proclaimed "experts" eager to ring the death bell for the desktop? A lot of us still prefer desktops, and they aren't going away any time soon. You guys need to find another headline to hype for awhile. This one has gotten old.
@morphoyle Bloggers are right to say the popularity of desktops will fade. Disappear tough? Probably never.
@morphoyle Agreed. A solid write up on the case here: http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=966
@Ruben Sigh... they have been saying the same thing since the 90's.
Gosh, I am not sure I want that big pc anymore... Even with that case.
That is one nice case there, and believe me. I use Mac, I know nice.
@iProton Also, I am quite sure that'll be rated into oblivion.
@iProton
Have fun in Oblivion!:)
@iProton
I'm really not a Mac kinda guy, but, to be honest, they do make really nice cases.
@Firewave Well woopty doopty doo :D
Ha it looks like optimus prime took a dump!!!
Alienware needs to buy this company. This company's cases are beautiful but not too gaudy.
do want...
Nice. October is the month to finally upgrade my PC!!
No firewire port(s) on front? DO NOT WANT THEN.
@wsansewjs
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=40000011&IsNodeId=1&Description=firewire,%20drive&bop=And&CompareItemList=11|11-999-176^11-999-176-S01,13-999-356^13-999-356-S01,11-996-006^11-996-006-S01,13-999-355^13-999-355-S01
Holy crap, these are invisible on radar right?