NZXT Phantom 820 Case Review: Conceptualized By Enthusiasts

[Stevemeister]

If you want perfection buy Lian-Li - no gaudiness . .. just pure performance. Surprised they re not reviewed very often

 

[Guest]

[citation][nom]itzdanielp[/nom]I have one minor concern about a part of what you wrote...You mentioned that the front of the case is held on by magnets, I am going to assume they are fairly strong magnets, to hold it on securely. Where exactly are the magnets? And how close are they to the 3.5" drive bays? It would be a bad day indeed if I boot up, only to find my HDD's been corrupted.[/citation]

I can confirm that the production cases do not use magnets to hold on the front an top plastic enclosures, they use good old plastic catches.

To be honest, from what I've read in this article and what I've experienced first hand by actually owning one of these cases, that there is a world of difference from the review samples and what is actually ending up with customers - they are not the same case, which means this review is garbage. Thats not TH's or the reviewers fault, thats purely down to NZXT rushing out samples prematurely. TH can only review what they are given, but I do find it irritating that people are commenting about certain aspects of the case which is just not true.

 

[Guest]

[citation][nom]Groundrat[/nom]Like the Switch 210, this is a beautiful NZXT case that I will never buy.1. Too Pricey2. Fans from other companies don't fit3. For $250, it had better be perfect and it isn't.[/citation]

1. If you compare what you get included in the price for items that you would have to buy seperately on something like the NZXT Switch 810 - digital fan controller, RGB LED lighting - it's actually not too bad. Especially considering that an equivalent fan controller would cost you nearly 1/4 of the whole 820 case price.

2. Fans don't fit from other manufacturers? Where did you read that? All the fan spacings and rad mountings are all completely standard sizes. I have 5 x Scythe Gentle Typhoon's in mine.

3. If you're using this case to it's full potential (ie, water cooling) then it's pretty darned perfect, the only niggle being the SSD screws. If you're just going to put something like an air-cooled CPU on a M-ATX board with a single GPU in this case, then you would need your head examining.

 

[warezme]

funny, it looks A LOT better when you strip off all that cheap plastic stuck on to it.

 

[xFriarx]

Good review. Sad to hear about the fans and hard drive bracket issues. I thought the stock fans on the Phantom 410 series were great performance wise, both in cooling and noise. Even though I did replace them, it was purely cosmetic reasons...I couldn't stand white fans in my black/orange case. But the biggest complaint I had with my install on the 410 was the HDD/SSD mounts. I was originally glad to see they changed them around a little, but it looks like they created other issues (short screws, to tight of a fit) and didn't clear up all the issues (awkward fitting push pins). Hopefully they do some more revisions based on feedback, I always appreciate a company that will listen to its customers as it seems NZXT has done so far.

 

[daglesj]

[citation][nom]itzdanielp[/nom]I have one minor concern about a part of what you wrote...You mentioned that the front of the case is held on by magnets, I am going to assume they are fairly strong magnets, to hold it on securely. Where exactly are the magnets? And how close are they to the 3.5" drive bays? It would be a bad day indeed if I boot up, only to find my HDD's been corrupted.[/citation]

Interesting point but arent there really strong magnets in the middle of a HDD anyway?

Doesn't seem to do any harm.

 

[Guest]

@itzdanielp,

if you mean the one that slide open and close (the one that hide the drive in the front panel) and yes it use magnet to hold securely. i have the old phantom and filled all the drive bay and no hdd corrupt after 1 year usage

however i dislike that particular slide.. as its broke couple months ago... i guess that bound to happen if u use your bluray drive a lot...

 

[MaXimus421]

This might end up being my new case. But not at the listed price.

This case, while pretty nice - isn't worth more than ~$130 in my opinion.

Drop the price or NO SALE here.

 

[hytecgowthaman]

$250 Cabinet wow i really like this because if i have $250 i am assembled a new system with i3 or fx processor.

 

[hytecgowthaman]

Who can write the full story for just a cabinet.
now i am like to destroy my cabinet because one good service engineer just remove the reset button wire in mobo(intel atom1.6ghz 3y old)the wires cut in middle so reset button not work.then he try to remove the power cable from back panel fan then both wires come in his hand the plastic droped in floor now he dont try to repair he escaped quickly.

 

[youssef 2010]

This case has incredible features. but the gripes are serious for a case in this price range. I'm not exactly an expert on chassis, but I have come across my fair share of them. I've owned the Storm Sniper, The Armor Revo and NZXT's own phantom. The original phantom had top-notch build quality and finish. It's a bit sad to see that its successor has all these small issues

 

[soundping]

Thumbscrews???

 

[mpdugas]

Small parts + 3.5 " storage bay inside case = noise.