Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX Case Review - PAGE 1

Phanteks managed to establish itself in under a decade of providing computer peripherals by keeping its two main goals in mind – “High-end quality and innovative products in thermal solutions.” Its first offering was a CPU thermal cooling solution for the overclocking community that proved so successful that the Phanteks team has continued to improve and provide more cooling peripherals, even expanding their offerings to include a full line up of cases. The one on our review bench today is the Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX chassis, designed with innovative features for a budget price.

By the ITX in the model name, we know that this case is designed for small form factor builds. In spite of this, the case is in fact wide enough to hold a 200mm front mounted fan. Thanks to that, you can get high air flow with low flow noise, thus making this case more attractive as a platform for your otherwise cramped HTPC. Although the outer case structure is made from steel, the case is still lightweight, making for easy transport without fear of crushing anything that might be under the case.

Further inspection of the Evolv ITX case shows a very open interior design allowing the front mounted 200mm fan to pull air through the front filter, then drawing it over the CPU/motherboard and GPU areas for efficient cooling performance. Although the case doesn't include a rear mounted fan, the wide case design features a large perforated area in the rear panel for any CPU heatsink/fan to help exhaust the accumulated heat generated by CPU/motherboard and GPU.

The Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX chassis should be an interesting item to review. So far, I have only mentioned a couple of the features so it is now time to get this case out of its packaging and see what we are going to find, investigate and test.

Packaging

The Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX Chassis arrived in a "double box". The outer box is not shown below, but one of its long sides is adorned with a graphical representation of the ITX case and model name. The back of outer box is devoid of pictures but has the case model name along the top, and a case description and model name along with required international packaging symbols along the bottom. Both end panels list the company name with several shipment stickers and other identifications. There were no punctures on my sample, but it did see a lot of scuff marks from shipment handling.

The inner box was in pristine condition however, due to the protection of the outer box. Like the outer box, one side has a plain graphical Evolv ITX case photo and the model name at the bottom. The back of the inner box has an exploded graphical view of the case components along with four breakdown listings – appearance, functionality, air cooling and water cooling – occupying the middle portion.

The right side panel of the inner box translate the four listings from the back panel into nine additional languages. The left side panel has a listing of the case specifications followed by a sticker noting the model number.

Contents

The two inner foam supports of the packaging typically provide protection from bumpy transport and rough handling, but as shown in the next photo there was damage to the foam in our sample. The case itself did not exhibit any damage, and I would attribute that to the form-fitting foam preventing any unnecessary movement of the case while inside the packaging.

Due to the Evolv ITX chassis design, the accessory box was located in a hard drive tray accessed after removing the cable management side panel. After opening this small box, we found a plastic bag containing five thumb screws (two long and three short), 5 PSU mounting screws, four plastic tie wraps, and 13 motherboard and SSD drive mounting screws.

The second photo shows one side of the included quick installation guide unfolded into 5 sections showing a breakdown of the case and how to install various hardware components. One side is in English and 6 additional European languages, while the other side shows the same photos in English and 4 additional Asian languages. For a more detailed installation instructions, you can always go to the Phanteks website and download a 25-page version that is also translated into several languages.

Specifications:

Information courtesy of Phanteks @ http://www.phanteks.com/Enthoo-Evolv-ITX.html