NZXT Phantom 820 Full Tower Case Review
Performance Summary and Conclusion
Performance Summary: The NZXT Phantom 820 offers decent cooling performance in its stock configuration, although there are other cases that perform better at its price point. That said, the case offers as spacious an interior as you could ask for (although we’d like a bit more room in the rear for cabling), more than ample fan mounts for additional cooling, and room for a beefy water cooling setup. The fetching lighting setup and integrated four-speed fan controller are superb extras.
NZXT Phantom 820
There’s a fine line between offering up a decked-out killer chassis with all the amenities and a garish clown of a case, and NZXT found the sweet spot with the Phantom 820 in our opinion. Despite its ample lighting options and a side panel that shows off just enough of the interior of the chassis, it never feels or looks like overkill. The case also sports some interesting lines without making it look like it’s wearing some sort of space-age armor.
In terms of features, there’s not much NZXT left out; as we mentioned above, you can leave the chassis alone and rely on the four stock fans, pack it full of nine fans, or slap in liquid cooling--this case can handle it all. Both the lights and fan controller are integrated into the case design, and they offer users the ability to both customize the look of the system and balance fan speed and noise. There are also 9 expansion slot locations to accommodate virtually any assortment of motherboard, expansion cards and extras.
The case is mostly steel and feels sturdy all the way around, even the parts that are made of plastic (except for the flimsy hard drive sleds) such as the locking mechanism for the 5.25-inch drives. The pull-out hard drive bay and interior pivot fan mount are nice touches, as well.
The cost for all this chassis goodness is relatively steep, though; NZXT has the price tag set at $249.99. However, the overall fine looks, flexibility, sweet lighting, and handy fan controller just might make the Phantom 820 worth it.
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NZXT Phantom 820
There’s a fine line between offering up a decked-out killer chassis with all the amenities and a garish clown of a case, and NZXT found the sweet spot with the Phantom 820 in our opinion. Despite its ample lighting options and a side panel that shows off just enough of the interior of the chassis, it never feels or looks like overkill. The case also sports some interesting lines without making it look like it’s wearing some sort of space-age armor.In terms of features, there’s not much NZXT left out; as we mentioned above, you can leave the chassis alone and rely on the four stock fans, pack it full of nine fans, or slap in liquid cooling--this case can handle it all. Both the lights and fan controller are integrated into the case design, and they offer users the ability to both customize the look of the system and balance fan speed and noise. There are also 9 expansion slot locations to accommodate virtually any assortment of motherboard, expansion cards and extras.
The case is mostly steel and feels sturdy all the way around, even the parts that are made of plastic (except for the flimsy hard drive sleds) such as the locking mechanism for the 5.25-inch drives. The pull-out hard drive bay and interior pivot fan mount are nice touches, as well.
The cost for all this chassis goodness is relatively steep, though; NZXT has the price tag set at $249.99. However, the overall fine looks, flexibility, sweet lighting, and handy fan controller just might make the Phantom 820 worth it.
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