External Examination:

After removing the plastic cover and film protection, the Phantom definitely shows it's size and quality. The slick design and glossy finish is an impressive mix of plastic and metal that was built with the high end enthusiast in mind. The high gloss black finish on this model is nice, but as I quickly noticed, it can attract fingerprints easily and shows them off nicely.



The top part of case is shown below and there are a few items to mention. First, underneath the top panel is a 200mm LED fan that is included, as well as another section to place an additional 200mm fan if needed.



On the right hand side of the case is a 5 channel fan controller to control the speed of all five fan areas in the case. Two of the controls have a connection for an extra fan making it a total of seven fans that it can control. The last items on the left hand side of the case is a power and reset button, as well as two USB 2.0 connections, one eSATA connection, a headphone jack, and a microphone jack. Unfortunately with USB 3.0 being available now, and this being marketed as a high end enthusiast case, there isn't a USB 3.0 connection.



The front portion of the Phantom has a big door that has magnetic connections to keep it shut and hide the 5.25" drive bays. The door, even though made out of plastic, seems to be of high quality and appears heavy duty. The mesh HDD bezels are a nice looking part of the front that can be removed easily by sliding a latch lock and they can be replaced the same way. The only draw back is that the mesh bezels provide no real dust filtering. There is also a mesh portion below the door for air flow if a fan is added in that section of the case.



The back of the Phantom (below left image) has a 120mm fan included, a LED power push button control for the top fan, 7 expansion slots, and the power supply area which is located at the bottom of the case for better cooling. It also has 4 water cooling grommets for extra cooling possibilities.



The bottom of the Phantom (above right image) has 4 - 1/2 inch legs to keep it stable and let air flow through nicely. The legs have 8 rubber feet to minimize vibration and hold it in place. Another feature on the bottom are the 3 vents to allow air flow. Two of the vents are under both of the HDD bays and the other one is a mesh/dust filter covered vent under the power supply.