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Hey everyone, I just wanted to do a quick little review of the Phanteks Evolv ATX version and point out some of the good and bad aspects of the case. I read tons of reviews before I made my choice and while the case is very good, they all seemed to omit any of the potential problems.
First, the good:
Build quality is excellent, enough so that the 250 dollar price tag can easily be overlooked. All the outer panels are made of thick aluminum with a very nice finish that doesn't seem like it would scratch very easily. The chassis itself is constructed of steel and has little if any flex. There is very little plastic anywhere on the case, only the tabs on the top panel, the HDD mount covers and the power light housing. For the price, I don't think you will find anything as well constructed with as many features.
Cable management is a breeze with the PSU isolated in the "basement" from the rest of the components and there are plenty of holes with rubber grommets to route as many cables as could possibly need. Without a radiator in front you can mount hard drives down the backwall with the included brackets and within the cage found in front of the bottom fan mount on the front of the case. There are 3 spots to mount ssds, two behind the motherboard tray and one on the frontside of the PSU cover. They are mounted with easy to use snap and lock brackets.
Radiator support is very good for a mid tower. You can simultaneously mount a 240 and 360 of all thicknesses in either the top or front. For a front mounted 360 the hard drive cage needs to be removed. The top radiator is mounted on a slide in bracket, so there is no frustrating balancing act to be performed while mounting. Reservoirs can be mounted below the rear fan in front of the PCI brackets, or along the back wall beside the hard drive mounts. Depending on front radiator thickness, you may not be able to squeeze a reservoir in without the motherboard or GPU getting in the way. There is also an included pump mount to allow you to mount the pump in the basement. This removes the ability to use the hard drive cage and limits the front mounted radiator to 240s only.
Now for the bad:
Airflow, as I mentioned, I have read tons of reviews and not one has mentioned any sort of concern with the design of the top panel and the potential problems with air flow it can cause. The top panel has only very thin vents with mesh running down either side of the panel and a small opening on the rear of the panel to exhaust air. I imagine if you are air cooling and running fans at low speed this will allow hot air to escape without issue; However, if you are running a radiator in the top, the heat cannot escape fast enough and the air hits the top panel and then just saturates the case with heat. I have found that after stressing the CPU for the same amount of time with both the top panel on and removed, there was a 7 degree temperature difference on the hottest core and a 6 degree temperature difference in the water. I imagine if you have no intentions of overclocking or you are running cooler hardware this might not matter to you, but it will limit the amount of overclocking unless you bench with the top removed.
It would be nice if the case was slightly wider if only to give a bit more room on the rear reservoir mount. A 60mm wide reservoir fits but just barely without coming into contact with the GPU.
Those are my only 2 gripes with this case but the first one is quite a serious problem for me. I would have really liked to see Phanteks include much better ventilation on the top panel. It would also be nice if the fans could be mounted on the stop side of the top mounting bracket but there isn't enough room due to the top braces on the chassis. Overall this a really good case for water cooling and I found that the airflow issue could be somewhat mitigated by reversing the airflow and drawing air in through the top and out the front but that seems like it would be working against how we know hot air behaves and probably isn't ideal.
If you want any pictures of the case you can use google, or view my build log. Hope this helps someone make a decision somewhere.
Edit: I should add that 7 degrees maybe doesn't seem like a big deal but it's the difference between 73 degrees and 80 degrees on my 5820K at 4.5ghz and 1.3v under stress. It's the difference between "I'm comfortable with this 24/7" and "I can only bench with this."
First, the good:
Build quality is excellent, enough so that the 250 dollar price tag can easily be overlooked. All the outer panels are made of thick aluminum with a very nice finish that doesn't seem like it would scratch very easily. The chassis itself is constructed of steel and has little if any flex. There is very little plastic anywhere on the case, only the tabs on the top panel, the HDD mount covers and the power light housing. For the price, I don't think you will find anything as well constructed with as many features.
Cable management is a breeze with the PSU isolated in the "basement" from the rest of the components and there are plenty of holes with rubber grommets to route as many cables as could possibly need. Without a radiator in front you can mount hard drives down the backwall with the included brackets and within the cage found in front of the bottom fan mount on the front of the case. There are 3 spots to mount ssds, two behind the motherboard tray and one on the frontside of the PSU cover. They are mounted with easy to use snap and lock brackets.
Radiator support is very good for a mid tower. You can simultaneously mount a 240 and 360 of all thicknesses in either the top or front. For a front mounted 360 the hard drive cage needs to be removed. The top radiator is mounted on a slide in bracket, so there is no frustrating balancing act to be performed while mounting. Reservoirs can be mounted below the rear fan in front of the PCI brackets, or along the back wall beside the hard drive mounts. Depending on front radiator thickness, you may not be able to squeeze a reservoir in without the motherboard or GPU getting in the way. There is also an included pump mount to allow you to mount the pump in the basement. This removes the ability to use the hard drive cage and limits the front mounted radiator to 240s only.
Now for the bad:
Airflow, as I mentioned, I have read tons of reviews and not one has mentioned any sort of concern with the design of the top panel and the potential problems with air flow it can cause. The top panel has only very thin vents with mesh running down either side of the panel and a small opening on the rear of the panel to exhaust air. I imagine if you are air cooling and running fans at low speed this will allow hot air to escape without issue; However, if you are running a radiator in the top, the heat cannot escape fast enough and the air hits the top panel and then just saturates the case with heat. I have found that after stressing the CPU for the same amount of time with both the top panel on and removed, there was a 7 degree temperature difference on the hottest core and a 6 degree temperature difference in the water. I imagine if you have no intentions of overclocking or you are running cooler hardware this might not matter to you, but it will limit the amount of overclocking unless you bench with the top removed.
It would be nice if the case was slightly wider if only to give a bit more room on the rear reservoir mount. A 60mm wide reservoir fits but just barely without coming into contact with the GPU.
Those are my only 2 gripes with this case but the first one is quite a serious problem for me. I would have really liked to see Phanteks include much better ventilation on the top panel. It would also be nice if the fans could be mounted on the stop side of the top mounting bracket but there isn't enough room due to the top braces on the chassis. Overall this a really good case for water cooling and I found that the airflow issue could be somewhat mitigated by reversing the airflow and drawing air in through the top and out the front but that seems like it would be working against how we know hot air behaves and probably isn't ideal.
If you want any pictures of the case you can use google, or view my build log. Hope this helps someone make a decision somewhere.
Edit: I should add that 7 degrees maybe doesn't seem like a big deal but it's the difference between 73 degrees and 80 degrees on my 5820K at 4.5ghz and 1.3v under stress. It's the difference between "I'm comfortable with this 24/7" and "I can only bench with this."
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