Phanteks P300 Mid Tower Case Review

Introduction

Now then people of the internet, I am back again with another case review. Phanteks have been around for over a decade, starting out with excellent CPU air coolers and branching out into waterblocks, useful accessories and PC Cases. I have the Phanteks Eclipse P300 on my workbench today, an E-ATX Mid-tower at an upper budget price level.

Lets have a look at the specs to see what this component enclosure is capable of.

Specifications

• Dimensions – 200mm x 450mm x 400mm
• Form Factor – Midtower
• Materials – Steel chassis, steel exterior, ABS, glass
• Motherboard Support – ATX, Micro ATX, Mini ITX, E-ATX *(up to 275mm wide)
• Front I/O – 2x USB 3.0, Mic, Headphone, Reset, LED control
• Side Window – Tempered Glass
• PCI Slots – 7
• Drive Bays – 3.5″ x2 (two modular bays included, 2.5″ x2 (rear of motherboard 1 mount provided)
• Fan Mounts – 1x 120mm rear (included), 1x up to 140mm top, 2x up to 140mm front.
• Filters – 1x Top, 1x Bottom, 2x Front (vents)
• Radiator Support – Front up to 280mm 60mm thick depending on GPU clearance. Rear 120mm 40mm thick depending on motherboard heatsink clearance.
• Max CPU Cooler height – 160mm
• Max GPU Length – 330mm
• Max Power Supply Depth – 197mm (including cables)

Closer Look

“Well at least this one doesn’t fill up the house,” exclaims the Mrs. Here we have the box the P300 is shipped in, standard fare, larger than the case with some protection. There is a nice technical style image of the case with the name at the bottom.

Its a good job the box offers some protection, because at some point during transit, shenanigans occurred. This side of the box shows us another technical drawing style image with the parts exploded so you can sort of see what the case can do. No glamour shots though, it looks like Phanteks are leaving that to me.

Oh look glass! Me, my camera and lighting/items in the room are always going to come together in a splash of too much reflection. We certainly have a clean looking case here, I like that the lower PSU area doesn’t just have a shroud its completely closed off. The glass isn’t very thick at 3mm but this means it doesn’t add a lot to the weight of the Chassis. The vast majority of the case is metal which is great because plastic panels and parts often differ in colour a little to the rest. The build seems very sturdy and the paint work is top notch, scratching this would be difficult and have to be quite deliberate.

Taking a front view of the case there is nothing to stand out save for the top and bottom air intake vents, a minimal design perfect for an understated build or for adorning with stickers and or modding. The case is completely sleek apart from the bolts that hold on the glass panel, no bulging cable management areas on the offside panel.

Speaking of off-side we are presented with just a clean black metal side panel, excellent stuff, more stickers could go here too. Needless to say themeing the P300 offers a tempting blank slate.

The top of the case is again quite sparse. We are greeted with a central power button with illumination around it, off to the right we have an LED control button, two USB3 headers finished with microphone and headphone connectors. The case does lack a reset switch so you would have to hold down the power button to perform a restart of your machine.

At the rear of the top, we have the easily removable magnetic filter.

The top rear corner inside is always of interest to see what size if any, radiator can be mounted up there, unfortunately in this instance there isn’t any room for a radiator with a fan however just a radiator might go, just check with the motherboards top edge first. We can also see the included rear 120mm fan which has a very long cable unlike most, this routes all the way to the front of the case offering a greater choice of fan header use.

Bloomin eck it’s dark in there. The insides are painted all black, so the canvas to create a build continues. There are no nasty sharp edges inside… the whole thing appears to be machined very well. There are not little jutting out panels or pieces the whole space is at your disposal to fit your components without obstruction. Just above the Phanteks logo, which is nice and understated, there is an opaque plastic led element which can light up if so desired.

The rear of the motherboard tray is quite orderly, existing cable management elements are already in use guiding the builder towards getting those cables under control, I wonder if this can help my terrible cable management skills. I am a little disappointed that Phanteks chose to only supply one SSD mount for the rear, including the second would not have been a big cost and would have made the case complete. That power supply bay is restricted by the front HDD mounting docks, be very aware of the maximum 197mm space which includes any protruding cables. There are some nice rubber mounts on the bottom of the PSU area to take some of the vibration, if any from your PSU, however with so many hybrid mode designs where the fan barely spins, this is a bit of a non issue.

The bottom of the case gives us four rubber tipped plastic mounting feet and the PSU bay filter. The feet are approx 18mm high so do a pretty good job of lifting the bottom of the chassis away from any surface, although I would avoid thick carpet.

Pulling away the front panel from the bottom, which isn’t too stiff, we get access to the front HDD mounting trays, you can mount 2.5″ or 3.5″ drives in here so plenty of flexibility. The accessory box is squeezed in here which contains screws and cable ties for assembly. To the right of the drive bays we have a handy cutout for cables, this is for data and power cables for the drives at the front, bulky power cables might pose a problem, this is one instance where those flat power cables is a help. Above all that we have the framework for mounting fans and a radiator, so watercooling is quite possible in this case. I like how there is very easy access to each area of the case, this is going to make building a breeze.

Onto The Build

Starting with the power supply, you slide it in at an angle from the offside of the case, so you don’t have to remove anything bar the back panel. The unit I have is 150mm deep plus cables, I would definitely advise connecting any modular cables you need before sliding it into place.

Getting all my components into place and looking tidy was very easy, the cutouts while not surrounded by rubber grommets are not sharp and are very conveniently placed for pretty much any motherboard. This made for a great looking build.

Cable management was indeed very easy with this case, cable tie hooks and great placement of cutouts has enabled me to make one of my tidiest setups yet, even the stiff braided built in cables were well handled. I have seen much more expensive cases fare much worse with cable management options.

The rear motherboard mounts are very easy to use, again the inclusion of the second drop on bracket would have been much better. I have however decided to use the front bays so minimise the number of modular cables in use on the PSU.

Sitting in the front is just as easy whether you’re using 2.5″ or 3.5″ drives.

A quick power on and boot up to make sure everything is working fine, I chose red from the RGB button on top for the case stripe, Phanteks offer an adapter so you can use the RGB control on your motherboard, however this again is an extra. I almost feel like a vertical GPU mount option would have been neat, this may be an option for me to mod at a later date.

With the very reflective glass panel back in place, we have the build completed. The rear fan is very quiet indeed which is in keeping with the quality fans that Phanteks supply with all their products. I find the final appearance to be very pleasing to the eye.

Conclusion

So we’ve got to the end of the build, it’s time to sum up my experiences and thoughts on the Phanteks Eclipse P300 Case.

Performance & Quality

The materials used in this case are excellent, machining is accurate which gives us a sturdy chassis with no wobbling even before adding components. The paint job is of a very high quality and does not scratch easily. With plenty of options to create positive airflow it’s easy to create a build that will cool components very well, however you will have to add more fans for that to have any effect.

Design

We get a very understated look with just a hint of gamer features with the LED on the side and the illumination around the power switch but while those are RGB they are not overpowering and of course optional. The all black paintjob does give a blank canvas either to leave alone or theme and mod into something quite impressive. Internally we are provided with the whole chamber to play with unencumbered by any panels or protruding pieces. While the case can take full size ATX boards and even some E-ATX boards there are some design limitations for the size of the power supply and watercooling capabilities. The included cable management is a joy to use, little things like making the rear fan cable long to enable routing around the case and the pre-tied up channel at the front make sorting those cables out a breeze, even for an untidy person like me.

Value

At the time of writing the Phanteks Eclipse P300 sells for around £55 which I actually agree with, that is good value for the quality and design on offer. My main gripe with the case is the unnecessary withholding of the second SSD mounting bracket and the adapter for the RGB lighting to connecting it to a motherboard, this would not have increased the cost by any great amount in my view. There is of course loads of competition at this price point, its up against the likes of Corsair’s Spec 04 (TG) and Fractal Designs Focus-G.

Final Thoughts

Well what a case I have here, it’s just above low budget but offers some extremely high quality. While PSU space may be a little limited and Phanteks were a bit tight with the SSD Bracket and RGB adapter, there is quite a lot on offer here and it has been a pleasure to work with. The sturdy design, the great paint job, the big unhindered open space to build in, the excellent cable management and the overall understated design, the P300 gets a big thumbs up from me and the Empire.

Yes, he lives there now. So I am happy to award the Phanteks Eclipse P300 a Gold Award and a Design Award.

I would like to thank Phanteks for sending the Eclipse P300 in for review.