Nzxt Phantom - Best cooling?

AgedIdiot

AgedIdiot

AgedIdiot

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Having used a Haf 932 for a year or two decided that I wanted a bit more 'bling' and a less intensive cleaning regime so have bought a Phantom.

It looks very nice and the build quality appears o'k.

I do like to run things cool so in addition to standard fans have bought a xigmatec 140mm fan (with white led) and a second 200mm fan.

Where is it best to fit the 2nd 200 fan - side or top? and exhaust or intake?

If anyone has tried the permutations would be very interested in their results/thoughts.

Am also thinking of getting a 3rd 200mm - so will have the full set ; again anyone done this already ; was their a big (or any ) improvement?

In addition to liking it cool I also demand quiet!! So any ideas as to noise levels would be appreciated.

(Am running a Q9650 @ 4ghz under a Prolimatech Meg (Push/pull apache) - graphics by a 470 - which I intend to quiet a little by fitting a Gelid cooler)
 
Top/Exhaust as heat rises.
Side fan/Intake.

NZXT Phantom is really good with cooling, build quality seems top notch too.
NZXT comes with rubber mounts for PSU to stop vibration. HDD anti-vibration is included too. I think the 470 is going to make the most noise to be honest, but you're going to stick another cooler on it so....
 
My experience

Spent a day sorting out build - cable management is easy - the build looks very neat & airflow (front to back/top is good). No cuts & ,in summary, no problems!

Decided to remove the smaller of the 2 HD trays/holders as I do not have that many hard drives .

Tried with standard (as it comes) cooling - ok but decided I wanted a little more.:-

1) Put in 140mm at front to pull air in - the reviews I read did say that such would drop temps generally 2-3c it did :) BUT the noise level was unacceptable on anything other than minimum and it created what I can best describe as a turbulance/vibration noise (was not sure at the time what was causing this but as it was cured by moving the fan(see below) assume that this was the culprit).

2) Tried fitting, a second, nzxt 200m fan to the side - NO joy - will not fit with a Prolimatech Megahelams cooling the cpu . - Was a little disapointed but having looked at where the fan sits it appears to be more of an additional cooler for the cpu rather than cooling the Gpu (which is what I really want it to do).
Thought that answer could be to buy a lower cpu cooler but I do like the Prolimatech and given the position of the fan ........

3) Then tried the 200mm fan in the top rear slot - sucking in. - Not a good idea increased temps all round:(

4) Tried the 200mm -top rear + exhaust. - Better than sucking in but not much better, if any , than not installed at all.

Having decided that the rear top fan was not giving any advantage , turned it off and ran for a week with 2 x 120 @ side sucking in + 1 x 140 @ front sucking in and 1 x200 at top + 1 x 120 at rear sucking out.
Temps ok but only livable fan speed is slowest and even then getting some turbulance/vibration noise.

The main noise problem appeared to be coming from the 140mm fan and having given the matter a little thought came up withe thought of replacing it with a 120mm fan
AND placing the now spare 140mm at an angle in the place where the hd cage was so that it would blow additional cool air into the case and , being directed towards it , cool the graphics card.
AND to balance the extra air coming in turn back on the rear 200mm fan as an exhaust fan.

Found fitting the 140mm fan straightforward using cable ties to hold and vinyl door buffers (16 for 79p) to cushion, although a little time consuming. Did also add filters to the floor air vents to avoid sucking in loads of dust.

Having fitted as mentioned started her up at lowest fan setting to find that it's very nearly silent , the turbulance/vibration has gone and the cooling is as good if not a little better than the Haf 932 I was using :D

Worth a £100 - No- until you factor in the fun I've had and the facts that :-

1. It's better looking than the Haf (imo!)
2. It probably runs a bit quieter - Have no ability to measure the noise levels so cannot say that it is measurably quieter but it sounds it to my ears!
3. It cools as well as the Haf - given the improvement is no more than 1-2 c do not think I can say with certainty that it's better.
4. I will NOT have to clean the whole thing every 2 weeks or so !! ( the Haf was costing me £4-£5 every couple of months in Air Dusters.)

Overall very pleased with my new case :D:D - would be happy to recommend , once you get the airflow right.:)

I hope others may find the above imfo. of use :)

N.B. Am running a 470 with standrad cooler at the moment although the intention is to fit the Zalman vf3000 so may find that some re-adjustment is needed.
 
Would be better to at the top as heat rises!

A family friend of mine has a phantom and when i have been round it sounds great and looks great. I know that isn't a critical analysis or anything but when he showed me the inside it had plenty of space in there too. The fan controller on it is a really nice touch!
 
Asked this in another thread, but I'm planning on possibly getting one of these and modding it... If possible... could you do a quick test of something for me? I want to know how much effect the side 200m fan actually has... Obviously it doesn't fit in yours, but if it's not too much to ask could you possibly try a different cpu cooler (if you have one lying around) and test temps without the side fan and with the side fan and see what difference you find?

Thanks
kd
 
I have this case, have a 140 mm fan pulling in air in front, 1X140 on side, got 2x120 on push-pull with H50, and then I have 1x200mm on top as exhaust.

PC is clocked to 3.6 on i7


On idle my cores are roughly 33 to 36 (Taken from RT 360)

From eVGA E-ELLET Tuning Utility

it has:

Thrum 21
CPU 21
VREG 47 - 49
System 47

And the case is very silent so not sure what the guy above me had a problem with the noisy front fan issue as mine is fine (all fans at 100% all the time)

Card wise have a GTX 460 idles at 31 to 33

and a eVGA 8800 gts which sits at 70 (think its because its right above PSU, need to have a look at that just waiting on more fans :D)

with all that in the PC sitting right above it I can barely hear it I need to actually listen to hear any sound from it.

Build quality is very good, I would not say great, think steel cases can never really be great

Fan controller work to a certain degree, but not really worth the effort of using.

I would definitely recommend this case if only just for the size, its a full tower but they have not gone up so much as to make the case wider, fitting GFX cards are a cinch you just have so much space.

added

Cable management is so easy, you would struggle to make this case untidy :D
 
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