Putting this system together from start to finish has been a lot of fun and allowed us to showcase several different products from multiple manufacturers.
Starting with the Phantom chassis, NZXT got a lot of things right with this one. I really like the toolless drive rails, multiple cooling options, integrated fan controller, fully painted chassis and especially the attention to detail in terms of cable management. There's plenty of room inside for most hardware configurations, including up to seven hard drives / SSDs. Water cooling users will appreciate the removable hard drive cage and multiple tubing holes at the rear of the case.
Despite the multiple fan ports, I think the cooling in this case could be a little better. The optional front intake fan hole is very restrictive and the side intake fans are a bit restrictive due to the mesh side panel and dust filters. This combination restricts airflow and makes the fans a bit louder too. Removing the dust filters would help, but then of course you will be introducing more contaminants inside your computer.
The fan controller is perhaps the saving grace here, as you can set all of the fans to low when you are not gaming / otherwise stressing the hardware.
My only other concern is with the paint. While it looks great, I'm not so sure how durable it is. I accidentally scratched some paint off the back of the motherboard while routing cables.
Regarding the hardware used in the system, I think any gamer / performance enthusiast would be happy to own this system. The ASUS P6X58D-E is a solid motherboard with a long list of useful features. The 940 is a lower end i7 CPU but when overclocked, it can hang with some of the more expensive CPUs currently available, except Gulftown of course.
As we noted in our independent review, the 12GB OCZ Flex memory kit is likely overkill for most users, but we had it on hand still and decided to toss it into the build. Combined with their RevoDrive PCIe SSD, this system should be able to crunch through Photoshop / video editing work with ease. I can't stress enough how important a solid state drive is when used as an operating system drive. I'd take a SSD upgrade over a high end CPU upgrade any day of the week, and twice on Sunday.
For our mass storage needs, the Western Digital 2TB Caviar Black drive worked great. I installed all of the games and benchmark software on this drive and didn't have any issues with it as a slave drive. Benchmark numbers showed a very speedy spinning drive. With traditional hard drives at an all-time low price, now is the best time to pick up a large storage drive should you want to make a backup of your data or replace a few smaller capacity drives in your system.
The Zalman ZM850-HP Plus had no problems supplying all of the power we needed for this build. The 140mm cooling fan and dual heatpipes should keep the unit running nice and cool. The modular cables all worked well and I had no complaints with the entire unit. Do note that the PSU is a little longer than the "average" power supply, so you may need to plan accordingly if you are installing it in a chassis with limited real estate.
In terms of graphics, Zotac has certainly delivered with their AMP! Ediiton GTX 480. The key component here is the aftermarket Zalman cooler which replaces the stock reference cooler. Not only does the Zalman perform much better, it's also a lot quieter than the stock option. This allows Zotac to factory overclock the card and still maintain excellent temperatures at acceptable noise levels. Do note that the card with cooler is pretty large and will take up two extra slots on your motherboard. Also note that the Zalman cooler will dump the warm heat from the card directly inside the system rather than routing it outside of the case like a stock cooler would.
The SilenX EFZ-120HA4 CPU cooler is a nice tower-style sink that performs admirably given its price point. My only complaint here is the fan mounting which seems to be a bit of an afterthought. Hopefully the fan will stay in place for the long run and won't cause any issues.
Similarly, SilenX's 120mm Blue LED fans worked great for our application. Each fan is rated at 14 dBA @ 72 CFM and use Fluid Dynamic Bearings. In addition to the blue seen here, you can also pick up these fans in green or red. The LEDs in each fan are not overly bright so they won't blind you. I also noticed that the LEDs are in the center of the fan, not on the outside of the casing like all of the others I have seen.
I likely would have went with red fans instead of blue, but I didn't want them to clash with the blue LED 200mm fan in the top of the case and I was unaware at the time that you could turn those LEDs off. If you are looking to add a little color to your case and cut down further on fan noise, these clear fans are certainly worth a look.
Hopefully our gaming / performance PC build has given you some insight on what to look for when putting together such a system. Thanks again to Acoustic PC, NZXT, Zalman, Western Digital, Zotac and SilenX for supplying products for this article.
