Working with the Phantom 410
The mid-tower Phantom is appealing in many ways - the price is right, the feature list is long, and the aesthetics are quirky.
But while there's a lot to like, there are areas in which the chassis feels cheaper than some of the premium competitors on the market. The plastic surrounds, for example, don't feel particularly strong and we wince each time we remove the front or top panels in fear of breaking a latch or two. Speaking of latches, the push-to-open front door used to hide the three optical drive bays is also plastic and feels fragile and awkward to open.
Similarly, the plastic hard-disk trays don't give an impression of strength, and the PSU fan filter, well, that's just a bit of mesh stuck to the bottom of the chassis. In fact, there are no easily-removable dust filters, and, though the body is steel, the material isn't thick enough to feel as rigid as it perhaps should. You could of course pay double for top-notch build quality elsewhere, but there are no major shortcomings here, and we'd be inclined to pocket the change and put it toward other components.
Build quality, then, is good enough, and NZXT has paid attention to the features that make a chassis easier to work with. The three optical bays are tool-free, the six storage bays all slide out to the side for easy access, there's a good-sized cutout in the motherboard tray for CPU cooler installation, and enough cable-routing holes to facilitate a clean-looking build.
What's useful is that the six storage bays are split across four- and two-bay cages and offer a few customisation options. The four-bay cage can accommodate a 120mm/140mm on its inside edge, and the fan can be angled to help direct airflow diagonally through the chassis. Or, if you don't need the extra bays or airflow, the cage can be pulled out completely, leaving a clear route for the front intake fans and more room for extra-long graphics cards.
A good layout and sufficient room makes it easy to put a good-looking PC together. Our X58 test platform went in quickly, and the 25mm of space between the motherboard tray and side panel left plenty of room for excess cabling. But the process wasn't without a few niggles; the rubber grommets on three of the cable-routing holes came off repeatedly, and the hole at the top of the motherboard tray for the CPU power connector is very tight.
Our criticisms are minor, as the Phantom 410, for the most part, is very pleasant to build into.