Review: NZXT Phantom 410

by Parm Mann on 1 December 2011, 16:00 4.0

Tags: NZXT

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Specification and test methodology

NZXT Phantom 410 specification

Material Steel structure with plastic accents
Colour(s) Black / White / Red
Motherboard Support Mini-ITX, microATX, ATX
Drive Bays External 5.25in x 3
Internal 3.5in / 2.5in x 6
Included Cooling Front 2 x 120mm or 1 x 140mm (1 x 120mm included)
Rear 1 x 120mm (included)
Top 2 x 120/140mm (1 x 140mm included)
Side 1 x 120mm or 1 x 140mm
Expansion Slots 7
Front I/O Port USB 3.0 x 2 (backwards compatible with USB 2.0) 
USB 2.0 x 2
Audio x 1 
Mic x 1
Fan-speed controller
GPU clearance 305mm (max)
CPU clearance 170mm (max)
Power Supply ATX (not included)
Net Weight 9kg
Dimension 215mm (W) x 516mm (H) x 532mm (D)

Test System Configuration

Motherboard ASUS P6X58D
CPU Intel Core i7 980X Extreme Edition (with reference DBX-B cooler)
Memory 6GB (3 x 2GB) Corsair Dominator DDR3
Graphics card AMD Radeon HD 6970
Power supply Corsair HX1050W
Storage Intel SSD

To find out how well NZXT's Phantom 410 chassis can cool, we've loaded it up with an X58 test platform and run a series of CPU and GPU benchmarks for comparison against a variety of mid-tower alternatives.

Firstly, CPU cooling performance is measured by setting fan speed to low and recording CPU temperature when the system is idle. We then apply a 15-minute load of the Prime95 stress test and record CPU temperature again. To demonstrate the chassis' optimum cooling capability, we also set all fans - including the CPU cooler - to high speed mode and re-run the Prime95 torture test for a further 15 minutes.

Secondly, GPU temperature is also recorded in three states; idle, load with fans at standard speed and load with fans at high speed. In this test, GPU load is defined as a 15-minute stint of Furmark.

All chassis are tested only with the standard manufacturer-supplied fans, and to take into account the fluctuating ambient temperature, our graphs depict the delta temperature - that's actual CPU/GPU temperature minus the ambient. Just so we're clear, room temperature at the start of testing was recorded for each chassis as follows:

Antec LanBoy Air - 18.1ºC
Antec SOLO II - 18.5ºC
Cooler Master Silencio 550 - 23.9ºC
Corsair Carbide Series 400R - 24.6ºC
Corsair Carbide Series 500R - 18.9ºC
Corsair Obsidian Series 650D - 21.4ºC
NZXT Phantom 410 - 19.4ºC
Corsair SE Graphite Series 600T - 20.2ºC
Fractal Design Core 3000 - 20.9ºC
NZXT Tempest 410 Elite - 22.7ºC