Phanteks Enthoo Primo Case Review
by Dustin Sklavos on August 10, 2013 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Water Cooling
- Phanteks
Phanteks gives the Enthoo Primo a unique advantage by allowing the motherboard's 4-pin PWM fan control to split off and control all the 3-pin fans in the enclosure (provided the motherboard itself can supply enough power to all of those fans); if you've been reading me for a while you know I'm a big advocate of fan control, and I'm very fond of this particular solution. It's a simple and fine-grained alternative.
The Enthoo Primo was tested at an ambient temperature of about 23C. The bay area has been unusually cool for these summer months, so I'm fairly certain we're going to have a punishingly hot Indian Summer soon.
The unique cooling design of the Enthoo Primo benefits from the bottom intake fan, but it's difficult for air from that intake, or from the front intakes, to make the journey to the CPU heatsink. You'll see this is a recurring theme with the Enthoo Primo; CPU cooling performance has been sacrificed for better GPU thermals.
Noise levels are outstanding for a case that has no acoustic padding. The split-PWM fan control definitely gets the job done.
Overclock the components, though, and the tradeoff becomes more pronounced. You get great GPU thermal performance, but the CPU suffers. This is a case that would probably benefit tremendously from a 280mm closed loop cooler mounted to the top as an intake. That in mind, I'm disinclined to ding Phanteks too much for their performance here.
Once again the Phanteks Enthoo Primo posts exemplary acoustic performance. Incredibly quiet at idle, reasonably quiet under load.
Full fat thermal testing continues to be unkind to the CPU, while the rest of the case's performance is still fairly competitive. The bottom GPU is going to get the lion's share of the cooling performance owing to the bottom intake.
Again, though, check out those noise levels. The Enthoo Primo is among the quietest cases we've tested when built to bear with the full fat testbed.
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Bazooo - Saturday, August 10, 2013 - link
Great Justin. I can't believe you were already working on it when I wrote to you last week. Thanks a lot!nleksan - Saturday, August 10, 2013 - link
I have been waiting for a review of this case since the day it was announced. In fact, I've been holding off buying a customized CL TH10 specifically because I just love the innovative design of this new case!Honestly, I think this is perfect for users like myself who have outgrown their Switch 810 or similar case, but don't have the need for 4 or more 560 rads just yet. Price is right, and I see this very possibly (and rightfully) taking a lot of attention away from the (recycled/boring/overpriced/low-quality) Corsair 900D.
Too bad about the res mount, but that's what modding is for!
f0d - Saturday, August 10, 2013 - link
900D low quality? thats the first time i have ever heard that, its much higher quality than any other case i have ever seenits a fantanstic case - a little expensive maybe but it looks AWESOME and worth every cent i payed for it
f0d - Saturday, August 10, 2013 - link
while i like the CL cases also they are WAY too expensive in australia, i think the CHEAPEST one shipped is $800 (nobody sells them here - have to import your own) which is twice the price of a 900DInsanity133 - Friday, November 29, 2013 - link
Same here in New Zealand.KurtToni - Monday, August 12, 2013 - link
Love my job, since I've been bringing in $82h… I sit at home, music playing while I work in front of my new iMac that I got now that I'm making it online. (Home more information)http://goo.gl/mtEmF6
JohnVonWar - Saturday, May 28, 2016 - link
In comparison to a CL(CaseLabs) case, yes—any case made by Corsair is much, much lower quality. Caselabs makes very good, very customizable cases. Generally they require some additional aftermarket parts to truly shine, but the construction is unparalleled by nearly anyone except Thermaltake, who literally copied CaseLabs' designs...and maybe Inwin and a couple of others, but generally with a little more bang for buck. Very high buck though...they're expensive as hell.hero1 - Sunday, August 11, 2013 - link
You sir are just like me and I am going to grab this case as soon as it reaches Canadian shores and shove my system into it, that will be IB-E when it comes out with GTX 780 in SLIPyrokinetic - Saturday, August 10, 2013 - link
I love a large case, and while I like the Corsair 800D, I was not completely sold on it. This case though, is fabulous. Not too huge (Corsair 900D) and has a classic look with just a touch of style. Build quality looks great. I think I have finally found a case to replace my modded Cooler Master Stacker 810.techxx - Saturday, August 10, 2013 - link
Be nice to see more mini-ITX case reviews. Full ATX accounts for less than 5% of the tech enthusiast community now.