Watercooling PC Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Itx

Watercooling PC Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Itx

ASUS MOTHERBOARD MAXIMUS VIII IMPACT

PROCESSOR I5-6600K

RAM DDR4 16GB 3000MHZ CORSAIR/ KINGSTON/ G-SKILL/ GIEL

SEAGATE HDD 2TB SATA 7200RPM

SAMSUNG SSD 250GB SATA 850 EVO

LG DVD R/W 24X SATA

VGA CARD GTX 960 4GB DDR5

POWER SUPPLY 600WATS 80 PLUS

EK WATERCOOLING FOR CPU AND GPU

LED LIGHTING FREE

The Evolv ITX was Phanteks’s first shot at a budget oriented case, up until the release of this case phanteks had only been making fully aluminium high end cases that all costed over £100. When Phanteks announced that their first mini ITX case would be a budget case, a lot of people were very disappointed. However this case is no disappointment and is probably one of the best enthusiast grade mini itx case on the market. It has next to no compatability issues which is not common for mini itx cases.

 

The case can house the highest tier of hardware whether you op for air cooling, an aio watercooler or a fully custom loop like myself. With regards to air cooling it can fit the biggest heatsinks on the market, including the noctua NH-D15 so no issues there. The evolv itx has mounting support for up to two 240mm radiators, one in the front and one in the top. Which is excellent for watercooling whether you go for an aio or a custom loop. I think the only comparable watercooling compatibility in the mini itx market is the caselabs XM2 which also supports two 240mm rads.

 

Moving on to the build quality, even though this case is a budget case from phanteks it seems to be better built than most other case manufacturers high end chassis. I would say the build quality of this case is actually better than the corsair 350d  which costs around twice the price. The case no longer follows the phanteks aluminium trend however its is mainly constructed of steel and not thin steel at that. The side panels are very thick and barely flex. The front panel is made of plastic, however the case does have a steel plate on the front for aesthetics. The feet are also made of plastic with nice rubber pads on the bottom.

Watercooling PC Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Itx

The case comes with a 200mm fan out of the box which is mounted as an intake fan, this is a very welcome sight considering the price of the case. Having a large fan is very useful for mini itx builds since the small size of the case can potentially lead to concentrated heat build up so having air moving through the entirety of the case makes this it very unlikely to happen.A single 200mm fan is not the best possible air intake though, and replacing it by two aftermarket 120mm is probably a good idea.

The case can fit pretty much any hardware, I have a 27mm radiator in the front of my case and I can still fit in my R9 295×2 which is one of the longest cards on the market. The mounting for the top radiator is offset towards the side panel window, this allows you to install any mini itx motherboard even the Asus Maximus line with its perpendicularly mounted power delivery that has its own PCB. The case can also fit any power supply, even the AX1500i and still have plenty of room to route the cables. For storage it supports out of the box two 3.5 inch drives and one 2.5 inch drive, or if you want to mount a pump you can remove the HDD cage that resides under the PSU shroud.

The cable management for this case is excellent, it has 2 large rubber grommets that are situated to the right of the motherboard, holes above the motherboard for fan connectors or your 8 pin CPU power. It also had a rubber grommet under the reservoir combo mounting plate that is perfect for hiding your PCI cables. Round the back of the case there is plenty of room behind the motherboard tray with even more room under the PSU shroud to tuck away cables.

The airflow for the case is decent however  with radiators it is a bit restrictive the front panel only allows airflow through the bottom and the sides and the top has some puny vents on the sides and a vent at the back. If I remove the top and front panel of the case I get a good 5-10 degrees lower on my components in the loop which is quite significant.

The front I/O is more or less standard with two USB 3.0 ports, a microphone and headphone jack, a reset switch (which isn’t that common anymore) and the power button which is on the top. The Reset switch has a LED ring around it that shows hard drive activity and towards the bottom of the front panel there is a white power LED.

Overall this case is probably one of the best mini ITX cases available on the market, the customization and different hardware and cooling options make it excellent for any type of builder. The cable management is on par with most mid tower cases and allows you to create a clean looking build. the watercooling options allow for a loop with the cooling surface area similar to what most people can fit in a mid tower. Although the case is a bit substantial for a mini ITX case it is still smaller than the likes of the Bitfenix Prodigy and this case can still fit any hardware you want in it whether it be cooling, expansion cards or your PSU, you won’t have any trouble fitting it in case.

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