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Thoughts on Phanteks’ Enthoo Luxe PC case.
Well a few weeks back I broke my leg while visiting my daughter in N.Y. for her baby shower. With that, I’m back at home now and stuck in the house since I have to wear a cast for another 8 weeks.
Anyway since I’m bored I thought I’d post my new, and old systems here for show. Was going to post this review elsewhere, but decided to post here…
Nice case but It couldn’t replace my HAF X
I originally bought the Phanteks Enthoo Luxe to go with my new Skylake build, but after seeing how low it sat on my carpeted floor, and given the tight space it needed to fit in, I became a concern. Unfortunately, on the test run of pushing and pulling the case in and out of its designated spot revealed how easily the rubber feet on the bottom can be pulled off by the friction of dragging the case across the carpeted floor. And this was when the case was empty!
For this very reason it couldn’t replace my Cooler Master Case, which comes with small castor wheels that 1) allows for easy maneuver in tight places, and 2) raises the case off the floor about an inch.
I also feel like the HAF X case is more tolerant of air cooling as it has more open vents in the front than the Luxe. Even the drive bay front plates are vented, whereas on the Luxe they are solid sheet metal.
And where the front grill on the HAF X is fully vented without need to remove any covers, you’ll need to remove the Luxe’s removable metal cover that blocks most of the front fan vents. Unfortunately doing this reveals 4 screw studs sticking out in the front of the fan vent making for an unsightly view.
With that, in my opinion, the HAF X seems more suitable to air cooling, especially in tight spaces, whereas the luxe is more suitable to water cooling. That said, the Enthoo Luxe is well vented for air cooling, just not as vented as the HAF-X.
All that said, I was going to return the case, but instead decided to keep it for my backup system since my aging Antec P182 case was getting cramped and breaking down. Plus, the P182 couldn’t handle my Corsair 240mm AIO CPU cooler, so the Phanteks turned out to be a perfect replacement to the P182 housing my backup system which now comprises of…
- Phanteks Enthoo Luxe
- Gigabyte G1 Sniper 5
- Intel i7-4790K
- 32gig Corsair Dominator Platinum RAM (1866MHz)
- Corsair AIO CPU cooler – H100i
- Samsung 840 Pro 256gig (Windows 10 Pro x64 OS drive)
- OCZ Vertex 4 (256gig) SSD (data)
- Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB drive (Games/data)
- Sapphire R9-280X Vapor X
- Onboard soundcard – Creative Sound Core 3D
- Lite-On DVD drive
- EVGA Super Nova I000 G2 (1000 watt) PS
- Windows 10 Pro x64
The Phanteks Enthoo Luxe is certainly a beautiful case; much better looking than Cooler Master’s HAF X. The Luxe comes in both black, and white, but I chose black, and Its brushed aluminum is certainly a beauty to look at…. as long as you keep it whipped down from fingerprints as it’s definitely a fingerprint magnet. Still it’s one beautiful looking case. The built-in wire management is excellent and makes for a nice clean looking setup...
Likes….
- Style
- Case is highly customizable – removable bays, braces, and other items.
- Excellent wire Management capabilities – Velcro tie straps
- Exterior light strip along the sides of the case (top & front)
- Removable Filters – Top, bottom, front
- Various fan choices & location options
- Built in central PVM fan hub
- Removable hard drive bays (to allow for unencumbered front fan air flow)
- Backside SSD locations without need of drive bay
- Added accessories – screw box with additional screws. Water pump/reservoir bracket.
Dislikes
- No wheels
- Air Management – not enough open vents
- Rubberized sticky pads which can easily come off if case is dragged across floor/carpet
- The removable front vent panel reveals 4 raised screw studs, killing aesthetics
- Non-ventilated power supply cover (Really???)
- Thin sheet metal material
- Stock fans are loud!
At the end of the day, this is still an excellent case, especially for what you get in under $150 bucks. It’s highly customizable, even in fans and locations, come with a central fan hub, and has exceptional looks. But for location of my main rig, this would house my main system. Well worth getting one of these.
So now I present my new Skylake system housed in my HAF X case….
- Cooler Master HAF X case
- Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming GT MB (BIOS F7b)
- Intel i7-6700K
- 32gig Corsair Dominator Platinum RAM (3333MHz)
- Corsair AIO CPU cooler – H115i
- Samsung 950 Pro 512gig NVME SSD Card (Windows 10 Pro x64 OS drive)
- Samsung 850 Pro 512gig SSD (data)
- Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB drive (Games/data)
- Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB drive (removable – backups)
- Sapphire Tri-X R9 Fury GPU
- SoundBlaster ZXR Soundcard
- LG Blu-Ray disk recorder/player
- EVGA Super Nova I000 P2 (1000 watt) PS
- Windows 10 Pro x64
Case comparisons....
Peace