Water Cooling

Since the Phanteks chassis are known for their water-cooling accommodations, let’s take a look at a few potential cooling options in the EVOLV. While I don’t have a stand-alone pump and reservoir handy, a Swiftech H220 and Kraken G10 GPU cooling bracket should at least represent some common enthusiast water-cooling options. Those that want to build a full custom loop can already see the possibilities I’m sure, but those users will almost certainly have a specific configuration in mind. For the rest of us, the introduction of relatively inexpensive GPU brackets like the G10 from NZXT allow an intermediate step up to the world of water-cooled GPUs.

The reference cooler for AMD’s R9 290 GPU didn’t do any favors for the card, so NZXT’s Kraken G10 is a popular upgrade for many enthusiasts. The hoses for the Corsair H55 Quiet Edition AIO cooler that I’ve coupled with the G10 were long enough to reach the top fan mounting points but I didn’t want to snake the cooling lines over the CPU tower cooler.

Thankfully, I could easily borrow the top 120mm fan mounting point in front. I didn’t even need to remove the front 200mm fan! There wasn’t quite enough space to add the radiator and fan directly in front of the reference R9 290; I’m sure you could swap out the front 200mm fan or just place the radiator directly behind it (if you’re comfortable with the 200mm fan doing all of the GPU cooling).

It’s a bit unorthodox but I was pleasantly surprised how easily the EVOLV handled this configuration. A push/pull setup on the H55 radiator would get a little cramped (you’ll have to bend the main 24-pin ATX cable an uncomfortable amount), but it could be done.

The GPU gets its own filtered intake without really impeding any of the stock airflow from the 200mm fan. The front mesh filter blocks off this portion with a plastic insert; it simply snaps out for configurations like this.

Of course, the typical solution would be to add fans and radiators to the area above the motherboard. There’s more than enough space (the manual states about 68mm) up here for push/pull arrangements on normal radiators – even thicker radiators for that matter, depending on your motherboard.

While the Swiftech H220 isn’t terribly abnormal for a 240mm cooler, I’ve encountered a few issues with clearance in the past with it’s protruding reservoir and swiveling barbs – neither of which posed an issue for the Phanteks Enthoo-EVOLV. The slots up top allowed for extremely flexible arrangement, although space for push/pull arrangements on thick radiators could potentially cause an issue for tall RAM, depending on the motherboard of course. Still, this more than a reasonable amount of room for a micro-ATX tower.

With the Swiftech H220 installed, it’s easy to see there would be more than enough room for another set of fans; there’s still room to add the R9 290 with it’s own 120mm radiator and fan too. The EVOLV is one of the few mATX enclosures currently on the market that could accommodate two 240mm radiators, so with the right set of components it would be feasible to water-cool two GPUs and the CPU in this chassis. That’s pretty impressive, and should appeal to those that want a nice home for a high-performing and quiet gaming system.