Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX Case Review

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Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX Case Review
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By David Ramsey

Manufacturer: Phanteks
Product Name: Enthoo Evolv ITX
Model Number: PH-ES215PC_BK
UPC: 886523300434
Price As Tested: $79.99 MSRP

Full Disclosure: Phanteks provided the product sample used in this article.

As more enthusiasts realize that they don’t need the expansion capabilities of standard ATX motherboards, mATX and mini-ITX systems are exploding in popularity, and we’re seeing some real innovation in small systems case design. Today we have Phanteks’ latest, the Enthoo Evolv ITX case. This case has excellent air flow, a very versatile design, and is perfect for those who want to water-cool their systems: it can accommodate a 240mm radiator and even comes with a bracket for a separate water pump if you want to roll your own. Long graphics cards are no problem, either, and integrated cable management features make a clean build easy. Of course the real proof is building a system in this case, and that’s exactly what Benchmark Reviews will do.

Features & Specifications

Materials	Steel, plastic
Dimensions (W,H,D)	230 x 375 x 395mm
Motherboard Sizes	mini-ITX
3.5″ bays	x3
2.5″ bays	x4 (shared w/3 3.5″ bays, 1 dedicated 2.5″)
Included Fans	200mm front fan
Liquid Cooling	240mm radiator top 120/140mm radiator rear
Graphics Card Clearance	330mm
Air Cooler Clearance	200mm
I/O	USB 3.0 x 2, microphone, headphone
Power Supply	PS/2 ATX
Weight	12 pounds

Let’s unbox this case and take a look at the exterior in the next section.

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Enthoo Evolv ITX Exterior
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On the Phanteks web site, the Enthoo Evolv ITX is touted as having a “full aluminum exterior”, but this appears to be a “cut and paste” error from the larger Enthoo Evolv, which is an all-aluminum case. As far as I can tell, the Evolv ITX is all steel and plastic. This is not a bad thing, though, as the weight savings of aluminum are less significant for a small case like this, and the steel seems to be pretty high quality stuff.

The exterior design of the case is plain: aside from the windowed side of the case, there’s not much to call your attention to. The opposite side is a plain black panel as you can see above. Both side panels are secured with thumb screws. The subtle white strip at the bottom of the front panel is actually the power light.

At the top of the case is the power button, separated from the rest of the ports. In the front are two USB 3.0 ports, microphone and headphone ports, and a very subtle reset button.

The bottom of the case has a slide-out filter for the power supply intake, and is thankfully equipped with real rubber feet, rather than the slippery plastic feet so many cases these days seem to be gravitating towards.

At the rear of the case we see the cutout for the motherboard I/O panel, two ventilated card slot covers, and the opening for the power supply. There are no water cooling hose pass-throughs, though.

The front panel pops off to reveal the filtered 200mm intake fan, the only fan included with the chassis. At the bottom right corner of the fan you can see the power LED, which shines into a light pipe to illuminate the strip on the front panel. The filter is easily removed for cleaning using the handle you can see just below the front panel ports. You can remove this 200mm fan and replace it with two 120mm fans if you wish. As is the style these days, there are no 5.25″ drive bays.

Our review sample did not include the expected bag of screws and fasteners, which we assume was an error on Phanteks’ part. It did however include a rubber-isolated water pump bracket…

…as well as a separate bracket for an additional 2.5″ or 3.5″ drive.

Let’s take a look inside this case in the next section…

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Closer Look: Interior
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The exterior may be plain-looking, but the Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX interior has some surprises in store. The first is the shrouded power supply area, and the next is the removable drive bracket support– labelled “PHANTEKS”– at the front of the case. The separate drive bracket in the previous section fits on top of this if you use it.

On the other side of the case we can see a 2.5″ drive mount at the upper left, cables secured with two captive reusable cable wraps, and two slide-out 3.5″ drive trays at the bottom left. If you don’t need these drive trays, you can remove them as well as their guide rails, which opens up that space for the water pump bracket.

The power supply is installed immediately to the right of the drive trays, and a large backplate cutout occupies most of the motherboard tray. There is essentially no space for cables behind the motherboard tray, but you don’t really need it. Most of your cables will route along a path similar to the one used by the case cables as seen here.

With the drive bracket support removed, the interior of the Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX is wide open. The only thing that’s not readily visible in this image is the slide-out radiator bracket at the top of the case, but we’ll get to that during the build.

The slide-out drive trays are tool-less…as long as you’re using 3.5″ drives. The trays can accommodate 2.5″ hard drives or SSDs, but you’ve have to secure those with screws.

The aforementioned slide-out radiator bracket is secured with four screws, which are bright metal so they’ll stand out from the black screws used elsewhere in the system.

Let’s build a system in this case and see how well it works.

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Building a System
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Phanteks touts this case as being well-suited for water cooling, so I’ll build a water-cooled system. The cooler I have laying around is from an old HP Blackbird, and was custom-built for that application. Despite its circa-2008 age, it’s a standard pump-water block combo with a 240mm radiator. Below is a picture of the radiator attached to the slide-out bracket. The bracket accommodates both 2×120 and 2x140mm radiators.

The radiator and fans will block your access to part of the motherboard, so you should install it first. With the motherboard installed, the radiator bracket slides in. With the fans blowing upwards in this configuration, air will exhaust out the four vents on either side of the top panel.

This Gigabyte Z77-N motherboard has the power and SATA connectors along one side, rather than in the front. This makes the wiring a little more problematic, but it’s still doable. Even with a full-sized NVIDIA GTX580 video card in place, there’s plenty of open space inside the case.

It’s not obvious from the previous image, but there’s a couple of inches of space between the back of the radiator and the motherboard tray if you’re using a 2x120mm radiator, giving you another space to run cables if you need to. Most of this extra space would be gone with a 2x140mm radiator.

If you’re using the slide-out drive trays and their cage, you’ll have less than two inches of space for the cables of this 150mm-sized ATX power supply. Since you must install the power supply from the side, rather than slide it in from the back, you’ll want to pre-attach all the cables you’ll need if you’re using a modular power supply. An SFX power supply would give you more room to work with.

Still, a surprisingly neat build, all things considered. “Panel bulge” was not a problem as the rear panel easily slipped into place. Phanteks’ included cable ties came in handy!

Even with a water cooling system and a full-length graphics card, there’s room for up to four drives (one of which must be a 2.5″ drive). This is pretty good space for an mITX system (of course this is a fairly large case for an mITX system, too…)

So, what do I think of this case overall?

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Mini-ITX Case Final Thoughts
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Phanteks’ nomenclature notwithstanding, this is a mini-ITX case; there is no such thing as an “ITX case”. That said, the Enthoo Evolv ITX is an impressive effort in the field. I’ve noticed as mini-ITX systems become more popular, cases are “evolving”, becoming somewhat larger than they were originally, but offering the user many more options. Corsair’s 250D is a good example of an “enlarged” mITX case with enough room for real water cooling and a decent number of drives, and the Enthoo Evolv ITX follows in this new tradition.

One thing I really like about this case is that there are virtually no rivets: even the top panel is removable, although only modders would have any reason to do so. And although my test build used only a single drive, I could have added up to three more, including the one I could put on the removable bracket at the front of the case:

Note how this bracket not only easily clears the video card, it covers the cables at the end of the card. Now that’s a nice bit of design, and it makes me wish that Western Digital still made those clear-topped Raptor drives they had some years back, as this would be an excellent display opportunity for them.

The only functional complaint I have about the case is the difficulty of working with a standard sized power supply. Changing the design to allow the power supply to slide in from the rear would help a lot here (or as I mentioned earlier you could simply use an SFX form factor power supply). And perhaps Phanteks could spice up the exterior styling a bit, since the case comes off as a little plain, especially in black. I suppose I could gripe about the lack of any support for an optical drive, but really, in 2015, it’s obvious those are on the way out.

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Enthoo Evolv ITX Conclusion
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Phanteks notes that the Enthoo Evolv ITX, the smallest of the seven cases in the Enthoo line, is a “budget-oriented chassis”, and the low MSRP backs that up. However, I’ve reviewed a lot of cases, and I never felt as though the Enthoo Evolv ITX was cheap or designed down to a price; I’ve worked with real “budget chassis” cases, and this isn’t one of them.

Designed for the enthusiast, the Enthoo Evolv ITX strikes an almost perfect balance among the competing virtues of size, features, and cost; and the water-cooling and drive storage options really make this case stand out. I’d recommend it for anyone looking to build an enthusiast-class mini-ITX system.

I’ve reviewed a number of mini-ITX cases over the years, and the Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX is my new standard for the class. At $79.99 MSRP, you really can’t go wrong.

Pros:

+ Dust filters on all intakes
+ Innovative design allows multiple build options
+ Space for four drives, water cooling, and large graphics cards
+ Easy to build in

Cons:

– Power supply mounting space tight for ATX supplies
– Minimal documentation
– Somewhat plain external appearance

Ratings:

• Performance: 9.50
• Appearance: 7.75
• Construction: 9.25
• Functionality: 9.75
• Value: 9.50

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Final Score: 9.15 out of 10.
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Excellence Achievement: Benchmark Reviews Golden Tachometer Award.