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http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware ... -evolv-atx-review/4
Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV ATX ReviewManufacturer: [color=rgb(68, 102, 153) !important]Phanteks
UK price (as reviewed): MSRP £139.99
US price (as reviewed): MSRP TBC
It's fair to say that a lot of cases come through the bit-tech labs, so when something comes by that catches everyone's attention and results in a lot of ooh-ing and ah-ing, you know you're dealing with something special. That was precisely the reaction to the Enthoo EVOLV ATX, the latest case from Phanteks which is launching today to coincide with the start of Computex 2015.
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The original [color=rgb(68, 102, 153) !important]EVOLV catered for micro-ATX users and was a lovely premium case. Next came the [color=rgb(68, 102, 153) !important]EVOLV ITX, which, while still being a good case, targeted mainstream users with a fairly standard construction comprising relatively thin steel and some plastic. As such, when we heard the company would also be releasing an ATX version, we were unsure, which route it would go. Thankfully, it's the former; with its 3mm thick aluminium panels the EVOLV ATX is a seriously sturdy unit, yet is still relatively lightweight. It also looks awesome, at least in our humble opinion. Phanteks has equipped us with the anthracite grey version. This can be a tricky colour to get right, but the finish and quality of the metal shine through – it certainly has at least an air of Apple about it. If it's not for you, however, it also comes in black.
A metal cover at the top of the front panel flips up to reveal the I/O panel, and protects and hides it when not in use. This is complemented by a large, solo power button on the roof that has a satisfying action. There's also a small horizontal strip at the bottom of the front panel which lights up thanks to the LED installed behind it. This is white by default, but Phanteks also supplies red, green and blue replacement LEDs, which is a nice touch.
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The front panel pulls off cleanly to reveal a full cover dust filter, which is a cinch to remove as well. The panel has holes around it for air intake, and with with dual 140mm fans intake mounted here and a rear 140mm exhaust as well, the EVOLV ATX should shift a fair bit of air, even with the solid front fascia.
The left panel is fitted with a huge window, while the right side is simply a huge slab of flat aluminium. The same is true of the roof, except for some very small vents for air to be exhausted through should you install fans or a water-cooling set-up here. Still, airflow here will be very restricted; as the roof panel is removable (albeit using screws), it would be good to see Phanteks offer a replacement version with pre-cut fan mounts and vents for those who want more ventilation at the cost of the clean looks.
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The case is well ventilated in the rear panel, and includes height adjustable mounting struts for the exhaust fan as well as reservoir mounting points. Finally, the bottom includes a pull out plastic dust filter that's easy to replace, as well as a set of rubber feet.
Specifications- Dimensions (mm) 235 x 510 x 495 (W x D x H)
- Material Aluminium, Steel
- Available colours Black, anthracite
- Front panel Power, reset, 2 x USB 3, stereo, microphone
- Drive bays 3 x internal 3.5in/2.5in, 2 x internal 2.5in
- Form factor(s) ATX, Micro-ATX, mini-ITX
- Cooling 2 x 140mm or 3 x 120mm front fan mounts (2 x 140mm fans included), 1 x 140mm/120mm rear fan mount (140mm fan included), 2 x 140mm or 3 x 120mm roof fan mounts (fans not included)
- CPU cooler clearance 194mm
- Maximum graphics card length 420mm (300mm with HDD brackets)
- Extras Removable dust filters, Velcro cable ties, PWM fan hub, pump bracket, quick release panels, retractable top radiator bracket, reservoir mounting points, replacement power LEDs
- InteriorThe side panels simply open up like doors from the front – it couldn't be easier to gain access to the case, and they also lift off of their hinges in case you want them out of the way completely. We did experience a very minor alignment issue on one of the panels when closing it, but it was easy to overcome. There's padding where the side doors meet the case so there's no need to worry about the metal vibrating against itself.
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Inside there's a full-length PSU cover which keeps everything looking very neat and clean from the outside. The steel interior is well machined and nicely painted too. You'll also notice just how open it is; the EVOLV ATX has no optical drive mounts at all, and in its default state has no HDD mounts or cages in the main section, leaving you with heaps of room for the longest of graphics cards.
The motherboard tray is indented slightly and includes pre-installed mounts. The usual finishing touches are there too – the large CPU area cutout, PCI bracket thumbscrews, and padding for the PSU to rest on. The PSU cover is also ventilated, allowing graphics cards to draw air in from the lower section as well as the main one.
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At the front of that lower section is a removable HDD cage that houses a pair of 3.5in/2.5in drive trays, with tool-free, anti-vibration mounting offered for 3.5in devices via the mounting arms. Just behind the cage on the chassis floor is a set of four rubber grommets, which you can use to install an extra drive tray (sold separately). Likewise, there's a similar set-up on the outside of the PSU cover just next to the left side panel.
Continuing with drive placement, there are two of the nifty Drop-N-Lock SSD brackets behind the motherboard tray. Finally, there are three further 3.5in/2.5in brackets bundled with the case, though these have a different design to the ones in the HDD cage. For starters, they're made of metal, and installing either size drive will require screws. They are installed in the main cavity up front, and simply hook onto the extended motherboard tray; you can then secure them properly with thumbscrews. There are five potential mounting points, and Phanteks will sell extra trays separately in case you want to install even more hard drives. Each position has a removable plastic blanking plate too, through which the power and data cables are fed. Overall, it's a neat, modular design that adds nicely to the case's flexibility.
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Cable routing is something you can always rely on Phanteks to excel at and this case is no exception. The company does a great job pre-routing all of the black sleeved cables and connecting the trio of fans to the awesome PWM hub; capable of controlling the speed of up to 11 fans using a single PWM connection from your motherboard. It's a great way of introducing system wide fan control and keeping fan cables neatly tucked out of view, and all you need is a single SATA power connection. Also included are the nifty Velcro cable ties, with extra standard zip ties also provided. Rubber grommets are included on most of the holes, adding further to the neatness of the design, and there's lots of space behind the motherboard too.
Radiator support is the same in the roof as it is up front – 360mm and 280mm are the maximum sizes. Using the front bracket for a triple radiator will mean removing the HDD age and mid-plate bracket and losing all support for 3.5in drives unless you buy Phanteks' extra cages for use with the previously mentioned rubber mounting points, and the same is likely true when using double radiators too.
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As for the roof, it features a handy bracket which you release via a series of screws before attaching your radiator and fans and sliding the whole unit back in place. It will make things a little easier, and even the 140mm mounts are offset past the motherboard I/O panel so clearance is pretty much unlimited. However, there's quite a lot of wasted space above the bracket – the roof struts and sliding mechanism prevent anything being installed in this area, yet there definitely appears to be room for a row of fans. The offset mounts means clearance isn't the issue; instead, the bracket means that almost any size set-up will block you from having full access to your motherboard, and it will also obscure the view from the outside.
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Phanteks is one of the few companies that pays proper attention to pump and radiator placement too. The Enthoo EVOLV ATX is supplied with a rubberised pump mount which can be installed in place of the two-bay HDD cage on the case floor, and there are tube resevoir mounting points to the side of the PCI brackets and just in front of
Cooling PerformanceFor cases capable of housing ATX or larger motherboards, we use our standard ATX case test kit. which includes:- CPU: [color=rgb(68, 102, 153) !important]Intel Core i5-4690K at 4.2GHz (42 x 100MHz, 1.2V)
- Graphics card: Palit GeForce GTX 960 Super JetStream 2GB
- Motherboard: [color=rgb(68, 102, 153) !important]Asus Maximus VII Ranger
- RAM: 4GB G.Skill RipjawsX DDR3 1,600MHz
- SSD: [color=rgb(68, 102, 153) !important]OCZ Arc 100 240GB
- PSU: [color=rgb(68, 102, 153) !important]Fractal Design Integra M
- CPU cooler: Gelid Rev. 3 Tranquillo
- CPU cooler fan: Be Quiet! SilentWings 2 120mm
We disable the motherboard's onboard CPU fan control and all CPU power management features, while the graphics card fan is locked at 25 percent speed using MSI Afterburner. The system is loaded using Prime95 25.11 and Unigine's Heaven 4.0 benchmark. We use CoreTemp and GPU-Z to monitor the temperatures, taking the maximum values after 15 minutes - enough time for the readings to plateau.
Performance AnalysisDespite the relatively closed off panels, the trio of 140mm fans work well to keep temperatures in check. The exhaust fan is usually the most important one as far as CPU cooling goes, and it does a decent job of removing hot air from this important area, keeping our CPU at a delta T of 50°C.
The graphics card, too, is well looked after by the dual intakes, especially as there's uninterrupted airflow from front to back. The delta T result of 43°C is the lowest we've seen from a case using the new test gear. Admittedly, the differences aren't massive, but it does indicate that the Enthoo EVOLV ATX is more than capable of cooling a single GPU system, and we'd wager that with appropriate spacing between cards it wouldn't do too bad with SLI or CrossFire set-ups either.
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As the case doesn't have manual fan control, we ran the fans at full speed only, as PWM control would interfere with the results. Even at full speed though, noise isn't really an issue. You will hear the fans but they're not distracting, and given the decent out-of-box cooling results you have leeway to lower their fan speed, even when running overclocked hardware.
ConclusionWe almost want Phanteks to make a bad case, just so we have something negative to say for once. But the truth is that it consistently produces top notch chassis, and now that it's demonstrated its abilities in everything from mini-ITX to full towers, other manufacturers should really be taking note and stepping up their game. In fact, Phanteks has rapidly established itself as one of our favourite case makers, which is not bad at all given it only started making them in late 2013. In fairness, its cases do tend to be on the premium side and out of reach for the mass market (not all of them though), but there's no denying their appeal.
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At £140, the Enthoo EVOLV ATX is another premium offering – it's definitely on the more expensive side of cases for what is essentially a mid-tower. That said, the 3mm thick quick release aluminium panels are a sight to behold, rock solid and dead simple to work with. They go a long way to justifying the cost, as does the typically generous set of accessories and extra features like the PWM hub. It's well-catered for water-coolers too for its size, and though we do have our concerns about the roof design (both the bracket and the solid panel) we can't deny that it makes installation much less fiddly. All that remains to be said is that if you have this much to spend on a case, the EVOLV ATX should be a very strong contender for your money.COOLING
25 / 30
FEATURES
18 / 20
DESIGN
28 / 30
VALUE
14 / 20
Case performance - CPU Delta TDifference over ambient
- [size=0.9em]No case - open test bench
[size=0.9em]NZXT Noctis 450[size=0.9em]Aercool Aero-1000[size=0.9em]Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV ATX[size=0.9em]Fractal Design Define S
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[size=0.85em]°C, lower is better
Case performance - GPU Delta TDifference over ambient
- [size=0.9em]No case - open test bench
[size=0.9em]Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV ATX[size=0.9em]Aercool Aero-1000[size=0.9em]Fractal Design Define S[size=0.9em]NZXT Noctis 450
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[size=0.85em]°C, lower is better
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发表于 2015-6-2 10:29
