Page 2 - Physical Look - Outside
In the Phanteks Eclipse P400 review, Ben referred to the product as a "simple and clean" computer case. It makes a lot of sense, because the Phanteks Eclipse P400 has a very clean looking front panel. This design principle also applies to the Phanteks Eclipse P400S Tempered Glass Edition. Overall, the shape of the Phanteks Eclipse P400S Tempered Glass Edition is exactly the same as the Eclipse P400, even down to the dimensions. The differences between the two cases we received are the materials used and the paint. This Phanteks Eclipse P400S has a whole piece of tempered glass as its left panel, and its front panel is coated with a matte black finish. In contrast, the original Phanteks Eclipse P400 does not have tempered glass, and the paint is glossy. I have to say today's review unit features better paint characteristics compared with the previous one, since it is less likely you will see fingerprints on it. Besides one panel that is made out of tempered glass, the rest of the case, including the front panel, is made out of pure steel with some plastic accessories like the dust filter and clips. On both the top and bottom of the front panel, there are the white air intake grilles. Since today's review unit is called "special edition black/white", it is reasonable to have some white color on a black computer case. These grilles allow the fans behind the front panel to suck cool air into the case. There is no opening on the front panel for external 5.25" drives, which means internal CD/DVD drives cannot be installed. This makes sense, since nowadays almost nobody uses these things on a computer, so you can use this place for water cooling instead. The dimensions of the Phanteks Eclipse P400S Tempered Glass Edition are 210 mm in width, 465 mm in height, and 470 mm in depth, which is exactly the same as the Phanteks Eclipse P400.
As the name implies and I have stated repeatedly, the left side panel of the Phanteks Eclipse P400S Tempered Glass Edition is made out of tempered glass. The glass is tinted black, matching to the rest of the case in appearance. A side effect of this is it decreases the brightness of any LED lighting you may have. I find the glass is pretty high quality, and there is no distortion I can observe. At the four corners of the glass panel are four thumbscrews to hold the glass panel in place. To remove the glass panel, there is no need for any kind of tools. You may be concerned about using hard metal thumbscrews to keep glass panel in place. However, the Eclipse P400S Tempered Glass Edition has rubber washers in between the case frame and the glass panel and on the thumbscrews to prevent the direct contact of hard surfaces. All these rubber washers allow the glass panel to be firmly and safely attached to the case. You just need to be careful not to drop the washers on the ground when removing the panel, because they may roll everywhere. Therefore, I suggest Phanteks to fix the washers to the case in order to prevent users from losing them.
As you can also see from the above picture, the top panel has two ventilation openings, and they can all be covered by plastic covers. This design can give users two options. The first option is to install fans at the ventilation area. In this case, the provided mesh dust filter can be used to prevent too much dust getting into the case. The dust filter is magnetically attached to the case. The other option is to not use anything behind the ventilation openings, so the two plastic covers can be used to completely block the ventilation openings, such that no dust can get into the case at all. Please note even if the mesh dust filter is used, there is no guarantee it will keep all the dust out when the computer is not on. However, if the plastic covers are used on the top panel, dust prevention will be much improved. Like the dust filter, the plastic covers also use magnetic clips to hold it in position. The benefit of these clips is easy removal and installation.
A power switch, two USB 3.0 ports, and audio/microphone jacks are located on the top panel. Right below the front edge of the top panel are three hidden buttons for system reset, LED control, and case fan. It is worth noting the case fan switch can only be found on Phanteks Eclipse P400S models. The LED control switch is a very nice feature on this computer case. It controls the color of the oval RGB power light around the power switch, the included Phanteks RGB LED strip, and the ambient down light at the bottom of the front panel. You can use it to cycle between colors, activate the lighting effects, or turn it off completely. Compared to the Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV ATX Tempered Glass Edition, this time the Phanteks kindly included an RGB LED strip out of the box, and we can see how it looks later during our installation section.
The back of the P400S, like the rest of the case, is simple and clean. There are four major sections at the back of the Phanteks Eclipse P400S Tempered Glass Edition; namely, the power supply mounting place, motherboard I/O backplate, rear exhaust, and expansion card slots. According to the shape of the power supply mounting hole, the power supply is horizontally mounted at the bottom section of the chassis. Since the power supply has already taken this bottom position, the motherboard can only be located above it, meaning the I/O backplate opening is at the top. There are seven expansion slots available on the Phanteks Eclipse P400S Tempered Glass Edition, which is standard for an ATX mid-tower. You will not be able to install a graphics card at the bottom slot though. Note that four of the expansion slot covers are painted in white, which provide a good contrast to the rest of the case. As for the rear exhaust, as you can see from the photo above, there is a 120 mm fan included from the factory.
There are four plastic stands on the bottom of the case to support the Phanteks Eclipse P400S Tempered Glass Edition, rising the case up about 2 cm on top of the resting surface for better ventilation. These stands are extremely strong. Four rubber bricks are provided to enhance the grip of the stands. These rubber bricks can offer enough friction to hold the case in position firmly, even though they are not big in size. You can also see from the above photo a washable filter is attached to the bottom grille of the chassis. The filter is reinforced by a hard plastic structure, and they are removable for cleaning as well. Note the power supply of this case is bottom mounted, therefore the ventilation area behind the filter is actually designed for the power supply.
Overall speaking, the Phanteks Eclipse P400S Tempered Glass Edition is one good looking computer case that is made out of sheet metal and tempered glass in my opinion. The gaps between panels are small and even, which shows a high level of assembly quality. The tempered glass also exhibits quality attributes in terms of distortion, or lack thereof. There is only one suggestion I can make to improve the exterior of the Phanteks Eclipse P400S Tempered Glass Edition is to attach the rubber washers firmly to the case for better glass panel installation and removal experience.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Installation and Conclusion
