Page 4 - Installation and Conclusion
The computer building process was extremely enjoyable with the Phanteks Eclipse P400S Tempered Glass Edition. It was really easy to work with, since everything was laid out in pretty standard manner. I first installed the power supply into the PSU chamber. The power supply used for this computer is the SilverStone Nightjar NJ520 520W, which features a fanless design. Thanks to the grille and the ventilation holes, it is possible to use a fanless power supply like the Nightjar NJ520. If the PSU chamber top panel is just a solid piece of sheet metal, the ventilation of the NJ520 would have been blocked, and consequently may cause overheating problems with the PSU. A Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO cooler was mounted on my Gigabyte GA-H170-D3HP motherboard. The position of the motherboard tray opening of the Phanteks Eclipse P400S Tempered Glass Edition matches perfectly for the CPU position, therefore the heatsink can be installed without any trouble. If you like water coolers such as the NZXT Kraken X52, the radiator can be mounted behind the front panel.
The installation of the SSD was fairly easy. First, I just pushed the SSD tray downward to get it detached from the chassis. Then, the OCZ Trion 150 480GB SSD was screwed onto the tray. As the final step, putting the SSD tray back was also very easy. The four holes on the tray just needed to be lined up with the clips on the motherboard tray, and a slight upward push could easily secure it into position. The rest of the installing process was really smooth. Since I did not have any 3.5" drives, the PSU chamber became very roomy. The cable management Velcro straps on the motherboard tray were very handy. I would have still liked to see a few more cable tie points still. As you can see from the above picture, all the cables can be fitted into the Velcro straps in my case. The Phanteks Eclipse P400S Tempered Glass Edition is quite friendly to users that may not have a ton of experience in computer building.
After everything has been installed properly, it is time to press the power switch. As you can see from the above photo, the included RGB LED strip and the ambient down light are currently purple. To change the color or effects of those LEDs, you just need to press the LED control button as aforementioned. The power switch is also surrounded with an RGB LED light. The LED control button can also control the color of the power switch LED, which means all the lights, as long as they are from Phanteks and they are RGB, are all synchronized. Since the Phanteks Eclipse P400S Tempered Glass Edition has a tempered glass side panel, it will not make any sense to not use interior lighting inside, as you can see in our photo above. You can also buy additional LED strips from Phanteks to really make your computer shine. My only complaint is the white balance of the LEDs are a little off. White looks pretty blue, and blue looks almost purple.
I am the kind of person who really cares about the noise level of the computer. In this build, I had three fans running in the case. As it turned out, my computer was really quiet, thanks in part to the sound insulation material applied to the case and the high quality case fans. On the scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is totally silent and 10 is a jet taking off, I would rate my system at 2.5/10 regarding noise emissions. Please note the case fan control button can further bring down the noise level by reducing the RPM of the fans at the expense of cooling performance.
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Coming back to the question I have proposed in the introduction of this review, can the Phanteks Eclipse P400S Tempered Glass Edition be considered as the "Type-R" version of the Eclipse series? My short answer is yes. The building process was very smooth, and cable management was especially straightforward thanks to the Velcro straps on the motherboard tray. After a few days of using the computer I built out of the Phanteks Eclipse P400S Tempered Glass Edition, I found myself really enjoying its simple and clean design. Whether having a CD/DVD drive makes no difference to me; instead, I really appreciate the clean front panel without the 5.25" drive bay covers. All in all, the Phanteks Eclipse P400S Tempered Glass Edition is one decent computer chassis with a nice tempered glass panel and strong RGB LED and case fan controlling capability. The tempered glass is also made very well with no noticeable optical distortion. The interior design of this case is also very good. All of the components you need for building a computer can be nicely accommodated and kept cool in this mid-tower. More importantly, you do not need to be an expert to route your cables well, since there are plenty of room for zip ties and Velcro straps. However, the Phanteks Eclipse P400S Tempered Glass Edition still has some room to improve. I would have liked to see a better way of affixing the rubber washers to the case, so those washers can stay where they are supposed to stay. I would have also liked to see more cable tie points, even though the Velcro straps were quite handy. An eighth expansion slot would be nice for those with hardcore multi-GPU configurations. To conclude this review, I would like to say the Phanteks Eclipse P400S Tempered Glass Edition is definitely worth considering if you need a clean and well-built mid-tower with a tempered glass side panel and an included RGB LED strip. The price of the Phanteks Eclipse P400S Tempered Glass Edition retails for just under $90 USD at the press time. Considering this is only $10 more than the original P400S, this is very competitive for a computer case that adds a tempered glass panel and an RGB LED strip.
Phanteks provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
APH:Renewal Award | APH Review Focus Summary:
8/10 means Definitely a very good product with drawbacks that are not likely going to matter to the end user.
7/10 means Great product with many advantages and certain insignificant drawbacks; but should be considered before purchasing.
-- Final APH Numeric Rating is 7.9/10
Please note that the APH Numeric Rating system is based off our proprietary guidelines in the Review Focus, and should not be compared to other sites.
The Phanteks Eclipse P400S Tempered Glass Edition is worth considering if you need a clean and well-built mid-tower with a tempered glass side panel and an RGB LED strip.
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Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Installation and Conclusion
