Review on Phanteks Mid Tower PH EC400ATG_DBK01 Tempered Digital RGB by Keith Stuckey

Having built a PC using only Phanteks cases, I was very disappointed with this case compared to other Phanteks cases. Good things first: - Awesome ventilation: 3 aRGB fans in the front deliver an impressive amount of air to the front of the case, and air pressure is excellent thanks to 2 120mm exhaust fans on top and one 120mm exhaust fan on the back of the case . Purity. looks good in the white version too (I bought both) - good cable management options - mostly solid bezels and frames. Now let's talk about some of the downsides of this case: First of all, I'm comparing this case to the Enthoo Pro M because the Pro M is only $10 more expensive. Many features are missing compared to other similarly priced cases: PCIE power cable cutout at the top of the PSU shroud, no removable optical drive tray, glass panel is much thinner and the edges are rough making the panel much cheaper and flimsy, no front mount for a 2.5 -inch SSD mount on glass to showcase the SSDs and last but not least, the top heatsink mount is missing. It's almost impossible to mount any 240mm radiator on top of the case as the mounting holes are so far back on the top that any standard motherboard would cut through the fan shrouds. Even more ridiculously, installing only 2 fans on the top of the case was a problem. I actually had to shave off the corners on my CPU power connectors because the mounting holes are SO far back in the case. Not only is the bracket on other models removable, it allows the heatsink and fans to hang further down, drawing more heat away from the motherboard while also pushing the mounting hole further into the case. Having fan-only mounting screws opposite the dust filter on top of this case looks cheap and distorts the dust filter. Finally, good luck hiding the RGB strips near the glass. There is no gap between the underside of the visible section of the housing and the fastening clips on the front panel, so that you do not touch the housing wall with the front side of the strip. Along the back of the case there is no gap between the rear fan and the glass panel, so there is no band there either. These are specific complaints but they are the reason I am returning to the Enthoo Pro M. The move from aRGB to regular RGB front intakes and the loss of the onboard RGB controller are well worth the big jump in build-friendly features. This case is only $10 cheaper but looks more like a $50 case. In general, the assembly turned out to be good. It only took a few mods and problems to bring it all together. If there weren't a direct competitor in the price range from the same company, this would be a 4* rating because it's not such a bad case per se.