Phanteks Eclipse P400S Review
Category : Cases
Published by Luca Rocchi on 30.09.16
With the Eclipse P400S, Phanteks has a case for ATX motherboards in its portfolio, which comes with a lot of features and at an an attractive price. Apart from that especially friends of custom water cooling loops will love this case, since it offers good flexibility in that direction. In addition this model supports RGB illumination and a fan controller for up to three fans. For now, we're really curious to find out how this case is going to do in our review.
Rating |
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| Cooling | Features | Layout | Build Quality | Value for Money | |
| Pros | + Good
compatibility for watercooling
+ Numerous spots for fans + Dust filters |
+ Available in black, silver and antracite
+ RGB Lightning
+ Fan controller + Sound dampening material |
+ Interior
space
+ Velcro straps |
+ Good build quality + Midplate PSU | + Well priced with a very good bundle |
| Cons | - No radiator space on top |
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| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Installation |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Ventilation options |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 7 - Temperatures |
| Page 4 - Product overview | Page 8 - Conclusion |
Preview
Specifications
| Model: | Eclipse P400S | |
| Case Type: | Mid tower | |
| Dimensions: | 210 mm (W) x 465 mm (H) x 470 mm (D) | |
| Material: | Steel, ABS | |
| Color: | Black | |
| Drive Bay: | 5.25": | 0 |
| 3.5": | 2 (up to 6, optional) | |
| 2.5": | 2 | |
| Expansion slots: | 7 | |
| Form factors: | E-ATX, ATX, mATX, mini-ITX | |
| Cooling: | Front: | 3x 120mm / 2x 140mm (1x 120mm included) |
| Rear: | 1x 120mm / 1x 140mm (included) | |
| Top: | 2x 120mm / 2x 140mm | |
| Bottom: | / | |
| Side: | / | |
| Watercooling | Front: | 360mm / 280mm |
| Rear: | 120mm / 140mm | |
| Top: | / | |
| Link to the product: | Eclipse P400S | |
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Installation |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Ventilation options |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 7 - Temperatures |
| Page 4 - Product overview | Page 8 - Conclusion |
Features
PSU CoverIn order to hide all the cables connected to your power supply, there is cover hiding away the unit. This helps creating a neat and clean looking system. |
Dust filtersThere are washable dust filters covering all big openings of the Phanteks Eclipse P400S. Thanks to a quick release system they are very easy and convenient to remove. |
RGB Ambient LightsStraight out of the box Phanteks illuminates the power button, located on top of the case, as well as a small bar in the bottom part of the front. If you'd like to add more light and color, Phanteks recommends adding their LED strips, which go by the name LED PH-CB_RGB4P. These strips are very easy to install thanks to magnets. Apart from that those strips are compatible with the new onboard RGB headers you can find on the latest motherboards, which will allow you to control them easily. Apart from that there are also the so called PH-LEDKT LED strips optionally available, which can be connected to and controlled by the integrated fan controller. |
Watercooling readyThe Phanteks Eclipse P400S is also ready for watercooling gear. If you wish to create a custom loop, there is the possibility to equip this case with two radiators. One of them can measure up to 360 millimeters while the other one can be 140 millimeters. The top part of the chassis doesn't offer enough space to mount yet another radiator. |
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Installation |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Ventilation options |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 7 - Temperatures |
| Page 4 - Product overview | Page 8 - Conclusion |
Product overview
Overview |
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| The Eclipse series from Phanteks is designed for a entry-level gaming systems, with the price of this case being noticiably below the 100 Euro mark. Despite it's very attractive chassis, Phanteks did not sacrifice quality or features. Design wise Phanteks cases have always had and still have unique looks, while appearing aggressive to a certain extent and sleek at the same time. Compared to the basic model named P400, the P400S offers a small fan controller allowing to control up to three fans and on top of that there is also sound dampening material. The Eclipse P400S comes with a large window made from plexiglass or if you want you can also go for the classic solid side panels. In order to keep the lines as simple as possible, Phanteks placed the I/O connectors on the top and here we find two USB 3.0 ports as well as mini-jacks for mic and headphones. The back panel is simple and straight forward as we find the opening for a 120/140mm fan, space for the I/O shield and a total for seven slot bezels covering the motherboards expansion slots. The bottom part of the case features an opening for the ATX power supply and the removable and washable dust filter. | |
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| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Installation |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Ventilation options |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 7 - Temperatures |
| Page 4 - Product overview | Page 8 - Conclusion |
Installation
Overview |
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| The Phanteks Eclipse P400S is compatible with ATX motherboards (and E-ATX motherboards measuring up to 272mm in width), which is placed vertically and thanks to the size of the case you will not run into any issues installing large heat sinks. The motherboard tray is made of solid steel, and it features a big cut out behind the socket, which allows the user to install aftermarket CPU coolers when the motherboard has already been installed. There is a total of two rubber grommets, which allows for neat cable management. Between the motherboard tray and the right side panel there is enough space to hide plenty of cables. The case shares the latest features regarding internal layout. There is for instance is a big mid plate covering the power supply cables. In total, the Phanteks Eclipse P400S supports two 3.5" HDD and two 2.5" SSD, both in dedicated places and well hidden. If you would need them you can buy an additional HDD cage to add an extra four 3.5" HDD. For testing purposes we used an ASRock Fatal1ty X99M Killer motherboard and a huge Phanteks PH-TC14PE tower cooler and we did not run into any compatiblity issues installing the components. Building a PC based on this case is very easy and quickly done no matter whether you're using a CPU tower cooler or an all-in-one liquid cooler, but if you want to enjoy all the benefits of this case you should use a custom water cooling setup. The space dedicated to the graphics card is large enough to accommodate even the most powerful GPUs on the market. After having put our test system together the final looks were esthetically pleasing and we like the end result. Especially the optional custom lighting is just great. |
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| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Installation |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Ventilation options |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 7 - Temperatures |
| Page 4 - Product overview | Page 8 - Conclusion |
Ventilation options
Overview |
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| The Eclipse P400S offers plenty of spots for fans and inside the delivery you will find two 120mm fans with 3-pin header. Overall, the case is able to accommodate three 120 or two 140mm fans at the front, two 120 or 140mm in the top, and one 120/140mm at the rear. As you could have guessed, this means there is enough space for a 360/280/240mm liquid cooling radiators. In order to keep it simple, Phanteks provided the top panel with a small fan controller offering three 3-pin headers. | |
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| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Installation |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Ventilation options |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 7 - Temperatures |
| Page 4 - Product overview | Page 8 - Conclusion |
Temperatures
Overview |
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For testing purposes we're using an MSI Z170I Gaming Pro AC motherboard, an Intel Core i5-6600K CPU, which receives cooling through a SilentiumPC Fortis 3 HE1425 MCE cooler as well as a MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G graphics card. To put the CPU under full load, we're running prime95 for 10 min and in the case of the GPU we use Furmark also for 10 minutes. After these ten minutes, we're going to write down the temperatures. The ambient temperature is close to 24°C. |
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| All noise dampening panels installed | Idle (°C) | Full (°C) |
| Intel Core i5-6600K | 28 / 28 / 27 / 28 | 52 / 55 / 54 / 55 |
| MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G | 46 | 69 |
| Less is better | ||
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Installation |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Ventilation options |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 7 - Temperatures |
| Page 4 - Product overview | Page 8 - Conclusion |
Conclusion
The Eclipse P400S is one of the latest cases from the American manufacturer Phanteks and it’s available with or without great looking plexiglass panel. This model is almost perfect in any aspect, no matter whether you’re looking at it from a build quality, a ventilation or a layout point of view. First of all we want to mention that the price of this case is around 78 euro since is designed for entry-level gaming rig. The steel and the ABS that’s been used for this case is of very good quality. The finish is just perfect and we simply cannot find anything to criticize.
The looks of a case are always matter of individual taste but when checking out the interior, we believe this layout is as close to perfection as it gets. If we have to find a downside we could say that would be interesting to mount a radiator also on the top part of the case. Everything is tool-free and therefore removing the front panel to access the dust filter for instance is as simple as it can be. Even the cable management is perfect, since there are plenty of grommets and the delivery even includes anumber of Velcro straps. One of the key aspects of this case it's the great compatibility with custom liquid cooled setups since it allows the installation of one 280/360mm and one 120/140mm radiator. In addition Phanteks included a small fan controller that can handle up to a maximum of three fans.
The Phanteks Eclipse P400S with plexiglass panel is available on Geizhals at a price of 78 euro excluding shipping costs and you can buy this case in silver, anthracite and black color. In our opinion the price matches the quality offered, the well-thought layout and the excellent bundle which includes two 120 mm fans make for a truly excellent case. We award the Phanteks Eclipse P400S with 5 out of 5 stars.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Installation |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Ventilation options |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 7 - Temperatures |
| Page 4 - Product overview | Page 8 - Conclusion |