Phanteks Eclipse P400 Review

Conclusion

Having reviewed quite a few other Phanteks cases we have to say we had high hopes and high expectations for this case.  On paper it looked to have great potential, and ticked all the right boxes, Decent looks, good build quality, a large window, sound deadening, a choice of colours, ample air cooling with options to add more, filtered intakes, plenty of storage, with the option for stealth mounting both 2.5" and 3.5", a false floor to cover the PSU area, good cable management and a whacking great space up front for thick rads even with a push pull set up.

So it ticks all the right boxes then?  Well nearly all the right boxes.  You see, to our eyes there's one glaring oversight.  One crowning turd in the otherwise fine and glistening punch-bowl of a case that is the Phanteks P400.  There's no easy way to say this, no way to dress it up.  Basically, you can't get a radiator in the roof of this case.  Now it's not that there's no room,  potentially the room is there, had the designers at Phanteks thought more about the offset of the fan mounts in the roof (or lack thereof), it would have been eminently possible to  get an AIO up there as well as one in the front.  Six months to a year ago it would have been fine to release a case such as this which had room for one big rad, but not now, and especially not when Phanteks have shown with other cases that they know how to do it.  To us it's a no brainer that in producing this case they'd have off set the fan mounts enough to make it possible to accommodate even just a 30mm thick rad and fans or maybe just a thin AIO.  You'd think wouldn't you?  You really would.  I mean seriously, it's not hard, it's not like this has never been done before, this isn't ground breaking technology.  It's been done before.  Damn it Phanteks have done it before, so why in the hell have they made a case where you can't get a rad in the roof when it would have been so, so easy to make one that did.  yes you can get one in the front, but with so many GPU's having AIO attachments there's a lot of consumers out there that want a case that will take two AIOs, one for the CPU, and one for the GPU.  At just £60 this case had the potential to clean up, and even with that said, we're sure they'll fly off the shelves regardless.  This case had the potential to be one that would grow with the user as his skills and confidence developed, enabling him to start with one AIO, then two, and then perhaps a full custom loop.  As it is though...Well, I think we've said enough

Let's put it another way.  This case had the potential to earn Toms coveted White Gold award, it really did, that's how good it nearly was. Tom said in the video "such a small thing makes such a BIG difference"  and as my father used to say to me when I'd messed up "I'm not angry, i'm disappointed."

It does though get a Silver, which not to be sniffed at, and we have agreed to change the award if revisions are made and made quickly. We are marking this down in the hope Phanteks wake up and bring all of you guys a better product, the product that should have landed on our desk in the first place.

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