Phanteks P600S opinions?

[Dr. Bigglesworth]

Hi all. I'm getting ready to retire my 6th gen i7 this coming fall for either a 13th gen or AMD's 7K offerings. I haven't really bothered to check out case reviews the last few years because of obvious reasons and over-extended prices making this hobby a nightmare. I had a friend of a friend recommend the P600S from Phanteks to me, mostly because I was looking for a very sleek design without anything that could break. The high price aside, I do like the case but am very unsure of how good it is.

 

I will likely be using a large AIO cooler or go custom water cooling, and will likely buy a 4080 or 4090 to upgrade from my existing RTX 2nd gen card. Although I suspect I'd be able to grab the card in January given the past video card launches in the last decade.

 

Also, if you have this case or have built one out, are the Arctic fans in them any good or would I be better off sinking money into fancier fans like Silent Wings or Noctuas? I'm really trying to avoid RGB gore with this build. I wouldn't mind a similar case if it offered a 5.35 bay for my BR player/burner so I can avoid building an enclosure via USB. Something with slick design and great build quality. No TG, and preferably have a few 3.5" bays for traditional drives. I really don't care if it's a mid or full tower. Usual go to cards for Nvidia at least are from EVGA. So it should be able to accommodate the length of their biggest fan'd cards.

[Bombastinator]

Iirc GN has some pretty comprehensive graphs.  They’ve gotten really good at measurements lately. 

[PDifolco]

That's the case I use! Picked it on looks, premium feel and the size I wanted.

It's a very well built and easy to build case, spacious and sturdy. You can put up to 420mm front and 360 top rads, but it has no side fans and bottom is closed.

The hinged doors are great.

Airflow wise you need to remove the metal panels front and top to let it breathe, else it's a bit choked with only vents on the sides of the front panel 

Front I/o is ok with a type c port.

A good case overall

[Bombastinator]

40 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

That's the case I use! Picked it on looks, premium feel and the size I wanted.

It's a very well built and easy to build case, spacious and sturdy. You can put up to 420mm front and 360 top rads, but it has no side fans and bottom is closed.

The hinged doors are great.

Airflow wise you need to remove the metal panels front and top to let it breathe, else it's a bit choked with only vents on the sides of the front panel 

Front I/o is ok with a type c port.

A good case overall

So you can use their graphs to compare your case to other ones.  Basically I’m saying that GN’s opinion is going to be a whole lot better than mine, and if you want theirs it’s published in detail. 

Edited July 24, 2022 by Bombastinator

[Dr. Bigglesworth]

Thanks. I tried to get on here today but the site was down. I ended up watching some Youtube videos. In another guy's thread someone recommended a CM case with 5.25 bays and solid side panels with dual fans. Though CM's site wasn't really working last night so I couldn't find much specs on it or interior shots. Ideally I'd like to have a build done by Christmas but given how things flow, I think January or February would be more realistic.

 

Is there any other case like the P600S that's not got TG? Seems the majority use TG these days. Thanks y'all!

[Bombastinator]

*doesn’t know what TG is.  Or CM for that matter*

 

As far as 2 fan cases with 5,25” bays there could be a use for such a thing.  HTPC comes to mind.  Have to be low heat production and you need a full half height bay for a lot of blu-ray drives.  A machine that doesn’t produce much heat doesn’t need many fans.

[Dr. Bigglesworth]

Sorry. TG is tempered glass. I love the looks but would prefer a solid panel. CM is Cooler Master. This is the CM case per that thread. It looks very old design wise but I'm sure it may get the job done.

 

https://www.coolermaster.com/catalog/legacy-products/cases/cm-690-ii-ver-2/#image-Item4

 

The P600S grabbed my attention due to the plate tilt tech but how easy it easy to go from smooth and slow to high performance when needed without time to learn a complicated latching mechanism.

 

So I know the front portion of the P600S can handle a 420 mm rad. Is it safe to say buy a 420 mm AIO and have the radiator at the front of the case with 3-4 exhaust fans at the top instead of relying on just a 360 mm AIO at the top?

[Bombastinator]

4 hours ago, Dr. Bigglesworth said:

Sorry. TG is tempered glass. I love the looks but would prefer a solid panel. CM is Cooler Master. This is the CM case per that thread. It looks very old design wise but I'm sure it may get the job done.

 

https://www.coolermaster.com/catalog/legacy-products/cases/cm-690-ii-ver-2/#image-Item4

 

The P600S grabbed my attention due to the plate tilt tech but how easy it easy to go from smooth and slow to high performance when needed without time to learn a complicated latching mechanism.

 

So I know the front portion of the P600S can handle a 420 mm rad. Is it safe to say buy a 420 mm AIO and have the radiator at the front of the case with 3-4 exhaust fans at the top instead of relying on just a 360 mm AIO at the top?

Ah.  Thankyou for the info.  I was somehow thinking it might be talking about a PSU. Corsair names their PSUs with two letter terms beginning with C like CX.  That makes much more sense now. 
 

re: tempered glass

I’m not a fan of tempered glass doors on computer cases.  It always eventually shatters.  Tempered glass is effectively glass under pressure.  It’s a bit like case hardening.   They stick extra atoms in the surface to make the surface just a tiny bit larger than the interior.  It’s part of why you have to order it precut. To do it they bake it for a good long time in some sort of liquified salt.  Every time it gets hit it saves the force inside it until there’s too much and it basically explodes at a touch.  It does last a while but you aren’t going to see antique houses with original tempered glass. A piece of regular glass will last a very very long time.  (If you don’t break it, which is why tempered glass is a thing in the first place.  Until it explodes it’s rock solid. There is Ancient Egyptian glass around.  A hundred years from now the vast majority of tempered glass produced today will be gone.  Safety glass is better but it’s a lot more expensive.  That is two (or more) pieces of glass with goo between them.  Modern Auto windshields are tempered safety glass.  The side windows are often tempered glass.  In my state there is a law for sneeze guards on salad bars that allows them to be made of safety, but not tempered glass.  I know because I replaced a window on my house’s back door with a piece that actually came from a salad bar.  I personally would actually prefer an acrylic side panel over a tempered glass one.  Not that I have much of a choice these days.  I suspect tempered glass side panels will eventually break (be it weeks or more often years from now)  and be replaced with something more resilient. 

 

re: AIO coolers

i don’t know of any consumer level machine that actually needs a 420 over a 360.  There is a better argument for 360s than 240s though.  At that point it gets into the cooling range of air coolers which have a bunch of advantages.  Except of course the heat envelope. This does not apply to custom loop.  Custom loop can have both a cpu and a gpu on one radiator. 240s and even 120s are occasionally useful though.  Especially for SFF (Small Form Factor) builds.

[fonzz1e]

On 7/23/2022 at 2:35 PM, Dr. Bigglesworth said:

I wouldn't mind a similar case if it offered a 5.25 bay

fractal define 7 (not the compact) or their budget "pop XL air" case can fit those

[Dr. Bigglesworth]

I'm slowly looking at my parts choices. I'm a usual buyer of Seasonic but their models have a touchy OCP or did, that RTX3000 tripped often with certain card models. The BeQuiet Dark Power series at 850 watts pending whatever the 4080 or 4090 is like (or whatever AMD has in stock) should be enough, I hope.

 

Gotta be honest, it's hard to believe current prices after seeing them so high for over 2 years.

On 7/25/2022 at 4:53 AM, fonzz1e said:

fractal define 7 (not the compact) or their budget "pop XL air" case can fit those

 

Oh. Yes. I totally forgot about those. I was looking into those when I build my current system a couple years ago. I had become really attached to the Define 7, and of course the Define 7 XL model.

 

The Define 7 is an older case design compared to the P600S, right? I want to say "yes" but my timeline is messed up. I wouldn't mind building an enclosure for it. It's the time involved to get the aesthetic just right.

[fonzz1e]

afaik p600s launched in 2019 & define 7 in 2020

i think you might be thinking define r6 / r5 / s2

 

 

[Dr. Bigglesworth]

Very likely possible. I'll try and reply to @Bombastinator's post later. I'm currently dealing with a summer cold. Although I now remember wanting the P600S because of its better perceived airflow capabilities. I'll have to go to a store that has them both so I can check them out in person. Videos only do so much to help you make a choice.