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Jay C.

Jay C.

Joined on 02/13/09

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 5
Most Favorable Review

NZXT Phantom 630 Windowed Edition

NZXT Phantom 630 Windowed Edition White Steel / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case
NZXT Phantom 630 Windowed Edition White Steel / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case

Pros: -Roomy enough for everything you could possibly need, and even lots of room for the extras that you don't. -Really sleek and cool looking (especially with blue LED fans put in.) -Built in fan control is very handy, as is the rear I/O panel LED and SD card reader. -Lots of space for wiring behind the motherboard tray and plenty of tie down points. Near effortless to get a clean wiring job done in this case! -Filters on every intake! If you have pets, or there's a lot of dust in your house, this will make keeping your case clean and cool much easier. They just slide in and out very easily. -Filters for both top 200mm exhaust fan spots! Most manufacturers don't filter exhaust fans. I think this is a nice little bonus. Since the case is so big, I assume many will keep it on their desk instead of underneath it. Having dust filters on the top of the case will definitely help keep things from floating down into the case when the power is off and the fans aren't blowing. -Excellent build quality. Everything feels sturdy and durable. (Apart from the window, which I'll cover in the cons section.) -The black exterior metal mesh screens are easy to remove. Case modders will enjoy being able to simply remove and paint them any color they wish.

Cons: -The window tends to rattle. It's not kept in the side panel very tight at all. If you keep this baby on your desk like I do (its too big to fit underneath!) and you bump your desk or cause vibration when you type, you can hear the window rattling. It's quite annoying. This kind of surprises me because NZXT is very good at making sure everything else keeps quiet by putting in rubber washers at almost every screw point. It would have been really nice to see the window considered as well. Apart from this, the case is nearly silent (unless you have your fans ramped up, of course.) A small rubber gasket around the tab holes in the window would have been cheap and would have gone that one tiny last step to keeping this case quiet. -The front and top panels are quite hard to remove. When you do finally get them to come off, it makes a loud noise. The first time I did this, the panel came off with such force that I thought I had broken one of the pressure pegs holding it to the chassis. -The front fan filter that snaps to the inside of the front panel is tricky to put back on. It kind of snaps on then slides down a little. Nothing is mentioned in the manual so it took me a bit to figure out how to secure it properly. I kept trying to put the front panel back on and the filter kept falling off. -The sliding brackets that hold your HDDs/SSDs in the front are a little cheap feeling at first, but seem flexible enough to not break if you are paying attention to what you're doing and not being rough with them. -The top 5.25" external bay is about a half inch shorter (front to back) than the other 3. I could not fit my ODD in there because the case does not allow me to slide it all the way back.

Overall Review: Even with its cons, this is a truly awesome case. I usually build a new computer for myself every 3-4 years, and in the future I plan on reusing this case instead of buying a new one. The only feature that is missing that I would have liked is perhaps gasketed ports for water cooling tubes like the ones on the Phantom 530 case. I don't have a water cooling setup at the moment, but when finances allow me to, it is something I would like to try. The rear vents to the side of the expansion slots seem like they would be easily modded for this purpose, though. A Dremel, some split black rubber tubing and 5 minutes could make this a very simple job.

Most Critical Review

Not bad.. but not great.

Thermaltake V9 Black Edition ATX Computer Gaming Chassis with Dual Oversized 230mm Ultra-Silent Cooling Fans VJ400G1N2Z Mid Tower
Thermaltake V9 Black Edition ATX Computer Gaming Chassis with Dual Oversized 230mm Ultra-Silent Cooling Fans VJ400G1N2Z Mid Tower

Pros: This case performs very well. It is large enough to fit everything comfortably and it keeps everything running very cool.

Cons: The proprietary clips that hold your CD/DVD drives and HD's are junk. Throw them away and use screws, trust me. They are a pain to get working, and once they are in place they do not hold your drives/HD well at all. Also, this may be due to the motherboard as well, but the placement for expansion cards in the back seemed very off. I had to pop out an additional tab and bend the piece between them in order for my video card to seat properly. No biggie, but this just seems like something small that proper R&D should have eliminated.

Had an issue with this unit, NZXT replaced it

NZXT HALE82 V2 700W 700 W ATX 12V V2.31 & EPS 12V V2.92 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply (Haswell Support)
NZXT HALE82 V2 700W 700 W ATX 12V V2.31 & EPS 12V V2.92 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply (Haswell Support)

Pros: Looks great in my white NZXT Phantom 630 windowed case. Plenty of power.

Cons: Unit went bad after about a year and a half. Cabling seems kinda stiff and not the easiest to work with, but not terrible. SATA power cables seem upside-down. With a bottom mounted PSU, I found that I had to twist the cables back on themselves to get the plug oriented in the right direction.

Overall Review: I was getting "Event ID 41, KERNEL_POWER" critical errors, prompting my computer to restart whenever I tried to play a game. I could do email, web surfing, watch YouTube, etc. but every time I'd play a game, my computer would restart itself. After searching the internet, I found out this error is usually caused by a faulty power supply unit. (I'm guessing the 12v rail powering the video card was the culprit.) I initiated contact with NZXT on June 2, 2016. On June 20th, I left a 1 egg review and submitted an additional ticket since I hadn't heard back from them. A representative from NZXT finally responded to my support that same day, and issued me an RMA number and prepaid shipping label. NZXT received my faulty unit on July 1st but didn't ship the replacement until July 7th. I received it on July 13, 2016. Despite even being upgraded to a better unit, I'm still leaving my review at 1 egg. Fact of the matter is: the product failed and the manufacturer took a day short of 3 weeks (!) to even acknowledge my issue, leaving me without a gaming computer for well over a month.

Great monitor

SAMSUNG 2243BWX High Gloss Piano Black 22" 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor with Height/Pivot Adjustments and 2-port USB Hub 300 cd/m2 DC 8000:1
SAMSUNG 2243BWX High Gloss Piano Black 22" 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor with Height/Pivot Adjustments and 2-port USB Hub 300 cd/m2 DC 8000:1

Pros: This monitor is a great value for the price. I've seen monitors that cost over $100 more and not look this great. The picture was awesome right out of the box.. I barely messed with the controls at all, just long enough to familiarize myself with the menu. The built-in USB hub in the base is very convenient also.

Cons: It's a bit wobbly but you'd go nuts trying to find a screen this big that isn't. Also, locating the touch buttons at the bottom can be a bit tricky, especially in a dark room. Just nitpicking here, but it would be nice to have a little cord management somewhere in the back. I suppose a little black electrical tape around the base will work if you're not picky.. but for some the cords will look ugly hanging out the bottom with no place to put them.

Very nice cooler

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro 92mm Ceramic CPU Cooler
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro 92mm Ceramic CPU Cooler

Pros: This fan/heatsink has blown me away. I decided to give it a try after seeing the great ratings it had, and I'm glad I did. I was prepared to pay 3 times as much for a different brand (Z). Combined with my Tt V9 case, it keeps my Athlon 64 X2 6000+ right around 30c idle, and under 8+ hours of gaming it never went above 46c

Cons: The box doesn't clearly state that the cooler comes with thermal paste pre-applied. Not a huge problem since if you can't tell that it's there, you probably shouldn't be putting this on yourself to begin with.. but still I can see someone making a mistake and applying more to the CPU because of this.

Overall Review: You won't regret ditching a higher priced cooler for this model. Save yourself 40 bucks and buy this.