Phanteks Eclipse P300 Case Review

By Steven Lynch
published

Early Verdict

In the grand scheme of things, the Phanteks Eclipse P300 is decent enough chassis for the price. However, the addition of an intake fan or two would remedy the poor thermal performance, and updated drive caddies would also be a welcome improvement. At less than the price of an average AAA video game, it's still worth considering as an entry-level chassis with a tempered-glass side panel, but there are better performing choices in this price class.

Pros

  • +

    Tempered Glass Side Panel

  • +

    Low noise

Cons

  • -

    Poor Thermal Performance

  • -

    Backwards HDD Caddies

  • -

    Confusing specs

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Features and Specifications

Priced at just $60, Phanteks' latest entry-level chassis features a steel, plastic, and tempered glass construction and is painted black inside and out. This is a mid-tower case, and it weighs just over 13lbs.

Specifications

Exterior

The exterior of the Phanteks Eclipse P300 is fairly basic. There is a fan mounting location in the rear of the top panel that can be fitted with either a 120/140mm fan, radiator, or all-in-one cooler. On the right-hand edge of the top panel you will find two USB 3.0 ports, HD audio jacks, and a reset button. In the center of the top panel is an RGB LED power switch.

The front of the chassis is one large plastic panel with vertical vents for air intake at the top and bottom. The entire front lacks any drive bay openings and is completely devoid of features. It is attached to the chassis via metal push pins, and removing it is a simple matter of grabbing the lower edge and pulling.

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This case features a 14” x 13” tinted tempered-glass side panel that lets you show off your system components; it's held in place by rubber-coated locating pins and thumbscrews. The panel on the opposite side of the chassis is solid metal and featureless, and it's held in place by captured thumbscrews. The bottom of the case has four rubber-coated plastic feet that keep the chassis from sliding. There is also a filtered hole for power supply ventilation.

Around back, you will find the standard motherboard I/O area, an opening for a bottom-mounted PSU, seven expansion card slots, and an exhaust fan mounting location that comes with a 120mm fan pre-installed from the factory.

The fan filtration system on the Eclipse P300 is fairly basic, consisting of a single standard nylon screen filter below the PSU. Although the press material shows fan filters covering the top fan mounting location and the vents in the front panel, our review unit arrived with only the PSU filter. We reached out to the company to see if this chassis does in fact come with magnetic filters or if they are an optional item. We'll update once we hear back.

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Steven Lynch
8 Comments Comment from the forums
  • ark.4264
    This is the best case at low price <3
    Reply
  • g-unit1111
    Nice! Good to have some competition for the NZXT S340!
    Reply
  • jhanschu
    Although it would add a significant amount of testing, I would think that adding an intake fan to give users a better idea of the performance capabilities of this case. I understand out of the box testing, but also testing all cases configured similarly. For example, a single fan for intake and exhaust.
    Reply
  • JackNaylorPE
    One of the things that would have made this article a bit better is "apples and apples". When I look at CPU cooler reviews. I think, well didn't they go a bit overboard because the manufacturer did decide to supply this cooler with the fans they did, and it's unreasonable to make a consumer buy a cooler but to get it to work right, they need to replace the fans.

    On the other hand, a case manufacturer may supply a case to hit a certain target price point ... but, as in this case, they also provided (4) additional fan mounts. So, in order for me to evaluate the viability of this case, when you choose too compare it with two other cases, both of which have (2) fans installed, I'm left typing "Eclipse P300 Case Review " in the web search window looking for a review that is relevant and comes the cases on equal footing.

    Yes, out of the box testing is relevant, but w/o a standardized platform (2 intakes / 1 exhaust) for apples and apples comparisons, it doesn't tell me anything I need to know. And yes, we want more inatkes than exhaust because w/o that, the resistance from the air inlet filters will mean less air in that out. And that means not only dust carrying in dust but that dust will most likely be carried in by PSI and GFX card exhaust thru the rear case grilles.
    Reply
  • wifiburger
    i like my kingwin aluminium, 3 window case, it's about 15years old I refuse to trow it out :-)
    Reply
  • Xajel
    No Type-C now in 3Q17 !!, it should be already there in early 2017 not to mention now with both Ryzen and Intel's 8th gen natively support USB 3.1 g2..
    Reply
  • machinegunkenny
    I purchased a phanteks enthoo pro for my last build a couple years back and fell in love with it immediately. Phanteks makes a clean build easy to do and I was able to fit everything with room to spare. Went with a MSI z97 gaming 5 mobo, i5-4690k OC'ed that is air-cooled with an master cooler 212 EVO, MSI GTX 970 and 16gb 1866mhz RAM. I also put a red LED strip on bottom and added 2 red LED phanteks 140mm fans to the top. Everyone who sees it compliments me.
    Will most likely purchase phanteks cases from here on out.

    My one and only complaint is with the power button design. It is very common for it to get stuck when pressed and cause boot errors. This is because it is elongated and if you push off center, it can catch. I have to always press it with both index and middle finger to ensure it goes down evenly. This entry level tower looks to have the same button design. Don't let that deter you though...just be aware. The MANY pros out-weigh the one con.
    Reply
  • sandraa9513
    Not listed in the best PC cases?? That's easily the best case for 60$ ! And who really wants those ugly pre-installed fans anyway?..
    Also, since when is i5 a budget CPU? C'mon...
    Reply