Phanteks P300A Cheap Airflow Case Review: Thermals, Extra Fan Tests, & Noise

the fan tax p400 a digital was one of the best cases we worked with last year in fact we gave it best overall and best airflow in our end of year case awards show and the reason it did so well was a couple of things one ultrafine mesh on the front without a dust filter 2 it had a full complement of stock fans but did well with aftermarket ones also and then finally it was a price of under $100 or in theory but that case has rarely been available now and especially for the price it's supposed to be out because retailers often increase it when the demand is high today we're reviewing the P 300 a which is a newer technically shorter and cheaper alternative to the P 300 a made by the same company it's one we saw at CES it's supposed to be a $60 case and it brings the ultra fine mesh front to the budget tier of cases as well before that this video is brought to you by EB JS r-tx 2060 kayo we previously reviewed the r-tx 2060 kayo model for it's fused down RTX 2080 died that uniquely benefited blunder and some professional applications offering better performance than expected in some pro workloads while offering usual strong our TX 2060 performance for gaming the r-tx 2060 kayo also includes the game deliver us the moon for free with EVGA geforce r-tx cards EVGA is actively restocking its r-tx 2060 kayo with new ties which you can find a link to the description below and so here it is this is the case we showed at CES it's not that much smaller but the case does definitely have an important point in the market if it actually does well in today's review one of the things we've noticed over the last couple of years is that the cases in the 60 to 70 dollar price range have largely dried up part of that is tariffs where you see companies who were unable to get exemptions from those although why they were unable to we're not clear on but you see companies increasing their case for pricing by something like 15 18 percent and that's just increased the the level at which you can actually buy these in caves now another reason is because the entire industry goes in trends and all the manufacturers of cases flocked to the trend of high-end 180 cases for a while so this market dried up it's coming back though cases in the past we've liked in roughly this price territory would be the Silverstone redline oh six which was something around seventy five eighty dollars originally and that case is mostly gone at this point so we've been waiting for good stuff to come out in the budgets here this case only comes with one fan unfortunately this wasn't fully confirmed at CES but we're gonna make an argument in this review as to why budget cases specifically should include more fans than maybe in the higher-end cases a lot of people like to say that they like to buy their own fans and that's cool but what most people don't and too you can't beat the manufacturer pricing on fans so for a cheaper case it actually makes more sense economically to allow the manufacturer to bulk buy and include fans in the case as opposed to going out and buying your own this case you'll end up having to not really count as a $60 option it approaches seventy five once you factor in the fan cost because they are necessary but that's the big thing that we'll be talking about the thermal section build quality all that stuff will go over as well for sizing it's a slightly smaller version of the P 400 a we've talked about this recently as well but you're going to see cases getting shorter now that the industry has more or less moved on from old tooling that had allowances for things like five and a quarter inch drives in the front or four additional hard drives in the front of the case so it's gotten down into the shorter tier of cases similar to the 220 t and with that all said let's get into the build discussion written by Patrick and then we'll talk through thermals and the conclusion space is tight especially inside the power supply shroud one way that fan tax has addressed this is by rotating the hard drive cage so that the drive sleds eject from the front of the case this orientation is a little more convenient since the front panel is easier to remove than either of the two side panels however plugging cables into drives will still probably require taking the side off the major downside is that rotating the hard drive cage leaves even less space between the cage and the power supply so there's barely any space for the cables the cages are movable in pieces but not adjustable to other positions the p300 a it lacks the RGB lighting effects of the p300 but it retains a single dash of white light along the power splice shroud and an RGB button control which has been repurposed as a reset button it's a strange sight to see a reset button replace RGB rather than the other way around the minor lighting in the p300 a isn't obtrusive but a fan tax wanted to save a few pennies this would have been the place to do it we didn't even notice the light until we'd started the testing and it led to some confusion when the nods and RGB control button on the front panel did nothing to change it the glass panel is a shortened design like the NZXT h 500s and we still think this is the best route for budget cases with power supply straps spending money on a full sized glass panel when a quarter of it is just going to show the side of a shroud makes no sense when every penny counts and when we know the yields are going to be worse when you start drilling holes into the glass and if you're curious about that we have a glass factory tour for a computer case Manufacturing glass and steel panels are both held on by captive thumb screws at the back which is a change from the earlier P 300s design which just used thumb screws through holes drilled in the glass we prefer the P 300 a is designed from both a functional and an aesthetic standpoint but we'd like it even more if the glass slotted into the case along the whole bottom edge like it does on the H 500 still points are deserved for the upgrade the front panel design isn't nearly the same as in the P 400 a with a super fine mesh acting both as a panel and a filter this is the type of front panel that we most prefer that's our bias it's towards performance and we've found that this one performs amongst the best that's followed by mesh front panels with additional filters that are easily removable the P 300 A's panel won't catch dust quite as effectively as a traditional filter but it gets the job done and it allows much more air through check our P 400 a review for more thoughts on that one intriguing difference is the use of a plastic cover at the bottom edge of the front panel which blocks off all the mesh below the level of the power splash shroud that may initially sound like a bad thing but there are no fan mounts at the bottom of the front panel and leaving an empty gap here would just allow hot air to potentially flow out of the shroud and into the intake fans we've seen that before we have seen limited effectiveness too from these sorts of tweaks but it shows that some thought has been put it into the airflow layout we don't have a peep 309 a on hand to compare with but we know that it has vents at the top and the bottom so some retooling a reworking was required for this new design the front panel is held on with the same plastic snaps that we complimented on the P 400 a and that makes the front panel easy to remove for cleaning and swapping parts and makes it a worthy investment mentioning the front panel means we have to revisit it's single fan choice the P 300 a only comes equipped with that single 120 mil stock fan installed as exhaust behind the CPU cutting fans is one way to bring down the cost of a case but we believe including a full set of fans in budget cases is even more important than in the higher end once people think that they like to buy their own fans and many of you might actually like doing that however there's one really important thing here with cheaper cases case manufacturers can get a better price in bulk then a customer can trying to buy individual aftermarket fans even if you are a fan elitist and you would actually buy a $60.00 case and install 20 to 40 dollars of fans in it most people will not and are not you so we think that planning for most people in this instance is the better choice especially when you're not going to beat manufacturer pricing on included fans at this price point anyway an extra five dollars to the customer is worthwhile as an investment for an extra two fans we'll discuss this more in the thermal performance section of this review but one fan is not enough and that adds to the hidden cost of at least one or two more 120mm fans to the total price a feature we wouldn't expect at all from a $60 case is a removable top panel it's not mentioned in the manual or the product listing at all and it's not in any way convenient but the entire top of the case can be lifted off independently of the top i/o to make building easier 15 screws hold it in place but there definitely screws and not rivets which would have been the cheap route getting the panel lined back up with all the screw holes and the top i/o is fiddly and we wouldn't really wreck removing the panel on a regular basis but it makes routing the CPU power connectors and other cables at the top of the case is much easier we actually really like this feature even if it's not marketed as one because when you have to maintain an older system and it might involve shoving your hands into something with a bunch of sharp copper or aluminum fins and getting diced up while trying to unplug your power supplies you can swap it because you spent $30 on a power spot it went bad this is going to help a lot in that instance for a case that's intentionally as compact and cramped as possible it's a definite value added from us radiator compatibility at the front of the cases claims to be 280 millimeters with clearance up to 315 millimeters but that's generous 350 millimeters is the total space between the top of the power supply shroud and the bottom of the front I owe 315 millimeters in total height is actually unusually short for a 280 mil rad and even ones that are short will have zero wiggle room and may not line up with the mounting holes like the Kraken X 62 we recommend using a 240 mil or smaller radiator for this case outside of that mountain is fairly straightforward the P 300 a is unfortunately one of the many cases that claims to be an e ATX case without being able to fit a full 12 by 13 inch motherboard you can watch our piece on ye ATX is a fake BS made-up form factor that means nothing for more information on this but we'll move on quickly here the maximum supported board is 275 millimeters wide according to the manual but that's a stretch we found the cable cutouts along the edge of the motherboard for the 24 pin power connector etc to be both narrow and at an inconvenient angle with the holes positioned so that they point back towards the edge of the motherboard a 275 mil wide board would butt up against these cutouts and block them it require an alternative cable path this case is no good for motherboards larger than full ATX and even for full ATX boards who wish fantex would make the cutouts wider so that they wrap around the corner of the cable management bar and allow for better 24 pin cable routing let's get into thermal testing we stuck mostly to the usual test suite for the P 300 a but we thought it deserved at least one extra test to demonstrate what performs would have been like if fan tax had included a couple of extra stock fans we picked two arctic biotics f 124 inventory we installed them in the front intake slots position so that they wouldn't be obstructed by the fan mounts and we carefully equalized the rotations per minute to the single stock fan approximately 1300 rpm F 120 s top out at 1800 rpm and they are better fans than average but that's not the point we're representing a cheaper fan here if one were included we have standardized fantastic later on with three Noctua fans at full speed if you want an example of case performance with more expensive fans but this one is to look at something that is functionally cheaper by reducing that rpm thermal testing starts with a baseline torture result for just the P 300 a and P 400 a then we'll add the comparative tests the P 300 a CPU temperature average 65 degrees Celsius delta T over ambient when stock that's not quite at the point of thermal throttling down from our overclock but it's close taking the front panel off lowered that's 55 degrees over ambience but the test with no front panel still has only a single 120 ml stock fan cooling the entire case this isn't to do with the panel being unbreathable we've proven and can highlight again here that the P 400 a style panels are exceptionally high performing if made properly and without other blockages like filters in this instance it's a pressure equation there's not much air flow in the case and it's entirely negative pressure so removing any impedance will significantly help in a scenario in which there's no intake fan at the front this is also why testing a case like the P 400 a with fan speeds that are arbitrarily too low would lack the static pressure required to overcome the mesh and thus potentially produce poor results removing the panel does allow more cool air to be drawn in through the case from the front but it's not nearly as good as just adding two front intake fans which resulted in a temperature of 47 degrees over ambient while having the front panel still in place we normally tasked with no front panel as a best case possible scenario to judge the other results against and to see how much the front panel design is restricting the thermal performance of the case with so little active cooling in the stock case any test which adds one or more fans will have far greater effect than just taking the front panel off for the record this front panel design isn't restrictive at all just look at it look at the case in the biro check our P 400 a digital review for the comparison between front panel on versus off there which only lowered the CPU temperature by about 4 degrees the p300 a has a lot of potential but you really need some fans for it that might add to the cost if they're not lying around in your house already but it's a worthwhile upgrade the comparative chart is next 65 degrees over ambience is dangerously hot for our test bench and is on the edge of thermal throttling the CPU this is not a case that should be used with only stock cooling the score fits on the chart between the farah r1 and the stock pure Bayes 590 X which isn't good there's limited purpose to comparing temperatures this high on the chart it's beyond the threshold of usability and there's no gradient in our scoring between an F and an F plus they both fail taking the plus to fans score as an indication of what a user should be able to achieve with another maybe fifteen dollars the p300 a becomes massively more competitive landing among the best results on the opposite end of the chart and even slightly outperforming the larger p400 a if MSRP were 70 dollars with a couple extra fans or 65 with the really cheap two dollar supply ones the p300 a would be highly competitive with other cases in either 47 CCB UDT mark like the be quiet pure base 500 DX that we recently positively reviewed or the Coolermaster h 500 m match GP torture for only the fantex cases is next GPU dt was 58 degrees in the torture test which lowered significantly down to 52 degrees celsius del t / ambient with the removal of the front panel again to be exceptionally clear that's not because the panel itself is bad it's because they're not enough fans and any obstruction to the few present will be exacerbated removing the panel was all the help the GB cooler needed since testing with the attitude front didn't take fans and the panel back on resulted in the same temperature remember that GPU fans can create interesting pressure dynamics involving unanticipated intake through PCIe hole punches or other small holes into the back of the case so that's always at play to the stock exhaust fan is nowhere near the GPU and without additional intake fans it's essentially sealed in its own come apartment at the bottom of the case and left the stew in its own heat if adding only one fans of the case we recommend positioning it as an intake that will benefit the GPU here's the comparative chart as with the CPU test the GPU DT with the stock configuration is among the hottest on our chart that isn't completely out of control adding two fans didn't cause such a dramatic Swain as it did in the CPU test but it still ties the pure base 500 DX and is only one degree warmer roughly with an error than the P 400 a this case has the same general design as the P 400 a and it deserves the P 400 a digital treatment at least of a full stock set of fans just may be kill the RGB to cut the price the 3dmark fire strike extreme stress test puts GPU dt up to 56 degrees over ambient or about one degree lower than the torture result when decimal places are taken into account this would be your gaming version of a test every slight increase in temperature means a decrease in clocks on the card to account for it especially with temperatures this high add in another fan to the case will directly lead to better performance however slight and can aid in keeping cheaper systems alive longer where lower life capacitors are more commonly used 56 CDT is on par with the cooler master and our 600 in this test another budget mesh fronted case that we reviewed positively overall but critiqued for its underperforming stock fans standardized fans are next before you read too far into this chart please remember that standardized fan testing is inherently flawed I'll be it's still useful in several ways if you don't actually know what our reasons are that it's flawed and you're just trying to guess at them please open a new tab with the link in the description below about our standardized fan testing methodology for cases CPU DT with a standardized set of fans it was 46 degrees over ambient close to the temperature that resulted from its line two extra fans in a similar configuration that ties the pure bass 500 DX is one of the best performance EP results on our standardized to fan chart so far although our pool of results for this task remains far lower than the others the p4 on today scored a little better at 44 degrees Celsius over ambit but both of these are really excellent results compared to a more normal case layout with a closed front panel like the defined at 56 degrees Celsius DT given appropriate cooling this case can really shine the GPU DT in this test was 49 degrees Celsius over ambient several degrees better than the test with just two 120mm fans added our standardized set of fans uses two 140 ml intakes which cover more area and force more air under the GPU this is again a result that's strong and in line with other mesh fronted cases and the P 300 a actually outperforms the P 400 a by about two degrees here outside of our error shortening the case slightly and not allowing any fan mounts below the power supply shroud means that two 140 mm fans taking up almost the entire breathable area of the front panel pushing a wall of air into the case including only one fan of the case makes the P 300 a relatively quiet but thanks to some audible vibration we measured the noise level to be thirty six point seven DBA at max fan speed just slightly above the threshold for Aaron noise normalized testing lowering the fan to 90% speed or approximately twelve seventy rpm quiet of this vibration but the thermal results were predictably terrible we don't consider this case usable with the stock fan alone already and lowering its P it only hurts performance CPU temperature climbed slightly from baseline 67 C while the GPU remained at 58 CDT and simply down clocked itself instead that puts it between the two previous worst CPU DT results the pure bass 590 X and the zonda oh it's in better company for GPU temperatures beating at least the Faro r1 and the defined s2 vision RGB but it's still definitely on the warm end of the chart as demonstrated with the P 400 a RGB a case with tons of fans will still perform better thermally even with the fan RPMs lowered to equalize the noise levels the P 400 a has one of the best combined results on this chart along with the pure bass 500 DX like many of the budget cases we've reviewed lately then this is in the same position where it actually has a lot of potential but it performs poorly in a stock configuration and you should not use this in a full stock configuration especially if you're going to use only like a downdraft cooler even for systems that are going to be lower power consuming like let's say you throw in a some sort of upcoming a.m. the risin are three CPU or an Intel i3 CPU or something even in those instances it's worth adding an extra fan at least and ideally appointed sort of towards the GPU area if not sort of somewhat split between them with a 140 ml so it's a case that has a hell of a lot of potential it does well once you complement it with fans and you should basically consider the cost of the case instead of $60 to be $75 so the question becomes is a $75 case this one worth it and well it's really not bad it's direct competitor or direct consideration would be the fantex P 400 from the same company it's marginally bigger but it should be about $90 on average for the P 408 digital that's another jump in price if you can afford it it's good but if you can't that's basically where this one steps in it's the the safety net for people who can't quite afford the P 400 a but can't afford a P 380 with extra fans similar cases to this one we include the fractal measure Phi C which was originally $70 the Coolermaster and are 600 similar in price as well and the fara are one from silverstone and all these are cases where extra fans are recommended so it's not like it's a loan with all that settled though there are two major obstacles in the p 300 a's way and that's going to be availability and again the p 408 availability is all over the place with fantex cases it's either well it's probably a mix of relatively high demand and not making enough so good luck getting one they are out of stock currently on both Amazon and Newegg when we checked filming this but we'll link it below anyway just in case the P 400 a has been all over the place in price please don't pay $150 for it sometimes it hits that price it's a $90 case that's what you should pay for it the P 400 A's primary advantages are just going to be the fans and at some extent build quality to a minor degree but the interior of the P 400 a if you remember our review we talked about how the case is really it's not profound in its quality for interior it's a bare-bones stripped-down old tooling old chassis with just a good front on it and a good complement of fans and that's what makes it good it's this and the P 408 neither of them are high build quality cases they're just kind of they're good cases for other reasons but that's not it so at $60 if you're using that stock we'd say definitely by fans and basically consider it a bit more in reality the difference in height and sizing is about 1.5 centimeters shorter top to bottom 7 centimeters shallower front to back and that's pretty much all there is to talk about this one so yeah once you have the fans in it's good and it's competitive but without it don't use it that way so that's it for this one thanks for watching subscribe for more it's always you can go to store documents exes Donna if you want to support our work and get something actually useful in return like the mod mat which you can use for your PC builds and they're back in stock and shipping now by the way or you go to patreon.com/scishow and access and subscribe for more we'll see you all next time [Music]

Channel: Gamers Nexus

Views: 307,894

Keywords: gamersnexus, gamers nexus, computer hardware, cases, case reviews, best budget cases, phanteks p300a, phanteks p300a review, phanteks p300a vs phanteks p400a, phanteks p300a extra fans, phanteks p300a benchmark, phanteks p300a worth it, best cheap cases, computer cases

Id: -L9YfbCirTg

Length: 23min 24sec (1404 seconds)

Published: Tue May 05 2020