NZXT has established itself into the enthusiast community by creating high quality computer chassis with lots of cooling and with the Phantom series definitely got people to pay attention to what they put out. One problem that some were stating about the Phantom 820 was the high price tag, well NZXT decided to come out with a much lower price point little brother and thus the Phantom 630 has arrived. Overall, the 630 in comparison to the 820 is a little bit smaller, has a few less features, but is still packed with high quality materials and the important features. The spec sheet of the 630 as from the NZXT website:
Overall the case has the normal angular Phantom design in gunmetal matte finish with black mesh work for the fans. I think it is due to the wider stance, but I like it better than the other Phantoms out now, but it is not exactly winning a beauty contest. It is more subtle than the other cases they have put out and I am willing to bet it will appeal to more people because of it. Also, as a bonus you can place some lighter things (a phone or a wallet) on top of the Phantom without any of it sliding off the top, as a person who seems to eat up desk space very quickly this is nice.
With the 630 you lose a little from the 820 such as 4 channel individual fan control, external water cooling ports, and the HUE system. It is a bit shorter then the 820 but 10mm wider, which you will see later why this is a great thing. Yet, as you see by it’s dimensions it is still a really big case. However, what you lose isn’t really important it is what you gain: The fully modular HDD cage design. Fully modular around the bottom all the way up to the 5.25″ bays really set this case apart from others in the very reasonable 179 dollar price point and really made it easier on my life building this PC. (picture) Some of the other features included are well thought out as well and your 179 dollars goes a long way. On top there are very smooth streamlined buttons along with an I/O light button and a 3 speed fan controller (which doesn’t allow for a complete off mode for the fans) with LED indication lights. I have found that the three settings are quiet, loud and very loud with the factory fans and I think i preferred a rheostat controller.
To the left of the fan speed controller are 4 USB ports (2x USB 3.0 and 2x USB 2.0) and your front audio jacks. There are dust filters covering every fan and there is a removable dust fan tray at the bottom as well. There is a split side panel with a clear plastic window, which gives you a good view of the CPU, chipset, graphics card, and ram. on top of a 200mm fan intake below it. I had found that if you really pack the cables in behind the case it is possible to pinch some of the fan connections, so be wary of that. It is a nice compromise for those that want a simple streamlined PC vs those who like to appreciate the hard work that goes into making the case look good on the inside and outside. A calculated exclusion as mentioned before was the external water cooling ports, something that is included with many enthusiast cases, but never really implemented anymore. There are also a ton of ways to make your water cooling internal in this PC and a ton of room elsewhere if you really want to have an external pump and reservoir. Most of the time those ports actually make it more difficult anyway when routing tubing and when you have to drain and move your computer to another location.
On the inside setting up your components was relatively painless compared to other builds I have done, the modular hard drive racks are in a 3, 2, 1 configuration, and are simple to unlock and remove and replace back. The supplied plastic hard drive mounting brackets are still as flimsy as they were on the other chassis, but worked just fine. You can see a lot of thought went into the design of this case and it allows for a lot of possibilities Hard drives can be mounted by hanging from the 5.25″ bays or mounted towards the bottom, leaving a gap in the middle for the 200mm intake fan on the front. There are also two SSD mounts behind the motherboard as well which work much better with straight style cables than 90* cables. The huge hole behind the CPU allows for easy disconnection of your heatsink or water block without having to remove your whole motherboard. Bottom mounted PSU had rubber buffers on the floor where you mount it, but it has no extension for routing CPU power cable behind the case.
I found this a very easy and versatile case to build, and I feel that most modding enthusiasts who enjoy building computers for the sake of computers will be very satisfied with their options in this case. I found the quality of the build materials of high quality for a cheaper enthusiast case and it is packed with a lot of good very useful features that you would be hard pressed to find anything similar on any other case. For those thinking about the Phantom 820 might want to save the almost $70 for the 630. For those who are wondering, you can also get the HUE system from NZXT as an extra if you like the functionality/practicality of the 630 and still want some light control. I found it to be a user friendly to build and would definitely recommend it at its price point.
