Phanteks has typically focused on the premium tower case market with its Enthoo range, but after a long wait, it’s finally turning its attention to smaller form factors and lower budgets. The Enthoo Evolv ITX is the company’s first dedicated mini-ITX chassis, and it comes in at a very attractive £55 inc VAT price, or just £50 without a window.
Not surprisingly, the Evolv ITX has a similar design to the original micro-ATX Evolv, albeit with smaller dimensions. There’s a slightly indented front section, sharp angles and minimalist panels – it’s a clean-looking chassis.
The build quality is also very good, with little flex on any of the panels and minimum reliance on plastic. The front panel is formed from plastic at its core, but it has an external steel sheet for added rigidity, and also matches the rest of the case’s aesthetics.
The power button is found on the roof, while the remaining front I/O ports and buttons are easily accessed at the top of the front panel. The front and roof are otherwise pretty sparse, besides a few holes and vents. Up front, these vents provide an inlet for air flowing to the supplied 200mm intake fan, while on top, the small vents sit in the place where hot air would be exhausted, should you choose to use the fan or radiator mounts there. Still, these two panels are mostly solid – the Enthoo Evolv ITX isn’t a high-airflow chassis.
Meanwhile, a set of four foam feet on the bottom give the chassis a little extra grip, although rubber ones would be preferred. Our sample also shipped with a large, slightly tinted window in the left panel, which nets you a glorious view of the internals. On both versions of the case, the right side panel is devoid of features, and round the back you’ll find the dual expansion slots and height-adjustable 140mm/120mm fan mount – no exhaust fan is provided.
Thumbscrews and handles make the side panels quick to remove and, internally, the chassis has a tower-style design with a vertical motherboard. It’s arranged in two sections, with the core hardware at the top and the PSU and drive bays at the bottom. The window is neatly designed so that you won’t see masses of power cables or the drive bays, and much of the case is held together with screws, so it can be easily disassembled, which is great for modding or paint jobs. You won’t need to worry about dust either. The PSU dust filter is easily removable from the rear and can be replaced without having to lift or tilt the case. Likewise, the front fascia also pulls cleanly away, revealing a full cover dust filter that you can unclip easily for cleaning.
Starting downstairs, the PSU slots into place from the side and rests on foam feet to reduce vibrations. Up front is a pair of plastic drive trays in the hard drive cage, both of which can house 3.5in or 2.5in drives, with tool-free installation for the former.
There’s also a dedicated 2.5in bracket on the rear of the motherboard tray, which slots into place on a series of rubber grommets. Upstairs, Phanteks has preinstalled the motherboard mounts and provides a fullsized cut-out for CPU cooler backplate installation. At the front is a multi-function midplate, which sits bridge-like over the graphics card. Atop this you can mount a single SSD or hard drive, but doing so requires you to buy a separate tray.
Hardware installation is a cinch, and cable routing is likewise impressive. There’s ample room behind the motherboard tray to tie down thick power cables, and well-sized routing holes above, below and to the side of the motherboard. The side holes are fitted with rubber grommets, which is great, as they’re visible through the window. The inclusion of two Velcro cable ties makes rearranging the cabling easy as well.
For water cooling, you can install a 240mm radiator in the front, or a 240mm or even a 280mm one in the roof. You need to remove the front hard drive cage to use the front radiator mounts, though, leaving you with just a single SSD mount.
That said, you could install a radiator in the roof, a small tube reservoir between the GPU and the left side panel (provided your graphics card is thin enough) and then a pump on top of the mid-plate, which would leave the hard drive cage intact.
The roof also has a handy slide-out radiator bracket, allowing you to install your radiator and fans, and then simply slot the rest of your kit into place. The mounting holes are offset too – thick 240mm radiators can be installed, but you’re limited to half-height 280mm radiators.
Performance
The default cooling of the Evolv ITX isn’t great, with the CPU in particular getting comparably toasty and the GPU also heating up a fair bit, although not to the degree that it does in other cases, such as the BitFenix Colossus Mini-ITX. It’s understandable, as there’s no fan exhausting heat from the CPU area, and there’s a limited supply of cool air reaching the GPU, since the front fan is the only intake and it’s largely blocked by the front panel.
On the plus side, the front fan is relatively slow-spinning and quiet, and it was still powerful enough to keep our overclocked CPU and hot-running GPU from throttling after extended testing at 100 per cent load.
Still, for an air-cooled system, we’d use a CPU tower cooler since there’s plenty of room to do so, and also install an exhaust fan or two.
There isn’t much more you can do to help the graphics card temperature, so investing in an efficient model (such as an Nvidia Maxwell card) with a solid third-party cooler would also be a wise move to keep down noise and temperatures.
Conclusion
While its out-of-the-box air cooling is limited, the Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX is otherwise a fantastic mini-ITX chassis, especially for water-cooling system. Sure, it isn’t the smallest case around, but there’s plenty of room for hefty components, and numerous options for air or water-cooled builds – it’s good to see that thought has been given to reservoir and pump placement, rather than just radiators.
It’s very well made, a joy to work with and attractive too. For £55, it’s a great deal, and easy to recommend provided you aren’t looking to install many hard drives or SSDs. MATTHEW LAMBERT
VERDICT
Large for a mini-ITX case, but it provides plenty of room for water-cooling gear and components. It’s well designed too, although air-cooled rigs will benefit from more fans.
SPECIFICATIONS
Dimensions (mm) 230 x 395 x 375 (W x D x H)
Material Steel, plastic
Available colours Black
Weight 5.4kg
Front panel Power, reset, 2 x USB 3, stereo, mic
Drive bays 2 x internal 3.5in/2.5in, 1 x internal 2.5in, 1 x optional 3.5in or 2.5in (additional trays purchased separately)
Form factor(s) Mini-ITX
Cooling 1 x 200mm or 2 x 140mm/120mm front fan mounts (200mm fan included), 2 x 140mm/120mm roof fan mounts, 1 x 140mm/120mm rear fan mount (fans not included)
CPU cooler clearance 200mm
Maximum graphics card length 330mm
Extras Removable dust filters