Phanteks Enthoo Pro M Tempered Glass Chassis Review




/ 7 years ago

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Introduction


Phanteks Enthoo Pro M Tempered Glass Chassis Review

Phanteks are one of the best chassis manufacturers on the market today, having spent the last few years releasing one award-winning after another, including what I regard as one of the greatest premium chassis ever made, the Enthoo Evolve ATX, and one of the best mid-budget chassis ever, the Pro M. That last one is particularly important today, as we’re back to take a look at it again, but this time it’s been given one of the best upgrades you can give a chassis these days, a big slab of tempered glass goodness!

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“Phanteks’ new Enthoo Pro M variant will now include a full Tempered Glass side panel. System builders and watercooling enthusiasts can now showcase their build. The Enthoo Pro M with Tempered Glass side panel features the new HDD mounting system, our innovative radiator bracket and pump mounting locations.”

As you can see from the breakdown (above), the chassis features robust cooling mounts, dust filters, as well as that lovely and large side panel window to show off all your sexy new hardware. With room for up to an E-ATX motherboard, 7 expansion slots, lots of storage and a good mixture of 120/140mm fans or up to 360/280mm radiators, there’s no doubt that the Pro M can handle a serious system and cooling setup.

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While the chassis comes with support for lots of hardware, you can purchase more accessories to suit your needs. Need extra storage bays, a PWM fan hub or a pump bracket? No problem.

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A Closer Look – Exterior


The first thing you’ll notice about this chassis is that huge upgrade to the left side panel, gone is the metal and plastic panel from before, and now we have a full-size glass panel, which runs edge-to-edge, mounted on four corner pegs with aluminium thumbscrews. This gives us a lovely view of the chassis interior and when you throw in your favourite hardware, it’s going to look pretty special.

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Down the left side of the front panel, you’ll find a simple I/O, with dual USB 3.0 ports, as well as the HD audio jacks and power buttons.

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The right side panel is just a blank black panel, nothing too fancy, but it goes well with the rather stealthy finish off the rest of the chassis, well, apart from the big window on the other side, but otherwise stealthy.

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The front panel remains unchanged, with a 5.25″ drive bay up top, and that lovely recessed design to the ventilation section, behind which you can see a filter as well as the front mounted cooling.

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Around the back, you’ll find a 120/140mm fan mount, with elongated screw mountings so you can adjust the cooler height; very handy for water cooling installations. Below that, there’s a rear bracket with ventilation, as well as 7 ventilated expansion slot covers.

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Up top, a lot of extra ventilation covered with a lift-off magnetic debris filter.

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Lift it off and you can easily clean the filter or just leave it open if you prefer. You’ll notice it looks like there are no fan or radiator mounts here, that’s because they’re on that lovely slide-out tray on the interior, keeping this panel looking neat and tidy.

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On the base, you’ll find four large feet that give it good ground clearance, giving more airflow to the PSU air intake, which comes fitted with a slide out and washable dust filter for easy maintenance.

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A Closer Look – Interior


With the side panel removed, you can better appreciate that lovely uniform black finish on the chassis interior. The only white highlights you’ll find are on the fans, as well as the small Phanteks logo on the side of the PSU cover. There’s a lot of space in here for hardware too, as all the HDD bays are on the backplate, or tucked under the PSU cover and behind the motherboard.

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In the top, you’ll find a universal fan and radiator bracket with all the spacings you could possibly ask for to ensure maximum compatibility. This means you can mount the cooling hardware closer or further away from the motherboard, avoiding conflicts with large VRM heatsinks, etc.

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The PSU cover in the base has a large cutaway on the side, so you can still show off the PSU design, and there’s lots of ventilation on the top too. What is will do, however, is hide all the cable mess, as well as some storage bays, keeping the build looking neat and tidy. One of the best features is still the rubber grommet at the edge, which is perfect for GPUs that have side-loading power cables.

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In the back, you’ll find all of the expansion slots come fitted with reusable metal covers and easy access thumbscrews.

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The rear fan is one of Phanteks own and comes with a lovely white design and custom fan blades for improved airflow and low noise operation. Of course, you could easily swap this out for your own 120/140mm fan or radiator too.

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Up front, a 5.25″ drive bay, which is also removable should you need the space for more cooling hardware.

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Another pre-installed 140mm fan, but with room for 120/140mm fans and radiators up to 280/360mm if you need them.

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There’s a removable plate on the PSU cover, which offers up pump mounts as it is, but can be lifted out to make room for full-height radiators in the front. There are also four rubber pegs on the side, as you can mount an SSD here, giving you a nice place to show off your favourite drive.

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Lots going on around the back too! With plenty of room for cable routing, including a bunch of Velcro straps to keep the bulk of your cables neat and tidy.

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Routing grommets and cutouts dotted around the motherboard tray to deal with any additional cables with ease.

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There’s a stealth mounted 2.5″ tray back here too, which can be moved to the mounts on the front of the PSU cover if you wish. You can also purchase more of these mounts separately should you need them.

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A large recess in the bottom for the PSU and excess cables, as well as four more rubber pegs to mount one of those 2.5″ drive trays.

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Towards the front, a 3.5/2.5″ HDD tray, which is also moveable and removable to suit your needs, keeping with the modular nature of the rest of the chassis.

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Complete System


Building a system inside the Pro M is a setup easy task, certainly forgiving for first-time system builders, but still offering extensive customisation options for the enthusiast system builders out there. Cable management is as good as it gets and is given a little extra touch of professionalism thanks to the cable grommet on the PSU cover, allowing the GPU cables to travel upwards cleanly to the GPU.

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We moved the 2.5″ tray from behind the motherboard, putting it up front where all can see it; looks pretty cool!

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The cutaway on the side of the PSU cover allows us to see the PSU design, although how good that looks will obviously depend on the PSU you’re using.

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The chassis is nice and wide, so those wanting larger enthusiast CPU air coolers won’t be left wanting for space, and there’s easily enough room left over for a thick radiator in the rear, or slimmer radiators in the top of the chassis for water cooling enthusiasts.

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Of course, not forgetting the comprehensive radiator support in the front, and there’s more than enough room for thicker radiators even with a large GPU installed. Just remember that the maximum radiator sizes may require you to remove the 5.25″ drive bay and the small panel on the PSU cover.

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With the side panel back in place, that extremely tidy cable routing pays off big time, as the chassis has nothing to hide through the clear window. If you really want to show off your hardware, there’s no better way that a glass panel like this and without a doubt it looks rather impressive.

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While we didn’t have any built-in to this chassis, you can see there’s a lot of potential here to show off your hardware, just throw in some custom loop cooling and a bit of LED lighting, and you’ve got quite the display case here.

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Overall, a well made, durable, and very neat and tidy looking chassis that’s sure to compliment any kind of system build.

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Final Thoughts


Price

The Phanteks Enthoo Pro M Glass Edition is available from OCUK for a very reasonable £89.99, although if you’re feeling like saving a few quid, you can pick up a similar looking model with an acrylic side panel window for just £78.95. Honestly, that’s not a compromise you’ll want to make, as much as the acrylic looks great, it’s not a patch on the premium vibe you get from a real glass panel.

Additional 2.5″ drive bays, pump mounts and more can be purchased separately. While this may seem like a cash grab, not everyone will need this hardware so it saves money for most users, and as a very welcome bonus, the extra bits come in at around £5-6 each, which is certainly kind to your wallet!

Overview

When we first reviewed the Enthoo Pro M, we absolutely loved it. The only downside (in retrospect) is that it has quite a small window section, and the window that it did have was acrylic. You could show off the PSU and some of the GPU and CPU cooler design through the smaller window, which was great as it looked neat and tidy, but all your other hardware was obscured. If you’re eager to show off your funky fans, custom water cooling hardware, your motherboard and more, then you’ll be eager to rip away that clunky old panel and quite simply, put a huge freaking window on the side.

The Pro M is a huge upgrade over the old model in terms of aesthetics, and while Phanteks are not the first nor the last to take an old model and slap a window on it, it’s still an upgrade worthy of your attention. In terms of giving a chassis that premium quality look, real glass is the way to go and while much of the market is going RGB crazy these days, I think the glass panels are much more mature and add a hint of professionalism that wasn’t really being captured with acrylic.

The price is certainly competitive too, and while I admit that £90 isn’t cheap, the hardware support on offer, the modular design, dust filters where you need them, and the flawless cable management, all add up to making the Pro M Glass one of the best chassis on the market.

Pros

  • Exceptional cable management
  • Robust water cooling support
  • Modular interior
  • Front mounted SSD display
  • 2 x premium quality fans pre-installed
  • PSU cover
  • Dust filters
  • Full-size glass side panel
  • Easy to work with
  • Good value for money
  • Additional drive mounts and other hardware are fairly priced.

Cons

  • None

“One of the best mid-towers on the market just got even better. If you’re looking for a very capable and stylish chassis for your system build, but also want a lovely glass window panel to show off your latest hardware, the Pro M Glass from Phanteks is one of the best value options on the market today.”

Phanteks Enthoo Pro M Tempered Glass Chassis Review

Phanteks Enthoo Pro M Tempered Glass Chassis Review

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