Phanteks Enthoo Pro II Full-Tower Chassis Review
Phanteks' launched its Enthoo Pro II full-tower computer case today. Join us as we work out if you should consider it or not.
Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing
Back to back case reviews from the same manufacturer are rare for me, but today this is what we have with the new Enthoo Pro II from Phanteks. The Pro II follows the lineage of the original Enthoo Pro, but better in several ways.
The Enthoo Pro II shares a lot of its guts or the base chassis with the more expensive Enthoo 719, which was supposed to be the Luxe II, but that is another story for another time. The Pro II is essentially the more expensive 719 chassis model but with different exterior materials and slightly different styling to match the Luxe style.
Some of the key features I find for the Enthoo Pro II are as follows:
- Dual system capable
- DRGB Accent stripe on the PSU shroud
- Massive liquid cooling capability
- Fabric mesh front for maximum airflow
- Large open space to build
- Vertical mounting for both systems
- Large storage capability
The Enthoo Pro II promises to be a versatile chassis with accessories available to fit almost any use case. From extra drive trays to vertical ribbons and brackets for GPUs. The accessory pack is vast, but keep in mind this is a strategy by Phanteks to lower the initial total cost of the chassis, then you add options for what you want outside of what the enclosure comes with.
The Enthoo Pro II comes in two models, the Tempered glass version, which, as you can guess, has a tempered glass main panel and the Enthoo Pro II Closed, which is a solid steel panel. The tempered glass model comes with an MPN of PH-ES620PTG_DBK01, while the closed version MPN is PH-ES620PC_BK01. We received the Tempered glass version, as I'm sure Phanteks wanted to show more of the pretty versus an obscured system view for reviews.
The Enthoo Pro II measures in at 580mm tall, 560mm deep, and 240mm wide. The width while not mostly above other chassis is enough that it gives room for the side-mounted PSU and the second system or drive trays.
Motherboard fitment in the Enthoo Pro II is from ITX, and up to SSI-EEB. This does mean that even large server boards can be installed in the Pro II by merely adding a few standoffs. HDD fitment is up to twelve 3.5" drives with four 2.5" drives in tow, although you will have to purchase extra drive trays for this. 2.5" drive limit is eleven, and all of the mountings are included out of the box.
PSU is limited to 280mm in length under the shroud, which essentially means there is no limit as that is well beyond any practical consumer PSU. The PSU sits on its side, and the shroud covers the rear area while also serving as the mounting area for the second ITX system should you opt to install one. The PSU shroud also has an RGB separation line in the PSU cover, which adds some internal flare to the sizeable black swath that is the interior.
The cooling fitment in the Enthoo Pro II is massive; first up is fan fitment, of which the Pro II comes with zero. The Pro II comes empty, which allows users to pick the fans they want to run, but that also means you will have to budget for the fans you want in your build budget. Fan fitment which is up to fifteen 120mm or eight 140mm. The front can fit up to four 120mm or triple 140mm. The top can fit triple of both 120mm or 140mm. The rear can fit a single 120 or 140mm fan. The bottom of the chassis can fit up to three 120mm or a single 140mm. The side which runs parallel to the motherboard tray can fit up to four 120mm fans.
Radiator fitment is similar to the fan fitment with the front supporting up to 480mm or 420mm radiators. The top can fit a 360mm radiator while the rear can fit a 120mm or 140mm. The bottom can fit up to a 360mm radiator, but keep in mind that the second ITX system mounting will be obscured with a radiator in place. The side mount will fit up to a 480mm radiator.
CPU cooler height is up to 195mm, which I will call unlimited as that covers any cooler I am familiar with.
The Enthoo Pro II comes to market at a price point of $139.99 for the tempered glass version, as we will look at today. The closed version is ten bucks less at $129.99, which could make for a robust workstation model. Comparing to the market at the time of writing, we see others in this space are the Enthoo Pro from Phanteks along with the Define XL from Fractal Design. Moving to the mid-tower designation and the same price point, we see such chassis as the PC011 Dynamic, which is also a very popular and potent chassis.
Shannon's Chassis Test System Specifications
- Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus XI Hero (Wi-Fi) Z390 (buy from Amazon)
- CPU: Intel Core i7 8700K (buy from Amazon)
- Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H60 (buy from Amazon)
- Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro RGB CMW32GX4M4C3000C15(buy from Amazon)
- Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Z (buy from Amazon)
- Storage: SanDisk M.2 256GB
- Power Supply: SilverStone Strider Platinum 1000W (buy from Amazon)
- OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit (buy from Amazon)
Packaging
The large sides of the box had a line drawing profile of the Enthoo Pro II along with the name and logo. The opposing side has a full-side line drawing profile where you can make out much of the interior features and cable management.
The skinny sides of the package carry similar styling with the branding and nameplate being in place. The first surface has the remainder of the partial line drawing of the front of the chassis completed. The opposing surface is where we find the inventory management labels along with the regulatory and safety iconography.
The Enthoo Pro II comes wrapped in a fabric bag to help avoid abrasion damage from vibration or jostling during transport. The bagged chassis is sandwiched between two endcaps made of soft foam reinforced with cardboard for stability and crush resistance. The accessory box comes outside the enclosure, as you see here.
With the packaging sorted, let's undress the chassis and see what the Enthoo Pro II is all about.
Phanteks Enthoo Pro II Full-Tower Chassis
The front of the Pro II is mostly a brushed metal looking finish on the plastic front panel. The opening for ventilation is an open fabric mesh with a magnetic filter behind it to catch dust. The front carries an accent line around the bottom and up the left side. The top houses a flip-up door that gives access to the I/O, which we will check out shortly.
The top of the Pro II is covered by a magnetic dust filter that covers the top cooling mounting. Toward the front, we see the main power button with the surrounding power LED halo.
The main power switch is up top as we observed a minute ago, then we move to the flip-up door covering the majority of the connectivity.
The I/O below the cover is as follows:
- 4x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports
- USB 3,2 Gen 2 Type-C port
- Combo headphone and microphone 3.5mm jack
- RGB LED mode button
- RGB LED color Button
- Reset button with HDD LED Halo (Power button and LED halo for the second system)
As you can see the, I/O is stuffed, and I do like that Phanteks cleans things up a bit by employing the reset button as the power switch for the second system if you choose to install a second ITX system.
The main case panel is tempered glass on our unit, and it is smoked to offer a darker view of the internal system until it is powered on and LEDs come to life.
Looking at the rear of the Pro II, we see a pretty standard ATX layout up top. However, once we get to the PSU, we notice the rotated mounting and know that it means we are making room for something in the main chamber. Adjacent to the PSU mount, we see a cover, which is two pieces as a second PSU can be mounted here, or the entire righthand cover can be removed and replaced with the ITX back panel bracket.
The cable management panel is solid steel and has two separate ventilation openings. The opening toward the front panel allows airflow to the cooling mounting running parallel to the motherboard. The lower rear ventilation point is to feed the installed PSU. The panel is held in place with two thumbscrews you can see at the case back edge.
The bottom of the Pro II has four corner large plastic foot surfaces with small rubberized pads to help avoid sliding on the floor or desk. To service the lower filter, which runs the length of the chassis, you must remove the front panel to access pulling it out from the front.
Let's pull the panels off now and see what secrets the Pro II holds.
Inside the Enthoo Pro II
Pulling the front panel is simple enough with a forceful pull releasing the plastic clips that hold the panel in place. Once the panel is removed, you can see the internal magnetic fan filter fit to the front. The fan filter has a small tab to remove it at the top.
With the filter removed, we now see the sizeable slotted fitment for fans or radiators in the front. Also, at the bottom left edge, we see a larger hole which Phanteks put in place to allow for a drain plug to be installed if you choose to install liquid cooling in your new system.
Now with eth tempered glass panel removed, we have a better view of the internal structure of the Enthoo Pro II. The area is a wide-open swath of black steel and some plastic along with rubber cable pass-through grommets. The CPU cutout is plenty large enough to service any cooler we have used to date. The plastic pucks up front serve to cover this area along with offering to mount up to two 2.5" drives per puck.
Looking form the inside, we see the same as when we removed the front panel, which is open space to mount cooling or other devices in the expanse. Here you can also get a bit of profile of the PSU shroud, which fades into the area below the motherboard mounting.
The magnetic filter is now removed from the top of the Pro II, and we can see that the slotted mounting for triple fans is spaced away from the motherboard tray, which should allow clearance for top-mounted radiators should you opt for liquid cooling.
Here we get a clear view of the PSU shroud, which is much thinner than we are used to seeing as the PSU is on its side, allowing for the PSU shroud to be in this design, but also means it is taller. We also can see the pass-through, which is ample to help feed cables for components or if you decide to install an ITX system in place. We also can see the four holes for standoffs you will need to add if you plan to install a secondary system in the Enthoo Pro II.
Inside the Enthoo Pro II Continued
Here we see the rear area where the expansion slots are located. There are eight expansion slots on the rear in the standard location with three vertical slots in case you want to show off GPUs or other expansion slot devices. Be mindful that you will need to purchase any riser cables separately as the Pro II does not include them. The RGB dividing accent line on the PSU shroud can be seen here on the top of the PSU shroud.
Looking in the cable management section of the Pro II and we can see that there is plenty of Velcro ties for cables back here. There are also cable management loops here, but I doubt you will need those much based upon what we see so far. One thing I like quite a lot is the small flip-down cover in the lower section, which is designed to hide away excess cabling in front of the PSU.
The three SSD trays on the motherboard tray require screws to mount the drives. The four pucks we see to the left can install 2.5" drives via flexible peg mounting we will look at shortly. The opposing side inside the chassis chamber can mount a 2.5" drive as well but will require screws to install them.
Here is a closer look at the 2.5" drive mounting, and as you can see, the drive snaps into the backside of the pucks, and there are four plastic pins that slot into the screw holes for the drive.
Here we flipped down the cable cover to show the entire PSU area. Inside this area, you can see the rubber strips on the PSU shroud along with the small rubberized feet at the bottom where the PSU will rest. This is also where excess cabling can be tucked away, hiding it from view and making a cleaner overall aesthetic.
The front panel cables for the Enthoo Pro II is stuffed and equipped as follows:
- Reset Switch connector (Can be used for the power button for second ITX system)
- HDD LED connector (Can be used for the power LED for second ITX system)
- Power Switch Connector
- SATA power connector (For RGB hub)
- 3-pin 5V ARGB connector to sync the controller to the motherboard
- 3-pin ARGB connector to add ARGB/DRGB components to the controller
- USB 3.2 Gen 2 connector
- HD Audio connector
- 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 connector
The cabling array has a lot going on, but I fo like that the dual 20-pin headers for the front panel USB port array mean each system can have two Type-A ports if you opt to install the secondary ITX system.
Hardware & Documentation
First we will look at the maincomponenst that come in the accessory box, and it is as follows:
- 4x 3.5"/2.5" capable drive trays
- ITX secondary system backplate
- three expansion slot covers for the ITX backplate
- Vertical GPU ribbon bracket
- GPU anti sag bracket
- Phanteks case badge
- 6x zip ties
The other part of the accessory package is the small plastic organizer box for the fasteners. The contents are as follows:
- 38x Motherboard & 2.5" drive screws
- 8x Fan screws
- 6x Standoffs
- Standoff installation tool
- 12x Hex screws
- 14x Thumbscrews
- 4x Rubberized PSU pads
- 16x 3.5" HDD screws
- 3x Riser cable screws
The accessory container has plenty to build your rig, while also having useful extras like the PSU pads. These pads can be installed in the main chamber if you opt to mount a secondary PSU in that location in front of the PSU shroud.
Lastly, we have the paperwork, which is a multi-page manual, along with a warranty pamphlet. The manual is quite well done with explanations for most everything I could think of being present.
Phanteks Revolt X PSU (Dual system capable)
With the Pro II, Phanteks also sent along their Revolt X PSU which is specially designed in partnership with Seasonic for powering a dual PC. With that said, I guess we will be installing our ITX testbench in the Pro II since we have this on hand.
The Revolt X PSU is platinum rated, and you can see the units included cabling, which has four total 8-pin EPS connectors. There are, of course, dual 24-pin ATX connectors as well, but do note as the SATA cables will be shared, any pumps or devices you have installed on peripheral connectors or PCIe will have power when one of the two systems is powered up.
Here we have the output modular connectivity of the Revolt X PSU, and you can see that there are three rubber covers over the 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS headers for the secondary system. The Peripheral and PCIe connectors will be live any time either of the connected systems is powered on.
Here we see the Revolt X out of its packaging with its accessories bag, power cord, and the large cable bag. The styling of the Revolt X is nice with a brushed aluminum plate as a fan grille.
While I would love to go on for days on the PSU, its time to get the Enthoo Pro II built, and this PSU installed.
Case Build & Finished Product
The front of the Enthoo Pro II with components installed still looks pretty much the same as when we first unboxed it. However, if you look closely, we can see the installed components. This is due to the lack of front fans, and with fans in place, this view will likely be more obscured.
Here we can see that even with both our ARX test rig and our ITX test rig in place, there is still tons of room for activities. The AIO mounting for the ITX system is not ideal; however, I felt this would look better than mounting it to the bottom. This position also still allowed the fan for the AIO to be connected to the ITX system for independent control.
You will notice we did not install a GPU with our ITX rig, and that is because the ribbon cable for it did not show up in time for the review. Even with all we have here, everything installed quickly and without much fuss. If you are attempting a showpiece rig, I would, however, advise you to invest in sleeved cable extensions at a minimum as the sleeving on the Revolt X is nice, but lacks the aesthetic individually sleeved cables offer.
Here on the rear of the Enthoo Pro II, we see that the I/O area is quite stuffed now. The lower ITX backplate in place now shows the triple slots available vertically, which is why we did not install a GPU for this rig yet.
Moving to the cable management area of the build, we find the Velcro did a great job of keeping things tidy without even a single zip tie being used. I genuinely think Phanteks has mastered cable management with the previous two chassis we have reviewed for them. This is not to say they are the end all tell all gold standard, but they do enough common sense engineering that it makes the chassis a real delight to build in.
With all of the panels attached, we now see the final form of the Enthoo Pro II take shape. The smoked glass keeps things relatively hidden while allowing some hints to the parts inside. If you are interested in hiding the innards and want a more business-focused build, then I would opt for the cheaper closed model with steel panel. That would make for a great workstation solution that would be ideal in a business environment.
Kicking up the two installed systems and we see things light up a bit. Since we do not have any sort of large light strips or significant forces of internal illumination, we see that the smoked glass creates a unique, subdued effect which allows viewing of the parts but only partially lit by the component RGB. The LED strip on the PSU shroud creates a robust aesthetic that helps separate the two systems in the Enthoo Pro II.
Final Thoughts
When I first heard about the Pro II and saw early peeks at it from CES 2020, I was interested to see how it turned out. Needless to say, if you have not picked up on it from the way I have spoken about it in this review, I do like it quite a lot. The Enthoo Pro II offers a lot of adjustabilities to make it what you want it to be. The ability to buy all of the accessories to meld the Enthoo Pro II into your ideal rig is a welcome way fo doing things to avoid being a needlessly expensive chassis.
In thermal testing, we found the Pro II even without any fans except what was on the AIOs was still free-flowing enough that the systems never got close to throttling. During testing, we measured an ambient of 24.9C with an RH of 43%, and the CPU under full stress we observed an average delta over ambient of 52.8C for the primary system, and 51.6C for the ITX rig.
The GPU on the primary ATX system saw a delta of 36.8C with no chassis fans installed. Adding fans made the chassis even better, but keep note that the Enthoo Pro II has better thermals than the Define 7 with its door closed and only two degrees warmer than that chassis with the door open. This is without fans at all, so imagine adding fans will only make this situation better.
What we like
Thermals: The Enthoo Pro II without any fans fell within the results we observed on many premium chassis which come with fans, and that is not an easy task to pull off. Granted, the two AIOs worked as exhaust, but still, that's impressive. The mesh is of note here for being so wide open that air flows freely while still helping avoid dust.
Build quality: This one is something we are echoing from our P500A review, which is that the build quality is substantial, and this is one of a few cases I would trust standing on like a step stool.
Dual system capable: The ability to run dual systems with minimal additional hardware is fantastic.
Modularity accessories: The approach Phanteks has taken by offering accessories to allow you to adjust the chassis to be what you want it to, is an excellent way of doing things to keep the initial cost down and reduce the number of unnecessary components users will pay for.
Value: The price point that the Enthoo Pro II comes in at is arguable excellent. The capabilities of the chassis make it stand above others in the range, even without fans included.
What do we think could be better?
Accessory packaging: The accessory pack in our unit had a few bent parts that could be bent back in place. But I do hope Phanteks takes note of this, and I would suggest putting the accessory pack inside the chassis as they did with the P500A. This will ensure an optimal experience for end-users.
At the $139.99 price point, I feel like the Enthoo Pro II is well-appointed, and has so many options to expand upon the base capabilities that it exceeds most anything we have at this price point. Some users may choose something like the PC011 Dynamic for its surround glass. Still, aesthetic aside, the liquid cooling fitment and dual system capabilities combined with excellent airflow make it a great value.
Shannon's Chassis Test System Specifications
- Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus XI Hero (Wi-Fi) Z390 (buy from Amazon)
- CPU: Intel Core i7 8700K (buy from Amazon)
- Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H60 (buy from Amazon)
- Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro RGB CMW32GX4M4C3000C15(buy from Amazon)
- Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Z (buy from Amazon)
- Storage: SanDisk M.2 256GB
- Power Supply: SilverStone Strider Platinum 1000W (buy from Amazon)
- OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit (buy from Amazon)
Performance | 94% |
Quality | 97% |
Features | 98% |
Value | 96% |
Overall | 96% |
The Bottom Line
Phanteks knocks it out of the park again with another stout and feature rich addition to its chassis lineup. The Enthoo Pro II without fans manages thermals that many high profile chassis with fans achieve.
