Phanteks (PH-ES217E_AG02) Evolv Shift 2 Mini-ITX case, Tempered Glass Side Panels, Aluminum Panels, D-RGB, Anthracite Grey

This case with the tempered glass panels is arguably the most beautiful and incredible looking Mini-ITX case. When I saw it for the first time I just had to have it. I insist on the tempered glass, because in my opinion the mesh panel version is not as good looking.If you like the fun challenge this is a great case and the end result will be quite satisfying. Compromises has to be made to fit the thermal limitation of this case. In my case I had to fit 3000 rpm fans, install the GPU in reverse (fans facing in), undervolt and underclock some components, etc. The computing performance has to be limited a little bit to prevent the whole thing to burn up. This in itself is fun to figure out, but if you don't like doing this it may become a big frustration. I suggest using this open source "Fan Control" software at Github that is able to control fans based on GPU temperature.Other than that, the case is very well built with good features. Cable management is a breeze and for a case this compact, there are always some gaps or openings here and there to make accessing components relatively easy. The price is very good as well I would have expected to pay double the price. It does have the issue of the PCIe 3.0 riser cable, but I somewhat understand because a 4.0 riser would probably drive the price up a bit, and even the 3.0 cable is already quite fragile. Mine did not work at x16, only x2. But Phanteks customer service is very good, they shipped me a replacement promptly. PCIe 3.0 x16 is still plenty for current generation GPUs.

Make sure you are aware of what type of case and build you are getting into before you build in this case. Definitely need to take your time, plan, and realize the more aesthetic look over performance with the case.The Good:- Gorgeous Case! high-quality aluminum, small mesh filter, slightly tinted glass side panels that look awesome with LED Fans.- Accepts 140 mm fans-Backplate has a slot hole for better airflow- Allows for 2.5 and 3.5 Drives- Straight forward installation- Can fit big sized graphics cards- Small footprint and can easily fit on a desk- Aluminum cover in the case to cover up cables after organizing everything.The Bad- Not a huge fan of the AIO set up in the case. I'm personally not a huge fan of them, and can't really accommodate a decent air cooler in here. Especially with the pump being higher than the radiator, I'm curious to see how long this lasts. The place is a bit weird, and if they could utilize both fan positions, and use a bigger AIO cooler that would be much cooler.- Besides it being fairly easy to put together, cable management, in this case, is a bit of a hassle to deal with.- This case is a vertical tower, and I don't know but I wish they could accommodate a fan on top besides just on the bottom and sides.- I have seen other cases with a vent on the Tempered Glass to help with GPU thermals. Would be nice to have some sort of vent as well besides just the "air" version.- Would also be kind of cool if the case would also have some sort of handle on it for easy transportation, but I'm being a bit picky.- Gen 3 riser card. I am not sure why they would not include a Gen 4 riser cable. Very annoying.Overall a very good nice case with a few complaints. It was a pleasuring experience putting this case together. Would definitely recommend it to anyone who's looking for a solid mini-ITX case.

First time to build a PC by myself. To be honest it’s kinda challenging to install everything inside this small case and wire all components correctly, but luckily this case is well designed with exactly right size to accommodate all the components you need.One thing to call out, the case comes with GPU extension cable in PCIE3 instead of PCIE4. Not sure about AMD, but stating with Nvidia 30 series, PCIE4 was introduced on GPU; some motherboards’ Bios uses “auto” as default value for PCIE setting; once it detects the GPU uses PCIE4, the motherboard would adopt PCIE4, which is actually incompatible with PCIE3 cable coming with case. This can lead to some weird problems (in my case I was suffering rebooting issue while waking up my computer from sleep mode, plus the game had low fps with the GPU was running at only 20W power). To resolve this issue just enter your bios setting and change PCIE configuration to “PCIE3”. It toke me so long time to troubleshoot this issue by locating the root cause (initially I even thought my GPU has quality issue and almost returned it); I think the manufacturer should update their instruction manual to let customer know about it.In addition, I’d recommend to use a short GPU card(I use 2-fan GPU which seems to be the best choice), because 3-fan GPU would take more space of bottom part; then it’s harder to put your hand inside the case to wire/manage/adjust the cables to power once the GPU is installed.

It would be great if the seller began to pack some of the internal parts. For example, the video card cable connector is not packaged and, apparently, its end moves freely inside the case. Therefore, from impacts on the inside of the structure, there are a lot of scratches and chips on the plastic of the connector. The plastic material and the build quality of the GPU connector are low. The case itself is well packaged and the glass is covered with a protective film, however, I found small chips at the corners of the glass.Overall, I can say that I am not pleased with this purchase.PS Change my rating from 4 star to 2.When I finally put everything together, found that work of my video card is not stable then I spend another 5 hours trying to run system with a different setting to find that problem is with faulty GPU riser.