Unlike regular mid-towers, ITX cases generally take the board’s compact dimensions and use that to the designer’s benefit to craft some really funky cases. But sometimes you just want a classic layout but in a smaller form factor. For that audience, Phanteks just announced the P200A, which is really just a fairly standard-layout chassis for ITX systems.
Indeed, the P200A isn’t the most exciting ITX case, but where it underwhelms in its layout, it excels in functional simplicity, RGB, and most importantly: cost. This chassis carries an MSRP of just $50 for the standard variant or $70 if you want the RGB bells and whistles. We have the latter on the test bench today, together with the optional riser cable, so let’s find out if it’s good enough for our Best PC Cases list.
Specifications
| Type | Mini-ITX |
| Motherboard Support | Mini-ITX |
| Dimensions (HxWxD) | 14.4 x 8.1 x 15.7 inches (365 x 205 x 400 mm) |
| Max GPU Length | 13.0 inches (355 mm) |
| CPU Cooler Height | 6.5 inches (165 mm) |
| Max PSU Size | ATX, up to 7.5 inches (190 mm) recommended |
| External Bays | ✗ |
| Internal Bays | 4x 2.5-inch, optional 3.5-inch accessory available |
| Expansion Slots | 3x |
| Front I/O | 2x USB 3.0, USB-C, Headphone/Mic combo |
| Other | RGB Controller |
| Front Fans | 2x 120mm |
| Rear Fans | None, up to 1x 120mm |
| Top Fans | None |
| Bottom Fans | None, up to 2x 120mm |
| Side Fans | None, up to 2x 120mm |
| RGB | Yes |
| Damping | No |
Features
Touring around the chassis, we spot that it’s made from painted steel, has a plastic front with mesh that’s made from perforated, painted steel, and a glass side panel with a light tint -- but that’s not all. Unlike almost every other case that came out in the last decade, the PSU sits at the top here, which is a little strange but not a deal-breaker.
You’ll also spot an intake on the side of the chassis to aid with airflow, though no fans are mounted here from the factory.
Front IO, mounted at the bottom, consists of two USB 3.0 ports, a USB Type-C port, mic/headphone combo jack and two buttons to control the RGB mode and color – indeed, this RGB variant comes with an RGB controller built in, and it’s quite a good controller with smooth effects and plenty of mode and color options.
The power button resides at the top of the chassis, and what’s nice about Phanteks’ approach is that it actually has two RGB LEDs for illumination. This means that the button is part of the RGB goodness, which is a nice touch on a budget case like this. There is no HDD activity LED, nor is there a reset switch, which makes connecting the IO pins on the inside a breeze.
Inside the case you’ll find room for up to ATX power supplies, an ITX motherboard, large graphics cards, a 240mm radiator, and four 2.5-inch SSD mounts – two behind the motherboard and two on the side intake covers. There are no mounts for 3.5-inch drives, but you can buy optional brackets to install them – though in all fairness, most people probably aren’t going to use desktop drives in their next build anyway.
The chassis comes with two 120mm RGB fans pre-installed at the front intake location.
So without further ado, lets install a system inside the P200A.
We are using the following system for today’s build:
| CPU | Intel Core i5-9600K |
| Motherboard | ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac |
| Memory | Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000 MHz, 16 GB (2x 8GB) |
| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super Founder's Edition |
| CPU Cooling | Phanteks Glacier One 240MP |
| Noctua NT-H2 Thermal Paste | |
| Storage | Corsair Force Series MP600 NVMe SSD, 480GB |
| Power Supply | Phanteks Amp 750 W PSU |
Step 1: CPU Block & Motherboard Installation
We’re starting off with the CPU, memory, and SSD pre-installed onto the motherboard. We then chuck the CPU block of our AIO on the board, simply because it’s generally easier to do this beforehand in case the cutout at the back of the motherboard tray is too small to access the socket afterward.
One of the pre-installed standoffs has an anchor, meaning the board was held in place with the case upright before tightening it in – a little detail that makes life just a little easier.
Step 2: Finishing AIO installation
Then, I installed the remainder of the all-in-one liquid cooler. I made sure to use the side vent as an intake, with the fans pushing air through the radiator. This would give the AIO access to cold fresh air for optimal CPU temperatures, which paired with the front intake should lead to impressive temperatures in the thermal tests.
Step 3: PSU Installation
After that, I installed the power supply at the top of the chassis, ensuring the fan was pointed down as there is no intake at the top of the case. I routed all the cables to the back of the chassis. You can slide it in from the inside of the chassis if the PSU isn’t too big, but if you’re having trouble, there’s also a mechanism to slide in from the back of the case.
Step 4: Switching to Vertical GPU Layout
As Phanteks supplied us with a GPU riser cable, I figured it would be fun to put it to use. To do this, I first swapped two plates at the back of the chassis around to switch the expansion slots to the vertical layout.
Then, I installed the metal bracket that came with the chassis and the optional riser cable. I used position A, which sits a little deeper inside the case for better cooling, as otherwise the GPU gets too close to the glass panel.
Step 5: Cable Management
At this point, I could install the GPU, but it would sit in the way of all the cables I still had to manage. With RGB, an RGB controller, four fans and the rest of the system, there were quite a few cables to tidy up, so I figured it would be easier to do this before putting in the GPU.
As far as cable management goes, the P200A is surprisingly good for an ITX chassis. Of course, it’s still an ITX case – by which I mean that it’s still small and you’ll have to strain a bit to get everything where you want it to be, but there are cutouts in all the right places, along with plenty of Velcro straps and brackets to hold everything in place. In total, I spent about 30 minutes on cable management, though this could have been less if I hadn’t removed the Velcro strap at the top PSU area, as it was difficult to get back into its anchor point.
Step 6: GPU Installation
After all that, dropping our Founder’s Edition RTX 2070 Super was simple. Nothing more to be said here.
Build Complete
Despite being a $70 chassis, the Phanteks Eclipse P200A certainly doesn’t feel like it. Sure, the materials aren’t anything to write home about, but the design overall is quite well thought-out and it was a joy to build a system in this case. The end results were pretty, too.
For thermal and acoustic testing, other than fan speeds, we’re running the hardware we have entirely at stock settings to mimic the results you can achieve as closely as possible.
Fan Characteristics
The two included fans are, despite the budget nature of the case and RGB implementation, actually quite good spinners. They have PWM support and are surprisingly efficient with regards to noise levels vs. cooling performance. They can spin at a minimum speed of just 400 RPM and will ramp up all the way to about 1400 RPM at full duty. Without an extra layer of filtration behind the front mesh, this means the chassis gets plenty of fresh air.
Acoustic Results
Acoustically, the Phanteks P200A offers very respectable results, achieving an optimized idle noise level of just 33.9 dBA, jumping up to 39.5 dBA with the case fans at full blast. Max out the 240mm AIO with its fans spinning at 2200 RPM, and the RTX 2070 Super FE at 75% and noise levels quickly become obtrusively loud, but that’s to be expected -- you shouldn’t run your system with fan speeds this high anyway. As with any mesh system, try to find parts that run quiet and preferably find a GPU with a Zero-RPM mode so that it’s quiet most of the time when you aren’t gaming.
Thermal Results
For the thermal tests, all case and CPU fan speeds are set to 100 percent, and the GPU fan is set to run at 75 percent fan speed.
Thermally, the Phanteks Eclipse P200A is equally impressive. Funnily enough, the CPU and GPU temperatures were matched, with a reading of just 59 degrees Celcius when normalized to a 20-degree room. Remove the intake panels (front and side), and we witness a temperature decrease of only 2 degrees, which goes to show just how well optimized Phanteks’ mesh is -- it barely impedes airflow.
These figures are very impressive, and clearly there is plenty of thermal headroom to get those noise levels down a fair bit.
Conclusion
Phanteks’ P200A is essentially a tiny version of their larger Eclipse P-series cases, and all things considered it’s a brilliant little chassis. Okay, it’s a little big by ITX terms, and the top-mounted PSU gives off major 2005 vibes, but it’s a very affordable chassis that offers excellent thermal performance paired with a good amount of quality RGB.
It won’t blow you away with materials quality, nor is the P200A’s layout very exciting, but it’s well put together, easy to work in and has no major flaws that stop me from giving it a recommendation. If you’re on a budget and just looking for a simple case to house a small gaming system, and all you care about is good performance, a great price, and some attractive RGB, the Phanteks P200A is certainly one to shortlist.
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