Last quarter, I finally got my hands on the Phanteks Enthoo 719 (nee. Luxe 2 but apparently Thermaltake thought it was too similar to their Luxa² range of products) and the Phanteks D140 distribution plate. I was already using a Phanteks Luxe Tempered Glass but was a bit of a compromise when water cooling. Essentially, the build was a transplant from the Luxe T/C to the 719 and a re-plumb but a few changes were made along the way…
- Added an extra EKWB 240mm radiator,
- Added the EKWB parallel 3-slot terminal,
- Swapped out the Samsung 970 EVO 500GB for a 970 Pro 512GB (my son finally has a M.2 NVMe drive for his i7-8700K/Z370 Classified K build), and
- Replaced my CableMod ModMesh – red PSU cable kit for a CableMod PRO ModMesh –black/white kit (plus 2 extra 6-pin PCIe cables).
Whilst changing the NVMe to the 970 Pro, I relocate it to the lower M.2 Key M slot. As I was only using 2 SATA ports, there was no need to worry about disabling any of my other SATA connected drives by this action. My thought was by using the upper Key M slot, the drive being sandwiched between 2 graphics cards was not getting much air flow over the heatsink. The outcome was a drop of about 8°C so my assumption appeared to hold merit.
Finally, I opted for clear fluid rather than the blood red or navy blue I’d used in the past to mitigate any staining of the res/PETG/blocks (still using EKWB Cryofuel though). It took a lot of time cleaning and flushing to get rid of all traces of the dye from my loop – pink tinge anybody? In my option, dyed fluids and especially solid colours just aren’t worth the effort with the possible exception of short term show builds.
Full Specs:- Intel I9-9900K
- EVGA Z370 Classified K (BIOS 1.14)
- 32GB kit (4 x 8GB) Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO 3200MHz @14-17-17-35-1T
- EVGA 1080TI SC2, EVGA 1080TI SC
- EVGA Pro Bridge HB (1 slot)
- Samsung 970 PRO M.2 NVMe SSD 512GB (mounted in an EKWB M.2 heatsink)
- Samsung 860 QVO 2.5” SATA SSD 2TB
- Seagate FireCuda 2TB ST2000DX002 3.5” SSHD (further storage accessed via Synology 918+)
- Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265 Network Adapter with Bluetooth (M.2 Key-E)
- Corsair AX1200i PSU
- CableMod C-Series PRO ModMesh cable kit – black/white
- 2 x Corsair Commander PRO
- 6 x Corsair ML-120 PRO fans
- 3 x Corsair ML-140 PRO fans
- 2 x Phoyba G¼ inline temperature sensors – black
- EKWB 240mm SE radiator
- EKWB 240mm PE radiator
- EKWB 420mm SE radiator
- EKWB Supremacy EVO Intel – nickel
- 2 x EKWB EK-FC GeForce GTX FE – nickel
- 2 x EKWB EK-FC1080 GTX Ti backplates – black
- EKWB EK-FC Terminal X2 3-slot – plexi
- EKWB EK-XRES 140 Revo D5 PWM – plexi
- Phanteks Enthoo 719
- Phanteks D140 Distribution Plate
Thoughts regarding the Phanteks Enthoo 719:This is the third Phanteks Enthoo case I’ve built in (Luxe T/C, my son’s Pro T/G and now the 719) and overall, it was quite easy to work in (finally; captive thumb screws… thank you!) although a few caveats were unearthed.
In addition to improved radiator support, I was drawn to the 3.5” drive support which could be located at the side or in the base of the case. With a front radiator installed, you cannot add the drive cages to the side but no review really gave any idea if it would be problematic bottom mounting them along with a case floor mounted radiator (I was left to guess from paused YouTube reviews). As it turned out, the first cage must be added to the radiator tray before the 240mm radiator is installed due to how it slide-locks to the radiator tray. Additionally, I have 3 cages installed yet only 2 are populated… the bottom cage was left vacant to allow drive cabling to clear the radiator height. I believe it may be possible to reverse the drives in the cages so they are cabled from the other end (there is ample space) but I didn’t have long enough SATA data cables handy (needs to be 80~90cm).
Reviews noted the maximum width of a bottom radiator (about 125mm) yet nobody spoke about the top radiator width. They do mention thickness where it may interfere with RAM but nothing regarding width. I installed a 240mm PE radiator in the top which is 130mm wide and blocked some of the locating slots in the top panel. I ended up dremeling off a few of the protrusions/tabs on the glass side of the top panel to have it fit correctly.
I made use of the drain cut-out in the bottom front of the case but was unable to utilise the roof fill port cut-out. With the top side fan cover plate installed, there is no way to install any fitting onto a pass-through as the cover plate protrudes into the interior space. As I was only using the bottom two fan positions for exhaust (for positive case pressure), the cover plates precluded installing the fill port.
The cut outs in the top of the rear cable cover plate are only just big enough to handle the 24-pin and PCIe cables plus the front panel/SATA cabling. To the case’s credit, the cavity behind this plate has ample enough to handle a plethora of cables even with a long PSU and shouldn’t be an issue to hide excess cabling even if you were to choose sleeved extensions.
Lastly, if I were in the position of buying radiators again, I’d likely opt for cross-flow (probably Black Ice branded) radiators. I have a couple of rather ugly long runs in my loop that could be eliminated by utilising cross-flow radiators. The only (albeit slight) inconvenience would be that I’d need to purchase internationally as I’ve found nobody locally who imports them into Australia.
Every case will show strengths and weaknesses and the Phanteks Enthoo 719 is no exception. It’s just a matter whether those weaknesses outweigh the strengths for your particular build. In my situation, any compromise was easily overcome and the 719 worked out a treat.
Yeah, some RGB action in there...
Gratuitous 'sins of the father' (cabling) rear shot...
Remainder of photos in my Mods Rig entry.
post edited by blaise - 2020/01/29 07:40:35