A Closer Look - Inside

Gaining access to the interior is easy and requires no tools thanks to the magnets and hinges. There are two openings on the shroud allowing for cable management along the bottom edge of the motherboard, and a large one in the front allows for a radiator. The shroud itself has a plastic covered cutout to lead your PCIe power cables through as well. Lastly, there are two sets of mounting holes for the plastic PCIe riser slot base should you want to install your GPU vertically.


Phanteks has added two extra covers to the backside of the motherboard tray. Each of these can hold three additional 2.5" drives. This means that the G500A Performance can take a total of nine such storage units. The only downside is the fact that Phanteks doesn't include enough screws, as those just cover the three trays. Speaking of drives, they are the only functional elements that remain visible with the covers on.


Each of the covers are held in place by plastic clips and may be easily removed thanks to the hinges. Phanteks continues to use their well designed Velcro strips to aid in cable management and goes so far as to pre-route & connect wires nicely, so that you won't have to put in the work.


Underneath the shroud are three positions for two included 3.5" trays. As the middle slot overlaps partially with the other two, you may at most use two of these at the same time. The position in the middle is important if you go for a thick radiator and long PSU, and still want some storage here. As the trays may be stacked, you could buy additional ones and place up to four drives here in total. The entire front is taken up by the three 140 mm fans, and the covers on the side don't just add a level of cleanliness to the chassis by being able to block off any unused cable management openings, but they also may be removed to give way to six more 3.5" drive positions, which brings the possible maximum 3.5" drive count to a whooping ten, as long as you purchase eight additional trays.


The PSU bay on the bottom can hold a unit of up to 195 or 250 mm (4 vs. 2 HDD bottom brackets), thus giving you plenty of space. Above that, you will find the ten expansion slots, each protected by a reusable cover held in place with a thumb screw. As previously mentioned, the very top holds that 140 mm exhaust fan.


In the ceiling, you can clearly see the mounting options for 120 or 140 mm fans. As such, you may also install a radiator of up to 360 or 280 mm here. As the ceiling itself is a little raised, there is lots of room above the motherboard, so you should have no issue accessing any connectors on the top edge of the board.


All the wiring within the Phanteks Eclipse G500A Performance is of the usual variety and color. The one noteworthy element is the unified case connector, which fuses the individual power, LED and reset wires together into one single plug.