A Closer Look - Inside

While the general interior layout mimics that of cases at the turn of the century with the PSU placement, the entire tooling for the Phanteks P200A seems to be custom, which is rare for a chassis of this price point. Even at this budget price, Phanteks has actually put in quite a few functional highlights.


Behind the motherboard tray is a plate for two SSDs which may be removed to access the opening for the CPU cooler. Phanteks has also placed two steel bars across the center cable channel for easy cable management. That channel has several openings to route cables through to the inside of the Eclipse P200A Performance. Additionally, on the top-left and bottom-right areas are Velcro strips to further aid with cable-routing and management.


In front is the fan or radiator placement opportunity, much like we have seen with most modern enclosures since external drives are quite uncommon these days. But to the side of that are two protective plastic covers, each with the ability to hold a 2.5" drive. Alternatively, you may remove these and place two 120 mm fans or a 240 mm radiator here instead. Phanteks also allows you to add up to four 3.5" drives, but separately sells the steel cages in pairs. While understandable to keep the price as low as possible, Phanteks could have very simply drilled four well-placed holes into the two place covers, each, for two single 3.5" mounting positions. Heck, if you feel up for it, you could easily measure out and drill those yourself without having to mess with the case frame at all.


In the rear, the four expansion slots come with individual thumb screws for ease of access. Above that, the black 120 mm PWM fan is exactly the same as in the front, and while it doesn't look generic, Phanteks has placed no model number on it. In essence, it is their version of a fumctional no-frills PWM unit, which is perfect for a case without a side window anyways. The PSU bay in the very top is straightforward. You are meant to install your PSU with the fan facing downward, which in turn basically acts as an additional cooling unit to the CPU area.


In the floor, you will find air vents for two 120 mm intake fans. This could be interesting for users who have enough room underneath the GPU, for example.


To set the Phanteks Eclipse P200A Performance up for a vertical GPU, simply remove three screws and the rear fan. Then switch the locations of the parts and install the expansion slots vertically. You do loose the rear fan-mounting position, but the included fan could then just be moved to the front. The base for installing the PCIe slot of the ribbon cable may be installed such that 2 or 3+ slot cards are as close to the side vent as possible.


All the cables within the Phanteks Eclipse P200A are of the default variety and sleeved black.