A Closer Look - Outside

Out of the box, it is immediately clear that the Eclipse P500A is the bigger brother of both the P300A and P400A—both can be had with mesh fronts, but the P500A has a few subtle design elements on the front cover, while the smaller variants are more understated.


Looking at the front, the mesh is extremely fine, consisting of 1 mm holes that have been punched in. This mesh is so fine it also acts as a great dust filter, so no additional layer is needed, which helps with airflow. Other brands only manage to do 1.5 mm at best, which won't be as effective of a dust filter as the front found on the Eclipse P500A. You may pull the panel off to reveal the three pre-installed 140 mm SK ARGB fans set to pull air in through the front. On the top is a small PCB with three ARGB LEDs which will light up in the same colors as the rest of your system. Looking at the rear, nothing about the layout really jumps out at us, but Phanteks has added a few unique elements to the Eclipse P500A here.


The main side of the Phanteks Eclipse P500A is all glass, nicely framed in black and with a slight tint to it. It sits on hinges and is held in place by magnets. On the other side is a steel panel two thumb screws secure in place.

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In the bottom is a PSU frame, which means you have to attach it to the power supply before sliding the whole unit into the chassis through the rear. Above that are the 7+3 expansion slots. Having that extra vertical slot means you should be able to squeeze any GPU you can buy in there, even something like the XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC III Ultra. Having the extra space would also benefit any traditional two-slot card, as there is a bigger air gap between the fans and glass side panel. In the very top is a mounting possibility for a 120 or 140 mm fan. It includes elongated holes, so you may vertically align the fan with your air cooler. Look closely and you will see another removable panel above that is used for a secondary ITX system as the Eclipse P500A comes with dual-system support. Just like with a vertical GPU, you have to buy the required parts separately.


A black magnetic mesh cover in the top protects vents for up to three 120 mm or two 140 mm fans. The remaining four mounting holes are for the ITX system bracket. The I/O consists of a combo audio jack, USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C, and two USB 3.0 ports—overall, a good mix of useful connectors. The built-in RGB controller has a color and a mode button. You may cycle through ten solid color choices and trigger animations for those, or go for seven multi-color animations instead.


A dust filter you may pull out easily without having to tip over the chassis protects the PSU.