I came across this case at my local PC World today - called the 'Phong'. It looked fairly average from the exterior but when I opened it up I was pleasantly surprised to find the following:

- 120mm fan mounted in both the front and rear of the case (supplied)
- CPU duct attached to a blowhole in the side panel.
- 2 x built-in fan speed controllers (knobs are located on the front right side of the case - see third pic below)







Couldn't manage to get the most important (interior) pic working in my post so a direct link to the manufacturer's product page is http://www.jeantech.com/Products/Cases/Phong/phong.html where you can see more pics + a full description.

Rear fan grill looks very good - doesn't look like it will restrict any airflow. Not so sure about the front intake 'vent' though - the air enters the case via the gap between the protruding plastic piece at the front of the case (best way I can describe it!). I noticed in the store that this gap was only around 5-7mm all the way round...although I'm sure this can be opened a bit more

Best of all it costs only £40! (including 2 x 120mm case fans!). I am therefore very tempted by this case.

I guess only an SPCR review will uncover all

What do you guys think?

Front intake usualy makes alot of noise usually... Worth a try though you can turn it of any time...

Though the fan-grills likely need some doctoring (a.k.a. WISS Tin-Snip-ing).

Doesn't seem uninteresting, I admit ... whatcha thinking of shoving into it?

Dunno about that... the back one is about as good as they come -- same as on best Antecs, at least 80% air pass-through -- and plenty good enough to me; the front one -- maybe.

do they sell this in US?

~RaNDoM

We're looking into it, but right now, it appears that it is only Asia/UK.

looks like you might get a bit of a venturi effect from the front air intake.

except for the knock-out pci slot covers, I like the looks of this one.

That piece of plastic in front will definitely have to go if you want good airflow.

Unfortunately I didn't have a huge amount of time to properly examine the case but I did note that the rear fan grills were definitely very 'open' and unrestrictive. There was alot more 'hole' than metal in the grill (if you see what I mean ).

In terms of the front intake, I was just looking at the images on the jeantech website again - it does appear that the plastic 'plate' that covers the front intake can actually be removed completely (for the purpose of accessing the air filter - see pic below):



This is potentially good news as we can simply take it off permanently to maximise the front airflow (at the expense of noise most probably).

I just wish I had more time to inspect the model of the supplied 120mm fans and also the voltage range of the built-in fan controllers - although I'm guessing it was most likely 7v-12v. I'll try an pop back tonight after work with my friend's camera phone and take some snaps!

shathal, I was thinking of using it to build a budget system - Athlon XP2400+, single 120Gb HDD, Radeon 9700 (passively cooled) - fairly light by today's standards so I'm hoping to get away with extremely low-flow cooling

[quote="Ham-Solo"]Front intake usualy makes alot of noise usually... Worth a try though you can turn it of any time...[/quote]

It depends on the fan and how good the grill flows. I'm running a Global Win YCC-61F1-B and I don't notice much noise at all. I'm running front and back Panaflo 120mm L1A's at 12v and it's quieter then my Antec Sonata (though, that's got a Sunon 60mm fan on the SK-6 PIII 600EB, which is probably the noisiest item in there, but, not much noisier then the power supply that came with the Sonata).

If I under volted them, I probably would only hear the VGA fan (9700 AIW with stock fan).

As far as the case that this thread refers to, I don't particularly care for the volume knobs, USB, Fire wire and audio jacks in the side of the case. It's asking for getting the knobs sheared off if it's moved much and it may limit who can use them, since some people place their computer cases in desk enclosures and such that may not let those be accessible.

Otherwise, it looks ok. It’s nice to see another option for an all 120mm fan mount case out there.

I really like the look of that case. If I was building a new machine I think I would consider that case very carefully.

It looks like an Al case, but they say its STEEL Thats got to be good news. CPU duct already done is another good positive.

What about drive suspension? I have really liked the results since I did that in my case. Do you think you will want to suspend your drives? If so, do you think you can do so in that case?

Actually, at £40 I do not think I would consider it. I think I would have just bought it there and then

Custom PC magazine have a review of this case in the latest issue of their magazine. They concluded it was a very good case for the money with plenty of low-flow cooling potential. The review hasn't made it to their website yet though.

Also noticed that its actually cheaper on PC World's website at £35 inc VAT (however wth delivery its probably the same as the instore price - but saves you a trip )

Linkage: http://www.pcwcomponentcentre.co.uk/invt/jnh60

Wow, PCW having been getting better over the years. They seem to be offering some good products at reasonable prices now. This seems to be one of them.

Next time I pass at PCW store I will be inside having a look at this case. It may even replace my £100 Aluminum hovercraft, er I mean case !

I think I might go down and have a look at that case tonight and I might even purchase it if in the mood!

Didn't get time last weekend to go back to PCW and do a thorough examination

Will try this weekend but do let us know your impressions if you do pick it up

Well went down to my local PCW and have picked it up for £29 and currently posting this message from it.

First Impressions, quite a light case easily transportable, opened it up, not bad looking but not the best looking case ever but looks fine under the desk.

Build quality is ok, perhaps a bit light in places, but you can't expect too much for the price. The biggest problem was the Rheostats (I presume they are rheostats). One of them was very dodgy when I went to connect it up and then after a while it gave up leaving me with no rear fan control.

Fans are 120MM DF1212025MS QD or DD with the first D backwards? fans, not heard of them before anyways.

The fan connectors wanted two motherboard sockets but I only had one so I had to fashion a Molex to fan converter to get the other working.

When they where both working it was indeed very quiet with the fans turned right down. With the fans on full speed its very noisy, I think switching the fans and cutting the grill out will help alot.

I have put in a FSP300 60PN(PF) Power Supply with standard 120MM fan in for a PSU, Asus A7N8X-X Motherboard running a AMD Barton XP 2500 with a Coolermaster CP5-8JD1F Heatsink, Artic Silver and then an NMB 80mm 311KL Fan on top. 512Mb of Crucial Dimm (left out the other 512Mb for now), Sony 12x8x32x CDRW, 2x Seagate series 4 barracudas Harddrives and a Nvidia Quadro (fanless) Video card, Terratec 24x96 soundcard.

Good Bits:
Cheap - in fact only cost me £29.95 from PCW
Runs Cool
Fan in good place for the Hard disks
Good for the price
2x 120mm fans included.
Quiet on minimum fan speed.
HDs don't reasonate at all.

Bad Bits:
Trouble with Variable fan speed controls
Took me ages to build!
Nothing extra in the box
No Molex to fan converters
Not as big as I thought it would be.
Cables all over the place as they haven't been thought out properly


I will try and post some photos soon, any questions give me a shout.

Any excuse to use those Wiss tin snips, right shathal?

timc3, thats awesome! Many thanks for your review

My first surprise is that its only £29 instore - cheaper than the website - makes it even more of a bargain methinks!

A few questions for you before I take the plunge:

1. Do the fan controllers give any indication of what voltage they can drop to? (I'm hoping they go down to 5v or even below )

2. I've done a google search on those fan models - didn't get any results though Do they have any more info on them at all?

3. Whats the front intake vent like? Does it look like it allows a reasonable amount of air to enter?

4. You mentioned that the HDDs dont resonate - were these soft-mounted (e.g. with grommets) or directly into the chassis?

5. If you have any temp readings with the fans on at minimum I'd love to see them as I'm planning to build a system in this case with a similar spec as yours.

Finally, let see some pics please!!!

Hi again,

I think that £29 might have been a mistake or something I don't know, I just didn't argue!

In answer to your questions:

1. No, I am not sure what voltage the fan controllers drop to, but as I said before one of them burnt out so I am not too sure about the quality. I currently have a Zalman fanmate on order so I am waiting for that.

2. I can't see any more information on those Fans, I did a google aswell on the information and didn't get anything. Perhaps when I put the photos up later (which I am not that proud of it has to be said) someone might recognise them.

3. The intake vent is thin, but it does cut out some of the noise. But it appears to be working quite well. I am going to cut out the grills with some tin snips to improve the airflow even more as its not as quiet as I would like. With the Fan on full speed it is not quiet in any sense of the word!

4. Harddisks are mounted straight on the bays with screws - not a grommet in sight. The metal bends slightly to move to the fit to the HD's and so tenses up kill any area where vibration is. I can not hear the Harddrives.

5. Temp reading from the ASUS probe util is at the moment 25C / 77F on the motherboard and 46C on the CPU.

I will try and get pics up tonight.

Well - I got them, might as well put them to use more than 1x/year .

They'll likely be going to a colleague at work who's looking at a new puter/chassis (I am infecting him with SPCR propaganda, and he's already browsing the forums on his own... muahahaha) .

Muaaaaaaahahaahahahahaahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.......

Thanks timc3 for the updates. I'm glad to hear that there is minimal or no hard drive vibration in the case as the fixed cage structure means that suspension is not an option

Looking at the temps you mentioned I think the case has very good airlfow so my doubts about the effectiveness of the front intake were probably not so serious. Apart from the (lack of) quality of the fan controllers I think I'm still gonna pop down to PC World this weekend and pick one up - especially if I can get it for £29!

Let us know if you see any further improvement in noise/temps after removing the fan grill.

Don't know whether you have got your case yet, but I have sorted out the photos. Apologies for the quality, but I think that you will get the general idea.







And more here:

http://share.timc3.com/index.php?mode=thumb&dir=tims&view=img&img=17
http://share.timc3.com/index.php?mode=thumb&dir=tims&view=img&img=20
http://share.timc3.com/index.php?mode=thumb&dir=tims&view=img&img=22
http://share.timc3.com/index.php?mode=thumb&dir=tims&view=img&img=23

Hope this helps.[/img]

Weyhey! Thanks very much for the photos timc3. Looks good

I went ahead and bought my case over the w/e The good news is that the price is £29 nationwide (some sort of introductory offer I was told). Usual price is £39 so worth snapping up sooner rather than later if anyone is in two minds.

My first thoughts when opening up the box were that it is definitely smaller than the photos show - but build quality is very good for the price. Its very sturdy and light too. I haven't built the system yet - saving that project for this weekend

Will post my thoughts once I've built the machine but so far I am vey impressed. For £29 I've got a good-looking case with 2 x 120mm case fans, a fan controller and cpu fan duct! Bargain!

We need this thing stateside.

I noticed that a number of Jeantech cases are also available under other brands (Super Flower, TTGI etc). I'm guessing they are made by some OEM manufacturer and then rebranded by the likes of Jeantech etc. So I wouldn't be surprised if this case showed up under a different brand in other parts of the world...you never know!

Much like how everybody and their uncle is selling remarked Chieftec?

LOL! Yeah I guess so. I'll keep my eyes peeled anyway in case it turns up under a different guise elsewhere.