A Closer Look - Inside

To gain access to the interior of the chassis, simply remove the thumbscrews holding each panel in place. The interior of the Luxe has been painted in the same color as the exterior. The enclosure has also been designed with cable management in mind, which translates into 27 mm of space behind the motherboard tray. This is more than enough for you to easily route and hide cables.


You can easily access the six 3.5" hard-drive trays through this side. The trays are grouped into two cages of three. Each cage can be removed to free up space for, say, liquid-cooling components. The cages are held in place by thumbscrews and offer plastic latches, which makes their removal and installation a breeze.


Thanks to the space, Phanteks included various extras behind the motherboard tray. Not only is there a large opening for the CPU cooler as you will also find numerous rubber-grommet-covered routing holes and a PCB for up to six fans, which keeps the cable clutter to a minimum and allows you to control those fans via a single motherboard header. This is especially important with a large radiator setup. On top of that is another mounting position for such a PCB, which would make for a total of 12 attachable fans. To the right of this are two 2.5" hard-drive trays, perfect for SSDs you do not plan to remove—like those for an OS or the system's applications and games. Last but not least, Phanteks included a large number of Velcro-based cable ties, which, as we will see later on, will make cable management very easy.


A solid metal piece lines the entire area in the front. In the bottom, there is a Phanteks plaque you may swap out for a different one, which is appealing to both modders and system integrators. Above that are the three 5.25" bays. Each features a tool-less locking mechanism Phanteks put their log on. You may also mount fans here. These would blow air into the chassis through the front, pushing some across your HDDs.


Turning the focus to the rear, the bottom-mounted PSU bay is hidden underneath a PSU cover. The cover comes with an opening on its side should you want to route cables straight up for, say, your graphics cards. Above that are the eight motherboard slots, each protected by individually removable covers that are held in place by thumbscrews. In the very top is a Phanteks 140 mm retail fan. It is set to blow air out the back of the case.


You may remove the PSU cover by unscrewing all three thumbscrews, and you will have to do so in order to install the power supply. Doing so will also reveal the actual bay and its rubber mounts the PSU will sit upon as an anti-vibration measure. In the top is another fan to aid in cooling. This brings the pre-installed fan count up to three, and these are retail fans of considerable quality.


All the I/O and cables are of the standard variety. You will find a proprietary LED connector on top of those. It essentially allows you to expand upon the embedded LED system with additional lighting elements you can then control via the button at the front. The lights are powered over a SATA connector.