Introduction

A big thank you to ASRock for providing the parts necessary for this system build and review.

ASRock was established in 2002 with their sole focus at the time being motherboards. Following their 3C design concept of "Creativity, Consideration, Cost-effectiveness", they have grown into an industry juggernaut. From such humble origins, they have expanded their product range to include PC systems, motherboards, graphics cards, networking components, and more. While their portfolio of products is quite solid, it is their reputation for exceptional motherboards that keeps PC enthusiasts coming back for more.


With so many brands in the DIY PC space pushing to create better products, it isn't surprising to see them team up from time to time. Thus, what we are seeing now is ASRock's Phantom Gaming Alliance, which currently includes Cooler Master and Teamgroup. By bringing together vendors, they can all offer improved compatibility along with themed products, which is certainly a nice touch because it allows users to build systems that match a singular theme if they so choose. It also allows for parts that offer guaranteed compatibility and should just "work", which bring us to today's review: A system built entirely out of parts carrying the Phantom Gaming label. In this review, we will take a quick look at the various components, have a brief build overview, and a full look at the performance on offer. However, before rushing ahead, let's take a closer look at the system specifications.

System Components

All components shown here were used in this particular system build—everything but the CPU was provided by ASRock and their partners for a closer look at their Phantom Gaming Alliance brand and what it offers those looking to build their own system. The case, power supply, and CPU cooler come from Cooler Master, while the SSD and system memory are from Teamgroup. Finally, the motherboard and graphics card are from ASRock directly. As can be seen here, they all conform to the Phantom Gaming theme, which should make for a nice-looking system; however, before going any further, let's take a closer look at the provided parts.

It should be pointed out that while not pictured here, the system will be utilizing an Intel i7 8700K as that is what I had on hand. It's my opinion that most users with a similar build would be better served with an Intel i3 8100 or i5 8600 for better value. There is also the possibility of going with an AMD CPU since ASRock does offer socket AM4 motherboards. That said, I will be sharing my thoughts and findings for this particular build, including performance.


The case courtesy of Cooler Master is the MasterBox K500 Phantom Gaming Edition. It is the same as the regular MasterBox K500 except for the tempered glass side panel that features the Phantom Gaming color scheme in order to make the case match ASRock's design aesthetics. The case is lightweight, and while solid enough, the weight means it feels a bit cheap. However, our sample had no issues. It also thankfully has removable expansion covers rather than punchouts. When it comes to pricing, the case is available on Newegg for $84.99 at the time of writing, placing it in the upper price bracket for entry-level cases.

Case cooling is handled by two 120 mm RGB LED fans in the front. Meanwhile, a plain 120 mm fan in the rear acts as the only exhaust. Max height of air coolers is 160 mm, while those looking to watercool their system or use an all-in-one liquid cooler can get away with up to a 280 mm radiator in the front. It may even be possible to get a 360 mm radiator to fit, but your mileage may vary. Typically, most systems support radiator mounting above the motherboard. However, in this particular case, that is not possible by conventional means as there is simply not enough space for a radiator and fans, only one or the other.

That said, it's still a decent chassis that should get the job done, and while it's not a design I find enticing as I prefer ultra-boxy cases, the front panel is somewhat unique and features simple lines. It also offers plenty of venting for proper cooling, and Cooler Master does offer the MasterCase H500P Mesh Phantom Gaming Edition should the MasterBox K500 not tickle your fancy.


CPU cooling in this build is handled by a Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Phantom Gaming Edition. Much like its predecessors, it is an entry level cooler design with RGB LEDs and a nice paint scheme for improved looks. If you hadn't guessed, it matches the ASRock Phantom Gaming brand color scheme, which is not a bad thing. It's a nice-looking cooler all things considered. When it comes to specifications, the heatsink itself is 120 (L) x 79.6 (W) x 158.8 (H) mm / 4.7 (L) x 3.1 (W) x 6.3 (H) inches and has four heat pipes which make direct contact with the CPU's integrated heat spreader. The Hyper 212 RGB Phantom Gaming Edition can be found at retail for $46.99 and comes with a 2-year warranty.


The motherboard ASRock sent me is the B365 Phantom Gaming 4. This board uses an entry level chipset and therefore does not support overclocking. Memory is also limited to 2666 MHz, but I will touch on that more a bit later. Storage options are fairly robust with 2x M.2 slots and 6x SATA ports for good measure. I was also happy to see the Realtek ALC S1220A rather than an older audio codec. The Phantom Gaming color scheme looks good here, and the board features RGB LEDs as well, along with a couple of 12 volt RGB headers and a 5 volt ARGB header. Expansion slots consist of 2x PCIe 3.0 x16, 2x PCIe 3.0 X1, and 1x M.2 Key E for WiFi. The board comes with a 3-year warranty and has a retail price of $109.99.


Memory and storage are provided by Teamgroup. The memory is their XCALIBUR Phantom Gaming RGB DDR4 rated at 16-18-18-38 timings with a frequency of 3200 MHz. In regards to availability, this particular memory kit can be found at retail for $129.99. Like most memory kits on the market, it has a lifetime warranty.

Looking at the SSD, it is also an RGB LED-equipped product with our sample being the Teamgroup T0FORCE DELTA RGB 250 GB version. The drive itself is a 3D TLC offering with max sequential read speeds of up to 560 MBps, while write speeds can reach up to 500 MBps. 4k random read, write input/output operations per second (IOPS) are rated at 90,000 and 80,000 respectively. Finally, the drive itself is available at retail for $46.99 and comes with a 3-year warranty.


The graphics card provided by ASRock is their Phantom Gaming X Radeon RX580 8G OC. It has three clock speed settings, OC Mode, Default Mode, and Silent Mode, featuring respective clock speeds of 1435 MHz / 8032 MHz, 1380 MHz / 8000 MHz, and 1324 MHz / 7968 MHz. The heatsink is quite heavy with the two fans featuring dual ball bearings for reliability. Video outputs consist of 3x DisplayPort, 1x HDMI, and 1x DVI. At the time of writing, the ASRock Phantom Gaming X Radeon RX 580 8 GB OC is available at retail for $189.99 and also has a 3-year warranty.


The last part provided is the power supply, which is a Cooler Master V550—an 80 Plus gold semi-modular offering. While more than adequate for this build, I am a bit sad to see the mustard and ketchup cables. It's also a bit depressing that ASRock chose to send us a now discontinued power supply. That said, you can find comparable offerings from many brands at retail for around $75.

• Intel Core i7-8700K $369.99
• Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Phantom Gaming Edition $46.99
• Cooler Master Master Box K500 Phantom Gaming Edition $84.99
• Cooler Master V550 Semi-modular 80+ Gold Power Supply $75.00 (comparable offerings)
• ASRock B365 Phantom Gaming 4 motherboard $109.99
• ASRock Phantom Gaming X Radeon RX 580 8 GB OC $189.99
• Teamgroup 2x8 GB (16 GB) 3200 MHz T-FORCE XCALIBUR Phantom Gaming RGB Memory $129.99
• Teamgroup 240 GB T-FORCE DELTA Phantom Gaming RGB SSD $46.99
• Total Cost as Configured: $1053.93 (at time of writing)

System Build Overview

Building the system was relatively straightforward and honestly a nice change of pace from the typical teardowns. Obviously, I started by mounting the motherboard in the chassis followed by the power supply. I then began to figure out my cable-routing options. With a rough idea of where I wanted everything to go, I installed most of the basic components, such as the CPU, CPU cooler, system memory, and SSD.


Next, I ran a few more cables and installed the graphics card, checking to see how clean the interior looked and if any changes had to be made. The SSD mounting system was a nice change of pace in this case. Being able to attach the SSD to a bracket to then simply slot it in and secure it with a thumb screw made for a quick and easy install. Meanwhile, the space behind the motherboard tray offered enough clearance for easy cable routing unless you plan to pack in everything but the kitchen sink.


All that was left was to install the side panels and remove the sticker. Yes, Cooler Master we know glass is fragile, but having to clean this off was a pain that could have been entirely avoidable. That said, with everything in place, it doesn't look half bad, although I forgot to remove the sticker completely for a nicer photo, my bad.


The RGB LEDs on all the components look quite nice and match up well enough. My only gripe is that the system memory does not fully synchronize with the rest of the components. While simple breathing animations are possible, something like shifting colors will not match up. The memory will cycle between colors smoothly and can do rainbow effects, etc. Meanwhile, the motherboard-controlled headers which allow for control over the CPU cooler, SSD, and front fans only blink between solid colors. Still, the majority of people pick a static color as shown here, which works just fine—red being my preferred color with this build due to the red, black, and gray theme of the Phantom Gaming Alliance.

General Performance

When it comes to general performance, many things have to be tested. To start, we utilize AIDA64 Engineer to check on memory latency and read-, write-, and copy speeds; CPU Queen is used for a comparison across various processors.

Cinebench R15 offers a look into single- and multi-core performance that is easy to understand and comparable across several generations of today's hardware.

PCMark 10 offers a look into general computing performance, replacing the venerable PCMark 8. The newer version now leverages the graphics processor by default compared to the separate conventional and accelerated tests of the older release.

Finally, SPECviewperf 13 is used to verify graphical performance in variety of professional workloads.