Phanteks has taken a very different approach to PC case design with its new EX5 range, separating the GPU from the rest of your components in an attempt to improve airflow and thermal performance. And, crucially for UK builders, it’s now available to pre-order from around £87.
For the past few years, PC case design has been dominated by one particular aesthetic: the glass “fish tank”. Huge tempered-glass panels, panoramic views of your components and enough RGB lighting to illuminate a small village have become almost mandatory for a modern gaming PC.
Phanteks appears to have decided that perhaps we’ve had enough.
Its new EX5 takes a considerably more functional approach. Instead of putting practically everything inside one large shared chamber, Phanteks has divided the case into separate airflow zones, with the graphics card effectively getting its own little room.
The idea isn't just to make the case look different. Phanteks is attempting to solve one of the biggest problems with powerful modern gaming PCs: increasingly hot components competing for the same pool of air.
Your GPU gets its own room
Traditional PC cases generally work on a simple principle. Fresh air enters through the front or bottom of the chassis, passes through the components and eventually gets expelled through the rear or top.
That's perfectly adequate, but there's an obvious problem when you're dealing with a modern high-end GPU that can dump several hundred watts of heat into the case.
The EX5's compartmentalised design attempts to prevent that heat from simply becoming everyone else's problem.
The graphics card has its own dedicated airflow path, while the CPU and motherboard occupy a separate zone. There's also dedicated treatment for the power supply. A rear-mounted fan helps cool the motherboard's VRMs and memory while also helping manage the heat produced by the GPU.
In other words, rather than simply throwing more fans at the problem, Phanteks is trying to make the air already inside the case work harder.
The company says this can provide more efficient cooling and potentially reduce the number of additional case fans required. The EX5 family supports graphics cards up to 358mm long and 360mm radiators, so this isn't some tiny experimental chassis aimed at low-power systems.
It's a surprisingly different-looking PC case
The result is a chassis that looks almost nothing like the current crop of panoramic cases.
Rather than presenting your entire build through two enormous panes of glass, the EX5's physical structure is dictated by those separate cooling zones. There's something distinctly industrial about it — more sci-fi apartment block than aquarium.
That could make the EX5 particularly interesting for people who have grown tired of the “look at all my RGB components” school of PC building.
And there's a practical advantage to the design too. Separating the airflow means Phanteks doesn't necessarily need to rely on a wall of fans to keep temperatures under control.
That matters increasingly as GPUs become more power-hungry and CPUs continue to push thermal limits. The company is essentially betting that better airflow management is more useful than simply increasing the quantity of airflow.
There are several versions to choose from
Phanteks isn't treating the EX5 as a single case. There are several versions, ranging from a relatively bare-bones chassis through to models with integrated liquid cooling and displays.
The entry-level EX5 is the cheapest option and leaves the choice of CPU cooling to the builder.
The EX5 Plus adds an integrated 360mm AIO cooler and associated tubing management, while the EX5 Max takes things further with a 360mm AIO and a built-in display.
UK pricing is particularly interesting because the EX5 has landed considerably below what you might expect from a case with such an unusual design.
At the time of writing, UK retailers are listing the models at approximately:
| Model | UK price* | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Phanteks EX5 | £86.99 | Base case; bring your own CPU cooler |
| Phanteks EX5 Plus | £114.99 | Case + integrated 360mm AIO |
| Phanteks EX5 Max | £174.99 | Case + 360mm AIO + integrated display |
*Current UK retailer pricing at time of writing; introductory/pre-order pricing may change.
AWD-IT currently lists the EX5 at £86.99, the EX5 Plus at £114.99 and the EX5 Max at £174.99, although all three are shown as pre-orders. Overclockers UK is also listing the EX5 Max, with an introductory price of £174.95.
That's worth highlighting because the EX5 Max in particular looks substantially more interesting at £175 than the original US pricing of $230 suggested when the range was first shown.
The EX5 Max gets particularly fancy
At the top of the EX5 range, Phanteks has gone considerably further than simply separating the airflow.
The EX5 Max includes an integrated 360mm liquid cooler and a display for monitoring your system. It's essentially the version aimed at builders who want the unusual architecture and the modern gaming-PC showcase experience.
The broader EX family also includes the EX6 models, with the EX6 Max representing the more extravagant end of the design. That model uses aluminium rather than conventional tempered-glass compartment panels and incorporates additional measures intended to prevent hot GPU exhaust from finding its way back into the graphics card's intake path. It also gets high-performance fans, a dedicated AIO and a larger 10-inch LCD display.
So while the EX5 is the interesting entry point, Phanteks clearly sees this architecture as something that can scale from a relatively affordable gaming case into a much more premium enthusiast platform.
Will it actually cool better?
That's the big question.
The underlying idea makes plenty of sense. A graphics card shouldn't have to breathe air that's already been heated by your CPU, and a CPU shouldn't necessarily have to compete with the GPU for the same airflow.
But good conventional cases have become extremely sophisticated. A well-designed mesh-front chassis with sensible fan placement can already deliver excellent temperatures, so the EX5 has something to prove.
The real test will be independent thermal testing against similarly priced conventional cases. It's one thing for compartmentalised airflow to look clever; it's another for it to deliver a meaningful reduction in GPU and CPU temperatures, noise levels or fan speeds.
At least the concept is moving the conversation in the right direction.
Rather than asking “How many fans can I fit in this case?”, Phanteks is asking “Where does the air actually need to go?”
That's a much more interesting question.
A welcome break from the fish tank
The EX5 may ultimately prove to be a niche design, but that's precisely why it's interesting.
PC cases have increasingly converged on the same formula: glass on the front, glass on the side, RGB everywhere and as many fans as physically possible. Phanteks has instead taken a step backwards towards the fundamental purpose of a chassis — controlling airflow and keeping expensive hardware cool.
And at £86.99 for the basic EX5 and £174.99 for the EX5 Max, it's not even an especially extravagant experiment for UK buyers.
Whether you're building around a particularly hot GPU or you're simply bored of looking at yet another glass box, the EX5 could be one of the more interesting PC cases to arrive this year.
Now we just need to see some proper thermal testing to find out whether Phanteks' sci-fi apartment block can actually keep its residents cool.
