The Phanteks XT M3 is a compelling US$69 micro ATX PC case offering with a compact dual-chamber design, where it serves up good build quality and a nice list of features for its price point.

If you're on the lookout for a compact, value-for-money dual-chamber PC case for your upcoming gaming PC build in the micro ATX form factor, Phanteks might have just the product for you - the XT M3. Available in black or white colourways, the XT M3 comes with a very palatable price tag of around $79 Singapore dollars (from PC hardware retailers in Singapore) or ~$69 US dollars from international e-commerce sites such as Newegg.

For this price, you get a clean aesthetic with a compact footprint that is still roomy enough for a large graphics card, an interior that is easy to cable-manage with, and nice-to-haves such as a front USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C port, all topped off by good build quality. Read on to learn more about the XT M3, and how it could potentially be one of the best value micro ATX PC cases currently available on the market!

Summary of Specifications (PH-XT325M_BK01)

• Colour: Black (also available in white)
• Materials: Steel, ABS plastic, tempered glass
• Dimensions: 460mm x 235mm x 370mm
• Motherboard Support: Mini ITX, Micro ATX
• Expansion Slots: 4
  
• Drive Support: up to 2x 2.5" SSDs, up to 1x 3.5" hard drive
• Front I/O: 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C, 1x USB 3.0 Type-A. 1x 3.5mm microphone/headphone combo jack
• Included Fans: None
• Top Panel Cooling Support: up to 3x 120mm fans or up to 1x 360mm radiator (radiator max dimensions 410mm x 122mm x 60mm)
• Front Panel Cooling Support: up to 2x 120mm fans, front mounting of radiator not supported
• Bottom Panel Cooling Support: up to 3x 120mm fans
• Rear Panel Cooling Support; up to 1x 120mm fan
• Official Product Page: https://phanteks.com/product/xt-m3-black/

Packaging & Accessories

The XT M3 comes shipped in a brown cardboard box that looks pretty run-of-the-mill, with your usual product illustrations and descriptions on all sides.

The following accessories are included with the XT M3:

• Quick start guide
• RMA information leaflet
• 9x cable ties
• 1x L-shaped GPU support bracket
• 1x motherboard standoff installation/remover tool
• 17x motherboard/SSD screws
• 5x power supply screws
• 4x hard disk screws
• 1x spare motherboard standoff

Do note that the motherboard standoffs come preinstalled on the motherboard tray of the case.

Exterior Walkthrough

The XT M3 features a front panel that comprises a mesh section for airflow purposes and a rectangular section to the right that comprises plastic slats for added visual interest - these elements confer a very clean and understated look to the case.

The case comes with a tempered glass side panel to showcase the components of your PC build, and the other side panel is made of stamped steel with ventilation openings right above where the power supply unit’s cooling fan would be.

Back to the front panel of the case, we get a single USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C port, a USB 3.0 Type-A port as well as a 3.5mm headphone and microphone combo jack. Do note that the case does not come with a hard disk activity indicator light.

The top panel of the XT M3 also has the same design language as the front panel, with a mesh section for airflow purposes and plastic slats to the side for aesthetic purposes. Eagle-eyed viewers might notice that there are also small ventilation openings on the said slats right above where the PC’s power supply unit is – these slats serve as exhaust openings for the PSU’s fan.

Over on the bottom panel, we get a removable dust filter that covers the XT M3’s triple 120mm fan openings. The case's four plastic feet with foam-like inserts are also visible too.

The rear of the case is a pretty standard affair, where the expansion slot openings have covers that are reusable. In order to install expansion cards with this case, you'll first have to pop off a plastic shroud that covers the screws holding the expansion slot covers in place.

Removing the panels of the XT M3 is a pretty straightforward affair, where you’ve got to first remove the top panel that pops off easily.

With the top panel removed, the single screws that hold the side panels in place are now visible, which have to be undone first with a Philips head screwdriver before the said side panels can be removed.

With the side panels out of the way, removing the front panel is a tool-less affair that involves just a bit of elbow grease.

Cooling Hardware Support

The Phanteks XT M3 doesn't come shipped with any preinstalled fans, though you do get a total of nine openings for case fans. Starting first with the front panel, we get support for up to two 120mm fans – do note that you can’t mount a 240mm radiator on the front panel due to spatial constraints.

On the top panel, we get ventilation openings that support up to three 120mm fans or a 360mm AIO radiator with dimensions of up to 410mm x 122mm x 60mm.

The bottom panel of the XT M3 comes with support for up to three 120mm fans as well.

Rounding up this section on cooling hardware support, the rear of the XT M3 comes with a ventilation opening that supports a single 120mm case fan.

Physical Dimensions & Clearances

In terms of physical dimensions, the XT M3 measures in at 460mm x 235mm x 370mm and is pretty compact for a micro ATX PC case, perhaps in large part due to its dual-chamber configuration with the power supply unit mounted at the side of the case, in a separate chamber from where the motherboard is.

For you folks intending to use an air cooler for your processor, Phanteks indicates support for CPU coolers of heights no more than 175mm according to the brand's specifications sheet, I’d say most, if not all. tower coolers with 120mm or even 140mm fans should fit into this case with no issues.

Moving on to GPU support, the XT M3 comes with support for graphics cards with lengths of up to 430mm – this figure is for when you do not have intake fans mounted on the front panel, so you’ll need to factor your case fan’s thickness into the equation. We’ve also got width clearance of up to 175mm, though to be on the safe side, I’d advise against using this case with graphics cards that come equipped with very large coolers (read, VERY large coolers that tend to be the exception than the norm), such as flagship RTX 4090 or RTX 5090 cards at the highest-end. While "smaller" RTX 4090 and RTX 5090 cards should fit just fine in the XT M3, you'll unsurprisingly run into issues installing behemoths such as the Gigabyte AORUS GeForce RTX 4090 MASTER 24G (which measures in at 358.5mm x 162.8mm x 75.1mm) into the XT M3. The AORUS MASTER RTX 4090 is kind of an outlier with its 162.8mm width, making it one of the widest flagship graphics cards around- just as a comparison, "low-to-mid-range" RTX 4090 and RTX 5090 cards tend to have widths of around 140mm to 150mm.

Yours truly has the said AORUS MASTER RTX 4090 on hand, and had difficulty getting the card properly mounted inside the case for a demo build due to the card's width, as illustrated in the photos above. Despite the purported 175mm of width clearance, the short edge of the AORUS MASTER's cooler shroud couldn't clear the XT M3's frame right above the PCIe expansion slot cover area to be properly inserted into the motherboard's PCIe slot. This was probably also due to the fact that the motherboard, a MSI MAG B650M MORTAR WIFI that I used for a demo build with the XT M3, has its PCIe x16 slot positioned at the second slot location. In addition, having case fans mounted on the bottom panel does also reduce the amount of wiggle room for oversized graphics cards. All in all, I'd guesstimate that the sweet spot for a graphics card that is to be used with the XT M3, would be something with a width of no more than ~150mm to be safe - your mileage may vary depending on the hardware that you're intending to use with the XT M3!

One other thing worth mentioning is the fact that this case comes with support for motherboards with rear connectors, so micro ATX motherboards from say, ASUS’s BTF line-up, Gigabyte's Stealth series or MSI’s Project Zero line-up would be compatible with this case.

Finally, in terms of power supply dimensions, Phanteks indicates that the XT M3 has 150mm of length clearance for a power supply, which is mounted in the secondary chamber of the PC case. Do note that you won’t be able to install PSUs of lengths longer than 150mm due to the fixed size of the recess for the PSU as pictured above, making this something to note when making your power supply purchase decision.

Storage Drive Support

For folks intending to install 2.5” and 3.5” drives for their PC builds with the XT M3, Phanteks has got you covered with a 2.5” drive bracket that supports up to two 2.5” SSDs, as well as a 3.5” drive bracket that supports a single 3.5” drive.

Building a PC with the Phanteks XT M3

The front panel connectors of the case are a pretty straightforward affair, where we get the usual front panel USB 3.0 Type-A connector, front panel USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C connector, a front panel audio connector as well as a nine-pin front panel connector for the power switch and power LEDs.

I appreciate the fact that Phantek’s gone with a nine-pin connector rather than dual two-pin standalone connectors for the power switch and power LED respectively, which can be more fiddly to hook up to the motherboard.

Getting the motherboard into the case was a pretty straightforward process, where the motherboard standoffs are already pre-installed on the motherboard tray. If need be, you can simply use the included motherboard standoff mounting tool to reposition the standoffs.

Installing the power supply unit was a cinch too, as long as you’ve got a PSU that’s no more than 150mm in length - the MSI MAG A750GLS PCIE5 used for the demo build measures in at 150mm x 150mm x 86mm.

With the demo build pretty much in place, it’s a good time to talk about cable management. I appreciate the fact that the XT M3 has a metal plate pictured above that covers a cavity that’s perfect for hiding excess power supply cables and what not, which does save end-users some effort in the cable management department.

In spite of the fact that I didn’t do much cable management for this demo build, I think it still looks pretty neat all things considered – as can be seen above, there’s plenty of cable routing channels that help you get your respective cables to where they need to be.

I must say, even without the use of cable ties especially on the rear of the case, I still managed to keep the build pretty tidy. It does help to use case fans with some form of integrated cable management system, and for the demo build, I've got six Phanteks M25-120 G2 ARGB case fans in black, which utilise a daisy-chain unified fan design and the brand's Linq6 connectors to make cable management for case fans a breeze.

Completed Demo Build Aesthetics

Thermal Performance

To benchmark the thermal performance of the Phanteks XT M3 PC case, I put together a demo build with the following specifications:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D (stock settings, PBO & Curve Optimiser disabled)
• CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE ARGB
• CPU Thermal Paste: Thermalright TF7
• Motherboard: MSI MAG B650M MORTAR WIFI
• Memory: 32GB (2x16GB) KingBank DDR5 Dark Heatsink UDIMM 6000MHz (DDR5 6000 CL28-35-35-76 1.45V)
• Storage: Crucial P3 500GB NVMe SSD
• Graphics Card: MSI GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16G GAMING TRIO OC
• PSU: MSI MAG A750GLS PCIE5
• Case: Phanteks XT M3
• Case Fans: 6x Phanteks M25-120 G2 120mm (Black, D-RGB)
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
• Fan Curve: "Silent" profile via MSI Center

With F1 23’s in-game benchmark, where I ran a five-lap test for around 9 minutes in total, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D processor in the demo build achieved an average CPU temperature of around 56.8°C, while the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16G GAMING TRIO OC by MSI achieved an average GPU temperature of 66.9°C. These results were achieved in a non-airconditioned room with a temperature of 30°C. Not a bad showing at all I must say, considering the fact that I had set the fan curve to the stock "Silent" profile via the motherboard's MSI Center app from within Windows for the benchmark.

Conclusion & Pricing

My take is that the Phanteks XT M3 represents really good value for a dual-chamber microATX PC case, especially given its price, features and build quality. At its price point of around $79 Singapore dollars from typical PC hardware retailers in Singapore, or around US$69 from online retailers such as Newegg for you international readers, you get a pretty well-built case for the money that also performs well from a thermal perspective.

To top things off, we’ve a good amount of support for your cooling needs, a front panel USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C port, good build-quality all around, and quality-of-life features such as a GPU support bracket and even little things such as having an integrated connector for your front panel power switch and power LED, which makes building your PC less of a hassle.

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The PC case featured in this article was a review unit sponsored by Corbell Technologies, the official distributor for Phanteks in Singapore.