Phobya WaCoolT Benchtable review

To make installing hardware underneath easier, namely the PSU, hard disks and SSDs, the entire lower tray slides out, which is a nice touch. Pretty much the entire case is held together using nuts and screws so if you simply don't need the hard disk cages and the like, it's a one minute job to remove them. In addition, there are various mounting holes dotted all over the place, both in the base and top panel, so there's plenty of adjustment too.


The front has holes for power toggle switches, presumably to allow you to customise it with your own, and the large rubber case feet should provide a modicum of vibration killing potential, further enhancing the WaCoolT Benchtable's ability to act as a case replacement as well as a dedicated benchtable just for overclocking. As far as water-coolng goes, there are literally dozens of places to mount pumps and reservoirs, be it using the flexible mounting holes in the base or top panel or the radiator vent holes in the sides.


Probably the only disappointment was the fact that you're limited to triple 120mm-fan or double 140mm-fan radiators in terms of cooling capacity. While you can fit two of these - one either side on the vented panels - which should be enough for the toastiest of setups, quite a few people will probably have a quad 120mm-fan or even a triple 140mm-fan radiator these days.

As you can see, there's no way we could fit our quad 140mm-fan Phobya radiator without a significant proportion being blocked. Admittedly this is a ridiculously huge model that you're unlikely to own unless you sport a scratchbuild or SilverStone TJ11, but the same goes for quad 120mm-fan rads too. It's a case of having enough cooling capacity (the two triple fan rad mounts), but a slight lack of flexibility - if you're really pushing things with two or more high-end GPUs then that quad 120mm-fan rad you've got lurking from an old system will have to go and you'll need to invest in two smaller radiators instead.

The additional bits you'll need to bolt on include a PCI expansion slot support and fan mount, which supports up to three 120mm fans and comes in two parts allowing you to build a scaffold-type mounting rig, directing airflow pretty much where you need it thanks to the numerous mounting holes in the top panel.

Conclusion

As you'll see pretty much the same thermal results from any open test bench, our scoring focuses purely on features, design and value. We were a little disappointed with the restricted radiator mounting. Some other benches of this caliber allow you to use any size radiator uninhibited, even if it extends beyond the length of the table.

While the WaCoolT Benchtable's support for two triple 120mm fan-radiators should be ample cooling, it would have been nice to see support for larger radiators too, although this could be circumvented by using standoffs or by simply resting the radiator on the desk. There are also no power or reset switches, although these are included on many enthusiast boards these days. Apart from that, it's an extremely solid test bench that we found to be pretty much faultless in other departments.