Final words and conclusion
Final words and conclusion
The NZXT Manta is a lovely compact chassis within the range of small and tiny builds that'll get your freak on. Small form-factors are getting trendy fast and as such this product will make a lot of sense, especially since you can house heavy duty performance gear in it. Overall a good chassis, decent space, reasonable cable routing options and it can even hold rads for AIO coolers. The metal feels sturdy, the design overall seems well done, confined to the limitations of a small form factor chassis of course. NZXT carries on the tradition with their sleek style chassis. Up to a size that'll fit you'll have plenty of space left for your components.
Aesthetics
The dark and curved looks inside and out, the overall style, grommet holes, cable management options, fan HUB and pre-installed fans it is something you need to like, but if you do you will truly dig this chassis. On the topic of colors, that's a preference you can choose from white or black and black/red alternatives for you. I do wish the LED system would have been notch more expanded with some LEDs shining at the motherboard, or a LED glowing from the bottom or something. It feels like a missed opportunity to have a LED controller in there and then only use it for rear I/O and the PSU logo. Talking about that one, the LED enabled NZXT logo on the PSU compartment feels too big and shouty. It does not fit a classy build with this price-tag.
The Innards
The rounded side panels are a nice feature. Another plus is the ability to house even two 280mm radiators; as shown it would be a tight fit, but it is a fit and that gives you the option to build a high-end rig with even some overclocking at hand. You can also mount large graphics cards of up-to roughly 350 mm, again a nice plus. Alternatively a Radeon R9 Fury X with the 120mm rad mounted at the top and a 240/280 rad mounted in the front would even be possible. Obviously we like the big mainboard tray CPU cooler cutout which is the norm / standard these days with most chassis. Behind the motherboard you'll get decent enough space for cable management. Inside there is space enough to work in but you can mount only a small number of storage units. Then again, a nice SSD and a TB HDD would be plenty for most of you, right? There is no option to mount 5.25" opticals so if you need DVD/ Blu-Ray, an external USB unit would be your only alternative. One booboo... the SSDs mounted at the front-side are placed reversed, and thus the logo/brand/text on those SSDs will be upside down to read. Not a huge deal, but not sexy either.
Final Words
The NZXT Manta offers a lot in terms of features and ability like LCS unit mounts for a Mini ITX build. The airflow is great and adaptable with the PWM controllable fans. Combined with AIO LCS units you can cool your high-end and even overclocked processor as well as cool your GPU properly. That means you can pack a whole lotta horsepower inside an incredibly small chassis. Looks are always trivial, but the Manta certainly feels very original with the new round and curved design, a ballsy move from NZXT as that will not be to the liking of everybody. I do like it very much. NZXT does need to realize that massive visible NZXT logos (like on the PSU compartment) are frowned upon. People want style and subtlety these days, not LED lit logos as people do not purchase a billboard. Also, for the inclusion of a LED controller we find it a bit of a miss to light up the NZXT logo and the rear I/O outside the chassis... but then not the actual component compartment? I know, it's nitpicking on an otherwise incredibly fun chassis. The nitpicking aside, NZXT has done a truly lovely job with the Manta. Overall the chassis is feature rich with the removable dust filters and offers enough HDD/SSD storage. The chassis has pretty okay airflow with its standard three fans. Though not 100% silent it is quiet and you can easily adjust fan RPM as you lead the fan HUB wire towards a PWM FAN connector on your motherboard (and regulate it there). The chassis might be small but the pricing is big at 139 USD/EUR. Street prices are a tenner cheaper, but sure, that is a lot of money for something that small. The petite looks might easily outweigh the price-tag for you and, in the end, the consumer is always right. NZXT has brought a proper, sturdy and very unique curved looking mini-me chassis to market. In short, aside from the few points we mentioned the NZXT Manta is definitely recommended by Guru3D.com.
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