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  • KaosFaction - Sunday, January 18, 2009 - link

    In the pictures for the Zalman CNPS9900 LED (first cooler), can anyone identify the case that was being used?

    Thanks!
  • Christoph Katzer - Sunday, January 18, 2009 - link

    You mean the picture in which the cooler is actually running? That's a GS1000 chassis.
  • Casper42 - Friday, January 16, 2009 - link

    Surprised no one commented on the P1000 having 8 PCI Slots.

    I think this is a great move on their part as it allows your bottom most Mobo slot on a standard ATX mobo to contain a double wide card like most decent Video Cards.

    Alot of the x58 boards on the market seem to have an x16 slot on the bottom because they give up slots towards the CPU due to the CPU and NB being so big on 1366.
    I think they intended for that to only be a PhysX card, but now you could sneak Triple SLI in there as well.

    So Kudos to Antec for releasing an 8 slot'er and not forcing people to buy a monstrous 10 slot chassis to fix this problem.
  • Average Joe - Friday, January 16, 2009 - link

    It's a decent review. The case looks alright. I agree with WillR in a lot of respects. I'm not 14 years old any more. I don't really want a case like the Antec Skeleton. If I was 14 I would definitely buy some extreme case like the skeleton. If I was selling cases I would certainly go after the gaming market with radical designs and lighting effects. I'm not trying to be critical.
    I want a case that's above all small and quiet. My ideal case would have 1 slimline external bay for a DVD and room for 1 or 2 Hard drives inside. I would like it to hold a power supply that can run a decent graphics card like a GTX280. I don't want a slim line case because I want to use a full size cards in it. I just want a shorter tower. I keep my tower on my desk. I have 2 dogs and a cat. My tower would choke on hairballs if I set it on the floor.

    I know heat is an issue but why not have 2 huge slow fans instead of 6 little fast ones? This case looks like it does that but so many other cases out there don't. I own a RaidMax case that has at least 6 fans in it. It sounds like a leaf blower and the LED's glow so brightly that I can't read the Hard Drive indicator lights unless I get out of my chair and cup my hands over them. I bought it because it was and Editor choice award winner.

    I looked at the Antec Mini P180 but I dislike the door that covers all the bays. Why does every after market case have a door covering the drive bays. Why is that door always the cheapest plastic door they can find. We don't even want the door.

    A protective cover for your 20 dollar DVD drive and a window showing the burglar your 500 dollar graphics card.

    I'll probably just end up buying a Sonata 550 Plus. I'll leave you with a few requests.

    Make me a Sonatta 550 plus with 2 or 3 fewer drive bays and the same PSU.

    Make me a Micro-ATX case that doesn't have any unnecessary doors and a decent power supply.

    Make me a Mini-ITX case with a decent power supply that I can buy a standardized replacement for someday.

    Don't you dare start making not standard form factor PSU's for your cases.

    Look at the ITX market. The PSU blows out and you basically have to buy a new case. Every vendor has some non standard psu. No one can find replacement parts. The quality of the parts is terrible.
    I've been trying to upgrade all my WRAP boards with Atoms or some cheap core 2's. Everything I find has terrible customer reviews due to poor quality.







  • TBSN - Friday, January 16, 2009 - link

    As usual, nice article, but the PHOTOS! Get a BETTER CAMERA, guys!!!
  • Netcraazzy - Friday, January 16, 2009 - link

    I had to laugh at the Antec "gaming" case. I can almost guarantee that whenever a company puts the "gaming" label on something it is ugly and overpriced. I think the Silverstone case takes the cake though for the ugliest case I have ever seen. What is that thing? Did the designer have a fascination with the Jawa Sandcrawler from Star Wars or something?
  • WillR - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link

    Since you say the mfgs and designers are wanting feedback I'll chip in my 2 cents as well. Maybe a few more than 2. :)

    I have never had a need for 4 5.25" bays. 1 is all I need and very few even need 2. Sure you can put a hard drive with cooler in there but why not instead design better 3.5" cages that actually allow good air flow? Typically I only feel safe using the top and bottom spaces in a 3 drive cage. They're just too close together and heat builds up.

    The closest to perfect case for me is the Antec Atlas 550. I prefer to buy a case that comes with an efficient PSU already installed. I don't need a window. It already has the better spacing between the 3.5" drives. It's not flashy, gaudy, and cheap looking. It's not obtrusively huge making it inherently ugly. What would I change? Possibly bundle it with an even more efficient power supply. Aren't the NeoPower series newer and a bit better than the Trio's? Also I'd want whichever is most silent. I'd turn the hard drives 90 degrees and install a backplane to put the cables completely out of the way along the case's side. Cut off the top 2 5.25" bays and possibly turn the bottom with built in adapter into a regular 3.5" bay for a flash card reader. Install a recessed CF card reader into the front and you could do away with 3 of the 5.25" bays completely. I'd leave the front I/O like it is. Headphones, mic, 1 firewire, and 2 USB ports spaced far enough to handle bulky usb plugs. We can all but ignore eSATA for another year until SATA rev 3.0 is finalized and able to power small devices. Until then you're just not going to see a need for it because the devices won't exist. Would there be any way to allow mounting of either 92 or 120mm fans in front of the drives? The more air the better imho. The less noise the better as well. Big, low rpm ones for me.

    Oh, as for why I don't really like the True Power Trio (And the Neo doesn't solve it)? Only 4 SATA connectors. I'd like to see 6 or even 8. I will never need 6 molex plugs again. 2 would suffice. Whether to put them on the same cable, with a SATA cable, or individual cables is a hard call. I'd like to see a better fan connector developed from scratch. 3 wire for monitoring and speed control, small, but also beefy enough where we never run into the problem of a fan pulling too much amperage for it.

    I'd also like to see more modular options in the lower wattage, high efficiency PSUs. The price premium to get it now is just too much.

    If you must install annoying, blindingly bright LEDs, make them easy to change, turn off, or at least cover up. And never use LED fans. I feel the same about flimsy plastic. If you can't make it out of thick durable plastic, use metal. I don't care if my case weighs 50lbs. I move it twice a year, if that. I want it to look good and last.

    On the door issue, I can't stress how many times I've wanted to rip the annoying thing off my last case and just throw it in the trash. Because it only opened one way, and I did not have room to move my PC to the other side of my desk. I was constantly hitting and closing it by accident whenever I reached without looking to press a power/reset button or use the optical drive. If it had opened the other direction or wasn't there are all, I wouldn't have had that problem.

    Thanks for your time.
  • th3pwn3r - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link

    A few things I would do would be changing the silver side trim to black, I think the silver makes it look terrible, the handles on the top are a nice feature but in present state they make the case look cheap in my opinion and if you're going to put a door on a case just make sure it's durable. Other than that, looks decent. I don't see anything that really makes this case stand out and steers me into a purchase though.
  • elerick - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link

    I really liked the Silverstone Falcon. The idea that you use gravity to take the retension out of your cables is nice, I wish they showed the cable management with all the hard drives and the likes installed.
  • anandtech02148 - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link

    Gaudy, god awful gaudy. what is this, reshaped cases from 1990s?
    take cue from Apple at least, the only winner in 2009 is HP/Voodoo Firebird. At least they show you they are trying.
  • JonnyDough - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link

    What's the name on that new GPU cooler by Zalman? Looks really nice. I think I'll get it for my 8800GTS if it fits it. Do you know if the memory heatsinks come with it? They're nice and spikey.
  • Evinyatar - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link

    That's the VF2000. Looks like a nice CPU cooler for low profile HTPC's.
  • JonnyDough - Sunday, January 18, 2009 - link

    Aye. I hope it fits 939 and 478 though. I wish there were more good universal heatsinks.
  • JonnyDough - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link

    It's good to see Thermaltake filling the wattage ranges of PSUs. We need 350w PSUs too!
  • JonnyDough - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link

    Is that a new SilentFlux cooler I see in the Silverstone Raven case? Silent Flux coolers are made by Noiselimit (Noiselimit.com). I haven't seen that particular one before. I'm curious to know more about it if you have any info on it. Thanks.

    ~Ry
  • Christoph Katzer - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link

    They came with sll of the i7 systems for the show...
  • JonnyDough - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link

    I noticed too in SilverStone's silver HTPC case that they have another Noise Limit bubble pump cooler. Any particular reason they're using those in their displays this year?
  • JeBarr - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link

    I can think of a few good reasons to flip the motherboard 90 degrees to the front, but if they only did this to accomodate 18" graphics cards from the future then what a waste. I did like the ABS black pearl that has the mobo mounted on left side instead of right, if viewed from the front of case. I did like that design except that the mobo mounted too high-up in the chassis, which prevented the 4th hd4850 with aftermarket cooler from fitting in so that project was scrapped. Just might be a new option now with this Raven, but if it is gonna retail for more the the lian-li pc80 then forget it.
  • yehuda - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link

    It's nice to see Antec update this model. I can see they've added audio ports on the front and expanded the side grille. Still, no Firewire, eSATA or a card reader. Any idea what has changed on the inside?
  • Anubis - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link

    Ugly Colors
    Pointless doors
    Useless bright lights
    :(

  • pastyface - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link

    I'm not a huge fan of the styling of the new case but I sure do like the effort you have put into the cable management system.
  • strikeback03 - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link

    err, Mini-Skeleton. Looks a lot smaller than the regular one. Does it fit uATX boards, or only mini-ITX or something proprietary?
  • Christoph Katzer - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link

    Only Mini-ITX
  • gomakeit - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link

    The white color for the air ducts on the sides look weird. I'd prefer a plain black color. But then again it might be just some prototype mold. And how about adding some sound dampening materials on the sides (since they already put that much thought to noise)?
  • Ryun - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link

    I question the efficiency of such large case fans mounted on the top of cases nowadays but if you're going to add the 200mm fan -please- add some protection from the environment. I own the Antec 900 and there are a number of different small, metal objects or liquids that could potentially fall into the case and do damage. If you could add something like the optional "spoiler" on the P182 (but without the mesh) that could act as a cover to still allow airflow to be routed out of the case that would be superb.

    I would also say to get rid of those plastic handles on the top and bottom of the case; they look kinda cheesy.

    Lastly I would personally like a window, but I know others don't like them so that's not really too important. Looks pretty cool overall excluding my issues with the case.

    Also, when's the P183 supposed to release?
  • pizan - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link

    The OCZ case just looks like a Thermaltake re-brand. Xaser VI anyone?
  • tayhimself - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link

    A whole lot of ugly being sold at CES
  • strikeback03 - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link

    I vote that the next decent camera reviewed be sent to Christoph for use after the review is finished. The output of whatever he is using looks similar to my brother's HP from 2002.

    Was that a passive cooler for i7 in the Silverstone case there?
  • Christoph Katzer - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link

    I know. Wanted something handy and that cam served me well in daylight. Didnt know it would end up like that on products. It's a DSC-T70 btw...
  • strikeback03 - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link

    Wow, that is a modern camera too. Back to the drawing board, Sony.
  • legoman666 - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link

    You said they'd see our comments about the case, so here it is.

    Get rid of the door. It serves no purpose, it is probably easily breakable, and it just blocks access to the drives.
  • JonnyDough - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link

    I'm in agreement about the doors. What would be nice is to have OPTIONAL doors. Some cases have doors that just aren't easily removable if at all, and while some cases give you the option of removal, removing the door just leaves your case looking less than desirable/unsymmetrical. Also, the whole mesh cover thing is way overused. I personally don't much care for the look, and it serves little benefit. A very small FILTERED air slot between EACH bay would be ideal. Keep this in mind on future designs please. We want to keep the inside of our cases CLEAN, we want easily removable/washable filtration, and we want EACH BAY to receive a tiny bit of air flow. In fact, why not have a stick with filter "fingers" that slide into a slot. One pull and all the filters between the bays come out. Make it flexible/attachable/replaceable. I'm sure it can be done.

    My idea is kind of like this:

    |----
    |----
    |----
    |----
    |----
    |----
    |----

    Where the | = a connecting bar on the front side edge of the case
    and
    ---- = filter fingers between bays.

    Thanks.
  • JonnyDough - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link

    Also, if any case designers like my idea feel free to get a hold of me through Anand. I have a ZILLION other fantastic case design ideas. I am creative, but unfortunately I am not very good with CAD.
  • Christoph Katzer - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link

    You can be sure that the companies are reading each comment. The problem with front-doors is that some like it some not.
  • JonnyDough - Saturday, January 17, 2009 - link

    Doors provide a nicer look, and they protect the drives. Arguably, they can also keep the drives cleaner. The problem is that you have to open the door before you can use the drive. So if designers can make the front of the case look better, while still providing some protection then the problem is solved. I think what case designers need to do is perhaps borrow from the HTPC drive cases. HTPC cases sometimes incorporate an aluminum flap for the drive bays, which requires one to sometimes remove the front bezel or tray bezel from the DVD drive.

    What we really need is a new standard for disc drives and cases. The fundamental DVD drive bezel and case bezels need to be reinvented.
  • 9nails - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link

    My only purpose for the door = Windows COA stickers.

    I don't like the looks of the COA stickers on my case, but from time to time I need to rebuild and read and need the number from the sticker. (I actually buy my software, so I have the sticker.) This is, when I don't bother to slipstream a CD/DVD with the Product Key preloaded in setup. It would be helpful for me, at least, to have an ID Card that slides out (maybe this can be a part of the Antec took box?) that I can put my XP, Vista, and probably soon to be Windows 7 stickers.
  • gemsurf - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link

    To Antec- Please upgrade the quality of the front usb port modules that come with many of your cases. The quality seems to have slipped the past year-(I have had 3 or 4 replacements for approximately 50 Antec builds). I love and am loyal to Antec cases, but these have been an annoyance!

    Additionally, with USB everything being used nowadays, and most motherboard manufacturers having atleast two internal USB headers, why are 4 front port usb connections so rare? I build or modify many systems based soley on the fact that I put either 4 or 6 (easy to get to) front usb ports.
  • gemsurf - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link

    Just to add to my above suggestions- I build alot of workstation systems and have been using the NSK 4400/4480 as my primary case. I like them for the quality and look and the Earthwatts 380 PS. A similar case, with the addition of 4 front USB ports, and an easier to open design would be near perfect in my little world.
  • 7Enigma - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link

    That's why the 500-550w PSU article hasn't been put up on anandtech. OK vacations over, gimme the review please! :D

    Hopefully you have included the Tuniq Potency 550PS that Mr. Fink mentioned in the comments section of the $1000-2000 system builders article. I ended up purchasing it sight unseen due to the incredible price ($40 after $40 rebate). I didn't really want a new PSU, but couldn't pass up this *possible* deal.

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