Domain: antec-inc.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to antec-inc.com.
Comments · 68
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Antec Outside Re:What's next? XWindows=XPortholes?What I find hilarious (somewhat) about this is I recently purchased a case from Antec , a very well-done case with multiple fans, drive rails that click and slide out, etc. $179 and worth every penny.
The case came with a stick-on logo like the "Intel Inside" logo, except that it said "Antec Outside" .
Here's a review.
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Re:There's a very good REASON why IBM isn't winnin
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Buy a can of spray paint!I put together a HTPC system and I too was frustrated by the lack of black PC cases for reasonable $$$. Instead I bought a nice Antec case for about $60 and a can a black semi-gloss spray paint for about $3. Remove the buttons and clear plastic pieces, clean with grease and wax remover, scuff with a scotchbrite pad, and paint. It's also pretty easy to take the bulkheads off of floppy drives and CD/DVD rom drives to paint those as well.
What I ended up with was a surprisingly good looking black case that goes extremely well with the rest of my equipment.
Anyone capable of putting together a computer from scratch really should be able to paint one as well. It's amazingly easy.
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Options...
These guys were mentioned in a previous AskSlashdot article. Looks kinda neat, doesn't it?
Another simpler option (USB only) can be found at Antec's site. -
Re:not reasonable
Not a good deal unless you're going to mount it on the wall!
Case: $75 (needs a power supply. ~$47 shipped)
After all, one of the nicer things will be that this product is smaller and quieter than your normal PC. And you don't have to mess around with different drivers and such to make sure that it works to your satisfaction. They've (presumably) already gone to the trouble.
However, it is odd that they didn't go with a PPC of some sort, given that they're not limited by the kernel (maybe other A/V software doesn't run well on the PPCs? Nah.(?)).
Oh well, the dancing penguin is nice. -
Perhaps I'm getting old,
But have you looked at the price of the aluminum chassis? I did not see a listing on pricewatch for the one reviewed, but the older version is starting for about $200 w/o a power supply. I like a nice chassis like the next guy and the last year or so have used the Antec SX830/840 (about $50 w/o ps sx800) for smaller boxes, the SX1030/1040 (about $60 w/o ps sx1000), or a SuperMicro 760A (about $140, but includes nice ps). For $200, you start moving into solid rack mounting chassis (with a ps).
If your boxen is running too hot, start with the basics. Clean the clutter - round your cables, bundle wire, and have airflow (not to be confused with tons of fans just making noise). If you are carving blow holes or doing other mods, the steel in these cases are a lot easier to work with than aluminum. Ducting can help with hot spots as well.
Course, nothing says I have money to blow out of my ass like a shiny aluminum chassis.... there is that. A good 3U setup will bring the proper googling, however... -
Perhaps I'm getting old,
But have you looked at the price of the aluminum chassis? I did not see a listing on pricewatch for the one reviewed, but the older version is starting for about $200 w/o a power supply. I like a nice chassis like the next guy and the last year or so have used the Antec SX830/840 (about $50 w/o ps sx800) for smaller boxes, the SX1030/1040 (about $60 w/o ps sx1000), or a SuperMicro 760A (about $140, but includes nice ps). For $200, you start moving into solid rack mounting chassis (with a ps).
If your boxen is running too hot, start with the basics. Clean the clutter - round your cables, bundle wire, and have airflow (not to be confused with tons of fans just making noise). If you are carving blow holes or doing other mods, the steel in these cases are a lot easier to work with than aluminum. Ducting can help with hot spots as well.
Course, nothing says I have money to blow out of my ass like a shiny aluminum chassis.... there is that. A good 3U setup will bring the proper googling, however... -
No need to wonder
As has been mentioned before, Apple is in a unique situation where they control nearly all the aspects of the computer. The ATX standard and most PC motherboards are designed with either tower or desktop cases in mind.
Separately sold cases, which have to be compatible with a wide variety of motherboards, have a hard time replicating Apple's designs. In particular, in a tower case, the internal devices are all above the motherboard, so the cable connectors are at the top. A swing out design, like in the G4, is hard to do because the cables will get in the way. Take a look ColorCases to see what "niche" case manufacturers are doing despite these limitations.
On the other hand, companies like Compaq, Sony, and Gateway already ship their computers with custom motherboards and cases, and so have fewer limitations. They do offer their own takes on PC case design, just not exact copies of Apple's design for legal reasons. I mean, check out Compaq's Ipaq and Sony's Vaio Line and tell me they're ignoring design considerations.
As for computer enthusiasts who actually prefer compatibility, performance, and value to fancy design, we typically opt for the kind of cases listed here. (My specific case isn't listed there; it's an Antec S830.) They offer better cooling, more expandibility, and better access than most of the cases that tend to form before function. We're not immune to the concerns of aesthetics either; we just prefer to take matters in our own hands. Granted, some of the mods are of questionable taste and talent, but there are as many clean, professional jobs as bad jobs. And every one is the pride and joy of someone, no matter what you think of them. -
Antec Case?I'm just wondering but the article says,
"Microplex sent us a Chieftec DX01W fulltower for the project - this cabinet is a high quality very solid fulltower with several smart solutions." Now, I know I may be a little off but isn't that the Antec SX10 Series that I own?
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My quiet case project : it's an answer ... sort of
Well, it seem these days, most of the power user just care to get something like 200fps in Quake III. Why ? Beat's me ! I'm not on a quest to get the ultimate frame rate, I just want my box to be quiet as possibly can be.
To help you understand my take on the subject, here is the background
:
My PC has the following components :- A OEM case
- A 235W OEM power supply
- ASUS P3B-F
- Intel Pentium II rated 400Mhz @ 400Mhz
- A cheap OEM SECC2 Heat-Sink made of aluminum
- A 128MB CAS2 no-name DIMM
- Two 32MB CAS3 Samsung DIMM slowing down my memory timing, but preventing the appearance of the all mighty evil SwaP
- A ATI All-In-Wonder Rage128 16MB
- A Creative SoundBlaster Live! Value
- A Realtek 8139 Ethernet NIC
- My beloved USR 56Kbps ISA Real Modem. Sorry but to me a component that uses CPU power to do it's processing instead of taking the load off is not worthy of being in my computer. Not to mention the M$ Win part...
- A Creative 48x CD-ROM drive. It's the loudest damned thing in my computer when it's spinning
- A Quantum Fireball AS PLUS 40GB (7200RPM) in a removable tray
- A Quantum Fireball CX1 10GB (5400RPM) mounted inside the case
- Of course the stupid old 1.44 MB floppy drive only used for booting Tomsbrt in case of emergency
Soon to be
:
- A Adaptec 2940UW
- A Diamond Monster 3D II for Glide games
It turn out that the Quantum Fireball AS makes less noise than the Quantum Fireball CX1. I still have to figure it out
...I use my PC for
:
- Running Linux and learning as much as time allows me (Jez I had so much time when I was a student... Think of all the time I wasted in High-School running the evil W monster)
- Doing some gaming i.e. : Diablo II, Unreal, UT, Undying (Although that thing is going to cost me a new box)
- Spending numerous nights filling my brain @ Slashdot, Tomshardware, Anandtech, Arstechnica, StorageReview, Developper.Intel.com, and most importantly, hounding the web for all the case manufacturers and their take at a quiet box.
As I'm writing this post, that is probably going to be the base documentation for my Silent Case Project, you're guessing that my sleepless night of browsing have not yielded the desired result.
I've check out many options such as water cooling, moving the PC to the closet, returning to the forest where a PC is pretty far from your everyday quest for survival. None of them suits me.
The objective of my project is to build a case that meets the following criteria
:
- A silent as possible
- Accessible
- Provides sufficient ventilation to maintain all the components running within thermal specs
- Be light enough to be easily transportable (Let's not forget the Lan parties
;-)
To attain those goals I have to
:- Read all I can about noise, sound, aerodynamics, PC specs
- Find suitable materials : A case is not just a protection against unwanted fingers and dust ; it must provide EMI shielding, proper grounding, resist to impacts, and fit into my conception of the king of object you want in your bedroom (If you were thinking about plywood and a box of rusted leftover nails, forget it)
- Find the tools or the companies or individuals with the means to work the materials I choose to build the casing
For the sound isolation I was thinking about some kind of foam. Mineral lint would be affective but that takes too much space and it's not the kind of thing I want beside my bed. Form the casing itself, metal is almost inevitable if you want EMI shielding and grounding. And as for you who wonder why I have not mentioned water cooling yet, the greatest source of noise is not my CPU cooler and your just moving the problem out of the case (Nice ; you have water heating up but unless your reservoir is like a bathtub or something you will have to transfer the heat for the water to the air).
That about as far as I am. If you have any idea that might help me, please fell free to send me some bits forming ASCII characters at Prozzaks@operamail.com
To finish up, here is a list of thing that might help people wanting to achieve similar goals
:
- http://www.formfactors.org/ You should be able to find all the documents regarding the ATX form factor and thermal design guides. A must if you want to build a quiet PC.
- http://developer.intel.com/ Intel has contributed a great deal to the ATX definition ; here you will find many relevant documents including thermal design guides for all Intel processors.
- Etract from my favorite's :
Hardware\cases PC CASE
Fong Kai
PowerOn
Enlight Corporation
dir.yahoo Enclosures Manufacturers
procase
YY Computer
Psi
IN WIN
Amtrade
American Suntek
Addtronics
A-Top Technology, Inc
Nikao
Palo Alto Products
Antec
Lian-Li
amaquest
Koolance
Quietpc
PC Power & Cooling
Hardware\Heat Sinks ALPHA
Cooler Master
AVC
ekl
GlobalWIN
globefan
RDJD
Foxconn
Spring Spread
Sanyo Denki
TITAN
TaiSol
ChipCoolers
Orb a
ElanVital
Hardware\Info\Form Factor Platform Development Support
SSI
WTX
Hardware\Info\Standards Fibre Channel Industry Association
PCI SIG
RAB
serialata
SPEC
Hardware\Info\Storage RAID.edu
Hardware\Info\Cours CS 252 - Graduate Computer Architecture
Hardware\Info The PC Guide!
Hardware Bible
FullOn3D
developer.intel.com
HwB The Hardware Book
United Overclockers
Ars Technica
Tech-Junkie
HardwarePub
Webopedia
Illustrated Guide to the PC Hardware
SysOpt
2CPU
Ace's Hardware
Technical Support - RaidHelp v1.0 - Free RAID Technology Guide
Computer Architecture
OPENCORES.ORG
TechFest
MidWest Micro Support
Hardware\Resalers GeekTek!
Micro-Bytes
ALCO
ABC Micro
2CoolTek
Plycon Computers
TCWO
ABC Micro - Lprix
Case Outlet
The Chip Merchant, Inc
Cimsys
OrdiGros
ALIENWARE
SHENTECH
FireStorm
Hyper Microsystems
TWEAKBOX
Hardware\Reviews Tom's Hardware Guide
Sharky Extreme
StorageReview
HardOCP
AnandTech
SystemLogic
x-bit labs
Active-Hardware
FiringSquad
SocketA
Overclockers Australia
HEXUS
dansdata
SysReview
Hardware\Manufacturers AMD
ASUS
Belkin
MassMultiples
Promise
StarTech
VIA Technologies, Inc
ABIT Computer Corp
Comcase
Micron Semiconductor
ECS
Hardware Freeboxen
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antec "performace series" casesI've been using an Antec "Performance Series Workstation Tower" for about a year, and I think it's great. It has two 80mm fan mounts at the anterior (intake), two more at the posterior (outtake), an easily removable side panel, and quick-release drive bays. It may seem like overkill, but SMP x86 systems with SCSI-3 disks tend to get very warm.
:-) Just keep the case under your desk or in a closet and the fan noise shouldn't bother you too much.Here's a suggestion... this case has almost an inch of space between the front of the metal chassis (where two of the fans are) and the removable plastic front. Buy an AC air filter, cut out a couple 8cm squares, and tape the pieces to the front of the metal to keep the fans from sucking in so much dust. Change the filters every two months or so. (That seems to work for me, and my systems are on 24/7/365.) You can buy filters which are designed to screw directly onto the face of the fans, but because of this case's snap-in fan mounts, those type of filters won't fit.
I own three Antec cases and have had no problems with them... the company seems to employ some really nice people, too.
I've bought all of my Antec cases from TechStore. You can buy the case I described (the SX830) for about $75 here. This is not an inexpensive case, but if you run powerful systems and/or overclock, I think it's a great investment. The case only comes with two fans, so you'll want to buy two more. Good sources for cooling supplies are Millisec and Cooler Guys.
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Ellison: How are you gentlemen !! All your database are belong to us -
Re:Its not as hard as you might think.I've started working on this, too. I've found a sweet, sweet remote at this ghetto Yahoo store. They have a strange policy of not accepting debit cards, but accepting credit cards. In any case, I ended up having to resubmit the order three times over the course of the day, and got order number 1342, 1343, and 1344...
:) It's the best remote that I could find (the ONLY one with a number pad on it). It even has a directional pad and buttons for mousing!Antec KS780 for the case. It's a black desktop ATX case.
At this point I'm a little wary of setting this all up on Linux. It seems like it would only take a few hours to do it on Win9X since all of the software and drivers are already written. But eventually I want to write a sort of 'front-end' that has a main menu of functions like DVD, MP3, CD audio, Web browsing, TiVo, and of course, my collection of emulated games. I'd be glad to contribute to your project and to help in any way that I can so this thing can become a reality. I don't want to have to run this all on Windows.
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Re:Why not removable drive trays??
Antec makes a hot-puggable SCSI drive tray. Has front panel LCD for monitoring, alarms, etc. They also make an IDE tray that's not hot-plug. I have the IDE one, and I'm impressed with the quality. Has front-panel lights, lock, cooling fan; heavily built.
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Re:Why not removable drive trays??
Antec makes a hot-puggable SCSI drive tray. Has front panel LCD for monitoring, alarms, etc. They also make an IDE tray that's not hot-plug. I have the IDE one, and I'm impressed with the quality. Has front-panel lights, lock, cooling fan; heavily built.
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Re:and about as overpriced too
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Re:and about as overpriced too
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Re:The Hassles of Moving, or Getting a Grip
In spite of a lot of searching, I have yet to find cases which offer a carrying handle
The Antec Gemstone cases have handles. And the black ones actually look pretty good, IMHO. Personally, after seeing an iMac with the handle broken and several parts damaged on impact, I no longer trust handles.
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Rack Mount
Why do you need candy colored cases????? Rackmount cases are much preferred by all the computers I have interviewed!!! They say it gives them much more space to "lounge around", makes it easier for those upgraded parts to be added w/o damaging something else, not to mention the fact that the computers feel much more fashionable while wearing a rackmount case
:)