Customer Reviews

Antec LifeStyle Solo ATX Quiet ATX Mini-Tower Case (Piano Black)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As I write this, Amazon has no information posted about what this Antec Solo "Quiet Mini Tower Case" is. So, as a stop-gap until I can get some pictures posted and a proper review written, here's the information directly from Antec's spec sheet:

Case Dimensions: 17.5"(H) x 8.1"(W) x 18.5"(D)

Drive Bays: 8
- Front Accessible: 3x5.25", 1x3.5"
- Internal: 4x3.5" or 3x3.5" with HDD suspension

Expansion Slots: 7

Cooling System:
- 1 rear (standard) 120mm TriCool Fan with 3-speed switch control
- 2 front 92mm fan mounts (fans not included)

Main Board Size: 12"(W)x9.6"(L)

Weight (net/gross): 25.3/30.3 lbs, 11.5/15.7 K

Motherboards: Standard ATX (web site says also microATX)

Special Features:
- Internal mounts with rubber grommets
- Optional HDD suspension system
- Poly carbonate side panels to reduce noise
- Advanced cable management system
- Front USB/FireWire Ports

Package Includes:
- 1 Tower Case
- 1 set of screws and motherboard standoffs
- 1 Installation manual

I've provided Amazon with a link to Antec's product brochure, but it hasn't shown up yet. Go to the Antec site (obvious URL) and navigate through Products -> Enclosures -> LifeStyle Series -> Solo for more information.

In a nutshell, this is a very nice, black, heavy, steel (not aluminum) mini-tower case designed specifically for quiet operation. Some of the highlights are 1) the sound deadening insulation on the side panels, 2) an included drive suspension system for decoupling the hard drive from the chasis, 3) a 120mm low RPM exhaust fan, and 4) the ability to add your own, quiet, efficient power supply (I'll be adding a Seasonic S12-430).

UPDATE: I've uploaded three pictures of the case. The sides and top are a very shiny black and the front looks like brushed aluminum.

UPDATE 2: I've got everything transferred over to the new Antec Solo from my old Lian-Li PC-60H1 case and can now add some personal material:

- First, when you get your new case, make sure you remove everything from the box and the case. The manual and various other pieces of paper are in the top "eggshell" type material under the cardboard liner. Also, the bag of screws and standoffs is tied inside the top 5.25" front accessible drive bay and the six drive rails should be someplace on the bottom of the case. In mine, four of them were in their built-in holder on the bottom and the other two were floating around under the hard drive cage.
- Second, only the left side panel and the front fan cage use thumb screws. All the rest of the removable connections are regular screws. One really nice touch about the thumbscrews is that they're attached to their object (i.e., they wont' fall off and get lost when you disassemble the case). I just wish everything else used thumbscrews.
- Third, there's no built in case speaker. As long as I never have to listen for BIOS error beeps, that won't matter at all. I suppose I could hook things up to my Audigy sound card if I had to. But, it's not really needed.
- Fourth, and probably the biggest lack, there's no removable motherboard tray. That makes getting the motherboard into the case and connected a bit more difficult than it should be. I had to temporarily remove the 120mm TriCool rear fan to have enough room to get my old MSI 865PE-Neo2-FIS2R motherboard into the case.
- Fifth, and the biggest problem for me (though it's not fully the case's fault), the combination of my 865PE-Neo2-FIS2R and Zalman CNPS7700-AlCu CPU Cooler did NOT fit in the case. The thing barely fit in the Lian-Li (maybe .25" clearance). In this case, the cooling fins physically run into the power supply (maybe .25" overlap). I had to use some brute force to get the motherboard/cooler combo in and the heatsink fins are sort of squished. Not a pleasant activity, but it works.
- Sixth, and very surprisingly, even though I used the built-in drive suspension system, I could still clearly hear the ramp-up whine and drive seeks on my Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA - ST3120026AS drive. I had to put the drive back in my GUP SmartDrive enclosure to quiet that down. I'd been hoping to keep the drive out of that since it raises its temperature by about 10 degrees Celcius.
- Seventh, there are a lot of sharp edges in the case. I cut a finger while working in it.
- Finally, on a positive note, I bought this case to try and reduce the noise of my computer. Purely, subjectively, as I'm sitting here with the computer by my feet, I'd say the noise level has dropped by at least half. I did install a new Seasonic S12-430 power supply when I put the system together instead of using my old Antec TruePower 430. So, I don't know how much noise reduction is due to which item. But, from what I can hear of my Zalman CNPS7700-AlCu and VF900-Cu, most of the improvement is probably due to the case. I was hoping that I wouldn't be able to hear the fans at all, but while I'm sitting right next to the computer, I still can. If I walk a few feet away, however, I can't tell it's on. As a bonus, my CPU temperature has dropped about eight degrees Celcius. But, I think that might be due to the new power supply dumping less heat into the case right above the CPU.

Overall, and primarily because of the dearth of thumbscrews and lack of a removable motherboard tray, I'd probably reduce my rating from its original 5 stars out of 5 to 4 stars out of 5 if Amazon would let me. Otherwise, I'm very happy with the case.

Wanted to add my own little review of the Antec Solo case for people so that it may help them. I ordered mine with free super saver shipping. It arrived in 3 days, shipping from Pennsylvania to Raleigh, NC.

It was shipped in a large cardboard box with packing paper stuffed between it and the retail box. The manual can be found inside the upper case holder.

After taking off the plastic, a stunningly beautiful case is revealed.

The case has thumbscrews for the left side panel that do not disconnect from the panel. This way you can't lose them. The right side panel is held by regular screws. I first found the loose drive rails and took them out of the case. I installed the power supply. You have to hold the PSU in place and screw at the same time; because there is very little metal to hold the it in place. I screwed in 5 more motherboard mounts for my standard ATX MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum (I already had the CPU and cooler installed). Then, I dropped the motherboard down onto the mounts. It was a very tight fit to drop it down. You cannot fit both hands on either side and drop it down. I had to turn the board diagonal to fit it down there and even hold it by the CPU heatsink for a second. No damage though.

I then hooked up all the case cables for the front. They were excessively long; however this came in useful for me with the audio and firewire cables for which the ports are at the rear of the motherboard. The cable management hooks were an incredibly useful feature.

I then installed the optical and floppy drive. The front bezel can be removed by pushing the 3 black tabs through the left side towards you and swinging the front bezel towards the right side of the case. Then lift up and it comes off its hinges. Antec uses its typical drive rail system with one drive rail on each side. The tab to remove the drive faces the front of the case. Drives are added and removed through the front of the case. A 5.25" adapter is used to mount any 3.5" media drives. Screw holes for mounting the 3.5" drives are on the bottom of the adapter. I connected the power and IDE cables.

Then I removed the 3.5" drive separators from the chassis by removing the front fan cage so that I could use the suspension system. This is done by again removing the front bezel (if you haven't done it), loosening the thumb screws to the fan cage and swinging it towards you and lifting up to remove it from the hinges. Then I pulled the drive separators out by their rails.

Next, I installed all the PCI cards and my graphics card. They did not fit snug against the case, although I think it is likely that my previous case (Antec Lanboy) warped them. Then I put the case where I planned to have my computer set up and installed the hard drive. I had to have the fan cage removed to install the hard drive. I placed the hard drive through the elastic-like suspension cords and it fit ok. I tried twisting them once and it felt more snug so I left it like that.

I stuffed excess PSU cables in the space between my floppy drive and the optical drive.

I then closed the case up and connected all the cables. I didn't have any trouble with sharp edges and didn't get cut. I didn't expect everything to have rounded edges and the most frequented sections seemed safe enough to me. Upon booting, I was greeted something that I was hoping for greatly from this case. NEAR-SILENCE. The Antec-Tricool at its lowest setting was not obnoxiously loud. The larger noise-maker was my CPU fan. After slowing it to about 50% of its full speed, it was much more bearable. Previously, I had removed my active cooling solution for my nForce4 chip and replaced it with the passive Zalman NB-47J because of the extreme amount of noise it made. I did have to remove 6 pins from the heatsink in order to fit it onto the chip and leave room for my ATI Radeon x800XL.

Cooling is better in this case compared to the Antec Lanboy (which is notorious for bad airflow). My CPU temperature in the Antec Lanboy idled around 38-39 C. Under load the temperature would rise to 45 C with the CPU cooler at 100% rpm (12V).

In the Solo, the chipset heatsink felt warm after I had left the computer idle for a while. I was in an air conditioned apartment set for about 21 C. With this configuration I got the following temps in deg. C using Everest Ultimate and confirmed with Speedfan/MSI Core Center (CPU fan at 50%):

CPU TEMPS
Idle : 34
Prime 95 - In place large FFT : 40
Prime 95 - Blend : 33
Half-Life 2 - Lost Coast : 34

GPU TEMPS
Idle : 44
Prime 95 - In place large FFT : 44
Prime 95 - Blend : 43
Half-Life 2 - Lost Coast : 44

HDD TEMPS
Idle : 39
Prime 95 - In place large FFT : 39
Prime 95 - Blend : 44
Half-Life 2 - Lost Coast : 41

After running these tests, I touched my chiset heatsink again and it was quite warm to the touch, but not hot or burning. The air blowing out the back of the case was always cool. I did not try any 92mm fan configurations because I do not have any on hand.

I tried playing Warcraft III and Counter Strike Source for a few hours and the chipset heatsink did not appear to overheat enough to cause any problems. nForce4 Zalman NB-47J heatsink temperatures were taken with an infared thermometer.

CHIPSET TEMPS (C)
Off: 28.6
Idle: 43.0
3hr WCIII: 48.2
1hr Counter Strike Source: 50.2

Optical drives painted with Krylon Fusion black satin look great with the case!

Pros:
excellent build quality
cable organizer is a great feature
very quiet
good airflow
quietest and best case I have ever dealt with

Cons (but more like quirks):
not enough railing for the PSU to sit on
front bezel cables are too long
no removable motherboard tray
92mm fans in front instead of 120mm
installation manual is difficult to understand at times

My system is: AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester w/ Zalman CNPS-7700Cu | MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum w/ Zalman ZM-NB47J | ATI Radeon x800XL | Fortron Source Blue Storm 500W | 1GB Crucial Ballistix PC3200 | Seagate 7200.8 250 GB with NCQ | Antec Solo Case w/ 1 Antec Tri-cool | NEC ND-3520A 16x DVD-/+RW | Samsung SD-616 16x DVD-ROM | Generic Floppy | Linksys WMP54G

This review with images can be found at Silent PC Review's forums under the Topic: Antec P150: Back in Black? [called: Solo].

This case, the Antex Solo, is a good choice for a medium duty computer. Every aspect of the case exemplifies quality, from the finish on the exterior to the provision of a cable management area to the drive mountings. About the only thing to complain about is the lack of a motherboard tray. The SOLO is the black version of the P150 and comes without a PSU. The color is very black with a very high gloss finish. The front panel is silver plastic with black trim. It swings open to allow access to the two 92mm intake fans with their washable filter and behind those, the bank of 3.5" drives. You can mount either four in the provided trays with their acrylic mounting grommets or three suspended in elastic bands. There are four slots for 5.25" drives one of which has an adaptor for a 3.5" drive. These slots are exposed to the front. The front panel also features two USB ports and one FireWire port, mic and headphone plugs, the power and reset buttons (indirectly lit with blue LED) and the drive indicator with its blue LED. The left side panel comes off with the unscrewing of two captive thumb screws to allow access to the main bay. There is adequate room for just about any PSU, I used an Antec NeoHE 550. At the back there is a mounting for a 120 mm exhaust fan. There are 8 expansion slots. The right side panel also removes to provide access to the cable management area. This consists of a series of hooks to wind up excess cable on before it goes into the main bay for connection. The construction of the case is steel and soundproofing coatings have been added to the major interior surfaces. The one aspect of the case I felt could be improved was the lack of separation of the PSU from the main bay so it would not be sucking up hot air to try to cool itself with. That just makes for a hot PSU with a fan spinning noisily. It would require a modification of the basic construction but I would recommend Antec consider this change. I installed some cardboard baffles to separate the upper part of the case from the main bay. This makes the PSU pull its air through the upper drive bays. In operation, the case is very quiet. My motherboard is an Asus M2N32 SLI Deluxe fitted with an Athlon X2 4400+ AM2, 2 x 1GB Corsair 6400C4 and two BFG 7900GT. I have both Plextor 716 slot load and a Samsung tray load as well as a pair of 74 GB Raptors and a pair of 250 GB Samsung Spinpoints. I used Nexus fans and a Zalman CNPS 9500 cooler. This is a substantial amount of gear but when the machine is on, there is just the barest whirring, even when its cranking. The only drive noises I hear are the opticals spinning up. All in all, its an execellent case.

Pros: Style, Solid Construction, Great Airflow, Very Quiet. Hard drive bays can be accessed from front without removing side panel. Choice of hard drive bungee cord mounting or effective silencing grommets in easy-access trays. No fragile door covering Optical drives or switches. Adequate room and cooling for huge video cards like the x1900.

Cons: Front Panel Audio is not HD-Audio compatible. The front swing-away panel isn't quite perfect, and the Power Switch button may not alighn perfectly with the switch if not shut properly. The PSU is difficult to access with a CPU heatsink installed.

My new Video editing system uses this case, and with the addition of an Intel HD-Audio 3.5" front panel, it suits my purposes perfectly. Hours-long Capture and Render sessions are pleasant with no noticable noise from the computer. Even better, the system runs cool with no overheating.
The lack of a front door blocking the Optical drives is a great convienence when burning many DVDs.
As I use 2 92mm intake fans (not included) set to a silent 5v, the intake Air Filter is very effective.

Great case. I've built a couple of boxes and this is by far the nicest case I've used. No sharp edges, plenty of room, nice looks, and great features inside that allow swapping components in short order. The only drawback is that it doesn't have a removable MOBO tray, but that's a minor issue. Overall a very nice case.

I have had the Antec SOLO for almost 2 years now and it is still working very well for me. The design is starting to show it's age however and there are more capable ATX cases available now than when the SOLO was first introduced.

PROS:
- Fairly quiet
- Beautiful piano black finish on the sides and top
- Dual hard disk mounting system
- Front panel easy to remove
- Front I/O panel
- Removable front dust filter

CONS:
- Suspension HD mounting can result in dropped disks
- Black finish is easily scratched (think car paint swirls)
- Very cramped interior
- Rubber/silicone feet can fall off

I have no real complaints about the Antec SOLO per se. When it was introduced, it was a pretty innovative, gorgeous case and very popular. It's just that in less than 2 years, cases from companies like Cooler Master, Thermaltake, and even budget-minded Rosewill have introduced more convenient and better performing enclosures.

INSTALLATION
The installation is pretty straight forward. An ATX motherboard is a very tight squeeze and there is no removable motherboard tray or cutout for bolt-on heatsinks to make things easier. The PSU installs at the top, which is kind of old school and the optical drives are installed by using screw-on rails. The rail system is nearly a decade old and many case manufacturer's have gone to HDD rails that snap in and include rubber grommets for noise reduction while optical drives are installed without any screws or rails at all. The SOLO gives you the option of using two different types of HD mounting. Suspension mounting, while nice in theory, can be a hassle since if you move your case a lot, chances are the drive will fall. The tray mount works fine and uses thick rubber grommets to keep the vibrations at a minimum. The I/O panel headers were easy to identify and install though the HDD activity light header runs underneath the drive cage so if you use the very bottom tray mount, the tray will sometimes snag on the wire. The rear expansion slots use screws rather than providing either a screwless system or thumbscrews. Also, the plates are not ventilated. On the plus side, the thumb screws on the left panel are super easy to operate and are permanently mounted on the panel so no screws to lose! On the right side of the drive cage are some wire management hooks that do help in keeping cables better organized. Since the panels do not have acrylic windows, this would only be necessary if you are either a neat freak, or want to maintain good air flow.

PERFORMANCE
The Antec SOLO has just one 120mm TriCool fan on the rear for exhaust. Should you desire, you can also install 2 92mm fans in front of the drive cage for improved cooling. I never used the TriCool fan as I installed a Scythe fan in place of it from the very start and my system has been running cool and silent. My CPU idles at around 23°C while my hard disks idle around 32°C. I have the original Antec Sonata silent case as well and have to say that the SOLO is at least as quiet as the Sonata. Both side panels have soundproofing materials glued on them as does the top of the case. However, in less than 2 years, the soundproofing on the top is starting to peel off from the direction of the power supply. I rather like the blue power LED but if it's too bright, you can always leave the header off the mobo.

SUPPORT
While I have had mostly good experiences with Antec's support, I was disappointed that they did not have replacement soundproofing material so I could correct the peeling. They only offered the suggestion of using super glue or double sided tape. Still, when my front panel had an issue with the paint finish, Antec did provide a replacement at no charge and shipped it to me quickly.

MISC
Newer enclosures have moved the I/O panel to the top of the case for easier access since most people put their towers on the floor. Also, many new cases have relocated the PSU to the bottom which is far more convenient. Lastly, there have been many complaints about the silicone feet falling off since they are just glued on rather than being screwed on. I personally would've preferred plastic feet because my tower sits on carpet.

SUMMARY
Back when I purchased the Antec SOLO, I would have rated it 4 stars easy. But since it is still available for purchase and competition has improved immensely, I can't give it more than 3 stars, especially since the price has not decreased at all. It would be a better value at about half the current price. Though gobs of other enclosures have surpassed the Antec SOLO's technology, it is still a great case with solid build quality. If you can get one on sale or clearance, I would recommend it.

This is the standard-bearer ATX case for those who build quiet PCs. I have two. The first was originally called the P150, and it shipped with a white finish and a power supply. The current Solo does not come with a power supply.

THE GOOD:

Build. This is a heavy, steel case that could double as a car jack. I wouldn't have any qualms about sitting on one. It's a breed apart from cases like Cooler Master's 330 series. Little things like rolled interior edges and thumb-screws for the main side panel that don't fall out add to the experience.

Paint. The paint finish is automotive-caliber gloss black. Every other case short of the very high-end models with matte black aluminum looks cheap by comparison.

Wire organization. The inside has wire hangers on the back of the metal where the motherboard is mounted and the the backs of the drive trays. If you're OCD about clutter, the Solo will give you the tools for a spotless build.

Silent touches. It has rubber feet to dampen vibration, sound-deadening on the main side panel (though it's really more of a reflector; silence nuts should try lining the interior of the case with foam), silicon grommets on the hard disk trays, and elastic cords to suspend the hard disks. The case is keyed for 120mm fans in the back and 92mm for disk cooling. These sizes are quieter and more effective at moving air than 80mm, but not so large that it's hard to find high-quality fans like it would be for the gigantic one-off sizes in some tweaky gamer cases.

That last feature is unique among cases. Hard disks are a major noise source for two reasons: they whine, and they cause the case to hum by vibrating the case panels. Suspending the drive doesn't do anything for whine, but it completely eliminates hum. I've disconnected the bright blue LED on my case. With a 10,000 RPM Raptor disk and a 7200 RPM Samsung suspended inside, it's impossible to tell if the system is on without looking at the hard disk activity light.

All of the drive trays are removable. Floppy, 5.25" DVD, and hard disks all slide out from the front. It's not quite hot-swap simple because you've still got to mess with cables in the back, but it's vastly preferable to physically screwing the drives into the case.

Cooling. The qualifier here is that cooling is excellent for a silent case with a high-mounted power supply. Dozens of porous cases with mesh grilles over everything will outperform it, but with a full complement of fans (2 x 92mm in the front, CPU fan, PSU fan, 1 x 120mm in the rear), it's very capable. My white Solo is a server. It holds 11 3.5" drives and runs a dual-core Athlon X2 chip passively cooled. The only fan in the case is a Nexus 120mm in the rear undervolted to 600 RPM. Hard disk temperatures are 35C to 45C. The chip is never above 55C.

THE BAD:

It's cramped for dense builds. Large video cards won't fit with dremeling a notch in the hard disk bays. The bays themselves are parallel to the case, so the backs of the drives aim toward the motherboard. It's awkward to do the initial SATA connections, particularly if you have any sort of long PCI card installed.

More recent cases mount the power supply on the bottom of the system for better airflow. The Solo is not one of them. If the power supply isn't modular with detachable cables, the unused cables will droop down over the motherboard. I have my cable excess filling the space between the the DVD drive and the floppy in the upper drive bays.

The included 120mm Antec TriCool is not silent. You can either attempt to undervolt it with a step-down 12V to 5V molex line, or replace it with a 120mm fan recommended by SilentPCReview. I opted for two Nexus Real Silent case fans. At 600 RPM, they cool effectively and are completely inaudible.

The motherboard tray isn't removable. This and the high-mounted PSU conspire against component twiddling. To replace the PSU, I have to take off my CPU heatsink and take extra care not to gouge a hole in the motherboard.

The elastic bands for disk suspension stretch over time and drop the drives. The solution is to toss them in a drawer and buy Stretch Magic bracelet line. It doesn't stretch at all once you've installed it.

That's about it, actually. These cases tend to go on sale for $30-$40 every few months. I consider it somewhat underpriced at $90, so if you can catch the lower prices, buy an extra one for a future build.

This is easily the best case on the market for a quiet build. This is my second Antec Solo and if I needed to build another PC, I would not hesitate to buy this case again. Excellent build quality, ingenious noise reduction features (such as the drive suspension mechanism), great insulation (the side panels are beasts, nothing gets through) and great cooling efficiency. As a bonus, it looks amazing! The only issue you could possibly have, that is easily overcome, is if you have a huge graphics card. I have a Radeon HD 4870 which is one of the biggest out there, and with a little smart cable management I was able to fit it in along with two suspended HDDs. Buy this case.

I purchased this basic "Piano Black" case to build an Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 ASUS LGA 1155 - Z68 - PCIe 3.0 and UEFI BIOS Intel Z68 ATX DDR3 2200 LGA 1155 Motherboards P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 mobo system with Intel Core i7-2600K Processorand Corsair 16 GB Vengeance Blue Low Profile 1600mhz PC3-12800 240-pin Dual Channel DDR3 Memory Kit 16 Dual Channel Kit - CML16GX3M4A1600C9B, running Windows 7 Professional for my wife, who is an artist. This is also an evaluation build for a similar system I will build for myself later this year to replace an ancient Intel P4 on an Asus P4B266 mobo running Windows XP Pro. All three (CPU, mobo, and OS) are getting a bit long in the tooth and need to be retired soon. This build, when finished, will (hopefully) allow me to retrieve from my wife an H-P laptop I received as a birthday present from my brother last year.

I wanted an inexpensively priced, sturdy, steel case without a lot of frills. And that is exactly what this case is. Nicely painted, too. It is snugly fitted with a Corsair Professional Series Gold 850-Watt 80 Plus Gold Certified High-Performance Power Supply - CMPSU-850AX, Plextor PX-L890SA-26 24X SATA Super Multi DVD+/-RW Internal Drive (Retail) with PlexUtilities and LightScribe, and Western Digital Caviar Black 2 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Internal Desktop Hard Drive - WD2002FAEX hard-mounted on four silicone spacers in the 3.5" tray provided with the case. The 850 W PSU is a bit of overkill, but I figure I can use it for my build and replace it with a smaller PSU for this build later this year.

There is not a lot of room left in this case after the modular cables are connected to the PSU. I looped the two mobo modular power cables around the Intel integrated heatsink and fan assembly that is included with the boxed Intel i7-2600K processor. A PSU with modular cable connections is a real plus for use in the tight confines of this case.

A Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler, RR-B10-212P-G1 tower was purchased for this system, but it was not installed. Low-profile DIMMs were purchased in anticipation of using the Cooler Master, and there is room in the case for it. However, I don't plan to over-clock this build, so the Intel fan/heatsink included with the processor should be adequate. Also, as another reviewer noted, there is no panel cutout for access to the bottom side of the mobo to mount the bracket support hardware an add-on CPU cooling tower requires. That would be an inconvenience for an over-clocked build requiring the extra cooling capability, but I didn't downgrade my rating because I don't believe this case specifically targets the over-clocking enthusiast market. Perhaps I will use the Hyper 212 in the build for my computer, and if I use this case I will cut a hole for access to the mounting bracket. That's one of the nice things about steel: you can put a few extra holes here and there without appreciably weakening it.

The Antec "documentation" is very poor. I had to read an explanation by another reviewer here on the Amazon website to find out why there are plastic "brackets" on the bottom of the case. They apparently are used to store unused drive rails, but Antec doesn't mention that. Nor do they work all that well. When I opened my case those mounting rails were scattered all over the inside. Not a single rail survived delivery still mounted in its storage bracket. Still, your mileage may differ, especially if you don't pick the case up, shake it, and turn it upside down to see what falls apart.

Before I could mount the Asus mobo I had to remove the I/O shielding bezel that comes with the case. This bezel was designed way back when round PS/2 6-pin Mini-DIN mouse and keyboard connectors were de rigueur. It is pressed firmly into place. Use a screwdriver to pry it out from inside the case. Throw it away. Firmly press the Asus bezel (included with their mobo) in its place, working inside the case. Press all the way around the perimeter of the bezel to make sure it is firmly seated in the case panel cutout. Wait! If by some chance the I/O connectors on YOUR mobo actually match the holes in the Antec bezel... never mind! Leave the bezel in place.

Not having a removable motherboard tray is a PITA. Only three brass stand-offs were installed by Antec (there were plenty more in the nuts 'n' bolts bag) and the Asus mobo uses nine. What are the chances that all nine holes in the mobo will line up with the standoffs? After installing all nine standoffs, leave the standoffs slightly loose by about a quarter turn to allow them to move around a little while you negotiate putting screws through the mobo. I had to start on the edge nearest the outside of the case, where the I/O ports are mounted. Once you get all three of those screws started (don't tighten yet!), you can fit the three on the opposite edge, and finally the three in the middle. After all nine screws are started you can go ahead and finish tightening them. Getting the first three screws started are the problem. You have to first align, and then firmly pull the mobo I/O connectors up against the bezel and be ready to insert a screw as soon as a hole in the mobo aligns with a standoff. An extra hand and arm might help, if it didn't get in the way.

A "better" design would have you mount the standoffs on the mobo first, and then insert all nine standoffs into un-threaded, slightly over-sized, holes on the mounting panel, secured with lock-nuts or lock washers and nuts. It is possible to "reverse engineer" the Antec case to do just that... drill out the tapped mounting holes and buy some metric lock nuts. If I were putting together a dozen of these every week that's what I would do.

I didn't purchase a video card for this build because the Intel Z68 chipset includes a very nice video graphics generator. Later on down the road my wife may want a video board (or two!) to take advantage of their better rendering engines. There is not a whole lot of room, lengthwise, to install a high performance video card because the hard drive cage abuts the edge of the Asus mobo. You should make measurements before purchasing a video card to make sure it will fit in this case. It may be possible to make modifications that would allow an excessively long video card to be installed, but a larger case might be a better alternative under those circumstances. For me, room for a video card is a non-issue because I don't need a video card.

I did need an Internet connection, and the mobo provides one. I didn't use it. Instead I plugged a wireless adapter into one of the USB slots on the rear I/O panel. No problemo. Worked first time, right out of the box, after loading the software driver from the CD-ROM disk and setting the 64-character wireless key from a thumb drive. That means, without a video card or any other cards for that matter, the case has seven unused slots. These are filled with solid, removable, metal plates. Some cases with extensive air flow arrangements perforate these plates to allow better exhaust air flow. It is not necessary or even desirable to do that with the Antec case.

When mounting hard drives in this case you have an "option" of "securing" them with rubber bands. This is supposed to make them less noisy. I would avoid this "feature" because you can learn a lot about the health of a hard drive by listening to it when it's working. Antec advises not moving the case if the rubber band mounting method is chosen. The only reason I would even think about choosing this method of mounting is if the PC must be located in an area demanding the utmost level of silence... perhaps a library. Maybe you should consider a Solid State Drive instead.

It is not obvious, but the side panel fitted with self-retaining thumb screws must be removed before the front door can be opened. With the panel removed, three plastic catches are revealed running down the left side. Press these down, starting from the top, while applying gentle pressure to open the door. The door will swing open only about 45 degrees, but then it can be lifted from its two hinge supports and set aside to gain access to the drive bays and the intake air filter. Reverse the operation, aligning the upper door hinge pin first and the lower pin second, to re-install the door.

It is nice that there are two self-retaining thumb screws to allow access to the hard drive bay. Thumb screws are a nice touch to a well-built computer case, not really necessary but nice. Overall, this is exactly what I like in a minimalist computer case, the kind you use to build a $2000 rig. At any given time, two thousand dollars always buys all the computer you need. Maybe not all the computer you want, or would like to have, but certainly all you need to get the job done. This project came in on time and under budget. Would I purchase this case for a similar job? You bet! At well under a hundred dollars, it is a quality case at a reasonable price.

Bought this about two years ago for my kids computer build. This case is rock solid, sturdy, a bit on the heavy side, but what do you expect with steel construction. Plenty of hardware included for all types of applications. Installed one front fan (two 92mm front fan spaces) to improve cooling over the hard drives. My only suggestion is to get the dimensions from the Antec web site to ensure your video card is not too long. Also take note of where the PCIE power connector is on your video card.