Antec has taken their trademark case and kicked it up a notch. They recently released their line of Performance Plus cases which have considerable improvements from the original series of cases. I have done a few different case reviews this month and they have been good cases so far, I am wondering if this case will beat out the others and if so how badly. This case is classified as a mini tower, but to me its really a mid tower. Its dimensions are 17.25″ (H) x 8.1″ (W) x 18.6″ (D) 440 x 206 x 472 mm, there are 8 drive bays total, 3 being 5.25″, 2 being 3.5″ and 3 hidden 3.5″. This case should be really nice, lets take a close look at it.
The box of the Antec Performance Plus660AMG case is pretty cool looking and really glossy, its nice when cases come in really nice boxes because most of the time that means there is a really nice case inside. I went ahead and opened up the box to see that it was packaged well and had a plastic bag around it as well to keep it from being scratched.
When I first took this case out of the box I was really impressed, the finish on this case is amazing and the quality just looks top notch. The front of the case is really cool looking, there are 3 5.25″ bays and 2 3.5″ bays and the bottom of the case has the classic antec style bezel. The back of the case is also really nice looking, the cutout for the 80mm exhaust fan is really well cutout so that there is good airflow.
As you can see from the picture of the side and the top of the case, the paint on this case has an exceptional finish to it. I think this is the best finish on a case that I have ever seen. The clear coat on this case makes it look so professional and nice. There is no blowhole on the top of the case but there is one on the side of the case as well as a handle which we will look at later.
Let’s take a closer look at the front of the case and see what’s going on. On the front of the case there is a little door which is branded with Antec, underneath that door you will find 2 USB ports and a firewire port. I love front USB and I think every case should have it, front firewire is also nice however I don’t have any firewire devices so I would get no use out of it. I really like that this case has a multiple LEDs for more than one hard drive, most of us using computers these days have more than one hard drive and it sucks not having them on their own LED. The button of the case is also really nice, a good size and shape perfect for those late night sessions where you just want to hit that button and crash in bed.
Antec cases are also known for having handles in the door which make it really easy to get in and out of. This is my first experience with an Antec case first hand and I really love this feature. The handle makes it so easy to take the side of which is a flaw in a lot of other cases. The side door also has a cutout for an 80mm fan which is nice, I really like that the cutout is so nice which in turn allows a lot of air to flow through.
The case comes with the usual bag o’ screws and you also get an Antec case badge, 2 keys which are to lock and unlock the side of your case, and 6 5.25″ drive rails which we will see on the next page. I like that you are able to lock and unlock your case so you can keep small children from getting in your case.
I grabbed that handle and opened it up, the case comes with a True 330w power supply which sports some really cool features that the old model of power supplies didn’t. The cord for the power supply is tied to the case so that it doesn’t bounce all around during shipping which is a nice.
The True330 is a 330 Watt 6-output, dual fan-cooled ATX12V, it’s ATX 12V compliance allows its use with the latest Pentium 4 processors while its backward compatibility ensures its usability with any ATX-based AMD or Intel® system. Antec Low Noise Technology is a new approach that achieves optimum balance between noise reduction and necessary cooling. To this end power supply fans run at the lowest speed appropriate to load and conditions, under an advanced temperature response system that outperforms previous solutions. Further dedicated Fan Only power connectors allow TruePower power supplies to control the speed of case fans, too.
|
FEATURES
|
|
|
Maximum Power
|
330 Watts
|
|
Switches
|
ATX Logic on-off additional power rocker switch (115/230 Volt selector switch)
|
|
Special Connectors
|
AUX Power
|
|
Transient Response
|
+5V,+12V outputs return to within 5% in less than 1ms for 20% load change.
|
|
P. G. Signal
|
100-500ms
|
|
Over Voltage Protection
|
+5V trip point < +6.5V
|
|
Overload Protection
|
Latching Protection
|
|
Leakage Current
|
< 3.5mA @ 240VAC
|
The Power supply is really nice and feels rock solid, the side has a sticker with all of the technical specifications which are all above. The power supply is a dual fan design and the bottom of the PSU has a 92mm clear bladed fan in it which is cool looking, better than black IMO. I really like dual fan power supplies because they help with cooling a fair amount.
I really like the cables on the power supply for a few reasons. The motherboard power cable has a mesh cover like the Enermax power supplies have, I like this PSU better than the Enermax though I think because the cables are not absurdly long. There is also a 3-pin connection which is the RPM monitoring for the fan in the power supply which you hook to your motherboard. Of course you get all the standard 4 pin Molex and the 2 Pentium 4 plugs. These Antec True power supplies come with a nifty little feature, instead of having to waste one of your Molex connectors Antec has provided you with 2 Molex connections which are for fans only because only have 2 of the 4 wires, I really like this because it is a pain having to use some of your Molex on fans when you need them for hardware.
Taking a look at the back of the door you can see that the handle can be removed with little effort so that if you want to install a window it will be pretty easy. There is also the 80mm fan which is nothing special but there is a cool fan that is optional that we will look at later.
There are tons of jumpers in the case because of the front USB and firewire not to mention you get the fact that you get 3 HDD LED jumpers instead of the usual one. For the most part the jumpers are pretty neat and tidy, some of the front panel ones are fused together and some are individual. I don’t know why they didn’t just have them all fused together to cut down on the mess. The USB and firewire jumpers are fused together or incased in tubing to keep them nice and neat. I like how the firewire jumpers are all put together to keep it all in one place.
The inside front of the case has a fan holder which will hold an 80mm fan, just like the rest of the cutouts this one is also very good allowing a lot of air to flow through. The back of the case also has a fan holder for a single 80mm fan with the same style of cutout. I really like how these holders are included because it makes installation and un- installation of fans so much faster than having to unscrew 4 screws.
The front bezel of this case is very cool and I think one of the best features. You all know that removing your bezel can either be very easy or very hard and in most cases it is not easy. I really like the system that Antec has devised here, to remove the top half of the bezel all you need to do is push on 2 tabs which are located on both sides of it and it comes right off without a struggle and without any tools. After removing the top half of the bezel you can see that there are 2 more clips at the bottom of the first picture which release the bottom half, all you need to do is push down on both sides a little and it pops right off. There is also another really cool feature that I found after removing the top half of the front bezel. Usually when you want to install your floppy drive you have to go in through the inside of the case and screw it in from both sides which is time-consuming and can be frustrating. Antec has a floppy drive cage which is held to the case by 2 thumbscrews, we will see that more later.
The bottom half of the bezel came off just as easy as the top half did and also had a nice feature lurking underneath it. The case comes with a filter for the front intake fan so that you can prevent dirt from getting inside your case and making it look horrible. This filter is really nice because it comes off very easily and it can be washed with soap and water when it gets dirty which means you dont have to spend any money buying a new one. Another thing I really liked about the back of this bottom half is the fact that the front USB and firewire jumpers were not soldered on but they were connected just like the other end of it would be.
Taking a look at the naked front of this case you can see that all of the metal is really nice and not sharp, you can also see that there are a few more cutouts which your hard drives will be behind in a cage. Getting back to the inside of the case we can see that there are plenty of expansion slots for your PCI and AGP cards so that you can move them around and keep your case nice and sealed. I like having lots of extra expansion slot covers rather than the punch out kind so that you can keep your case all closed up.
I love extra features in a case and Antec has plenty more up their sleeve. Most of the time it is a pain to install hard drives, CD drives, and your floppy drive. Antec has provided an easy solution for all of the drives which will make installation much easier than before. There is a lever on the side of the hard drive cage which when you pull it back will release it allowing you to remove it. Within the hard drive cage is another purple 80mm fan holder where you can install a fan to cool your hard drives. All you have to do is screw your hard drive into this hard drive cage, slide it back into place and click the lever forward to secure it, I really like this feature because hard drive installation is usually a hastle.
Moving onto the 5.25″ bay drives we find yet again another ingenious innovation which will make installtion of drives simple. The case comes with 6 5.25″ drive rails which make installtion of your CDROM drives a breeze. All you have to do is take 2 of the drive rails and attach them to the drive itself. After you have the drive rails attached to the drive just slide it on in until they snap into place. There are some other cases with features like this for the 5.25″ bays but I think I like this method the best so far.
Last but not least is the floppy drive, first off I dont even like floppy drives because they are slow, hold very little data and are pretty pointless really. Unfortunatly they are not being phased out fast enough for whatever reason. Anways, if you are going to use one of these obsolete devices installing it is very easy on this case. There are two thumbscrews that hold another drive cage in place, when you unscrew those you can pull the cage out. Now that you have the cage out all you need to do is attach your floppy drive to it, slide the cage back into the case and use the thumbscrews to tighten it back into place.
With all your drives in place in a fraction of the time that it usually takes you can now install all of your hardware and get up and running. I installed all my hardware really quickly and without a problem, there were no sharp edges in the case at all so I didn’t have to hurt myself. I then hooked up the fans in the case to the fan only Molex connectors so that I wouldn’t waste any of the full Molex plugs. I really like these fan only Molex they make you feel like your not wasting anything you shouldn’t be.
After installing all of my hardware to the case I went ahead and shut the side door which locked right into place. I put the filter back onto the bottom half of the bezel and then attached both the top and bottom half of the bezel to the case. Doesn’t this case look really nice?
Antec also sent over one of their LED fans so lets take a quick look at that. The fan comes in a plain white box but what is inside is what matters. When I pulled out the fan I could tell that it was really nice, the quality and construction of this fan were above par. The wires for the 4 pin Molex have mesh cable around them and have heat shrink at each end. There is also a 3-pin connection for RPM monitoring so that you can make sure this fan keeps spinning. Along with the fan you get 4 screws to attach it to your case.
I went ahead and took the stock fan off the side panel and replaced it with this clear LED fan, after that I turned on the computer and it spun up, the red is a lot more impressive in person. The power supply that comes with this case is really quiet especially compared to the old model which was really loud and the main reason why I wrote the guide on how to change the fan in your Antec PSU.
Conclusion:
This was my first experience with an Antec case and I have to say that I couldn’t have been much more impressed. This case has so many different features to offer its amazing. I really like this case because it has to much to offer, a lot of cases on the market today look good but they are built really poorly and without consideration to the customer. Antec has made sure that the customer has been taken care of. The paint on this case is the best I have ever seen on any case, all of the fan grill cutouts allow for a low of air to flow through. The case comes with front USB and firewire, multiple hard drive LEDs and a really nice power supply. There are no sharp edges in this case and all of the features for installing drives to this case make it a big contender in the case arena. The only thing I don’t really like about this case is the fact that it doesn’t have a removable motherboard tray which is a must in my opinion and it would have been nice to see thumbscrews on this case, they left no stone unturned as far as everything else goes why not finish it off with a few thumbscrews? I also like the fact that Antec made their new power supply quieter than the old one because the old one was really loud. Overall I am going to give this case a 9.5/10 and award it the OCmodshop Seal of Approval, I would like to thank Antec for sending this case over for review. You can pick up this case for only $129 which is really good considering all you get so buy one!
Pros:
Cons:
|