Overall excellent product
Written: Apr 05 '03 (Updated Apr 05 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Indestructible, Excellent airflow, PSU is fairly quiet
Comfortable to work in
Cons: Heavy, Door lock not especially secure, USB/1394 is very fiddly
The Bottom Line: If you want a compact but well-ventilated case, the SX630II is a great choice.
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| stilettoone's Full Review: Antec Performance II SX630II ATX Mini-Tower Case |
Capacity:
.5.25" bays: 3
..Mounted using locking rails. Screw the rails onto the sides of the drive, and then just push the drive in place.
..You have to remove the front bezel first, but this can be done very quickly.
.External 3.5" bays: 2
..Once you take off the front bezel, there is a small two-drive bay that's held in by thumbscrews. Just unscrew it and pull it out (the screws have retention pieces so they won't actually fall out), and then attach your floppy or ZIP or other drives. :)
.Internal 3.5" bays: 3
..The three internal drive bays are actually all on a lever-locked (no screws involved!) bay, with a plastic 80x80x25mm fan bracket in the front. And the bays are spaced so that even with three drives, there are airflow paths between the drives for cool air.
.Access
..Left panel: Handle. Comes secured by thumbscrews (for shipping), but once removed, is entirely opened and closed by a spring-loaded handle. Can be locked, but the lock is easily picked. Also, it is generic, and does NOT use a true key. Plenty sturdy enough to keep kids out, though, or to keep your roommate from stealing your graphics card.
..Right panel: Two screws, then normal pivot-and-lift. Also very easy to remove.
..Front bezel: Needs the left door off, but does NOT require right panel off. Push in two release patches, pivot from bottom, and lift off.
.Dynamics
..The structural reinforcement bar does NOT interfere with getting motherboards in, and is far enough in that it can be used to route cables over (not the big 20-wire ATX power block, though)
..The case will take normal-sized ATX boards, but don't expect all dual-processor boards to fit.
..Two intake fan brackets, one standard rear exhaust fan (Antec sleeve bearing, I believe. ~30 cfm, pretty quiet).
..Comes with Antec SmartPower 300W power supply; single-fan, quiet.
..Airflow from the hard drive bay fan can be very badly blocked by IDE cables; try to fold cables away from directly behind the drives.
.Accessories
..USB 2.0: It works. Uses individual wires, so you have to make sure to match them up with appropriate pins on the motherboard. Will NOT work with internal USB PORTS, only HEADERS. So it won't work if you get a USB controller card with an internal port.
..FireWire: Same as USB 2.0. Designed to go into a pinned-out header, not into an internal port.
.Miscellaneous
The SX600, 800, and 1000 series (I haven't used the 1200 series myself) cases are very stable and very sturdy. Like, if you need to, you can use one for a temporary (if top-heavy) chair. There are NO sharp edges anywhere (that I found, anyway, during the course of a system installation), and the fan brackets are stiff enough that vibration is not an issue.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
stilettoone
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Location: Raleigh, NC, USA
Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 0 members
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