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Antec PerformancePlus 660AMG Mini Tower Case |
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Continued.. and Conclusions.
The lower front section comes off easily also.. grip the little tabs on the top, pull down and it pops off. The wires for LED's etc are attached to the bezel which in some cases can be annoying, but there's not going to be any reason to ever pull this front section off on this case. There's a mesh filter for the front intake fan to limit the amount of dust sucked into the case, but this washable filter can be slipped downwards and out of the case even while the front is firmly attached.
A quick rinse under the tap, dry it off and the filter is clean and ready to be used again. The little arms used to hold it in place are quite fragile and unfortunately were already broken on this review sample case. However, they worked fine and the filter stayed in place even though the arms were bent. It's a little fiddly to reinstall but not too bad. If you get completely stuck you can easily rip the front off and put it in place that way, in only a few seconds without tools. Note that the filter only protects the lower intake fan, not the one in the removable drive cage - the one mounted in the door also has no filter.
Looking towards the front, you can see the fan mount for the lower-front intake fan and another inside the removable drive cage. For a minitower this case is quite long, so surprisingly roomy inside. At the front right of the case you can hopefully see a rolled steel bar that goes from the very top to the very bottom. There's one of these on either side of the front of the case and I imagine they contribute a great deal to the rigidity of the case as a whole. There's a horizontal bar across the front of the case that would also add a lot of strength. It can make installing a large motherboard a little fiddly, but it's not too bad.
The last couple of case reviews on OCAU were of Macase's Champion Series midtower and fulltower. After comparing those reviews to this one, you'd be forgiven for thinking that this Antec case is, apart from the colour, the minitower from the same range. It does seem likely that some rebadging is going on and, having seen cases from both manufacturers first-hand (but not side by side - in fact, separated by some months) it seems likely to me that they come from the same factory. This SolidMercury.com review suggests quite strongly that the Macase cases are in fact made by Chieftech, but that doesn't tell us anything definite about the Antec cases. Enermax and local vendor EYO have very similar cases also. But, speculation aside, there's a few ways for Antec to distinguish themselves from other manufacturers of similar cases. They can provide a better warranty if they choose - 3 years parts and labour isn't bad, but I don't know how it compares to the others. They have included a good manual and plenty of screws/spacers, but those are unlikely to win anyone over. One significant way that Antec can score over others is via including their own power-supply units.
Antec's power supplies have been garnering a lot of respect in the market over the last few months. I've recently bought two of their SL350 units for use on our in-house testbed machines. Altech provided an SL350 "SmartPower" 350W PSU with this review case, but normally it ships with with the 330W "TruePower" unit. Don't bemoan the loss of 20W there, the "TruePower" is Antec's premium line of PSU's and priced above the more pedestrian "SmartPower" range. You'll notice the bottom grille slightly fouls a mounting plate in the case. Whether this happens with the normal 330W unit that ships with this case I don't know, but it's no major drama either way.
The inclusion of the TruePower PSU with this case is a definite bonus and could well justify any price difference between this and otherwise comparable cases on its own. I have seen the TruePower PSU's in action before, despite one not being provided with this review case. They could warrant a full review of their own, but suffice to say they're a twin-fan thermally-controlled unit, approved for P4 and AMD use and extremely quiet. In fact, even with both case fans and the provided PSU running, this case is very quiet and cool.
Finally, the case is shown populated with Gigabyte's KT400 motherboard and a few other components. Building this testbed was very simple with nothing major to report. It's not entirely tool-less, as the backplates for the cards need to be screwed into place and so do hard drives etc. It can get a little tight inside, but that's the price you pay for the convenience of a minitower compared to a fulltower.
Conclusions
This case is a real pleasure to work with. The build quality is excellent and it's clear some consideration for enthusiasts has gone into the design. I have no real complaints at all about the design and it boasts some great extra features. The RRP for this unit is currently about $220AUD but perhaps a little less on the street - note that some places seem to be listing it as a Medi- or Midi-tower. This puts it above the very cheap cases pricewise, but when you factor in the Antec 330W PSU that's included, itself retailing for about AUD$120, it starts to look like a pretty good deal. Highly recommended as the basis for your next high-end PC or case mod!
Review unit provided by Altech Computers, a distributor with offices in Sydney and Brisbane.
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