- Tuesday, 9 February 2010
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This is one cool cage
Product: Antec Skeleton
Supplier: Antec
Web: http://www.antec.com/
Price: $179.99 / £140.00
A MONTH OR SO back we read the Antec press release about their new Skeleton case. As the name implies, it's a cage-like case that surrounds your PC components and the air move around freely. The concept looked interesting from the get go and we called up Antec in the UK to get us a sample in the lab. We know we usually don't do cases, but we opened an exception on this one... it's just that unique.
A week or so later, the case arrived and we were ready for the test. Unboxing the kit showed us what is arguably a very original concept. The case is designed as an open structure with a massive 250mm fan on top (with three speed settings) to blow down air over all components and what seems to be free access to the system components. There's very little in the way of setting things up.
The Skeleton has a sliding motherboard tray that slides front to back and secures with a couple of push-in screws. This works great when you're putting in the motherboard, but not so much when sticking in PCI/PCIe cards... the bigger the card, the bigger the headache. The remainder of the components (PSU, HDDs ODDs) slide in underneath the mobo tray.
Although the tool-less drive cages will only take two 5.25-inch ODD, and two HDDs (full height, don't even use half-height drives, they won't lock into place) the Skeleton comes with some nifty screw-on trays for up to 4 additional HDDs/SSDs that actually hang from to the sides of the case.
Exposed they will be, but you get extra storage that way. There's an additional 92mm fan to stick in front of the HDD bays to generate some extra cooling.
In the front panel you have Phones, Mic, 1x eSATA, 1x FireWire and 2x USB, a reset and power on/off button. At the back of the case there's a translucid bracket support that you need to unscrew and remove in order to get things set up. Underneath the motherboard tray, at the back, sits a slide-in PSU tray.
We started setting things up and immediately hit a snag in the design. We were stuck trying to get a Scythe Mugen cooler on our QX9770 to slide in, but the towering cooler just couldn't fit with the rest of the mobo, hitting the fan support. Off to the store to get a Scythe Ninja Mini, then. The Ninja Mini wasn't really built for QX9770 punishment, but with the airflow generated by both the Ninja Mini and the 250mm monster fan on top, we were expecting survival. We also plugged a passively cooled 8600GT just to see how well it works out.
A second snag quickly reared its ugly head: you can get the LED cabling for the HDD, Power, On/Off Switch and Reset Button to the right place on your mobo, but only barely. This means that in order to slide out the motherboard tray you'll have to unplug those connectors. The cables are very short.
Snag number three didn't take long to pop up: PSU positioning. In Bizarro world Antec, the engineers decided to put the PSU sideways, not front-to-back, meaning you lose cabling length (and routing is hellish) while having to twist your power cable to get it out the back of the case. We didn't twist ours, we just put it out the side by removing the side mesh.
Dust will be also an issue if you don't have a cloth to drape over the unit when it's not in use, and the side hanging HDD trays will be dangerous if you've got the case on the floor. Antec should include a cloth cover for the product.
OK, by now you're thinking "This is an utterly crap piece of hardware that's just for show". Well, here's a surprise... it isn't.
We turned on the juice and were immediately greeted by the switching LED lighting on the fan. Nice. We booted up Vista and ran a few stress tests (aiming at heat generation, not performance numbers). The QX9770 under a 4 thread Prime 95 run and using the Ninja Mini maxed out a 65~68º C (149~154º F) over that particular stress test:
That's pretty good in our book. Our 8600GT, on the other hand, bearing a very good overclock (+100MHz core/+180MHz mem), was at a mere 52º C (125º F). Here, we did another cap for you:
Putting the fan on max shaved a couple of degrees off of this. Northbridge/southbridge heat generation isn't an issue as you may imagine, nor is HDD heat thanks to the additional 92mm fan.
After this round of tests, we're pretty divided when coming to a final say on this case.
Without a doubt, Antec has had the cojones to put out something original that delivers an enthusiast a lot to work with - for good and bad. It's got plenty of snags that could have easily been avoided if someone had actually set-up a full system inside it rather than go by a specification checklist. Still, once you've gotten over the fact that the case has its drawbacks, you're left with a kit that does the job right (cooling).
The bottom-line is that it's a kick-ass case which will allow you to keep all your components as cool as they can possibly be without resorting to peltier cooling.
It has its rough edges, which bar it from getting higher grades in The Inq school of reviews. µ
The Good
Air flow, of course, cooler components all-round
The Bad
PSU positioning
The Ugly
Dust, front panel cable length
Bartender's Verdict
7 out of 10
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just you let you know you might want to point readers to custom pc mag, they already reviewed this and i must say the mag is a bloddy good read!
Oddly enough I found something that might compliment this cagey thing. Sans Digital makes an external cage for HDDs. (5 disk HDD rack)
I didn't get HDD rack for the same reason I dislike the skeleton, the innards are exposed. but it would make a cheap solution for expanding a file server.
why don't they just sell a power button and the fan?
There's a reason for an enclosed case...so your TV doesn't look like a just fuzzy snowy mess :-)
I'm surprised you didn't think about testing that part of it...
this case is terrible. how can you give it 7/10? 140 pounds is a seriously hardcore case, that kind of money for a case its clearly pitched at the high end market for people and testers with some serious hardware and those who may change components lots - who buys a 140 pound case and fits a 40 quid 8600GT to it? no one......people with much more realistic hardware, large powerful graphic cards? forget it. you buy it to avoid peltier? well that means you want serious air cooling yes? wrong, because you cant fit the biggest best air coolers on....im sorry but its dumb. a high end case, that is horribly ill suited to high end components that can generate the sort of heat the case is supposed to be able to dissipate in the first place. am i the only one who thinks it looks cool, but is incredibly retarded?
A computer case should be a Faraday cage to keep RF noise from disturbing other electronic devices. This thing might be a little bit interesting if it had a grounded copper mesh around the outside.
Hi, Paul,
I think that you and many commenters here are not the intended audience for this enclosure. It was not designed primarily for cooling purposes. It was designed with hardware enthusiast in mind that like to overclock while showing off there components, extreme case lighting, and cable routing skills. Thus those that love extreme case modding, but, don't have the time or skills to accomplish it themselves, are the ones being targeted by this product. Have not any of you seen the modded SEGA Dreamcast with an x86 PC in the case?
Again it was not intended for some one that just wants a cool running case. Also, the intended buyers regularly clean and dust their cases to keep them pristine for OCing and exhibition. In addition, for reasons having to do with electronics and static electricity not playing well together, it should not be placed on the floor.
Besides, as I mentioned earlier it is intended to be a show piece for exhibition. The target user would not place it on the floor to be hidden away or obstructed from the admiring or envious view of his/her friends.
Best regards,
Daniel R.
I own this case. Its damn good, temps drop 3-5 degrees over an antec 900 if you compare both using full fan speed, its quiter with the big fan, the external hdds are fine (i have two), dust isnt a problem (had for over a month now - none at all). I have a 4870x2 in this thing, overclocked to the moon (max catalyst overclock), a q9550 at 3.4ghz on stock cooling running solid and 8gb of ddr2 1200mhz ram, and no probs.
The only complaint I have is psu airflow, with psu's that have large 12-14cm fans having much of their airflow blocked.
Anyone who says its just for show isnt a real enthusiast, Ive had it at two lans already and no probs at all, just keep your glass of scotch a little further away than normal
Ohh, and for anyone who has tall coolers, there is plenty of clearance for such things, but seeing as im going either water or phase change soon I didnt bother.
Cheers,
Shadow Concept
what a terrible case :-(
I think it is interesting that you guys can do hardware reviews on some cool and, occasionally, expensive equipment, but you still don't have a decent camera to take pictures with...
When you say full height drives, I take it you mean the 1" high hard drives rather than half inch high?
Or do you mean the original half height...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive_bay#Full-height
(look at the IBM drive in the picture to see what I mean).
Hands up who remembers 20 meg 3.5" full height (i.e. 2 to 3 inch high) MFM hard drives.
Rob
About the RF noise, how come more and more product get on the western markets that totally are against the FCC's (and FCC-like organisations in western countries other than the US) rules? Did they all retire? Another bush legacy?
I just hope the people taking care of keeping contaminated foods off the market don't also completely retire, although there's some evidence in that direction too.
Cool for high schoolers, maybe. I guess if you're in to black lights and mushroom posters.