Tag Archives: Antec

My days of large full tower cases are slowly coming to an end. Although I love the behemoths of yesteryear, I see myself starting to look upon Mini-ITX motherboards and cases with more enthusiasm every day. I can get everything I want and need in a compact platform without sacrificing CPU and video card power. This transition seems to have been born from the latest round of case reviews that have been featured here lately. We have featured SilverStone, Fractal Design, Lian-Li and iStarUSA cases on the site but one company wasn't feeling any love and promised me they could sway me from the others with their latest Mini-ITX case. I have to admit, the competition is rough, but Antec feels as though their ISK600 is the case that steals the thunder.

Having been around the block a few times, and having been burned a few times; I have my preferences in chassis'. I have purchased and used a ton of cases and always seem to go back to my Lian Li PC-70 series chassis. There has been little innovation in this sector and it seems like manufacturers are trying to woo us with fancy designs and forgetting about the simple features that we should have to begin with. There are cases out there that look like malformed bubbles, cases that look like transformers, cases with bubbled water, and my personal favorite the cases that look like "Hello Kitty" (sarcasm). It is refreshing when some case manufacturers get back to the basics and give us usable features and practical designs. Antec claims they can give me hope once again. Enter the Antec Performance Series P180B.

Today I will be reviewing the Antec Sonata Mid Tower case. I was immediately impressed when I took the case out of the box. The sheer weight told me that this was a solidly built case. But the thing that took my breath away was the absolute beauty of the paint job. The fit and finish of this case is amazing. The Piano Black paint is buffed to a very high sheen (you can actually see your reflection). I tried to get a picture of this but it wasn't to be. The pictures of it really don't do it justice. It has the look and feel of an automotive quality paint job.

OK, you went into the local PC mega-retail store because you have been reading about these heatsink thingies on the ‘net. You peruse the aisles of overpriced video cards, keyboards and floating, optical mice that know where you want to click before you do. Then you spot them. Those hunks of metal with the funny looking blades and some kind …