It's a decent case with minimalist styling, but seems a bit overpriced (before rebate) for what it is and IF you are swapping enough drives in and out that the supposed toolless bays seem an advantage, you have to use drive rails to do it.
I know the price of metal has gone up in recent years but even at around $0.30/lb steel * 15lbs = $4.50, it still seems like there are now so so many ATX cases out in the wild after two decades of a compatible ATX standard, and declining new PC upgrades, that nobody should need to buy one at retail, that the market demand should be shrinking with each passing year and the price shrinking to compensate.
Cases rarely wear out and you can get an entire 10 year old computer in a case for $40, if not abandoned in a dumpster next to the local mom and pop computer shop.
On the other hand if you need that many bays for a NAS/etc, you could do worse for $40.
I've had this case for going on 5 years now. It's solid. The front USBs did die after three years but I just skated in under warranty to get a new one for free.
Even after my next upgrade I think I'll keep this case it'sjust been the best one I've owned in the last 10 years.
@dave_c - For a home NAS these days, the availability of cheap multi terabyte mechanical drives really negates the need for one of these large cases with space for multiple HDDs. One of Cooler Master's "breadbox" sized cases (i.e. Elite 130) works great with a cheap no-frills mini-ITX board, a low powered processor, and a standard PSU (no weird SFF PSU to worry about, which, in my experience, die premature deaths due to cooling issues). Depending on storage needs, a single multi-TB HDD could do the trick - Ben's showing a 4TB Toshiba mechanical drive at the 'egg for $110 with Visa checkout.
I have the grand-daddy of this Antec case (the Three Hundred), and I love it, but I built a NAS with it years ago when 1TB and 2TB drives were the order of the day, and expansion required adding more drives.
That old Antec case is still in service, but I guess my point is that a lot of people could get away with a single HDD in a smaller enclosure if building today.
^ I argue that data is still expanding so fast that you can't have enough HDDs. For me 1 HDD is simply unacceptable as everything's in a RAID array, plus you should be forward looking at how long it will be until you swap out all drives.
Suppose you have a mere 4 x 4TB HDD in a mirrored array. That leaves approx 7.6TB of storage space. Suppose you already have 4TB of "data" and expect to gain an additional 1TB/yr. Before your 4 year rotation interval is up you are already out of space.
I wouldn't even build a NAS for a single HDD, instead just making it USB3 and network shared off a computer that's always on.
Plus, suppose your motherboard dies. if you have a SFF case you may not have a spare SFF board for it, while a regular mATX or ATX case and you (or at least I,) have a half dozen replacement boards I could toss in and have it up and running again in an hour (which is essential, because I need so much space because *everything* is on it. Well, I do back that all up to external HDDs for offline backup that I could plug into a system and get the data off, but that's an extra step given I already have to get the NAS back online which eliminates that step.
The other good thing about a large case is you can use dense filter material to stop practically all dust getting in, because there is so much intake surface area, without higher RPM fans and associated wear to compensate, and have every other drive bay empty if you like to promote more airflow through the drive bays.
I suppose my point is there is no benefit to me to have a smaller NAS since it's not sitting on my desk or under it, or elsewhere where it would get in the way.
Comments & Reviews (5)
I know the price of metal has gone up in recent years but even at around $0.30/lb steel * 15lbs = $4.50, it still seems like there are now so so many ATX cases out in the wild after two decades of a compatible ATX standard, and declining new PC upgrades, that nobody should need to buy one at retail, that the market demand should be shrinking with each passing year and the price shrinking to compensate.
Cases rarely wear out and you can get an entire 10 year old computer in a case for $40, if not abandoned in a dumpster next to the local mom and pop computer shop.
On the other hand if you need that many bays for a NAS/etc, you could do worse for $40.
Even after my next upgrade I think I'll keep this case it'sjust been the best one I've owned in the last 10 years.
I have the grand-daddy of this Antec case (the Three Hundred), and I love it, but I built a NAS with it years ago when 1TB and 2TB drives were the order of the day, and expansion required adding more drives.
That old Antec case is still in service, but I guess my point is that a lot of people could get away with a single HDD in a smaller enclosure if building today.
Suppose you have a mere 4 x 4TB HDD in a mirrored array. That leaves approx 7.6TB of storage space. Suppose you already have 4TB of "data" and expect to gain an additional 1TB/yr. Before your 4 year rotation interval is up you are already out of space.
I wouldn't even build a NAS for a single HDD, instead just making it USB3 and network shared off a computer that's always on.
Plus, suppose your motherboard dies. if you have a SFF case you may not have a spare SFF board for it, while a regular mATX or ATX case and you (or at least I,) have a half dozen replacement boards I could toss in and have it up and running again in an hour (which is essential, because I need so much space because *everything* is on it. Well, I do back that all up to external HDDs for offline backup that I could plug into a system and get the data off, but that's an extra step given I already have to get the NAS back online which eliminates that step.
The other good thing about a large case is you can use dense filter material to stop practically all dust getting in, because there is so much intake surface area, without higher RPM fans and associated wear to compensate, and have every other drive bay empty if you like to promote more airflow through the drive bays.
I suppose my point is there is no benefit to me to have a smaller NAS since it's not sitting on my desk or under it, or elsewhere where it would get in the way.
Thank you!