Antec Overture II (cont’d)
After putting the optical drive in its cage, we decided to put it in the case first. This cage, in particular, fits in very easily and latches in place quickly and solidly.
Click to enlarge.
Here, we see another need for the specialized power supply, as the power cord needs to be routed out the same side of the unit from which the leads come out. What’s also noteworthy in this photo is the illustration of how easy it is to route the cables coming from the front panel of the case.
Click to enlarge.
Next, we laid the motherboard in place, and simply to get a shot of the bottom of the included power supply, we lifted it in this picture from its normal position.
Click to enlarge.
It fits! Even with our oddly-placed IDE connector, the Overture II allows barely enough space between the motherboard and power supply to accommodate those rare motherboards out there.
Click to enlarge.
With the motherboard in place, we put the rear hard drive cage in next, and put two more of the included screws (designed to go through the rubber grommets) into the hard drive in the picture. The cage slides securely on rails into position and is held in place by the two mounting points visible towards the top of the picture.
Click to enlarge.
Finally, after securing the rear hard drive cage and connecting all the cables, which was no easy task considering the massive amount of cables coming out of the included power supply, it was time to attach our video card. Unfortunately, this is where we ran into a relatively ugly problem with the Overture II. The PCI slot covers have an incredibly cheap feel to them, and short of prying them off with a pair of pliers, they are quite difficult to remove. If one wasn’t very careful, he could get cut wrestling with one of these.
The card did plug in though without problems, and we then put the front 3½” cage in place over the power supply and the install was completed. Like the Mstation, the install was straight-forward, but for the most part, the components didn’t fit quite as well.
Click to enlarge.
When turned on, a plastic ring surrounding the power button glows blue for a subtle effect on the front of the case.
Click to enlarge.
After finishing up with the Antec case, we noticed one other problem. When installing the lid, it must have been a little bit off a couple of times, and even with the brand new coat, a sharp enough edge scraped the paint off the top edge of the side.
Click to enlarge.
This is simply something that happens when ideas like a glossy paint job and a removable top cover (as opposed to a three-side cover) come together. Regardless, a careful user really has no reason to let this affect their opinion of the case.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
26 Comments
View All Comments
Tamale - Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - link
The 'POS' power supply happens to deliver steadier voltages to the highest-end gear I've gotten my hands on (and no, the P4 test bed isn't the most powerful thing I've tested it in) than anything else that's passed through my hands, and that includes over a dozen power supplies by high-end manufacturers. I'm no reviewer of power supplies yet, as we're still working on that, but I guarantee you that this is a fine unit, especially for the area of case reviews, because in quiet mode it does a fantastic job of staying silent enough to hear the case fans and still provides rock-solid voltages to a stressed-out system. It also gets warm when in quiet mode in the cases that don't ventilate the power supply well enough, which is another good measure of a case. Perhaps most important however is the modular nature of the unit, and even though I've tried other modular units none were as quiet as the MadDog.Secondly, the thermaltake golden orb II at full voltage is quieter than any of zalman's coolers at full voltage. While I understand that the zalman will probably get lower temperatures, It is absolutely essential that the CPU cooler in my test bed make as little noise as possible, and the golden orb II does just that.
The recurring theme in your post seems to me to be that you want 'the perfect HTPC', but the whole idea of a case review is to isolate everything but the case as much as possible, and sometimes hotter components do a better job of illustrating the deficiencies of units than the latest and greatest.
Trust me on this one, if we used the absolute best gear available the comparisons would be much muddier.
As for the subjective comment, my scale of 1-10 can be thought of as a scale of tolerance.. with 5 basically being the threshold... anything higher than that really is 'too loud for the given application' and anything lower than 4 is 'acceptable'. It's not meant to be a numerically accurate scale of any sort. I felt very comfortable with the final subject ratings I gave these cases, because the Tenor and PC-800B just barely passed my personal threshold test, and I believe most users will agree.
tayhimself - Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - link
I hope you realize other PSUs are likely quieter and more efficient than "Mad Dog". Sure the may be quiet to your ears, but thats too subjective to really mean anything. Sadly, you rate the modular nature as being an important issue when it is not. The PSU getting warm in quiet mode may be a sign of a PSU not getting enough airflow.And you say "its silent enough to hear case fans". While that can be true, the PSU and Tt golden orb noise signatures can drown out subtler differences between the cases in terms of noise of the case fans. This is almost obvious from your review as you dont perceive the difference of 9 dB to be significant. Its better to use quality quiet components so you can tell what the case is contributing to the noise spectrum. Since this is about making case buying decisions, the other factors are best isolated.
Avalon - Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - link
Get crackin'.mrgq912 - Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - link
to tired to read the article but first post.mrgq912 - Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - link
okay now that I have that out of my system. How come you guys never review stuff from alienware or voodoopc. Those guys make HTPC's aswell. I never every heard of the players in this review making HTPC's untill today. Well nice to know i have options.Would buy one if i could, untill then i will live with my ati tv wonder elite.
ksherman - Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - link
uh, cuz Alienware and Voodoo are over priced peices of DooDoo... and because this site is more geared around people that build their own machines...