CES 2005 - Antec's New Lineup

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Kurtis Kronk
Brian

Jan. 11, 2005

Specifications

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Performance TX Series

The Performance TX series of cases come in two flavors: mid and full-tower. Basically these cases are updated versions of their original Performance series of cases, the style of which came to be popularly known as the Dragon. The mid-tower version has no door, one rear 120mm TriCool fan with 3-speed switch (two optional 80mm front intake fans), a 92mm CPU fan duct built into the side panel, a vent in the side panel for an optional 80mm fan to cool graphics card, and a removable 3.5" drive cage. The door on the full-tower opens 270° just like Antec's other new cases. Aside from their size, the only difference between the full and mid-tower is the door on the front and the extra 3.5" cage inside.

BK640 MicroBTX

Antec's new BK640 BTX is a beautiful chassis geared towards the OEM sector of the market. As you have probably inferred from the name already, this case complies with the MicroBTX specification. On the front of the case you can see two 5.25" bays, two 3.5" bays, power/reset buttons, indicator LED, front intake, and I/O ports. When the case is powered up you can see blue light shining through the fins that stylishly cover the front air intake. We were told that the lights were actually 'too bight' and that they were working on dimming them for a more subtle effect. Clearly, the designers at Antec strive for perfection. The inside of the case is pretty plain, with the external drive bays up top, internal 3.5" drive cage on the bottom, power supply mounted up top in the rear, and two rear 92mm TriCool 3-speed fans. On the motherboard tray you can see what Antec calls a BTX Support Retention Module (SRM), which is a metal plate attached to the inside of the chassis to support the large heatsink required by the BTX specification. The front air intake is where the CPU cooler will draw in fresh air from via a duct.

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Page 1: Introduction / Power Supplies / VCOOL
Page 2: Silent Rackmount / TITAN 500
Page 3: Performance TX Series / BK640 MicroBTX
Page 4: Sonata II
Page 5: Performance One P180 / Conclusion

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20 User Comments

1 - Posted by PennyManDeux on February 8, 2005 - 6:47 pm

Those are some sweet looking cases. Can't wait for them to come out.

Will you guys be reviewing them?

2 - Posted by Kurtis on February 8, 2005 - 7:47 pm

what do you think? :D

3 - Posted by J2T on February 9, 2005 - 7:59 am

Man, I like that P180..thats more my style. Can't wait for the review ;)

4 - Posted by PennyManDeux on February 9, 2005 - 10:38 am

Yeah the P180 looks aweeesome. It's got so many features although I'm sure it will weigh a ton. Oh well, I don't go to LAN parties.

Any idea when you will be reviewing them?

5 - Posted by Kurtis on February 9, 2005 - 10:40 am

As soon as I can get my hands on them they will get reviewed. I would imagine we'll be one of the first to review their new stuff. We'll see :) I need to start talking with them and find out what the release schedule is going to be and get something lined up

6 - Posted by Brian on February 9, 2005 - 10:44 am

Right. The cases they were displaying in Vegas were pre-production cases. When they have the final models we will definitely get our hands on them. Should be in the next few months if I remember correctly but I don't have my notes here.

7 - Posted by Kurtis on February 9, 2005 - 10:49 am

yeah they said late feb, maybe march for most of them if memory serves correctly

8 - Posted by SAMSAMHA on February 10, 2005 - 3:33 am

very nice, love antec's stuff.

9 - Posted by Thaw_Out on February 10, 2005 - 9:13 pm

I just think the top exhaust on that case looks ugly. And overall I don't think it looks as nice as the P-160. But I really admire the air flow of the new P-180. I wish my P-160 case, had as good air flow in it. It gets very hot inside of my case.

In other words, I envy the P-180's air flow, but not it looks.

10 - Posted by Kurtis on February 10, 2005 - 10:02 pm

Hm, I disagree. I think it looks great. The thing on the top of the case is removable too, I think...

11 - Posted by J2T on February 11, 2005 - 8:03 am

I disagree as well, the main turnoff for me about the P160 was the plastic looking front bezel and this seems to fix that issue tenfold.

12 - Posted by Brian on February 11, 2005 - 8:55 am

It's removable, but not for looks. It has holes and a large indentation which makes it look like something is missing, because it is.

13 - Posted by Kurtis on February 11, 2005 - 8:58 am

lol... nothin' a lil bondo couldn't fix :P

14 - Posted by Brian on February 11, 2005 - 8:59 am

Unless you're the one doing it ;-)

15 - Posted by Kurtis on February 11, 2005 - 9:00 am

i'm going to go sit in a corner and cry now... :(

16 - Posted by Thaw_Out on February 11, 2005 - 10:33 am

I prefer cases where the top of the case is designed to be flat. Where if there is an exhaust vent on top, then it is flat and level with the top of the case.

By the way, I think that I would also miss the temperature display on my P-160 if I upgraded to the P-180. I gotten use to looking at the display on my P-160 for my temperatures. I'm surprised they didn't add some sort of LCD or LED temperature display on the new P-180, if they truly wanted it to be a successor to the P-160.

17 - Posted by Brian on February 11, 2005 - 10:35 am

There is an indention in the shape of the vent along with several long holes used to secure the vent in place. Plus I think there is a weird hole for the fan in the middle of it all.

18 - Posted by Brian on February 11, 2005 - 10:36 am

Thaw_Out, I see you got your account up and running. Everything good?

19 - Posted by Thaw_Out on February 11, 2005 - 10:38 am

Yes, everything seemed fine. Thank you for taking the time to fix it for me.

It was appreciated.

20 - Posted by Guest on March 9, 2005 - 11:56 am

I built a Aria system, loaded -- with 3 large drives, ATI's AIW video, and HDTV card. Love the form factor, but not the noise and the occational(too hot?) restarts. I will add a Vcool which I hope will slow the power supply fan. If not, next will be dampeners, then big holes in the factory-finish case.

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