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Antec's 2007 Product Lineup
Antec was nice enough to schedule a meeting with Brian and myself at the Bellagio. Many of you reading this may remember that we covered their new lineups for the coming years during our time at CES the last two years. This year they had their next series of cases to show us as well as some hard drive enclosures, power supplies and their HTPC cases, plus an interesting AV component I'll talk about at the end of the article. Sonata III The first case is the Sonata III, Antec's entry level case. One of the focuses of the case is how quiet the enclosure is. The unit has two fans, one at the front and one at the back, both 120mm to decrease fan RPMs (and therefore noise) why keeping the air moving. Another neat feature is double-hinged door, which allows the door to open 270 degrees. Also the hinge for the door is made of metal, not plastic, so it's a lot less likely to break. The lines of the case look really good, with HD audio outputs on the front along with two USB ports and an eSATA port. The power supply that comes with the case is an EarthWatts 500W, certified to beat least 80% efficient all the time regardless of the load.     P182 & A Design Concept The next case is their P180 replacement, the P182. It's very similar to the P180, same price but a few more tweaks to improve the usefulness of the case. First is an improved cable management system. The motherboard tray is pushed inward to allow for cable routing behind the tray, and there are several open areas around the tray to route wiring to and from the motherboard. The back of the case had two holes that allow you to route your tubes for water cooling. Finally there is a fan control switch on the rear of the unit to adjust the speed (and therefore the noise) coming from the case, which is something owners of the P180 asked for. Also, the P182 will be available in a black-ish color as seen in the pictures below.     Antec was also showing off a new mirrorific design for the P182. This case has a mirrored finish on the outside and is painted black on the inside. As of now it is just a prototype, so if you like what you see, be sure to email Antec and let them know. If the response is overwhelming, Antec might just put this case in production. Hopefull it will ship with a microfiber cloth to wipe of smudges and fingerprints!     P190: The Big Boy The last case is the P190, this is the big bad granddaddy of them all. It is similar to the P180/182, but it is longer with a couple interesting differences. It has a 200mm fan on the side of the unit. Yea, 200mm, that's about 8" in diameter. It also supports a dual power supply setup, so you can have one power supply for your motherboard and hard drives and another one for your video cards. It supports EATX motherboards, so you can even put a dual socket motherboard in the case. And the copious amount of fans (200mm, two 140mm fans on top, and front and rear 120mm) will certainly keep it cool.     850 & 1000 Watt Power Supplies Their new power supply line for the uber-enthusiast will arrive later this quarter. Two power supplies at 850W and 1000W, complete with four 12V rails to keep the voltage stable. All the connectors are labeled so you know which ones to hook up to what. We were asked not to post pictures of these two power supplies due to the paint job which is unique and not quite finished but here are pictures of the specs sticker on the side.   Veris MX-1 Hard Drive Enclosure Antec had their MX-1 external hard drive enclosure which is a little bigger than the typical enclosure, but it as a quiet blower fan at the bottom of the unit which pulls in air and takes it from the top of the enclosure around the drive an then out the back. Sure it's just a hard drive enclosure, but it is a market Antec hasn't yet covered, and honestly, their solution looks like it would cool a bit better, and with less noise., not to mention look good.     Veris AV Cooler Finally, the interesting AV component is an AV cooler. It is a platform with two fans on the bottom that suck in air from the device below and exhaust it out the back of the platform. The basic problem this device is trying to solve is that if you stack AV components on top of each other, you could put this between them and improve airflow and perhaps extend the life of your AV components that put off a tremendous amount of heat.   
Add Comment
4 User Comments 1 - Posted by
gacko
on January 18, 2007 - 8:02 pm Nice! Any word about when they are available? I need to buy a case pretty soon....
2 - Posted by
gacko
on January 19, 2007 - 6:57 pm It would be nice to know when we can expact those case.
3 - Posted by
Kurtis
on January 20, 2007 - 12:51 am Sorry we haven't replied, we've been catching up on some behind-the-scenes work after CES plus Brian and I are full-time students and college just started up again... Anthony has informed me that Antec said shipping in Q1, likely at the end of February or in March. 4 - Posted by
gacko
on January 20, 2007 - 12:59 pm Thanks! I wish they would ship it sooner, as I'd like to build a new system soon. Oh, well. Maybe I'll build it into my old case, and then move it again... crazy, hah? I wish I did not read this CES report. Good luck with your studies, and sorry for being grumpy. Add Comment To add a comment without being a member, you may omit the password field, but you must enter your name (or nickname) along with your comment. * Denotes required fields. |
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