ATHENATECH A100 Case - review

[QueBert]

Haven't been all that impressed with the mATX cases I worked with in the past. Picked up this one from PC Club. Almost completly tool less. Maybe I'm weak but I couldn't get the thumb screws off by hand to get things started 🙂 You have to use a screw driver to mount the HD and optical drive too. The thing came apart pretty easy, thumb screws hold on the 5 1/4 bay, has stealth covers for the optical/floppy drive. Apperance is a personal perference, but I think the case has an elegant look, you can use it vertically or horizontally. It feels sturdy, only downside is the rear fan mount was pretty flimsly, if I move the case it falls off, dunno if this is how they come, or I just screwed it up (or got a bum case) Has a pretty nice blue led bar along the front, goes well with the black and silver. Also has room in the front for a 80mm fan, comes with 2 60mm's in the back. They don't push much air, but they don't seem to make much noise either. Only comes with a 200 watt PSU, but for a HTPC type setup you don't need nothing huge.


pluses
---------
thumb screws
well built
well laid out
cost $50 bucks
can hold 3 HD's
comes apart easy

minuses
cramped (can't do much with mATX though)
back fan bracket falls off if you move the case, no matter how much I tried, I couldn't get it to really "snap" on the case.
could have used drive rails for the optical/HD
doesn't come with an 80mm fan for the front.

I ordered 2 more of these suckers after I was done building the first one. I didn't expect a whole lot for 50 bucks, and was really surprised.

 

[Zepper]

I've used a few of those. The HDD bays tend to be very warm. I cut out the bottom of the drawer nearest to the side of the case for a 70mm thin fan that blows on the drive in the drawer next to it to resolve that (don't know what I'd do if I had to put two HDDs in there. Re. the plastic 60mm fan bracket on the back, there is a little metal tongue on the right side of the plastic bracket in the case metal. You have to bend that just right to hold the bracket in. The case back metal is very soft so if you bend that little tongue much you'll have a hard time keeping it in place. I'll generally dump the fan bracket, drill holes (have to support that flimsy back metal while drilling or it'll get bent all out of shape) and mount the fans with rubber pins - mucho better. I bought a handful of cheap 60mm fans on sale. I break the guts out and use the frames for shims. That way I can use a 60 to 80mm fan adapter off the back of those cases for much better cooling.

I agree that they do look quite nice.

.bh.

 

[cyberknight]

I've considered using an Athenatech for a budget case before, guess now I have more encouragement.

Inwin also makes excellent budget cases, FYI.

 

[Zap]

Don't sweat the thumb screws. I've encountered cases like that, where they probably used a power drill to attach the thumb screws so that you just can't get them off by hand the first time.

I was gonna post regarding the loose fan mounts but Zepper beat me to it. 😛

My gaming rig using a chassis that is really similar to the Athenatech you got, but made out of aluminum.

If you go for a higher powered system, then you'd need a better PSU. I have these:

Fortron
300W dual rail 20+4 pin ATX, active PFC $42

Enermax
270W 20+4 pin ATX, active PFC $40
single rail but has a whopping 20A into the +12v for such a small PSU

Note that Newegg does not always have the best prices on PSUs. I've found that often (but not always) eWiz.com has better prices, in particular on the Fortron brand.

The Enermax I have is an older one without the active PFC and only 20 pin ATX, but I'm powering my gaming rig with it just fine.

 

[Zepper]

sometimes you get even better prices at ewiz if you go there via Froogle.

.bh.