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Athenatech A100BB.350

F

f1sh3r

Senior member
newegg link

im looking for ideas on processor cooling. or just any general reviews of the case.
or if you want to sell yours, let me know 🙂

i read that some dvd drives are a little long in the tooth. whats a good (quiet) short drive.
my proposed hardware...

Opteron 144
Foxconn 6150K8MA-8EKRS
1gb ram
hauppauge pvr-150
120GB SATA

 
Many of the latest DVD drives are fairly short. Used to be only Sony and LiteOn, but the new Toshiba and LG drives are also short, and even the Pioneer. I don't know about quiet though.

Who was it that used a bunch of these cases... RobsTV? Maybe ask him about his thoughts. I three cases which are similar including my gaming rig. Looking at the pics you can see how close the DVD drive comes to the CPU HSF, and that's using a "short" drive. As for cooling, for starters you don't want to dump too much heat into the case since exhaust is only the two 60mm fans. For CPU cooling you will not be able to use "tower heatpipe" HSFs. What I have in mine is an AMD retail box quad heatpipe HSF, with the fan exchanged for the fancy Thermaltake Starforce. You probably won't be able to go any larger.

Wow, that case comes with a really good PSU for SFX size... wonder if those are sold separately?

EDIT: Found it...

eWiz FSP350-60GNV $35

Hmmm, only 60mm fan and the peak numbers are the same as the 300W version, just that it is "rated" for 9A/16A instead of 8A/14.5A of the 300W, but both peak at 22A combined. The 3.3v and 5v are identical. I'm thinking the two PSUs are near identical inside.

Another thing is the 300W version is shorter than the 350W version, probably because it has to add depth to fit the 60mm fan at the end.

Newegg FSP300-60GLS $37.49

But, can't find the 300W version for cheaper than 350W. Eh, I'd still probably choose 300W because of shorter depth and 80mm versus 60mm fan.
 
It was actually my mATX case of choice for building SFF LAN Party gaming systems before the Qpack/UltraFly.

The Anthentech is a quality built mATX case. Most mATX cases that shape/size were really shoddy construction and thin starp metal and cheep plastics. That Anthentech is quality. It's a microATX with hard drive trays, rounded metal edges, tool-less everything, and it looked good, too. It's not without it's flaws though. It's SFF/mATX and by it's very nature it tends to build up heat much quicker then larger cases. The CPU/Video/Chipset fans typicly need to spin near full speed at all times to keep thigs cool. The powersupply and the rear 60mm fans are also also far from quiet. I'm making that bold since you mentioned are looking for a quiet DVD drive and so noise might be an issue.

I've actually got a few used Anthentech cases still around. I originally build them as LAN Party systems for a group of three cousins that I later migrated to 2 Qpacks and a Full tower. The Qpack/UltraFly case is a far better mATX case for handeling heat, noise, and also maintaining compatability with Full Size ATX Powersupplies.
Do you happen to live in Chicagoland? I don't think it's worth the time to box up and ship it out but if you lived nearby and wanted to snag one for $25 send me a PM.

Even though I stand to make some drinking $$ from the sale of a used case. I don't recomend it for an HTPC. The 60mm fans and powersupply fan alone could be too noisy. For a small portable LAN Gaming box that fits in many athletic duffel bags 🙂 ... it was great. There are better (though more expensive) choices for HTPC. Also the blue light used for the power LED is very bright and could easily be considered TOO bright if sitting within view of a TV while watching a movie.

I used to love the case, and still do. But there are now better choices for small LAN Party or Quiet HTPC cases.
 
thanks for the feedback... i appreciate it. and no, i do not live in chicagoland 🙁 for $25, wouldnt be bad for the edutainment boxes im putting together for the nieces and nephews.

*edit*
ill look into the ultraflys i guess.
 
The athenatech A100 series are nice. I've done a few and about the only special thing I've done is my Outside the Case mod. I used a 60 to 80 mm adapter and a gutted 60mm fan for a spacer on the back. And rigged a bit of cooling for the HDDs as it gets might warm in that pocket. And the normal PSU that came with the A100 had the fan on the side toward the CPU. The Sparkle in there now is unusual for an SFX PSU as those seldom have the fan on the back like that. I put the Enermax 270 in there once and that did a good job on the Sempron system I built into it.

For a CPU hsf, there are several low pro that work well depending on the CPU you choose.

I like the microFly too -too bad it's Ultra...

.bh.
 
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