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Competition for the Antec Aria.

S

Silversierra

Senior member
I may just be the last to know this, but I saw this today and was surprised. I thought the Aria was the only micro atx sff cube case. This seems better(maybe not quite as nice looking, but still nice). Windowed, 2 optical drive bays, 120mm fan, slide out mobo tray, front temp lcd, if I'm reading correctly, an ATX psu! Plus it's cheaper than an aria, about $85+shipping. You might as well toss the psu and get a good one though, aspire psus are crap. I just thought is was cool, and wanted to let others know about it. If everyone already knows about it, or it's already been posted, then sorry.
Silversierra
 
damn I want one, now to find the best MATX AMD 64 board, and if this sucker will support any ATX PSU, it's just that much nicer 🙂
 
Not bad looking. 1mm is kinda thin for aluminum, but with such small panels it may be OK. I still think cases like the Enermax Venus series are a better form factor.

.bh.
 
I haven't seen many SFF cases that didn't come bundled with MB+CPU. Are there any others out there with 2 5.25 bays? The single 5.25 is what kept me from getting the Antec one I saw at Circuit City.

this Aspire sure looks nice on-line, but it's pretty inexpensive I wonder how it is close up.

 
I don't know of any other cubes that take matx besides this and the aria. I'm sure some other types of matx cases can use two optical drives.
I wonder if the psu really is standard(i.e. replaceable). The size listed on the site isn't quite the same as my psu but close, do you think a standard psu will fit?
 
Originally posted by: Silversierra
I don't know of any other cubes that take matx besides this and the aria. I'm sure some other types of matx cases can use two optical drives.
I wonder if the psu really is standard(i.e. replaceable). The size listed on the site isn't quite the same as my psu but close, do you think a standard psu will fit?
Click to expand...

maybe, it has a 120MM fan which I haven't seen on most small cases. But the fact all the MATX MB's with PCI-E MB's I found were Intel 🙁

will wait for more AMD boards before I jump on this.
 
It looks to me like it has a mATX PSU. Pretty nice case otherwise, the silver would make a nice htpc case (minus the LED lighting.)
 
Originally posted by: BigLan
It looks to me like it has a mATX PSU.
Click to expand...
It is a non-standard ATX PSU, 116mm in depth instead of 140mm. Aspire says you may be able to install a regular ATX PSU with a short DVD (LiteOn) but it would still be cramped. This is my favorite small case by far, especially the one-windowed Chenming.

 
so about MATX PSU's, are there any worth a crap for a gaming system? I'm thinkin about getting this case but if I need a MATX PSU I know I'll be real limited in what I can pop in it
 
I think the form factor of the PSU in this is called mini-ATX. There's a spec for it on formfactors.org. Another size called the PS/3 is even shorter than the miniATX, but I haven't seen a very high powered PS/3 PSU either. As others said, if you use the shorter optical drives a full ATX PSU may fit if you need... But a decent 420W PSU should be able to handle most any system - even for gaming.

.bh.
 
I'd be fine with a good 350 watt PSU. But from what I've heard most M-ATX PSU's are pretty low quality if you throw a power hungry PC to them.
 
my system with a 2ghz dothan and GF6800 ultra is running on a 350 watt vantec so i think the stock PSu will be fine in this case. However I dont know how loud it is...
 
Originally posted by: DarkKnight
🙁 regret getting my aria now
Click to expand...

I've regretted getting mine almost from the first day, back in Sept 2004.
Was to be my personal HTPC box for Sat DVB-S and HDTV.
The Athenatech's A100BB at 1/2 the price did a much better job, and looked better too.
Aria is now simply a backup for every other week lan parties, and is maybe used 20 hours a month.
Had hoped that one of the Lan gamers would take it off my hands, but no takers.

Why I am here though is to report the Aria PS just died over the weekend.
Yep, with less than 140 hours on it, it was going along for about 7 hours straight when POP.
This in a system with nothing. All onboard video/audio/lan. No cards. 1 drive. It does not get any more basic than this setup, yet still POP.

In comparison, the other HTPC's I built and sold (around 12 units a month), using cheap Athenatech case with 200w supplies, and all slots filled, have never had a failure in 3+ years.

I have since went back to Athenatech A100BB for my personal system, but upgraded the PS to SilentX 300w so that I can feel better running the ATi 9700 Pro. It worked fine with stock 200w, but it just seemed too small.

Now I have to pay to ship PS back since you can not use any other in the case.

EDIT: The Aspire in this thread does look like a great choice for higher end system.
 
Originally posted by: vdorta
Originally posted by: BigLan
It looks to me like it has a mATX PSU.
Click to expand...
It is a non-standard ATX PSU, 116mm in depth instead of 140mm. Aspire says you may be able to install a regular ATX PSU with a short DVD (LiteOn) but it would still be cramped. This is my favorite small case by far, especially the one-windowed Chenming.
Click to expand...

You shouldn't have any problem installing a normal size ATX PSU in it.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=890213&page=2&pp=20
 
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