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Dear Antec

E

eflat

Platinum Member
I love Antec cases, but all these drive bays are getting out of hand.

Who on earth needs 4 optical drives? And six + hard drive bays on a personal computer?

Frankly I think one is plenty, but I could see using two. In fact I may. But SIX?

These cases would be so much more stylish and efficient if Antec were not wasting room on all these drive bays.
 
I'm going to have to agree with you there...100%...more than 2 opt drives just doesn't seem practical at all. In fact, all case manufacturers do this...Never really thought about it lol...Tx for posting 😉
 
I would have to agree also.... I guess people think it looks better if they have 4 optical drives? Who knows. It's better if you buy one that does everything imo.
 
well, there are a lot of things you can put in those drive bays instead of optical drives....... fan controllers, clocks, cigarette tray/ beverage holder, etc. it always helps to be able to expand your options.
 
actually I am thankful for the extra what are they 5 1/4 inch bays or something like that....
as Einstien stated....there are other uses...I have one slot taken up with my Zalman multi fan speed controller...also I have in the past used those bays to hide wiring and stuff...the really do come in handy!🙂
 
One of my friends just got all of the componets today for a new comp he's building, the case, a p180, usage of bays:
5 1/4:
1) DVD burner
2) SATA HDD cartrige system
3) PATA HDD cartrige system
4) PATA HDD cartrige system

3 1/2:
1) WD Raptor 10K HDD
2) SATA storage HDD
3) PATA storage HDD
4) PATA storage HDD

He's using all 4 externally avalible drive bays, 3 of them for removable hard drive setups since he is using this machine for film work, and he just puts each project on a seperate HDD, then when he wants to work on that project he pops that HDD in the front of the comp and he's got everything he needs. Bottom line, he has a use for all of the bays avalible in the p180, so i wouldn't say that antec has no reason to put them there. Oh, and he's looking to eventually have a raid 5 setup in the case as well so he has enough HDD speed and space to handle full uncompressed HD video with 0 possible problems, which will likely force him to give up a few of his current internal drives to fit them in his 6 avalible internal HDD bays.
 
I should have been more clear...They (case manu's) should also make cases (maybe even similiar models) w/ out all the drive bays. You would have a choice then.
 
Ya know, This stuff is all market driven.....

I was comparing my current build (Antec 3000B) with a couple of other cases here.

The 3000B is only 18" tall w/ 4/2 externals and 5 internal 3.5'.
Dell 4100 mini tower has 2/2 externals and 2 internal 3.5 and is only 1 inch shorter.

I have an old Antec ATX case (not sure the model#) that is 2.5" taller w/ 3/2 internals and 3 internals. (no exhaust fan 😀)

Of late, more is better for the enthusiast community and that is who Antec listens to.
Heck, they even fixed the only complaint that SPCR had about the 3000B before mine was built. (front fan mount)

Most of the cases with less mounting locations are made by primarily oem manufacturers.

 
People are never happy it seems. If it did just have 2 bays, you would need more. (I do this as I research parts for a P180)...
 
4 5 1/4 bays is reasonable in a modern system.

I reckon on optical reader, optical writer, fan controller, audio bay.

As for drives I reckon on 3 is good. Two in RAID 0 and the other just for backing up and storing my music.
 
Id be happy with 2 Optical Bays, 1 for my CD/DVD reader/writer and 1 for expansion.

For HDD's, Id like 5. Personally, I only have 2 HDD's but the 5 bay in my Antec SLK3000B fits a 120mm fan perfectly so size wise its great.

Id prefer just 1 floppy bay. Its 'there just in case', I dont want 2 of them 🙂
 
actually there are 2 smaller bays and I use one for my zip drive and the other for my floppy!!

Actually I believe there is also a LCD panel that will fin in both those bays that you can program to monitor such things as temps....fan speeds..etc
 
I don't mind the 4 5 1/4" drive bays. I personally would love to have 8 HD bays. My biggest problem with the cases today is the active cooling (or lack of) of the hard drives.

Some cases have 80MM fans, some have 120MM which is fine. It's really the position of the fan to the drive bays that makes the difference.

I would say that at least 70% of cases either have no cooling or insuffient cooling for the hard drives. The thing that's really stupid are the cases that have 6 or more drive bays but they only have fans to cool 3 of the drives.
 
I have two working mid-towers. 4-5.25 and 2-3.5 exposed bays.

My next case(at least a year away) will be a full tower w/6-5.25 bays exposed. The top two will be fitted with a 120mm fan ducted to the CPU HS as i've seen over at spcr. The lower fans will be up-rated to 92mm for the HDDs. This type of set-up will move a large volume of air quietly. The PC 70 is now @$150, if it drops a bit more in price it will be under the Christmas tree.

Galvanized
 
Well, we are building a gaming machine here pretty soon (lizardth wants one for her), and she likes the P180. Unfortunately, I'm only going to have one maybe two hard drives in there, as my machine will handle all storage duties. So having all of those extra drive bays in the P180 will be useless, but it's nice to have them if I need them I guess.
 
I have been using the large Antec cases for years. At home, I have four Pentium 4 systems (two are water-cooled pcs) and I love the large cases. It is so easy to get in there and I have plenty of room to put anything in the case. For a person who has built 50 pcs in the last 4 years I love the Antec series of large cases. A lot of flexibility

I use nothing else but Anyec large cases when building a system for sale.
 
I'm using 3... DVD-RW, DVD-ROM and LCD Fan Controller... I'd understand whyppl would need more. for removable drives, External Audio Inputs.. and Water/Hard drive cooling..

Mike
 
5 drive bays: 1 for optical, 1 for fan controller, and the 3 for a 120mm fan! 3 hard drive bays, and 1 external 3.5 bay for a floppy(y not...)
 
My drive bay usage:
5.25: DVD-RW
5.25: removable drive bay
5.25: 3.5" hard drive in adapter
5.25: fanbus

3.5: floppy drive
3.5: hard drive

3.5: hard drive
3.5: hard drive
3.5: hard drive
3.5: hard drive
3.5: hard drive




Yes, those are 7 hard drives in there. I would have liked another bay for my removable media drive. 🙂
If they see a profitable market for smaller cases, they'll make them, and they might already have such cases. I haven't investigated that though.
 

Antec 1080 AMG :

5.25 DVDRW
5.25 fanbus
5.25 CDRW
5.25 live drive audio bay
3.5 Floppy
3.5 Zip

plus 3 internal HDs in 3.5 cage with an 80 mm to cool them

I wouldnt mind another 5.25 for temp readouts and another 3.5 for a card reader.
 
dude think about it. i need 3 optical drive bays myself...and i'm a home user. maybe i'll end up using all 4- 2 drives, fan controller
they're just trying to get more buyers. it's not like they're doing BAD things to teh case or anything. and a lot of people collect their hard drives over the years and use them, hence the 5 hard drive bays.
 
Originally posted by: Einstein Element
well, there are a lot of things you can put in those drive bays instead of optical drives....... fan controllers, clocks, cigarette tray/ beverage holder, etc. it always helps to be able to expand your options.
Click to expand...

Beverage holder? I use my DVD writer for that... 😉
 
I have a 2650 with 4 ext, and 6 int's. I use 1 ext and 1 int. I don't even have a floppy drive.

My next case will definitely be a SFF with 1 or 2 ext, 1 or 2 int.
 
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