A few days a go I posted an inquiry about the wisdom of ordering an Antec P160 form Zip Zoom Fly at a price $20 or so less than the price from New Egg. We all kinda agreed that ZZF was a straight up dealer.
UPS guy was here about 45 minutes ago. He passed the box to me and I carried it upstairs to my playroom (smile). On manuevering the box to set it right side up I heard something banging around inside the carton (read case). My report----
1. the carton was only sealed where they had taped the UPS shipping label.
2. the rear case fan which according to Antec tech support should have been mounted to the case, had been banging around inside the case the whole time apparently that UPS was kicking the case from California to Virginia.
3. the entire case fan blade assembly was broken loose from the fan motor (held on by the magnets). Antec will let me RMA.
My conclusions?? Antec ships the cases with the fans loosely tied with wire ties inside the case. This method is definitely not designed to withstand the rigors of a UPS cross country shipment. These cases come in country by the container load on a nice comfortable 747 or a container ship. Zip Zoom Fly saved a couple of worker bucks by leaving the fans unmounted. A single carton with the fan hanging inside is not able to stand up to UPS (maybe fedex either but it has been my experience that Fedex seems to be a much gentler carrier).
I'm about to shut down my system now to make the transfer from Sonata (I) to P-160. There is a small scratch in the center of the front bezel where probably some careless person used a sharp instrument when they first opened the carton -- what reason did they have to open the carton if they weren't going to accomplish the requisite fan mounting? One of the small top catches for fastening the front bezel is broken, I don't know if I may have done that removing the bezel myself- it is a trouble prone mounting/dismounting method.
I hope the case is OK otherwise. There is a wireguide that is supposed to be adhered to the top of the case I think, it holds all the wires coming from the top of the bezel with switches, temp probes etc. It doesn't want to stick to the case - oh well. Hope that all works as designed (I have 120 fan to use, taking it out of the Sonata) it would be a real pain to have to RMA this P160.
See comments in a while, signing off to make the system switch. Should be a no brainer the only thing that is changing is the case.
p.s. I'd rather have a P180 but I would have to buy a new computer desk. The P180 is too tall to fit in the space alotted on my computer desk. The P160 just squeezes in.
UPS guy was here about 45 minutes ago. He passed the box to me and I carried it upstairs to my playroom (smile). On manuevering the box to set it right side up I heard something banging around inside the carton (read case). My report----
1. the carton was only sealed where they had taped the UPS shipping label.
2. the rear case fan which according to Antec tech support should have been mounted to the case, had been banging around inside the case the whole time apparently that UPS was kicking the case from California to Virginia.
3. the entire case fan blade assembly was broken loose from the fan motor (held on by the magnets). Antec will let me RMA.
My conclusions?? Antec ships the cases with the fans loosely tied with wire ties inside the case. This method is definitely not designed to withstand the rigors of a UPS cross country shipment. These cases come in country by the container load on a nice comfortable 747 or a container ship. Zip Zoom Fly saved a couple of worker bucks by leaving the fans unmounted. A single carton with the fan hanging inside is not able to stand up to UPS (maybe fedex either but it has been my experience that Fedex seems to be a much gentler carrier).
I'm about to shut down my system now to make the transfer from Sonata (I) to P-160. There is a small scratch in the center of the front bezel where probably some careless person used a sharp instrument when they first opened the carton -- what reason did they have to open the carton if they weren't going to accomplish the requisite fan mounting? One of the small top catches for fastening the front bezel is broken, I don't know if I may have done that removing the bezel myself- it is a trouble prone mounting/dismounting method.
I hope the case is OK otherwise. There is a wireguide that is supposed to be adhered to the top of the case I think, it holds all the wires coming from the top of the bezel with switches, temp probes etc. It doesn't want to stick to the case - oh well. Hope that all works as designed (I have 120 fan to use, taking it out of the Sonata) it would be a real pain to have to RMA this P160.
See comments in a while, signing off to make the system switch. Should be a no brainer the only thing that is changing is the case.
p.s. I'd rather have a P180 but I would have to buy a new computer desk. The P180 is too tall to fit in the space alotted on my computer desk. The P160 just squeezes in.
