Antec SX1040BII Black Performance Series II SOHO File Server

Rating:
Summary: You get what you pay for
Review:

I bought one of these cases and had intended to make a server out of it. After setting it up in my living room, I liked how quiet it was compared to my older system. With that in mind, I decided to keep it where it was and buy another case to become the server.

This is a stylish case with good functionality. It comes with 10 bays. (4) 5.25in. bays and (6) 3.5in bays. There is a flip-up panel in the front with two USB ports and a FireWire connection, if your motherboard has the capability to use them. There are also the usual suite of LED lights on the front, with two extra lights for multiple hard drives.

The Antec 400 watt power supply is enough to meet most power needs and it runs fairly quiet for having two fans. The case itself is not that loud considering it has two fans of it's own in the rear, with mounts for two more in the front. I added two fans for hard drive cooling on the server and it isn't so quiet anymore. (The price you pay for cool)

The two hard cages are easy to remove. Pull a latch back and then pull the drive bays out. Simple as that. The 5.25" drive bays use rails that screw onto the drives then click into the case. The 3.25" drives use screws that mount into the drive cages. One of these cages has a fan mount for hard drive cooling. Since I was running a 4 drive RAID, I wanted all four drives cooled. I was able to swap the fan mount drive cage form my other case and move my floppy to a 5.25" slot. For others who want to cool both HDD cages you may have to order a cage from Antec or use a couple 5.25" slots with HDD coolers.

The case is a few bucks more than the standard no-name computer show fare, but you know where the money went when you start working with it. There is plenty of room to work in. (Supports full ATX boards) You get four 80mm fans between the case and the power supply. Ten drive bays allow for a good amount of expansion in your system. Four hundered watts of juice and a good style points are the final bonus touches to make this case a worthy investment. I have a feeling this case will outlive a couple motherboards for me. We'll see.

Rating:
Summary: No Sharp Edges
Review: I did a lot of research on cases and found this company to have a great service and warranty record as well as a great product.

This item is available in Beige from Antec but I was not able to locate one elsewhere and settled for the grey/black one here at Amazon. I love the interior and the exterior of this case in that there are no sharp corners or edges anywhere. The case was clean and it was supplied with all the needed components including a manual, 4 keys, nuts and bolts bag, spare mobo stand-offs and a name plate "Antec" if you wanted to place it on the front. The 400 watt power supply is plenty for most SOHO. 2 Fans are included in the rear panel and I noticed Antec offers upgraded fans on their website. I would have asked for their thermostate designed case fans but it is not offered on a new case purchase. I will place the included fans up front, and purchase thermostatic fans in the rear for starters.

Thanks to Amazon needs mentioned too as I would have paid more for this item any place else as currently this item ships for $15 and Amazons price with shipping beat all of the others.

Rating:
Summary: Roomy! And Hefty - Weighs 32 Pounds!
Review: This is Antec's Performance II Series SX1040BII Soho File Server Case. It has an Antec (SL400) SmartPower ATX12V (P4 Compliant) power supply, two front USB 1.1 and 1 Front Firewire, a washable front air filter (which is a pain to remove as you have to tilt the entire case back to pull it out from the bottom), locking swing out side panel, and 2 quick release drive cages for your Hard Drives and 3.5" Drives. Supports motherboards up to Extended ATX 12" x 13". Two 80mm fans are included and mounted on the back, with room for 2 more (optional) in the front to act as intakes. One of the front intake fans mounts directly in front of the Hard Drive cage to keep your hard drives cool. The case dimensions are 20.6" H x 8.1" W x 18.6" D. There are (4)5.25", and (2)3.5" Front accessible bays and (4)3.5" Internal bays, there are 7 Expansion Slots (3 Short, 4 Full Length). The case comes with plenty of screws and includes rails for mounting your front accessible drives. Great case and along with Antec's 3 Year warranty and friendly customer service, you can't go wrong.