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Antec SX1030
What's in the package & Installation Well my first impressions when I saw the box it came in was holy crap how the heck am I gonna get that home strapped to my back on my bike. Well lets just say I didn't try that idea. So off we go to get it out of the box and make ready to install all my parts. The case is well designed it does not seem flimsy or floppy or weak in any way, trust me you'll see what I mean when you try to pick up one of these things. Starting from the outside to get into the case the side panel has a nice "Pull and Open" latch which easily removes the door, no more banging the side panel trying to slide it open, no more banging on it to get it back in. At the front and the most unique feature I found was the the swinging door which closes up to hide the drives. Now I'd have to say this does feel a little floppy but not too bad as long as you aren't reefing on it. The door is fully removable, so if its getting too where you are you can add to the airflow. Above is the photo of the front of the case in my apartment. On the right, a pic I took at night of the door open showing that I have the two cdrom drives seperated to keep them from heating up, meanwhile providing good airflow to the rest of the system. And as you'll wonder what the heck is that glowing? Its a small mod I have done with whats called rope lighting, its wrapped inside the front grill and runs along the bottom of the case just to provide a cool effect. You'll see more pics later on this.
Moving to the inside of the case. If your worried if this case will provide enough room for all your drives and other toys, WORRY NOT!! the SX1030 comes equipped with 10 total drive bays, 6 3 1/2" bays (4 internal, 2 external) and 4 5 1/4" bays. This case is perfect for setting up that raid array you always wanted, worried about heat to those drives? The bottom 3 1/2" drive bay comes with one 80mm fan cage so you can keep those 7200 rpm raid's nice and cool. I am currently running two 7200 rpm drives and they are cool to the touch even when the temp outside hits 30 celcius. The internal drive cages are easily removed by the flip of a lever on the side of them and slide out for easy transportation, I have put together a small vid clip of this procedure which you can see here. The other 80mm fan cage is located right below the drive cage to bring in the cool air from the bottom. All the 5 1/4" drive bays come with rails that are screwed into the drives and then slide into place inside the case for easy installation and removal.
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