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Antec is coming out with the NSK 1300 which is one of two cases to replace the Aria. The other one is the Antec NSK 3300 and I got a review up at http://www.sffclub.com

It is a mini tower case and hopefully some of you can use the information on the site.

Thanks! I have been waiting for such a review. And you used a Seasonic PSU there too, which is exactly the question I have ever since pictures of this case started circulating around the intarweb. Looks like it will be a tight fit but it should work.

How hard will be modding be? Drilling 4 holes so I can secure the PSU? Anything else? I have been looking at the black version of this (541). This one allows me to use regular ATX PSU but the upside down approach, while good for the average set up, seems to be detrimental if I were to get a heatpipe-cooled video card (or I will be stuck with a 7600GS). The 120mm fan is also attractive in the Antec as well, but I can most certainly get some 80mm Panaflo's that are not noisy as well, right?

More pictures on the mod will be appreciated. If you can give some quick thoughts on this vs the Coolermaster that will be great.

I suppose a review of the 1300 is coming up soon too?

Flying Fox wrote:

but I can most certainly get some 80mm Panaflo's that are not noisy as well, right?

I've got 4 80mm Panaflo FBA08A12M1A (medium speed) fans in an old Antec 660AMG and all I can hear is the noisy old ThermalTake Volcano 9 HSF.

yeah, I can try to most more pics of the mod. I never actually did the mod but tested the PSU to see if it would fit. You will have to drill 4 holes in the back and one in the compartment area to route the cables. Other than that you should be straight. Maybe I will do a mod to demonstrate all of these things .

Steeeeve wrote:

yeah, I can try to most more pics of the mod. I never actually did the mod but tested the PSU to see if it would fit. You will have to drill 4 holes in the back and one in the compartment area to route the cables. Other than that you should be straight. Maybe I will do a mod to demonstrate all of these things .

Another hole in the compartment area? Wow I can't even drill small holes right on wood, let alone metal. I guess that may have done it for me. Why in the world Antec has to stick with a less popular SFX PSU? The space is there, it could well be a good point to sell their line of regular ATX PSUs too? True, things may get a bit tight, but if the user chooses s/he can get a micro-ATX PSU which is not as rare as SFX.

IMO it was a goofy decision made by the designers.

It is the same thing Shuttle does. In fact, the amount of power you can get from a little thing like that is amazing. We will see how it does when Jon gets back from Computex and tests it out

Drilling in metal is not that hard anyway. You might even be able to just "snip" it because the hard drive holes are already there.

Did I forget to mention you loss the top hard drive?

Steeeeve wrote:

Did I forget to mention you loss the top hard drive?

You mean the 2nd 5.25" bay that can be used for a HD? The setup I have in mind will be one HD on the bottom of the chassis and one at the bottom of the 3.5" cage. So it should be ok for me.

But it still can't stop me from thinking may be the Coolermaster 541 is better?

And yes, I am one of those (relatively) few people that are the "audience" as you mentioned in the article. I don't need to move the thing around, but I appreciate a small and quiet case after getting a taste of the SN45G (temporarily shelved, may be looking to sell).

The Coolermaster 541 is a little bigger and doesn't come with the 120mm fan . I'm not sure if it will cool as well as the NSK3300 or as quiet but probably not a bad case.

The NSK3300 is not going to be meant for hardcore systems that are for "showing off". They are for the average gamer that will be using one GPU, not laning too much, not worried about looks.

It is also good for family and work use.