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January 8, 2008 by Russ Kinder, Charles
Gilliatt, and Alex Chiu
CES DAY 1
ANTEC
Per their usual, Antec forgoes the convention floor in favor of a private invitation-only
suite, this year at the Wynn. Our tour of their new products was led Antec’s
guru of design, Han Liu.
Fusion Max
Seen first at Computex last July, the Fusion Max is the big brother to the
already popular mATX-sized Fusion. While they look similar and share a somewhat
similar layout, there are several important differences: First, instead of two
120mm fans on the right side, the Fusion Max has a single 140mm 11-bladed fan.
Second, Antec has added two dust filters to the bottom air intakes in the front
of the case, which should definitely help keep things clean. The filters can
be removed and cleaned easily, as they are removable notebook PC-Card style
through the front pop-down door, which also hides the reset button, plus FireWire,
eSATA, mic/headphone, and two USB 2.0 jacks. The power button remains accessible
with the front door closed. The front retains the dark gray aluminum finish
as the Fusion Black as well as the LCD display and single 5.25” with stealthed
cover. As a side benefit of the large ATX size, Antec was able to add two additional
drop down 3.5” bays, increasing the total to four. The PSU has been flipped
on its side, with a fresh air intake on the left side, as well as two rows of
vents to keep the expansion cards cool.
Three Hundred
Next up, we have the Three Hundred, a value-oriented case that incorporates
some of the design features found in Antec’s higher-end chassis’.
Features include dual front mounted USB 2.0 jacks, as well as mic and headphone.
Fans include a top-mounted 140mm fan, a rear 120mm and the option for a pair
of 120’s behind the meshed and filtered front bezel. The interior really
shows the sacrifices made for value pricing: gone are the dual-chambers of removable
HDD sleds of the higher end cases, replaced with a simple throw-back optical
and rigid HDD mounting system. The price point of this unit is expected to be
in the neighborhood of ~US$60.
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