Good review.

I just thought I should ask. Apart from the obvious things (compucase doesn't include fan, different front bezel, rearfan mounting) does this case differ anything from Compucase 6A21, latest revision? Dimensions? coulour? placement of the sideholes?

Thanks for the review, Mike!

Couple of questions

1. Does the side intake have any lateral movement, or does it go straight up and down? i.e. can we get to point on top of processors in different positions

2. The side intake seems to be bolt-on can it be bough seperately (perhaps in larger sizes?

All best and tx for review

<Pedant>On page 4, in the second grey Note, you wrote:
.
You appear to have a surplus of 'k's, sirs.</Pedant>

Other than that, well done on another well written review, and so soon after the case became available! It's almost a shame the 3000B got a little overshadowed by the announcement of the P180, but it's still fantastic value for its silencing potential.

Been working on my 3000B on and off in the office over the holidays. It's not as slick looking as my old case, a Lian Li 6070, but I tihnk it's more functional to work with and will be much easier to make quiet.

A couple of questions:

1) could the CAG side intake cause some clearance problems for certain CPU heatsink/fan combos, especially some of the taller ones like the XP90 with fan?

2) could you illustrate the mounting issues with the front 120mm fan and the plastic bezel? I think I understand what you mean, but a couple of pics could really help clear this up.

Great review, looks like a new leader in the "bang for the buck" category of cases for the silent PC enthusiast.

This probably won't surprise anyone, but I was, so here goes: the inside of the SLK3000B is identical to my Thermaltake Tsunami Dream. Only differences: my case is made from aluminium (handsome looks, not at all like your usual Thermaltake case, except for (disconnected) blue diodes), and I dont have the cutouts in the left side panel (suits me just fine).

The aluminium on my Tsunami Dream is quite thin, but I solved the vibration problems with acoustipack (wonderful product). Non standard fan mounting holes are still a b*tch though. Almost impossible to drill nicely.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day

It's still a nice case though.

Nope, it's fixed in position. It just telescopes in and out.



I've never seen one for sale. You could make a duct out of just about anything. There's been some nice looking, home made ducts posted here at SPCR over the years. Use the search and you can probably find some pics.

It's possible, but the duct is made from plastic and can easily be modded using a box-cutting knife, X-acto knife etc.



The problem is that the hole pattern in the plastic mount isn't the same size as the hole pattern of a 120mm fan, so if you remove the mount you'll have to drill a new hole pattern to mount a 120mm fan to the case. This has been illustrated before in some of the SLK3700AMB threads (including mine in the "General Gallery" forum).

Looking at the third picture on the second page (angled front view without front bezel) you can see the screws with which the plastic fan mount is attached. Those wholes are obviously too widely spaced for a 120mm fan, as you describe. But there is another set of holes (unused?) that is a little closer to the center of the grill. What are these for then?

Just like on the original 3700AMB, those inboard holes are to locate some plastic tabs on the plastic mounting bracket. They are too far inboard to use to mount a 120mm fan. The correct location for the 120mm hole pattern is exactly in the middle of the two existing hole patterns. Pics of the modded front or rear fan grills of 3700AMBs will show this clearly.

A small point, but important to some is the difference in the HD mounting cage between this (3000) and the 3700BQE that you don't mention - number of drives.

I have built a number of machines with the BQE with a 4-drive raid set and could isolate the drives using Ralf's sorbothane method. Works great. The 3700AMB/3000B insists on having a 5-drive cage which doesn't have the clearance to put a 4-drive set into with each drive elevated. A nit, I know, but one that gives system builders fits. (And I can't see a reason for a 5-drive cage anyway )

A very well written article, but I was disappointed to not see a thermal comparison like in the BQE article. Between changes BACK to the AMB and the duct, I'd expect to see the 3000B outperform the 3700AMB.

It's what he said. The improvement is so obvious, there really is no need for a thermal comparison. There's no question the 3000b would beat either of the 3700s -- even modded ones, because of the TAC.

/me glares at his 3700BQE.

*watches the 3700BQE cower in fear*

Can you say, 3000B, or better yet, P180? *smirk*

Thanks Ralf and Mike.

So I could build my new system now in the 3000, "See Honey, the review says it's 'modestly priced'." And then ask for the P180 for my birthday in June. And then there would be this unused case that could be filled later with various parts from around the house (and Newegg, ZipZoomFly, etc.).

About the Plastic front fan mount, I have something similiar in my case in the front and in the back.

If like me you don't have a driller at hand, instead of drilling new holes in the case, I removed all the clips designed to hold the fan on the Plastic front fan mount and super-glued 4 fan isolators on it.

I glued it a while ago and it seems to be holding fine.

Very good review as always

I was intrigued by this case but also I see a few flaws with this case in stock form (probably easily remedied)

The CPU duct and video card vent appear to be good ideas for cooling, however from a silencing standpoint, I can see how these could be deemed as problematic for two reasons...

1) noise escaping pathways
2) dust intake (the easily remedied one via any kind of homebrew filtering)

The only other major quabble it may present to me personally is the location of the duct. I can see this becoming an issue for some motherboards (A64's come to mind with their sometimes centered CPU socket and some large VGA heatsinks interfering with the duct).

Other than that, props to Antec for improvements.

Very good review and i'll proberly pick one up tomorrow.

Just one thing, why are there no pictures of the front with the "gate" open??

Great! Just what I needed

That CPU duct is in fact named after INTEL'S Thermally Advantaged Chassis.
I'm sure that Intel couldn't care less about taking AMD's designs into account.
Hee hee, sorry, couldn't resist.

This is a change from the 3700AMB design? Or did I just not look close enough at my AMB?

Excellent review thanks.
has confirmed, i think , that this is the case for me. The lack of front audio is a minor grip from me.

Ralf from 3700AMB, 3700BQE, 3000B which would you choose?

Am I the only one thinking the p180 announcement makes the much anticipated 3000b lose much of its appeal?

No, you're not the only one. Heh. Heh. Heh.

Maybe, the 3000b never looked all that interesting to me anyway, and I don't mind at all that I got a 3700AMB just before it was announced. I cut out the rear grills and dindn't replace them, and the 350 watt smartpower that came with it was usefull for another PC, and I don't see how I'm worse of in any way.

Probably a natural reaction... here's a reality check:

1) The P180 is 3X the price of the SLK3000. Different price target.
2) The 3000 is available now; the P180 is maybe in a couple months -- you never really know till it shows up in the stores.
3) The promise of the 180 is tantalizing but thus far unconfirmed by empirical testing.

Still, I agree. The P180 is a much more exciting product! Antec had a bit of a challenge showing their other new prodducts in Vegas. As soon visitors saw the thing, they'd just hang around and not want to move away from it.

He was very smart in how he presented his stuff; he started with the Smart Power 2.0, then the Smart Power 2.0 modular, then TruePower 2.0, he had a Neo Power but said pretty much nothing since it's not new, then presented Phantom 500, and finally presented the cases in order of interest. P180 was last to be presented; actually, there were a couple other nice new cases coming out, most of which share the new rear-feeding CPU duct that P180 has, but P180 takes the cake by a long shot, being the only model with the dampened panels, special air zones and new HDD grommets. I'll report more when I get a chance.

-Ed