SPCR

French site, photos are clear - scroll down just a tad.

Made for maximum airflow: the front, sides, top and back are made from perforated metal.

The yellow accented case comes with 5 fans, and houses a maximum of 12 fans. The fans come with a blue LED, and have the well known 3 speed switch.

Houses 6 3.5"-drivebays and 3 5.25"-drivebays, and is compatible with mini-itx, micro-atx and atx motherboards.
2 USB ports and 1 eSata in the front, as well as audio input and output.
Price is said to be approximately 200 Euros.

I don't think it will be too popular for quiet computing (all the perforated metal makes it the exact opposite of a P18x), and it is a bit conspicuous to say the least.
It looks like they wanted an Antec Skeleton with a case surrounding it, but it practically still is an open bench.

Interesting - looks like a 900'ified Mini P180.

IMO it's rather ugly. I'd rather go with one of these cases:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811129042
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811112235

Hrm. Yuck

Wow ! That's probably one of the ugliest cases I have ever seen.
Also it looks useless airflow wise. Air will escape/enter anywhere.

Horrible, simply just horrible.

But that's just my opinion.

Ever since the P180, Antec's designs have just taken a nasty turn to the fuglyville. I have no clue why they keep hitting even the previously nice looking case (again P180) with the uglyhammer.

That thing is so freaking hideous I really have no clue why would anyone over 8 years want it.

Sure it's just my opinion, but I sure am tempted to say that if someone disagrees, he's just wrong

Oh dear. Again.

what is wrong with Antec?!

I think we can all agree Antec has completely lost the plot, however... that new suspension mechanism looks really good. Far more solid than what's in the Solo, and it should be just as effective. You should be able to actually move your case around a bit without fear of your HDD's falling out.

Too bad it's hideous.

EDIT: WHAT DID I JUST READ? 200 EUROS FOR THIS CASE? WHAAAAA?

Cool case! (Pun intended.) I think the visual design really makes a statement.

Too bad it doesn't seem to support Their CPX PSu form factor...

Cheers
Olle

Those looks are not my thing but it`s certainly not another boring gray box, I`ll give them that.

I do like the hdd suspension system though.

This case is beyond temptation.

(subsidized by Lego??)

hmmmm.... I think the look is related to function: It seems to be similar to mechano or lego -- it's modular, different modules plug in/out as needed. I wonder if the size can be changed too?

PC's by Tonka.

mentawl wrote:Hrm. Yuck

no doubt.
they coulda called lanboy airhead, or lanboy bimbo.

why even have the motherboard in a case? just dangle it from the wall with a fan smashing it from a nearby window.

This makes me look forward to the next matx-case from Antec. That HDD-solution looks good.

So where is that new NSK antec?

MikeC wrote:hmmmm.... I think the look is related to function: It seems to be similar to mechano or lego -- it's modular, different modules plug in/out as needed. I wonder if the size can be changed too?

I doubt they had Origami in mind...

Two things:

1) Two fans in front, one was set to blow air out, one was set it suck in. Was intresting thing, that just popped out to my sight in pictures.

2) When you got 12 fans in case the HDD suspension really saves your ears by suspending HDD /Sarcasm.

Looks wasn't bad, but instead adding fans and holes, why not focus optimizing air flow in fewer fans? More and more fans does not necessarily improve cooling after a certain point so making 12 fan cases seem pretty pointless. You get same temperatures with a lot less fans. After all air cooling relies in ambedient temprature and you cannot go lower than ambedient temprature no matter how much you add fans in case in regular air cooling... not without peltiers.

thejamppa,
with 12 LED fans, it's possible to present the case on Champs-Elysees for New Year!!
And the sound! the Brits would salute to a Concord airplane, without thinking twice (that it was taken out of service).

http://www.rosemaryaugustine.com/Champs ... ts%202.jpg

Jipa wrote:That thing is so freaking hideous I really have no clue why would anyone over 8 years want it.

That's probably their new target market. It's a lucrative one too. Just look at all the mums and dads in department stores spending hundreds of $/€s on plastic fantastic toys and gadgets and video games for their precious ones. Some bright head at Antec must have done some market research on this and figured to go in for a slice of the greasy pie.

As for the case in question, that has to be one of the most horrible looking cases I have ever seen. Some companies do ugly without pretense and don't deserved to be knocked (much anyway) for it. But this is pretentiousness that is also strikingly ugly. One thing's for sure, they never cease to amaze me lately. I thought this thread a while back was for a bit of a laugh as well as a concern towards recent trends, but it looks like they're not doing themselves any favours at the moment.

I think it looks kinda cool I have no idea about airflow etc though...

Oh God.

If Antec dare unleash that ... thing upon the world, I can guarantee you one thing. There will be no survivors.

neumein wrote:Oh God.

If Antec dare unleash that ... thing upon the world, I can guarantee you one thing. There will be no survivors.

article from Hexus-Cooler Master spying on Antec

Evidence seen by HEXUS indicates that a marketing representative of Cooler Master gained access to an invite-only, private press briefing held last week in France by its competitor Antec.

Apparently posing as one "Anthony Fevre, President of Spirit LAN", the Cooler Master marketing representative Jérémie Hallot, was later discovered to have acquired a USB memory stick containing Antec marketing materials with information regarding Antec's upcoming products.

Further evidence seen by HEXUS shows that both Cedric Pineau, "en charge du bureau France Cooler Master", seems to admit both knowledge of Hallot's actions and his responsibility for Hallot's behaviour, which he agrees "n'est pas appréciable" (‘is not acceptable').

Admission that Hallot acquired one of Antec's USB memory sticks is also made, though, surprisingly we think, Pineau seems somewhat dismissive of its contents stating it "n'est nullement confidentiel" (‘is not confidential').

No mention is made by Pineau regarding the manner in which Hallot gained access to the event; whether Pineau or anyone else at Cooler Master had prior knowledge of Hallot's intentions before engaging in what seems to be an act of pre-mediated espionage and what Cooler Master has done with the information wrongly taken from Antec.

We understand that Jérémie Hallot has been only quite recently engaged by Cooler Master and is (or was) recently a significant figure associated with a French gaming clan called ‘D4gaming', which, amongst others, is presently sponsored by 'steelseries' (which offers some products which compete with Cooler Master's own 'CM Storm' offerings) and claims some kind of partnership with Intel.[/b]

Well, Antec heading this path of ridiculously ugly cases which are incredibly overpriced, Coolermaster has nothing to worry about.
Can't believe it is the same Antec, the one that released my Mini P180 and acclaimed cases like the P180 and Solo, among others, and now releases this beast and the Antec Two-Hundred...

it's one case. antec is dominant in cases and just wants to have one or a few that will appeal to a "certain" kind of buyer. they are still going to do their bread and butter designs. hate the case, not the case maker.

bendit wrote:it's one case. antec is dominant in cases and just wants to have one or a few that will appeal to a "certain" kind of buyer. they are still going to do their bread and butter designs. hate the case, not the case maker.

It is isn't just "one case". Antec have had several likeminded cases in recent times. Just look through some of the threads in the past few months. There's been no sign either of them returning to their former "glory" days of conservative quiet designs. They could surprise us though with something new in the next year. But a lot of users have probably had enough of them and wanting to move on.

So Antec is somewhat dominant, perhaps the market leader, thus they can do whatever they want with their resources. The problem with being no.1 is that companies often take their eye of the ball, assuming their dominance will continue and consumers will buy anyway because their brand is so entrenched in the consciousness. You can see this happen with Toyota in the auto industry and Canon in the digital imaging industry, where both have enjoyed dominant market share for considerable time and are no.1 in sales. Their success was borne out of innnovation and quality at good value. But that dominance over time becomes complacency, pressures from within and without cause bad decision making, quality drops, products not as good as before and they have to watch their backs because other players are catching up to them.

Personally, I'd be more than happy to buy another brand if the quality and price is right. I'm not loyal to a company because of some emotional value or nationalistic pride. One should buy the product that best suits one's needs: and only the individual truly knows what those needs are.

Antec before:




Simple, effective and beautiful cases.

Antec now:




More complex designs, "gaming" (more like some exaggerated car tuning to me) and weird cases.

http://www.hardware.info/en-UK/news/ymi ... d_delayed/


Antec six hundred

For the most part I'm with Bendit.

Manufacturers do have to differentiate, sometimes try new designs (and perhaps fail in the process), in order to survive.

Antec is a very popular case for quiet PC builders, but that doesn't mean Antec is first and foremost a quiet case manufacturer. Their biggest income may not even be the P18x, and their biggest market is most likely not the quiet PC builder.

Perhaps most here (myself included) want Antec to be like Porsche: they have to tweak, tune and generally improve the P180 but it certainly still has to look like the P180. Anything else, and it's not a real Antec.
Nevertheless, once the "911" stops selling, we can shout all we want but we will still only make a whisper.

If Antec is the market leader, they won't hold that position by producing the same cases till eternity (even if we want them to).
They have the best insight in how sales are going, if the sales for a product are topping off into a decline, you should already have another design in pre-production.

You can say this Lanboy looks awful and I agree, but it's innovative, and it will keep them in a leading market position.

I think the three hundred would be the perfect case if it offered soft mounting of hard drives....