innovation: noun, the introduction of something new; a new idea, method, or device. Antec has managed to score a hat-trick here with a product which is all three - a new idea, a new method and a new device. In my opinion, aside from various HTPC cases, there's been no other successful innovations in the PC chassis industry in the last ten years. Even before you start judging the Skeleton case by its merits, its very presence on the market is a breath of fresh air and Antec deserve some credit just for putting it out there.
Today I have been lucky enough to get my eager little hands on one of these Antec Skeleton cases, so I've whacked in my trusty components consisting of: Asus P5Q Pro, Intel E8500, Sapphire 4850, Silverstone OP700, and twin HDDs to test it out. It is certainly an appealing design and being an Antec product my hopes are high that it can deliver. First impressions are one thing, but what I really want to know is if this case can offer as much functionality as it does style.
Features
4 Drive Bays: External 2 x 5.25¨, Internal 2 x 3.5¨. 4x 3.5¨ side panel
8 Expansion Slots with room for 11¨ graphics cards
Cooling System: 1 top 250mm TriCool 3-speed multi color LED Fan, 1 front 92mm
Motherboard support: StandardATX, MicroATX and Mini-ITX motherboards
Front ports: 2 x USB 2.0, 1 x FireWire (IEEE1394), 1 x eSATA, Audio In and Out
Unit Dimensions: 33 cm(H) x 37.6 cm(W) x 41.9 cm(D)
Weight: 7.02 kg
First Glance
After unboxing and unwrapping the Skeleton and picking it up for the first time, you can tell this case means business. The frame is made from high density ABS reinforced with 0.8mm cold rolled steel for durability, and it feels solid as a rock. The component tray is also made from 0.8mm cold rolled steel - no nasty powder coating here. After pushing two locking buttons the motherboard tray assembly slides smoothly out from the frame. On the front of the case are the obligatory power/reset switches, activity LEDs, plus 2 USB ports, a FireWire and an eSATA port. On top of the case next to the huge 250mm fan is a lighting toggle button plus 3-level fan speed slider.
Installation
Once you've fully extended the motherboard tray out it's a rediculously easy case to work with. Removing the walls found in traditional tower cases just makes everything easier to get to, particularly motherboard screws. The power supply mount also slides out for removal from the case so you just screw your PSU into it and slide it back in with a reassuring 'click' when it pops back into place. Hard drives and DVD drives are also easy as pie to install; after this point however, things kind of head south.
The first disappointment I hit with the Skeleton is that my Thermalright Ultima-90 CPU heatsink wouldn't fit in under the chassis which holds the fan - it was too tall. This heatsink is a shorter version of the TRUE 120 which is an incredibly popular model so you won't be using one of them with this case either I'm afraid. Going back to the stock Intel heatsink is a disheartening affair. I don't have a list of heatsinks that do or don't fit, but anything shorter than an Ultima-90 should be fine, like a Freezer 7 Pro which is also quite popular.
The other oddity I came across, which isn't really a huge issue, is that the bar which you screw down your add-on cards into is fixed to the main part of the case. This means that you have slide the movable tray back into place and lock it down before delicately sliding in your add-on cards through a gap somewhere to slot them in and screw them down. The reverse is true also - you have to remove all your add-on cards before sliding the motherboard out. While this wasn't a big problem for me with my single-slot ATI 4850 GPU as my only add-on card, I can imagine people with two or three dual-slot video cards and a sound card or other device would get immensely frustrated by this, as you get progressively less and less room to manuevre in there once you've got more stuff installed. A better way to do this would have been to make the supporting bar part of the tray assembly itelf instead of the chassis so that you could slide it out with your complete system intact. Skeleton Two perhaps?
One more beef I have with this case when it comes to installation is the front panel header connections, aka the cables for the power/reset switches and activity LEDs. They're far too short. This means you have to remove them every time you want to slide the motherboard out. I inevitably forgot to do this once and now my motherboard front panel header pins have a nice easterly slant going on. Cheers for that.
And finally - there's no cable management system to speak of. If you are anal about having tidy cables then this is not the case for you. There are places to hide unused cables, but no routing or management system for cables in use, nor can you easily remove slack from cables by tying them up tight because you have to leave enough length in them to pull the motherboard out. Don't get me wrong though - you get over this pretty quick once you've actually got it up and running.
Operation
I instantly forgave the Skeleton for all its installation woes the moment I pressed the power button. The three colour LED can be toggled through a whole bunch of colour schemes, my favourite being a swirling and evolving mix of all three colours at once. There are also three speed settings, with 'low' being silent, 'medium' barely audible, and 'high' annoying. With just the big 250mm fan on top and the 92mm on the front cranking, it's actually not noticeably louder than many other cases. A little bit more noise escapes due to not having any walls of course, but most other cases also have an extra couple of 120mm fans spinning to make up for that. Most importantly the 250mm fan, which makes the most noise, emits a slightly more pleasant low-frequency hum due to the large fins and low RPM, as opposed to the higher-frequency 'whirr' that you get from 120mm fans.
As far as component temperatures go, the Skeleton performs fantastically. With medium fan speed my ATI 4850 GPU ran up to 6'C cooler under full load compared to when it was in the Cooler Master Sniper. My O/S drive ran at 32'C which is fine, and my Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 with stock cooler ran at 35'C idle and 55'C load which were also a couple of degrees lower than the Sniper.
Dust accumulation can become a problem long-term with this case so it might be wise to also invest in a can of compressed air to clean your components with every 6 months or so. And if you're planning on taking this case to a LAN, remember that there is no security management system - you can literally reach in and remove a RAM stick without unscrewing anything - and this thing will definitely attract attention, especially with the hypnotizing LED show.
Conclusion
Overall, I really like the Skeleton. It is fun, funky, functional and very innovative. I could forgive most of the shortcomings, but at the same time I can see a lot of areas which could be tweaked and improved on to make it so much better. It's not the great "enthusiast's test bench" that some people thought it would be, however it's still more 'l33t' by several orders of magnitude than your average square box that most gamers whack their gear into.
Basically, if you're after something a bit different and attention-grabbing, and don't mind the minor niggles, then this one-of-a-kind case is definitely worthy of consideration.
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Our thanks to Computer Lounge for providing the review sample.
