More Specs and Conclusion
This content was originally featured on Amdmb.com and has been converted to PC Perspective’s website. Some color changes and flaws may appear.
This picture shows the back of the case and you can see the same stamped grill covering the exhaust, the same remedy applies here as well.
Please note, if your not overclocking or don’t have a high ambient room temperature or not loaded down with allot of heat producing add-ons, the chances are the modifications to the fan grills really are not necessary for you. In some cases it still might be necessary, but not the Antec SX series of cases
OK, we’ve touched on about everything, other than the inside of the case and rather than show you a picture of the dull bare insides, we’ll show you one of a fully loaded system. We often talk of rounded IDE cables that don’t block airflow and wire tying or looming your power supply lines, in the next picture you will see that I practice what I preach, rounded IDE cables and loomed power supply lines.
What you can’t see is the back plate as the motherboard is already in place, but I can say this, Antec has more mounting holes and supplies more brass standoff’s to mount your motherboard than ANY case I have ever seen. Even my Lian-Li aluminum case did not have enough to mount the Epox motherboard without the board flexing on the right side when attaching the IDE cables to the motherboard.
I have three complaints about the inside of the case; the first is the lack of a removable motherboard tray, when you’ve had one, you get spoiled real quickly. The second is the cross bar under the power supply, it’s not removable and makes putting the motherboard into the case a little hairy and the third is the bracket that holds the power supply, it comes out to far and part of the grill for the power supplies intake fan (on the bottom of the power supply) sits on it. I can’t say it effects the fans function or not, but I’d feel better, if it has shaped like a half moon and avoided contact with the grill.
Here you have the fully populated case, but there are still some features to point out!! The first is the metal lever on the hard drive tray, flip it to the left and the tray slides out so you can mount a fan in the internal bracket as well as your hard drive(s), replace the tray and flip the lever to the right and it’s locked in position.
Second are the two purple/lavender fan brackets, remove the brackets install your fan (they snap in position) and slide it back into position, that’s all there is to it, no screws necessary. I little hint here, if you find that your fans are a little noisy, go to a hardware store and buy some thin rubber washers, put one on each of the little posts inside the bracket and then put back the fan, it’ll be a tight fit. But will it make a difference??? You’ll be able to hear the difference!!!
Finally we have come to the last feature and in my book the most important, the new Antec 352 watt power supply. Not only does it have an intake fan that sits above your CPU helping to exhaust the hot air thought the power supply and out the back, but it’s one of the steadiest at holding its line voltage while with Smart Power is a quiet performer.
Very early on, I mentioned the reported problem with Epox DDR motherboards dragging down the 12 volt and especially the 5 volt lines, but not with this power supply, 12v = 12.48 and 5v = 5.08 and that’s after running this system for the past month at a VCore voltage of 1.85.
I highly recommend the Antec 352 watt power supply, you may not need a new case, but if your system, like mine was dragging down your power supply, then this baby will solve your problems at a very reasonable price and can be purchased separately.
Conclusion
What’s more to add?? I’ve already covered what I didn’t like as we came upon the very few things that I’d like to see changed. All in all, the Antec SX-635 is one of the most impressive cases I’ve ever owned.
How much do I like it?? I also have the SX-840, two of my son’s have purchased the SX-635 and my son-in-law purchased an SX-830 that’s how impressed we are with the Antec SX series of steel cases!!!
At this time I’d like to thank Dave Stedman of www.kdcomputers.com for making this study possible. As KD Computers is a full service store as well as an online dealer just about everything I have in this system is available from them.
