Challenging paradigms with the Antec Skeleton chassis

Cliff Forster 13 May, 2009 at 3:03pm ET Article published in Tech

Cooling

The massive 250mm fan hovering above the motherboard puts on an impressive light show: It includes a simple control used to adjust between colors like green, blue, red, and purple. If you have trouble deciding, the case can make the choice for you by rotating them. Next to the fan’s LED control you will find one of Antec’s typical tri-cool controllers for adjusting the fan’s RPMs between three different speeds. The color change switch and the tri-cool switch are conveniently placed, but I wish they were more substantial.

The fan control toggles just aren't that big.

The fan’s low (400RPM, 17dBa, 79CFM) and medium (600RPM, 26dBa, 118CFM) settings are barely audible, while the high speed (800RPM, 32dBa, 158CFM) setting will produce a bit of a whine. Don’t worry, though, as the low and medium settings provided cooling that was more than adequate for most situations, and the high setting isn’t doesn’t seem necessary for anyone but the most stalwart overclockers. Sitting next to this monster fan, you can really feel the air moving off the edges of the motherboard, and it’s definitely effective at all velocities.

Performance

In testing, I found the Skeleton outperforming my more traditional Antec Three Hundred case which uses four fans split evenly between intake and exhaust. The Antec Skeleton performed at least 15% better with the same components.

Idle temperatures

To test the Antec Skeleton’s performance I recorded the temperature of our AMD Phenom II X3 720 BE at idle and 100% load on all fan speeds. Whether under load or at idle, I let the temperature settle for an hour before taking our final readings. At idle, the Skeleton coughed up some impressive figures:

Low: 23°C
Medium: 21°C
High: 20°C

In comparison, running my Antec 300’s fans at medium velocity produces an idle core temperature of 26°C.

Load temperatures

While the Skeleton turns some impressive numbers at idle, they were even more impressive when I tortured our X3 720 chip with an hour of 100% load:

Low: 44°C
Medium: 42°C
High: 37°C

Truly stunning when you stop to consider that my Antec 300 could not yield better than 48°C at maximum RPMs under identical ambient temperature conditions.

Put simply, the superior cooling of the Antec Skeleton allowed me to boost my Prime 95-stable overclock by an additional 150MHz.

Caveats

Some have been alarmed by the inability to install monster heatsinks in the Antec Skeleton, but I believe the performance of this case’s downdraft fan is more than enough to compensate for a smaller HSF.

Some will also be alarmed that the open design will become a playground for dust bunnies on your components. I honestly beg to differ: having an open system makes it that much easier to clean. Two minutes of compressed air every few weeks is all you need, while a standard case might be its own health code violation after going uncleaned for a year.

Doing PC repairs over the years, I have seen some unspeakable messes inside PC cases, presumably because the owner never thought to look inside. The Skeleton eliminates this issue. Dust settles, you see it, you blow it off before it becomes a big deal. From my perspective, this is one of the key benefits of the design.

Final thoughts

Keeping in mind that this is a complete paradigm shift complete with the foibles of a first design, the Antec Skeleton is a fine effort worthy of your consideration. Correcting the minor quibbles I had with the Skeleton would make a perfect case out of one that is already unmatched by and unlike anything else on the market. You can purchase the Antec Skeleton from a variety of resellers.

Pros

Unrivaled air cooling
User-selected fan performance
Simple drive installation
Simple PSU installation
Removable motherboard tray
Sturdy construction
Easy to clean

Cons

Front I/O cabling is too short
HDD bays could be hot-swappable
Fan control toggles could be more prominent
Side-mounted HDD brackets feel insecure

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Comments

13 May 2009 ~ 3:22pm RADA It's a novel idea, and has it's merits, but I still find it unpractical in a "normal" home environment.

1. Kids - Little fingers can get into places they shouldn't be in.

2. Pets - Kittie likes a nice warm area to lay on..

3. Dust, Dirt, Pet Fur, Hair all love to collect on energized electrical equipment. Better stock up on canned air, or get yourself a small air compressor, cause cleaning this rig will be a weekly occurance.
13 May 2009 ~ 3:26pm Thrax That's assuming you have kids or pets...
13 May 2009 ~ 3:39pm BuddyJ We've got pets and I still roll with the door off on my case. I still like a vertical motherboard for daily use. The smaller footprint it affords gives me back valuable desk space. I've got my personal tower and the NZXT Panzerbox side-by-side on the desk right now.
13 May 2009 ~ 3:47pm Cliff_Forster RADA - Once fully installed, the motherboard is not as easily "accidentally" assessable as one might guess. My five year old has been hands off, and in fact, its been great to see her take an interest in whats going while knowing full well that Daddy says, keep your hand out of there. How many kids know what a processor heatsink does? (my kid) Your mileage may very, but I have zero reservations using the Skeleton around my five year old. If your kid can keep their finger out of a light socket, and resist the temptation to jab themselves in the eye with a fork, they should be able to handle it.

Pets, that's another problem entirely, one that I currently do not have. I could see where cats are possibly a deterrent to having this case. SPCA maybe? :*)

That 250mm fan moves alot of air, its impressive. Point being, after a few weeks of use, I believe the fan effectively agitates the air over the board well enough, that dust really has not built up. I would rate my home as as kinda dusty too. With the fan off, if dust settles and builds up, its easy to remove with a quick blast from a can of air. As I pointed out, I actually think this is a huge benefit. Look at a standard case design, dust is going to get through the intake somehow, even with good filters its not 100% avoidable. So what happens once its in, its trapped, and other than the most extreme enthusiasts, who opens their case often enough to notice the build up? Trust me, I have seen case innards that must be health code violations, that's how gross they were. With the Skeletons open design, dust does not get trapped, its easily inspected, and it actually helps you keep your system cleaner than any ordinary enclosure. I think this is a major pro of the design, and something that has been missed on allot of the reviews I have seen.
13 May 2009 ~ 4:00pm Leonardo

1. Kids - Little fingers can get into places they shouldn't be in.
2. Pets - Kittie likes a nice warm area to lay on..
3. Dust, Dirt, Pet Fur, Hair all love to collect on energized electrical equipment. Better stock up on canned air, or get yourself a small air compressor, cause cleaning this rig will be a weekly occurance

.

My youngest child is 20, the dog is asleep on the floor most of the time, and a computer sucks in dust no matter what anyway. (filters restrict too much airflow for overclocked, multi-gpu setups)

My house is fairly dusty, no matter how much attention we pay to cleaning. I use a compressor for cleaning computers. The Antec Skeleton open frame design would cut down the time for a thorough cleaning session by two-thirds or better.

What I see as disadvantages:

It won't mitigate fan noise like conventional cases. (Sorry, you just can't create a silent computer with highly overclocked CPUs and multiple GPUs all at full load. Yeah, sure, a stock clocked machine at less than full load is a piece of cake to make quiet.)

It requires more surface area. An upright-oriented computer case, even a full tower, has a much smaller footprint.

I'd still love to have one of these skeletons. I love the concept and the visual appeal.
13 May 2009 ~ 4:15pm wax i respect any grown man that proudly displays an action figure in his review.
13 May 2009 ~ 4:18pm primesuspect

Cliff wrote:

If your kid can keep their finger out of a light socket, and resist the temptation to jab themselves in the eye with a fork, they should be able to handle it

You've met my nephew?
13 May 2009 ~ 5:05pm Garg I love the case, but something like this would have to wait until I have more time and money to be tweaking extra rigs again. My main rig is just a lot more practical to have as a tower.

I'd like to see a more upright design using the same philosophy, but I'm sure there would be a lot of trade offs.
13 May 2009 ~ 5:05pm mertesn

Buddy J wrote:

We've got pets and I still roll with the door off on my case. I still like a vertical motherboard for daily use. The smaller footprint it affords gives me back valuable desk space. I've got my personal tower and the NZXT Panzerbox side-by-side on the desk right now.

Your pets will stay away. They aren't terribly interested in things like that. I have a couple of overly curious kittens that don't understand such concepts as "stay away from the shiny/moving things". They sit and stare at the ceiling fan and every once in a while try to get to it.

I'd love to get this case though. How is it for moving around? Seems like it could be good for a portable LAN system, though airport security might get a little curious.
13 May 2009 ~ 5:11pm Cliff_Forster Its actually a bit heavier than it looks, but the frame is sturdy, and load bearing, so picking it up from the top and moving it around is no problem. There is a mini skeleton for a micro ATX set up, probably more ideal as a lan party machine.
13 May 2009 ~ 6:06pm Winfrey What was the ambient temperature when you took your readings?
13 May 2009 ~ 6:48pm Gate28 I'd like to see a pic if the chassis with a rig already in it.
13 May 2009 ~ 11:29pm NiGHTS

FreeC8675 wrote:

What was the ambient temperature when you took your readings?

Seconded - very surprised this wasn't in the review, given the case's nature.
14 May 2009 ~ 1:08am Cliff_Forster House ambient temp was aprox 73 F

By the way, the temps given, are the per core temps.
14 May 2009 ~ 9:08am cambrose I am in love with this case. Temps look amazing too.
14 May 2009 ~ 5:16pm Insight-Driver I hefted one at a Fry's store and got to see it close up. I don't have horizontal space for such a big footprint. I think a case like this would be a great conversational piece, set up in a public room in a home.
23 May 2009 ~ 3:42pm TechPoint Systems I am in the process of converting my existing tower to a skeleton. I will report back any issues I encounter. The 1st being that my PSU cables are too short! Off to the store to get a new one!!
5 Sep 2009 ~ 12:34am Holyneo Will a Thermaltake duo orb cpu cooler fit?
21 Oct 2009 ~ 3:51pm James Pederson I highly suggest you not worry about how big of a cooler you can get for it. A simple cooler master CPU fan for $14 down the street will fit, and with the amount of airflow, you really don't need to worry, trust me. I've seen the temps on this first hand (at 70F ambient, my quad-core 3.2GHz idled at 11C and 28C after 30 minutes at full load with above-mentioned $14 CPU HSF), and it beats out both of my cooler master cases (including a 690 with 9 120mm fans)
21 Oct 2009 ~ 4:19pm Thrax Idling at 11C in a 21C room? Sell me your case and heatsink; they break the laws of physics.
8 Mar 2012 ~ 4:24am M.D.T. First saw this at Fry"s, had to have it. I selected the mini skelton with a zotac MB. It"s been operating flawlessly now for 2yrs as my only HTPC in the living room conected to a 55" flat pannel. With a blu ray drive of course.