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.
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.
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.
0
LeonardoWake up and smell the glaciersEagle River, AlaskaIcrontian
edited May 2009
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!!
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)
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.
Cliff_Forster
Icrontian
Comments
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.
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.
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.
You've met my nephew?
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.
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.
Seconded - very surprised this wasn't in the review, given the case's nature.
By the way, the temps given, are the per core temps.