Page 1: Intro, Box, Extra Parts, Skeleton
Intro
While there are many cases that may claim to be unique, nothing on the market is quite like the Antec Skeleton. Many people have looked at a normal enclosure and said to themselves that there is just too much protection for that little computer inside. If you fit that mold, this case is for you. While other enclosures might have windows to show off components, the Skeleton goes a bit further and leaves the entire thing out in the open. It is known as the Open-Air design and is more of a rack than a case.
Box
No review at ASE Labs is completed without showing the retail box and this is what would be seen at a retail store. It is black with yellow accents. It is smaller than traditional case boxes since the design is like a square.
Inside the box is enough padding to protect the box in transit. Antec usually does a good job of making sure their cases arrive at a destination in one piece.
Extra Parts
A hard drive fan, wire ties for cable management, a load of screws, and some hard drive hangers (yes, you read correctly) all take stage with this case. Strangely missing is a manual. All that was in the box was a single sheet of paper saying how to get the manual. The case is unique enough that the single sheet should have had quick start instructions. Thankfully, this review will contain that.
Skeleton
Normally, case reviews at ASE Labs focus on the exterior and then the interior of the case. The Skeleton is a bit different. It is so open that the entire case is the exterior and the interior at the same time. It is for this reason that there is no separate section for each.
While this might look like some strange remote control type of helicopter, it is actually the Skeleton in its full glory. Skeleton is a metallic gray case with black interior components. The major eye catching part of the case (other than the case as a whole) is the huge 250mm fan on the top. If you thought the »Nine Hundred has a big fan, it was nothing compared to this. The fan also has some extra light modes for nice effects when the system is on.
The front also contains the power and reset buttons as well as the various ports for USB, Firewire, audio, and eSATA. The led theme of this case is blue, but not the ultra bright type that burns eyes out. The bottom front contains the racks for hard drives and optical drives. Technically, the case itself holds two hard drives and two optical drives.
This case isn't screw-less. For the two sets of drives, a special screw will need to be installed for the drive to slide in and lock. This should be considered a slight design flaw as there are better ways to accomplish the same thing without special screws that are easy to lose. The left bag indeed says external drives.
Those hard drive hangers could actually be "installed" on this mesh on each side of the case to give you four extra drives. This is pretty ridiculous. Drives are much more important that any other component in the system since irreplaceable data is on them (though, if you backup, this shouldn't be quite a big issue). Having them hanging on the side of the case to get hit with no protection is not something that we recommend here at ASE. If you do have a need for more than two drives, this case is not for you.
The back of the case contains the removable motherboard tray and on the bottom, the PSU sliding tray. The PSU mounts sideways (in this shot, the power would be coming from the right) and can be mounted upside down if need be due to the exhaust fan on the PSU. That is a worth while feature about the design since many power supplies have fans in different spots (Antec for one). The clear plastic piece is the bracket to hold expansion cards such as a video card.
The opposite side is almost a mirror image. The only difference is the top near the fan contains the two controls. There is a variable speed switch for low, medium, and high speed settings. The second function is a button which controls the color (and can turn the light off) of the fan. The fan has a multiple color mode that looks amazing.
The case can be carried very easily with the handle holds at the top. This is another reason that you wouldn't want drives hanging off the sides of this case. It is just asking for trouble. Walking into a room with this will cause heads to turn.
While there are many cases that may claim to be unique, nothing on the market is quite like the Antec Skeleton. Many people have looked at a normal enclosure and said to themselves that there is just too much protection for that little computer inside. If you fit that mold, this case is for you. While other enclosures might have windows to show off components, the Skeleton goes a bit further and leaves the entire thing out in the open. It is known as the Open-Air design and is more of a rack than a case.
Box
No review at ASE Labs is completed without showing the retail box and this is what would be seen at a retail store. It is black with yellow accents. It is smaller than traditional case boxes since the design is like a square.
Inside the box is enough padding to protect the box in transit. Antec usually does a good job of making sure their cases arrive at a destination in one piece.
Extra Parts
A hard drive fan, wire ties for cable management, a load of screws, and some hard drive hangers (yes, you read correctly) all take stage with this case. Strangely missing is a manual. All that was in the box was a single sheet of paper saying how to get the manual. The case is unique enough that the single sheet should have had quick start instructions. Thankfully, this review will contain that.
Skeleton
Normally, case reviews at ASE Labs focus on the exterior and then the interior of the case. The Skeleton is a bit different. It is so open that the entire case is the exterior and the interior at the same time. It is for this reason that there is no separate section for each.
While this might look like some strange remote control type of helicopter, it is actually the Skeleton in its full glory. Skeleton is a metallic gray case with black interior components. The major eye catching part of the case (other than the case as a whole) is the huge 250mm fan on the top. If you thought the »Nine Hundred has a big fan, it was nothing compared to this. The fan also has some extra light modes for nice effects when the system is on.
The front also contains the power and reset buttons as well as the various ports for USB, Firewire, audio, and eSATA. The led theme of this case is blue, but not the ultra bright type that burns eyes out. The bottom front contains the racks for hard drives and optical drives. Technically, the case itself holds two hard drives and two optical drives.
This case isn't screw-less. For the two sets of drives, a special screw will need to be installed for the drive to slide in and lock. This should be considered a slight design flaw as there are better ways to accomplish the same thing without special screws that are easy to lose. The left bag indeed says external drives.
Those hard drive hangers could actually be "installed" on this mesh on each side of the case to give you four extra drives. This is pretty ridiculous. Drives are much more important that any other component in the system since irreplaceable data is on them (though, if you backup, this shouldn't be quite a big issue). Having them hanging on the side of the case to get hit with no protection is not something that we recommend here at ASE. If you do have a need for more than two drives, this case is not for you.
The back of the case contains the removable motherboard tray and on the bottom, the PSU sliding tray. The PSU mounts sideways (in this shot, the power would be coming from the right) and can be mounted upside down if need be due to the exhaust fan on the PSU. That is a worth while feature about the design since many power supplies have fans in different spots (Antec for one). The clear plastic piece is the bracket to hold expansion cards such as a video card.
The opposite side is almost a mirror image. The only difference is the top near the fan contains the two controls. There is a variable speed switch for low, medium, and high speed settings. The second function is a button which controls the color (and can turn the light off) of the fan. The fan has a multiple color mode that looks amazing.
The case can be carried very easily with the handle holds at the top. This is another reason that you wouldn't want drives hanging off the sides of this case. It is just asking for trouble. Walking into a room with this will cause heads to turn.