I have received several questions in terms of warming problems of Overture. I decided to see are the rumours true with the platform seen below:
- Abit NF7-S rev 2.0
- AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Barton Boxed Cooler
- Club3D 9600XT 128mt
- 2x 256 mt Geil Platinium Ultra
- LG 48x CD-RW
- Samsung 80GB
There were no problems with attaching the hard drive to the rack. The installation requires special screws because of the rubberplugs mentioned earlier. The hard drive is attached normally with two screws each side. I expected the plugs to help, and so they did. The resonation disappears entirely and the reading sounds change a bit. A positive solution!
The CD is attached with three screws both sides. The rack slides in nicely and nothing special here. Don't let my ugly CD disturb you.
Next it was time to assemble the motherboard. I can say right away, that this case isn't for testers and frequently upgraders. The motherboard can be attached, but no extra room is left. I haven't attached the IDE cabels in the picture. I recommend using round cables because otherwise the airflow isn't able to get through the cable mess. Extra cables from the PSU can be hided in the empty 5.25"-driver bay, if you own two drivers you will have to live with a quite of a mess. The rumours have said that assembling is nearly impossible, but I cannot agree with this.
The lack of space appears badly beside the cooler and driver rack. As I assembled my platform, the cooler was attached already. I guess this is the only way to do it because as you can see from the picture, there isn't any space between the cooler & rack. Unfortunately I don't own any other coolers, so I'm not sure can you attach a massive Zalman and so on here. I give a warning word at this point, Overture might not be compatible with every motherboard-cooler combinations.
Overheating is a natural problem when talking about horizontal cases. I would wished that Antec would have found a solution. You'll have to remember that my boxed-cooler isn't one of the most efficient. My cases CPU temperature has normally been about 50 degrees without overclocking. With Overture the idle temperature rised about five degrees to 55 degrees. After burning the temperature was already 60 degrees. I measured the temperatures with MBM5. The case was 35-40 degrees. So I will give a warning to overclockers. Overture might not be your choice, but for normal use this isn't a problem. You'll have to remember that Overture is mainly designed for media/work use were overclocking and newest hardware aren't needed. The heat rumours weren't thus irrelevant...
Accessories
There aren't lots of accessories included. Just the basics like the user's manual, screws and power cable. An excellent bonus is the black Antec handkerchief. This is just perfect for my clean-up-freak mother ;) You can shine the surface with this and dust won't ruin your nice case. The user's manual is in six languages, nothing special here.
Conclusion
The Overture is externally excellent if you don't mind it being horizontal. I'm sure many like it, and many think this is a stupid "back to the past"-case. It is possible to use Overture as a normal case, nothing stops you assembling your main PC inside. I guess Antec has also planned this to be a "living room" case. It is quite easily hided, and looks good even in a active place. Many might find Overture as a nice multimedia case for watching movies and listening to music. The case is quite many-sided in the end even though it has its figure limits.
Antec has again designed the case to be silent. The walls are stiff and thick. They avoid noise getting out quite well. The small details such as the rubber plugs in the HDD rack are positive as well. I give major thanks for the stylish and elegant appearance. I bet modders will find this as a interesting case. A window on the ceiling would be cool. The PSU is first-rate Truepower 380W and has enough power for sure! It is quite quiet also.
Some negative sides were found as well. I think the PSU placing and solutions are quite odd. I'm sure that they work good, but it still don't get it. There is only one place for a fan, maybe in "living room" use not more is needed. The horizontal figure may be considered as a negative thing, but every consumer knows what they are buying. So if you can't place this different case, don't buy it:) Also the warming problems I mentioined above are serious for some consumers.
The case is conflicting. I personally like it, and I have a place for it waiting. I still think that these horizontal cases won't break through generally again. They will find some fans, but I estimate that SFF-platforms will be the word in the future. The case has a rather high price, 130€ in Finland but you must remember that the first-rate PSU costs almost a 100€ itself. If you need and want an elegant horizontal case this is your choice!
Good
- Elegant
- Stiff and thick walls (quiet)
- Power Supply
- Different
- Antec handkerchief ;)
Bad
- The PSU placing
- Different
- Heat
Antec Overture
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