Antec Overture

mrzed · Post by **mrzed** » Sun Sep 07, 2003 1:35 pm

Linked on the SPCR main site now. http://www.antec-inc.com/pro_details_en ... odID=15728

Looks very nice. Not as small as most home theatre PC types seem to go for, but could be a nice basis for a quiet home entertainment centre.

rtype · Post by **rtype** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 12:58 pm

If necessary, what do you guys think about adding fans to this? I'm a little bother that there is a 92mm outgoing fan but no incoming fan -- the best for quietness would be to equalize the pressure, right? I'm wondering if it'd be possible to mount 80mms (1 in each side) and then run them a little slower for intake?

josephclemente · Post by **josephclemente** » Sun Sep 14, 2003 1:51 pm

This case looks SWEET!! The dimensions are perfect for HTPC (17" wide) so I'm looking forward to seeing this case...

rtype · Post by **rtype** » Sun Sep 14, 2003 2:13 pm

Antec is now saying "late September" implying a short delay. Grr. Anyone know who is going to be carrying these early? I really want to get my HTPC built by the end of the month.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Mon Sep 15, 2003 3:42 am

rtype wrote:Antec is now saying "late September" implying a short delay. Grr. Anyone know who is going to be carrying these early? I really want to get my HTPC built by the end of the month.

In my experience, when Antec comes out with a new product it's usually available on their site a day or two before everyone else gets it, but you pay full retail price for that convenience.

AntecRep · Post by **AntecRep** » Tue Sep 16, 2003 9:29 am

The late September change was to denote wide availability (ie not just on our site).

AntecRep

Post by **MikeC** » Tue Sep 16, 2003 10:09 am

One thing that's difficult to figure out is where that 380W ATX PSU goes? The drawings from the product page don't show the PSU location. I know a sample is supposed to come to SPCR but maybe Mr. AntecRep could enlighten?

lucienrau · Post by **lucienrau** » Tue Sep 16, 2003 11:21 am

I found that very curious as well, especially since the picture of the back of the case is broken on the Antec site.

AntecRep · Post by **AntecRep** » Tue Sep 16, 2003 11:32 am

They're in our warehouse and being turned around to be shipped out.

From the info I have they'll be hard to find (ie we're on backorder) until mid October.

As far as the PSU goes, it's under external 3.5" drives. If you look at the inside picture on the right you see the 3.5" drive bays ontop, under there is where the PSU hangs out.

AntecRep
edit: spelling

soundOFsilence · Post by **soundOFsilence** » Tue Sep 16, 2003 1:03 pm

I would be more concerned with the location of the CPU. It seems to be far from the only case fan and any source of fresh air and right next to the hard drives. Barbecue anyone?

mrzed · Post by **mrzed** » Tue Sep 16, 2003 2:33 pm

rtype wrote:If necessary, what do you guys think about adding fans to this? I'm a little bother that there is a 92mm outgoing fan but no incoming fan -- the best for quietness would be to equalize the pressure, right? I'm wondering if it'd be possible to mount 80mms (1 in each side) and then run them a little slower for intake?

In my experience, a single 92mm exhaust is actually perfect for low to mid power systems. Equalizing the pressure should have no impact on quietness, it will help ensure total airflow through the case is near the rated fan CFM though. Lots of folks around here (including myself) run with exhaust only. Fewer fans is always quieter, and as long as there is adequate passive ventilation (holes) at the front, there should be plenty of airflow.

Fabool · Post by **Fabool** » Thu Sep 18, 2003 9:18 pm

Anyone know how much space there is between the case and the expansion cards?
Could you fit, say a 9800pro AIW card with a Zalman ZM80C-HP in there?

AntecRep · Post by **AntecRep** » Fri Sep 19, 2003 10:05 am

Newegg lists it now (in stock even)

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.a ... n=Overture

AntecRep

josephclemente · Post by **josephclemente** » Fri Sep 19, 2003 3:51 pm

Thanks for the notice! I have just ordered.

josephclemente · Post by **josephclemente** » Tue Sep 23, 2003 8:46 pm

I just got my Antec Overture from NewEgg!

The piano black finish is beautiful, and even the black parts of the front plastic bezel have this same glossy finish - a definite plus. It'll look good on my stereo furniture.

soundOFsilence · Post by **soundOFsilence** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 3:03 pm

josephclemente wrote:I just got my Antec Overture from NewEgg!

So can you give us a quick review when you have some time? Is the front bezel aluminum looking or plasticy? Have you equipped it up? How well does the fan cool the innards?

And the question on everyone's mind, how quiet is it?

josephclemente · Post by **josephclemente** » Thu Sep 25, 2003 5:54 pm

I've got all my gear in. So far I consider the system to be LOUD and definitely needs tweaking. It may not be the case - I am using the stock Intel cooler on my P4 1.8 - I'm installing Windows XP right now. I'll try unplugging the CPU fan briefly next time I boot up to see what I have to work with.

The silver plastic part looks nice - I don't think it looks cheap at all. However, above and below this silver bezel is a grille, which is also silver so it stands out. This grille doesn't look too good, it really should be black. I'll probably vinyl dye that part if the bezel is easy to remove.

To my dismay, the PSU is pointed so it pulls air into the case! This makes cooling a challenge when you are starting with hot PSU air. I have a feeling I'll be opening the PSU and turning the fan around soon.

Also, the long 19.25" depth of the case means it won't fit everyone's audio furniture...

dago · Post by **dago** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 1:13 am

Availability in Europe (already listed as 'in waiting') ?

(antecrep ... any hint ?)

AntecRep · Post by **AntecRep** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 8:41 am

http://www.antec-inc.com/pro_details_en ... odID=08728

Overture will begin shipping after October 12, 2003.

That'd be for Europe.

AntecRep

josephclemente · Post by **josephclemente** » Mon Oct 06, 2003 7:36 pm

One thing I must note about the Overture... I had some strange problems on power up and random reboots. I was thinking my hardware was faulty and had the case set aside for troubleshooting. I tried a different PSU and had the same problems.

Turns out the Overture's reset button was installed in the bezel incorrectly! The back of the button where the wires are soldered was making contact with the case. I removed the bezel, removed the button and inserted it back (turned 90 degrees so it won't touch the case metal). Now my system works perfectly. I hope I'm the only one with the case shipping this way - it was a real headache and I've never had a technical problem caused by a case before.

I am still using my alternate PSU in this case. I didn't like the way the proprietary PSU included had power wires facing so they are located right in the center of the case. It was a real mess and I just couldn't get the wiring cleaned up. With a standard ATX PSU, my cables now come from the side of the case and is much neater. I had to use a nibbler on a small internal part for the wires to come through, but it was worth it. I flipped the fan so it exhausts air out of the case.

Now that everything is settled and running smooth I'm happy. I'm not using it as my HTPC case. I have an older black ANTEC desktop ATX case which is MUCH quieter with the exact same hardware. The hard drive especially is much quieter in the older case. Still, the Overture will be a great replacement case for the guest room, where I had an obtrusive tower before.

silvervarg · Post by **silvervarg** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 4:10 pm

Finally this chassi made its way to Sweden, and I got one as soon as possible.
It is extremely well build, and exceptional finnish. So far the best looking chassi I have seen.

The first worry I had was that I might not be able to fit a tall CPU cooler in this chassi, and I wanted to fit in the Aero Cool DP-102 heatpipe cooler.
From the answers I was able to get it might fit, so I decided to give it a try.

When I got the chassi I measured the internal height to 123mm from mounting holes for motherboard to point in chassi over the CPU.
According to my measurements I will need:
Motherboard studs: 7.8mm
Motherboard+sockel: 6.3mm
CPU (AMD Barton): ~2.3mm
DP-102 heatsink: 99.6mm
This should give me a total of 116.0mm, a 7mm margin.
After mounting and measuring again the resulting margin is ~9mm.
The 2mm difference might be measuring slightly off or because of how tight things are pressed together.
I will post more info about this chassi later.

silvervarg · Post by **silvervarg** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 7:41 am

My computer is up and running in this chassi, without much of a problem, but there was some minor details that can cause a bit of a problem.
1. The removable cage for harddiscs (3 of them) with rubber mounts is nice, but the placement of this cage is not optimal.
1.1 First of all it is mounted near the exhaust, this is both good and bad. The good side is that the drives will get some airflow over them. The bad side is that the air will be the rather warm exhaust air.
1.2 The seconds problem with the placement is that it is located next to the CPU. The space from the motherboard to the drive cage is about 0.5mm.
So with quite a few motherboards you might not be able to place a Zalman 7000A cooler and mount the drive cage.
1.3 With drives in this cage and the motherboard with a large cooler on and at least one optical drive mounted in the 5.25" bays it is impossible to put the cage back in. The only reasonable thing to do is to remove the 5.25" cage to be able to mount the harddisc cage.

2. The external 3.5" positions looks like you could mount extra harddiscs. First of all you can only attach them properly on one side. Secondly it turned out that I could not mount my drive in any of these places. One one side the flat cable connector interfeared with one of the mounting screws. Mounting in the other bay the harddrive could be mounted, but if stock mounting screws are used you could not insert the power cable in the harddrive. These positions are defenatly not ment for harddrives, they are ment for mounting floppy, 3.5" fancontrollers, memory card readers etc.

3. The PSU is a standard PSU, but placed in an odd spot, and that is kind of innovative. This makes it possible to make the chassi smaller, and that is very nice. The drawbacks are:
3.1 The hot air from the PSU is exhasusted in the chassi. This can be fixed by reversing the fan direction of the PSU fan, at the cost of skipping your PSU warranty. Also this is the main path air enters the chassi, so you need to take other measures to get enough air into the chassi.
3.2 The power cables have to take a longer route to reach the motherboard than it would have if the PSU was mounted in the traditional place. With my motherboard Abit NF7-M the cables just barely reached to the motherboard and the 4-pin (12V) connector. To make them reach I had to route the cables in front of the PSU fan and over the NB.

Despite these problems I am very satisfied with this chassi. It is small and looks great and has lots of good and even unique solutions.

silvervarg · Post by **silvervarg** » Fri Jan 02, 2004 3:20 pm

Yikes, my 3:d post in a row in this thread. I promise I won't continue in this manner alone.
Here is a page with my photos about this case and some of the minor problems I found.
Each line of text on the page can be clicked on to get a huge image so you can see all the details. Broadband or lots of patience is called for...

al bundy · Post by **al bundy** » Fri Jan 02, 2004 11:49 pm

Those posts and pictures are very helpful, thanks!

slow_poke · Post by **slow_poke** » Sun Jan 04, 2004 5:15 am

Thankyou very much silvervarg for the information and the pictures! I was wondering if an aerocool deep impact 101 would fit in the overture but now i know the 102 fits, sweet.

canthearyou · Post by **canthearyou** » Sat Jan 17, 2004 9:19 am

The GamePC review states that the Overture fans run at slow speed. Is that true?

canthearyou · Post by **canthearyou** » Sat Jan 24, 2004 11:39 am

I think they were talking about the TruePower's temperature controlled fan. The Overture PSU takes fresh air in from a special vent and dumps the exhaust into the case, which suggests they were more concerned about the PSU overheating that the components. The place where the PSU exhausts is very close to a baffle extending to the back of the case. I wonder if you could completely isolate the air for the PSU drawing fresh air from the port, exhausting into a channell formed by the baffle and out a custom port in the back or top?

silvervarg · Post by **silvervarg** » Mon Jun 07, 2004 11:37 pm

Legit reviews did this review of the overture
They did not go that deep with tests, but they have lots of good pictures in the review.