I've made a few upgrades to my system while I wait to jump onto Skylake during Christmas. I managed to get a good deal on the Anidees AI6BS ($70) and the EVGA SuperNOVA 650 GS ($85).
Overall, I'm very satisfied with my purchases. My mini-review of the Anidees AI6BS
AMD Phenom 9550 2.2 Ghz (K10Stat undervolting: 2.2 Ghz @ 1.0750V, 1.1 Ghz @ 0.8375V)Pros
- Simple yet slick design with aluminium panels
- Incredible build quality with strong steel and plastic
- Quiet bundled 1x 120 and 1x 140mm fans
- Smart top exhaust design that allows airflow without letting too much noise leak out
- External 3 1/2 drive bays for your fan controllers and card readers
- Two internal fan hubs
- 6 (4x 2.0 and 1x 3.0) USB ports on top panels
Cons
- Cable clearance behind the motherboard tray should have been greater. A single 24 pin motherboard cable will bow the side panel
- Rear 120mm fan instead of 140mm
- HDD rubber grommets should have been thicker and softer to dampen vibration noise
- Fan filters are not easy to remove: for the front, the front panel must be removed and, for the bottom, the case must be flipped and the case feet removed.
Summary
This case has incredible build quality with heavy, strong and non-flexing metal. The plastic parts are also very strong with little to no flexing. If you remember the sturdy beige computer cases of old, this case is pretty much built like that. The weakest part is unfortunately the front door that has plastic hinges. Top and front panels are lined with brushed aluminium. It's a sleek and simple case design. The fans are very quiet and there are 2x 5V fan adapters included - the fan hubs make it easy to add more fans although no fan speed control here. I wanted a silent computer case and this fit the build. The dampening capabilities (noise dampening material and thick steel) do an excellent job keeping the noise down. The HDD tray are metal and strong and two of the HDD cages are removable. The HDD rubber grommets should have been thicker and softer like those seen in the Antec P100. The major downsides are the small cable clearance behind the motherboard tray and the difficult to remove fan filters (front and bottom). Air-flow performance is top notch. The top exhaust is smartly design with small slits for airflow without having to make it entirely open like in the Antec P100 or Fractal Design Define R4/R5. Overall, an excellent case with above-average build quality and silent capabilities. If you're looking for an alternative to the Antec P100, Be Quiet! Silent Base 800 and Fractal Design Define R4/R5, I would highly recommend considering the Anidees AI6BS.
Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H (rev 1.1)
Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X4096-6400C5 PC2-6400 2x2GB
Crucial DDR2 667MHz PC2-5300 CL5 2x2GB
Crucial M500 240GB SSD
Western Digital Green 3TB
Western Digital SE16 640GB WD6400AAKS
Noctua NH-U12P with Noctua NF-P12 @ 500 RPM with SpeedFan
Anidees AI6BS with stock fans + Noctua NF-P12 @ 600 RPM with SpeedFan
LG GH22NS30 DVD Writer
EVGA SuperNOVA 650 GS PSU 220-GS-0650-V1 PSU
XFX Radeon 5770 with Arctic Cooling Accelero L2 Pro @ 800RPM idle and @ 1300 RPM load (fan profile configured with MSI AfterBurner 3)
AMD Catalyst 15.7
Windows 8.1 Pro (x64)