Antec Mini Skeleton-90 ITX Case Review

Antec have provided the Mini Skeleton-90 ITX case for review. How will this open air performance cooling enclosure perform?

Product on Review: Antec Mini Skeleton-90 ITX case
Manufacturer: Antec
MSRP: £69.98

Antec are back again with their Mini Skeleton-90 ITX case. A fairly compact and fully open performance enclosure for ITX users looking to cool their hardware while turning heads.

As i mentioned in my previous review they are very well known in the silent enclosure business but have primarily concentrated on standard ATX specifications. These range from the small Micro ATX form factors all the way up to the Full ATX standard.

First things first though… here’s a little about the company.

Antec, Inc. is the global leader in high-performance computer components and accessories for the gaming, PC upgrade and Do-It-Yourself markets. Founded in 1986, Antec is recognized as a pioneer in the industry and has maintained its position as a worldwide market leader and international provider of quiet, efficient and innovative products. Antec has also achieved great success in the distribution channel, meeting the demands of quality-conscious system builders, VARs and integrators.

Antec’s offering of enclosures includes a wide range of cases, such as its advanced Performance One Series, economical New Solution Series and VERIS family of media components designed for the home theater PC market. Antec’s products also include front line power supplies, such as its premium Signature Series, powerful TruePower Quattro Series and EarthWatts, one of the most environmentally friendly power supplies available. PC gamers are an increasingly significant consumer of performance components, and many Antec products are designed for the gaming demographic, like the premier gamer enclosure: the Nine Hundred. Antec also offers a line of computer accessories comprising many original products, including its patented LED fans and notebook cooling solutions.

Antec is headquartered in Fremont, California, with additional offices in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, as well as in the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, China and Taiwan. The company’s products are sold in more than 40 countries throughout the world. Please visit www.antec.com for more information.

Specification

Certification:

– ROHS compliant
– Antec Quality 3 Year Warranty

Features:

– Open-air design for extraordinary airflow and exclusive style
– Removable component tray design for quick, convenient access
– 90-watt adapter plus PCB for stable and reliable power
– 1 x 5.25″ drive bay
– 2 x 2.5″ internal hard disk drive bay
– 2 x hard disk drive mount
– 1 top 150mm TriCool™ blue LED fan
– 1 rear 70mm fan
– Front ports: 2 x USB 2.0 and Audio (AC’97 and HDA compatible) In and Out
– 0.8mm cold rolled steel with reinforced plastic frame for chassis durability
– 1 half-height expansion slot

Case Dimensions:

– 190mm (H) x 210mm (W) x 230mm (D)
– 7.5″ (H) x 8.3″ (W) x 9.1″ (D)

Exterior

The Mini Skeleton-90 came very well packaged. The box itself was a typically ‘Antec’ design in their standard black and yellow livery. The front, back and top shows images of the case at various angles while the side includes a little basic specification data on the case.

The standard Antec colours.

As with the previous ISK 300 case review we find the documentation upon opening the box. This comprises an instruction sheet in a selection of languages, a wiring schematic and also a copy of the Antec Quality 3 Year Warranty certificate.

Box opens to reveal paperwork.

In similar fasion the foam packaging that protects the case itself also holds an extra box containing additional items.

Accessories box.

These include a variety of cabling, the 90w power pack needed for the onboard PSU, cable and zip ties, a selection of screws, two 2.5” HDD mounting plates and a pci expansion bracket too.

Cables, PSU and othe extras.

Unlike the ISK 300-65 the case itself is a tangle of hex mesh, arches and that imposing 150mm Tri-cool fan. It’s an incredibly industrial look that definitely carries a certain ‘wow’ factor!

The Mini Skeleton-90.

Up front you get a fairly standard layout comprising power and reset buttons, audio connections and dual USB sockets. Below that plate resides a full sized 5.25” optical bay and dual 2.5” hdd slots.

The front panel and optical/HDD bays.

Exterior continued

Around the side we can see the bold design of the arches plus the removable ‘hex’ side plates. These can be fully removed if wanted/needed but are also able to accept the 2.5” HDD mounting plates if the user wishes to place the drives on the side of the case.

The left side.

The right side.

Up top we see the Mini Skeleton-90’s core design idea – the 150mm tri-cool fan should evenly distribute air over an entire 170mm x 170mm ITX motherboard.

The 150mm tri-cool fan.

The fan is a three speed led unit with control switches nearby to allow the three fan speeds to be selected (black switch) and also the LED’s to be turned off (white switch).

With speed and light control.

The rear of the case is rather unsurprisingly unique. There is no backplate since there’s no case back to support it and the only other notable features are the power socket and a rear case fan.

The case rear.

The fan in question is a 70mm unit which could aid in the cooling of the PSU’s PCB and any components installed in the lower bay.

70mm rear fan.

There is also a supplied low-profile PCI bracket that can be added if the user installs an expansion card.

Low-profile PCI bracket.

Interior

Due to the openness of the Mini Skeleton-90 this section is a little shorter than normal!

The Mini Skeleton-90’s motherboard and optical/hdd bay frame slides out of the archway frame for improved installation ease. It is held in place by a single thumb screw.

Slide out tray for easy motherboard installation.

The underside of the motherboard tray houses the 90w PSU PCB and all the associated wiring.

Wiring to die for!

The removable side panels can further improve access and help to cover any unsightly wiring should you need it.

Side panel removal is a breeze.

Installation

Despite being an ITX build certain aspects of the design limited my ability to quickly install components.

The most notable was the proximity of the huge 150mm tri-cool fan to the motherboard. Indeed, the Akasa heatsink (standard Intel size) would not fit as a result so i removed the fan from the heatsink and relied on the tri-cool to cool the bare sink.

The CPU cooler would not fit with the fan in place.

You could fit a low profile heatsink (45nm wolfdale CPU style) if needed but i liked the idea of a larger unit.

Again i found that the 4-pin atx 12v connector could have done with being a touch longer too as i had to stretch it over the motherboard to get it to the socket – see image above! The same can also be said about the front panel connectors which were all quite a tight fit.

Once the board was in and connected the tray was slid carefully back in place. Be particularly careful not to snag or badly bend any of the cabling as it has a tendency to do this.

I tried both mount versions for the HDD’s deciding in the end on the external mount. This was quite straight forward and the drive is quite secure in this position.

HDD mounted on the side panel.

Unfortunately i did not have a spare 5.25” drive available to install into the Mini Skeleton-90’s lower bay but i’m sure you’d have no issues. As long as you are careful and methodical while cabling i would say that you should find it acceptable (if a little fiddly at times) to install into.

All that said, the Mini Skeleton 90’s aim is not one of ease of install – it’s all to do with the crazy looks combined with the thermal performance of the enclosure.

Build complete and powered up.

Testing

CPU: e2160 @ 1.8ghz
Mobo: Zotac 9300 WiFi ITX
GPU: ION @ 450mhz/1200mhz
RAM: 2gb Geil ULL PC6400 DDR2
HDD: 80gb WD 5400rpm laptop HDD
Optical drive: NEC slimline laptop DVDRW
CPU cooler: Akasa AK-956SF heatsink

I used OCCT to monitor temperatures and generate full load stress during testing.

Low fan speed results @ stock.

Medium fan speed results @ stock.

High fan speed results @ stock.

At stock speed the Antec returned good results across the board especially when it came to the ION GPU. The fan was silent at the low setting with medium being only slightly more intrusive. Only high fan speeds were edging beyond acceptable levels.

It’s CPU temps were higher than those recorded with the ISK 300-65 but i think that comes from a combination of the exhaust fan in the ISK being right next to the CPU cooler and the fact the Akasa cooler actually had its own fan fitted when resident in the ISK. I’m sure the heatsink isn’t designed to run in the way i had it installed but the fact it coped in silence was very impressive.

I also tried to run overclocked settings with the CPU @ 3ghz and GPU @ 580mhz/1400mhz. Unlike the ISK’s 65w PSU that failed under full load conditions with these clocks the Mini Skeleton-90’s 90w PSU coped admirably with no restarts, instability or other issues.

Low fan speed results @ OC’d speeds.

Medium fan speed results @ OC’d speeds.

High fan speed results @ OC’d speeds.

The temperatures here ultimately mirror (plus a few degrees) the results at stock clocks. It was nice to see that, although warm, the PC would happily run at fully overclocked speeds with the main tri-cool fan running at its lowest ‘silent’ setting!

Conclusion

To conclude i will say that i have been quite impressed with the Mini Skeleton-90… although i’m still unsure what niche it is meant to occupy.

Mini Skeleton-90.

It is somewhat fiddly to build into, has slightly tight cabling and CPU cooler choice is somewhat limited by the proximity of the large tri-cool fan.

However, all that said it cools very well in virtually complete silence (at the lowest fan setting), has a decent power supply that copes with more considerable specs, is solidly constructed, well priced and looks the part too.

Pros

+ Quiet and effective cooling
+ Well constructed
+ Very affordable
+ Head turning looks
+ PSU provides decent levels of power

Cons

– Restrictive to build in
– 4-pin 12v and other leads could be longer
– CPU cooler choice is limited by tri-cool fan