Antec New Solution NSK6500 ATX Mid-Tower Case

I'm pleased to finally be an official resident of the United States, but as I tearfully leave my home in Australia behind, it's time to face the problem of a reunion with my beloved computer so far away in my country of birth. My machine is a patchwork of upgrades on a fairly venerable motherboard. Everything was fixed up just how I wanted it, so despite dire predictions of outlandish shipping costs I began to look into a courier. Unfortunately the harbingers of doom proved correct when DHL made a tentative quote of between $450 and $500AUD to ship from Perth, Western Australia to Las Vegas, Nevada.

Faced with this terrible revelation, around this time I struck upon the cash-saving idea of having a friend pull the insides out of my beloved machine, pack them carefully and send them over through the mail. Large amounts of dead-weight were jettisoned. After all, who uses a floppy drive anymore? Why did I need a CDRW drive when I had a DVDRW as well? Tower and power supply - there's 2/3 of the total weight right there. Soon enough the vital parts of my computer were jetting across the globe at a mere fraction of what I had expected to pay.

Of course, now it was time to look for a new body with which to house my precious bits and pieces. I have long believed that a good quality tower can be the bedrock of a good computer, so I looked for a name I knew I could trust - Antec. Having run an Antec SmartBlue PSU since 2004 and with nothing but raves about the experience, when I saw the Antec New Solution NSK6500 ATX Midi-Tower Case for a very reasonable price, I acted quickly.


The Case

The Antec NSK6500's feature that first struck me was the pleasantly understated design. I have never been a fan of a computer case that looks like it was designed by the same people who thought up early boom-box models, or hideous monstrosities that resemble rectangular, bio-mechanical insectoid monsters perched on the desk and ready to go for the throat. The sleek black and silver colour scheme of the 6500 is muted and utilitarian, yet stylish and attractive.

When I had the thing unpacked I noticed the unit weighed significantly more than my last case, but this is due in part to its sturdy construction from quality material, so I felt the weight was a fair trade-off for durability.

Removing the side of the case for motherboard installation was mostly trouble-free, although the one major complaint I have is the flimsy, cheap feel of the included thumbscrews. I found it difficult to get either of them to "grab" the thread when screwing back into place and the lower one never really tightened to my complete satisfaction. Fortunately, the NSK6500 comes complete with self-locking clips to secure the panel without any real need for screws. These took me a few attempts to get the hang of, but I was soon removing and replacing the panel in seconds thanks to this useful feature.

The case comes standard with a large rear-mounted Antec Tricool case fan - quiet as a mouse and with the choice of three speed settings adjustable via a small controller that's attached. When you run four hard drives heat can become an issue, so cooling is important and this fan doesn't let me down. There's also convenient mounts provided for an additional two case fans in front of the hard drive bays - this time of the smaller 92mm sort. The whole case feels designed with temperature regulation in mind and I was especially impressed with the excellently roomy area around the drives allowing for maximum air circulation in this thermal trouble-spot.


Hard Drives and Optical Drives

The NSK6500 comes with three optical drive bays for CD/DVD drives, a floppy drive bay and five mounted HDD trays. Before getting into the more intricate work I installed my DVDRW and four hard disk drives. The hard drives were about the most simple install I have ever encountered in computer construction - I had all four of them in place in less than five minutes. The HDD trays featured in the NSK slip neatly in and out of their mounting and feature four silicon widgets - like large, fat washers - through which the screws are threaded to attach the drive to the caddy. This has the effect of allowing for some cushioning and airflow for the units and also does away with the need to physically screw disk drives to the chassis itself.

Optical drive installation fared less well. Things become a little cramped in the uppermost bays and my Pioneer DVDRW just refused to angle into the slot. In the end I was forced to come in from the front, manually pushing the metal bay-guides (intended to prevent this very action) aside so I could slot the thing home.

Mainboard and Daughter Boards go in

I was pleasantly surprised with how easily my 2002 vintage Abit BD7 motherboard slotted into its new home. Sure, these things are designed to match ATX standards, but you often find interior cabling extremely uncooperative when it comes to reaching all the right places on older boards. The only minor (and totally expected) issue I encountered was the need to replace the rear I/O panel with the one that came with my mainboard.

Once the board was firmly secured, most of my additional cards slotted home nicely, although those of us with large video cards like my Leadtek Winfast Geforce 7800GS might find it a bit of a tight squeeze. I would strongly caution against adding any cabling or attaching power to drives until your video card is safely in place.


Plugging Everything In

When it came to attaching the interior cords things went reasonably smoothly. The conveniently sized (in wattage) 430W power supply had plenty of outputs for my purposes, although it just goes one degree the wrong side of appropriate cord length. While it's good not to have loose, slack cables all over the case, a couple of power destinations required a bit of a stretch and I felt it all fit together more by luck than good design forethought.

What Antec have thought out well is the positioning of the casefront cables leading to the power switch, reset switch and various LEDs. They aren't haphazardly flailing everywhere but follow a precise route down the front of the case, fixed to the bottom corner and emerge right where you need them.

The instruction manual included does an adequate job of assiting the user, though novices might be perturbed by the level of assumed knowledge this guide seems to come with. Despite this, experienced builders such as myself will find this a quick job while newcomers can get through easily with a bit of help from the web and peripheral manuals.


The Bottom Line

Once everything is up and running the Antec NSK6500 is consummate stability and runs cool and virtually silent. At around $100USD this is very affordable balancing of budget and quality, even for casual users. A few minor (and easily overcome) niggles about the length of cabling can't detract from the overall quality of this excellent case which I expect to serve me well for years to come.