Antec Skeleton Open Air Case

Final Thoughts

Aside from the complete lack of any helpful instructions supplied by Antec, I found the Skeleton a pleasure to work with. I would, however, like to address the issues at this point. The motherboard tray when it works correctly is smooth as silk, but I did find it to bind occasionally, making sliding the tray out a frustrating task at times. The front I/O panel wiring, in my opinion, is just too short. I prefer a clean looking system as well and Antec thought of keeping everything else clean aside from this. My last complaint is the lack of headroom to allow for some of the more prevalent coolers buyers are using these days.

With my issues addressed I can now move on to what the Skeleton offers the end user. This open air concept is a bit more of a hassle to deal with than a tech station, but a ton more accessible than a standard case; but neither offers the uniqueness of the Skeleton. With my limited time in testing the Skeleton, I did find that while running stock my Northbridge and PWM temps were down three degrees from their average. I can only attribute this to the power of the 250mm Tri-Cool fan running at full power. The noise of the Skeleton at full power is a lot less of the noise I was accustomed to hearing in my 900 from Antec. No real surprise there to me, though; usually with bigger fans comes less noise as they don't cut the air in the same fashion as their smaller brothers.

I've had quite a few cases run across my camera's lens in the past few reviews and most of them fall into the range of just over $100. Most of those are square, black and with a lot of the same old, same old. Antec has taken quite a step in thinking outside the box with the Skeleton and offers all the goodness of a full enclosure, with almost all the benefits of a tech station. While offering all these features to the customer, I have to say the asking price of $149.99 at Newegg is right on the mark given what it has to offer.