Open Letter to Antec’s Scott Richards

Dear Mr. Richards, can I call you Scott?

I’ve got a problem that I need your help with.

I’m a product reviewer that’s had significant experience with computers.

Over the years I’ve personally assembled well over a thousand product models, have repaired thousands more, and have had the fortune to spec. and custom build dozens of "specialty models" — most with an emphasis on Home Theater PCs (going back even before Windows XP Media Center Edition), what we now call "Media Center PCs."

I, personally, have had three Media Center PCs over the years.

The first was an Intel board in an Antec SLK chassis, powered by an Antec 300 True Power. This system was tucked away into a server closet in my home, it wasn’t much to look at, but it was rock solid. Your PSU performed flawlessly, and your case was very friendly to work inside when upgrades were required.

With my next MCPC I decided to "come out of the closet." I decided upon an Antec Minuet, which quickly became the standard MCPC case into which we built well over a hundred similar machines. My needs didn’t work with that case, I’ve got much higher requirements than most of our customers had, so I opted for a large case: the Antec Overture II.

This case suited me well: it was large enough to accommodate a full-sized ATX board, powerful video card, three TV-tuner cards, modem, and a few other niceties. I wasn’t much more difficult to work in than the SLK chassis, and it looked so very nice. Unfortunately, even with cable wrapping and round IDE cables, the temperature inside the case was too hot. I added two 40mm fans to the rear of the case which solved the heat issue, but increased the noise beyond a tolerable level. Even with an inline resistor to "7-volt" these fans, it was still too noisy, but the temperature was back to an acceptable level. Back into the closet it went.

Finally, the PSU in that case died (even though it sat behind a substantial UPS), taking capacitors on the motherboard and video card out with it.

This gave me the opportunity to start from the ground up, to build a new MCPC that could play Blu-Ray movies and output to 1080i (or higher) over HDMI, and do it with half the wattage and virtually no noise.

I found my CPU and Motherboard, a new Dual-hybrid tv-tuner, and finally a case and PSU that would meet my low-energy and low-noise needs, but "fit" all the stuff I needed inside it. I landed on your Antec NSK1380. It’s small enough (and good looking enough) to run outside the closet, has a built-in 120mm exhaust fan, an 80+ power efficient 350watt PSU, and can fit 3 hard drives. Just what I needed.

That’s where my problems began.

First off, the case is very difficult to work in, but I can’t fault you for that, it’s a micro-ATX case, after all. Where you utterly fail is with the cable-lengths coming off the PSU. They are too short to connect to the drives in the bay, even if the bay is "in place" they’re still too short. I had to get two "molex to SATA-power" adaptors to just make the cables long enough. One is only 3-inches long! The others are so short that the "middle" connector is useless, and only the "end" connector long enough to connect. What a shame.

But I made it work and was only going to add a note to my review that anyone buying this case would need to get cable extensions, and I’d recommend they get extenders for the ALL the cables, including the 24-pin and 4-pin motherboard cables, unless they don’t want to "route" them for better airflow — or to keep them from falling into the CPU fan, or resting right against the northbridge heat sink.

Like I was saying, I made it work. It wasn’t pretty, but I made it work. Until it didn’t work.

Long story short: the power cable came loose from the PSU. Typically this is not a problem. I plugged it back in: nothing, no beeps, no boot. The motherboard was blinking "SB-PWR" which points to a power problem. Sure enough, I dangled another PSU out the side of the chassis (and Antec PSU, I might add), plugged it in, and everything fired right up. As soon as I reconnected the chassis’ PSU again, same problem.

After just two days of run time (a little more than 50 hours) the PSU is dead. I’m left with a PSU dangling off to the side of the case in the meantime. Not an acceptable long-term option, I’m sure you’ll agree.

How can you help?

Well, obviously I’m going to need a new PSU, and no, I’m not willing to go through your RMA process or back to the reseller that sold me the case. The reason?

If I warranty return/the case to the reseller it will cost me more in shipping than the original cost of the case. Not an option.

If I RMA the PSU with your Returns Department I’m going to get another one back that has the same cable-length problem. So, I’d like you to round up a brand-new PSU (details below), personally inspect it, and see what I’m talking about regarding the cable lengths. Then I want you to find one that has "acceptable" cable lengths and send it to me, along with a pre-paid mailing label if you’d like this one back.

I’ll hold off publishing my review until I’ve gotten your reply.

PSU details:

Model AR-350 (350W Max., 80 Plus(R), PC-015)

(serial number redacted)

 - Joe Levi, www.JoeLevi.com

   (mailing address redacted)