Date: January 8th, 2006
Article by: Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor) & Joe Anderson (Hardware Reviewer)
ANTEC
One of our first stops for the day was the Bellagio where we were the guests of Antec to get a look at their new products for the coming year. PSUs and chassis’ have always been their strong suit, and this years offerings are no exception, but they’ve added a new HDD enclosure with some innovative features.
For 2007, the popular Sonata series gets better cooling to go along with its quiet operation. Renamed the Sonata III, it’s joined by the P182, a revamped and improved version of the P180 with external fan control, cable management refinements and a new titanium-color finish.
The all-new P190 is big and bad! And when I say “bad,” I mean good! Two 140mm top fans and a huge 200mm side fan keep things cool and the dual-layer sound-deadening construction keep things quiet. Extended ATX motherboards can be fitted and the unique dual-PSU system provides 1200W in a compact package. Quiet performance would seem to be the order of the day here.
A couple of HTPC entries from the new Veris series with LCD and IR features will suit most enthusiasts in the genre.
While Antec has been noticeably absent from the external HDD enclosure market, I’m pleased to report that they’ve come in with a very nice product, the Veris MX-1 actively cooled enclosure. The MX-1 should actually allow a user to run a big drive 24/7 without heat buildup or noise penalty. Nice!
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