Antec Take 4 Studio Series Rackmount Case Review

     There are many server configurations these days, whether you are building file servers, network appliances, firewalls or the new HTPC or studio servers.  Antec releases their new Studio Series server chassis.  In the past Antec has stood for quality and innovation without equal, lets take a look and see how they did with the Take 4 Studio Series 4U chassis.  Guest reviewer Jim brings us the scoop!

     Looking at the front of the case, the appearance is functional elegance.  The key lock is sturdy and two LED's are visible, power and disk activity.

     Opening up the front cover reveals an abundance of drive bays, a pair of USB ports and a Firewire port.  This chassis is targeted at the recording studio market.  With that in mind, this server has a lot to offer.  Tons of  drive bays makes the chassis suitable for audio or video files.  Using the four 3.5" internal drive bays on the right you could support over a Terabyte of data, without breaking the bank.  The two external bays in the center for either floppy drives or card readers.  Rounding it all out are the two full size 5.25" drive bays for your DVD, high end audio mixer or Tape backup drives.  The one thing that could be conspicuously overlooked is the massive vent under the 5.25" drive bays.  It's a dedicated vent for the power supply, talk about cooling!

Looking at the case from the right side shows a 120mm fan pre-installed.  Nothing says cooling and quiet like 120mm!

     From the back you see the other 92mm fan as well as the power supply and motherboard openings.  Once again, instead of using a 80mm, Antec uses the 92mm for that little extra airflow that separates a good chassis from a great one.  Rounding this out is the two quality black anodized thumb screws holding the lid on.  This is one thing other cases scrimp on that Antec splurged.  The thumb screws have nice big heads on them so they are easy to turn.  When a company pays attention to the little details, you know you have a quality product.

     Opening up the lid we see cavernous opening inside.  The support rod is solid and easy to remove and install.  The 4u form factor makes it a breeze to use the newer monster sized, but ultra quiet CPU heat sinks.  The one difference between this case and a true "server" case is the depth.  This chassis is set up for standard ATX sized boards, not the monsters with quad CPU and onboard SCSI raid controllers etc.

     Looking closer at the included power supply is a Antec Smart Power 450, plenty of power for lots of devices!  The connectors include a combination 20 or 24 pin motherboard connector as well as SATA and Molex connectors aplenty.  There is even a lead from the power supply to plug into the board so you can monitor the fan speed.

     Remember that vent we noticed on the front?  This is a dedicated cooling vent just for the power supply, providing a cool breath of fresh air.  This combined with the smart power PS equals truly silent operation.  Servers I have built in the past belong in a server rack because they sounded like a 747 taxing on the runway.  This unit is quiet enough to use in many different applications and even comes with rubber pads to dampen the vibration from the disk drives if it is not held in a rack.

     Taking a little closer look at the Tri Cool fans shows some serious air flow capacity.  The little white switches are for each fan and come with a low, medium and high speed setting.  Once again showing the versatility of the design of this case.  In a rackmount cabinet you can turn the fans to high for maximum airflow and cooling.  At home as a HTPC or in the recording studio, set the fans to medium or low for ultra quiet operation.