The PlusView 1000 AMG arrived in this stylish-looking box. Most cases only have a plain grey box with some text on it so I was suprised to see this case had a very good looking box with a lot of pictures and specs from the case on it. They sure didn't save any money on the box of this product. The case itself was protected with a plastic bag and Styrofoam plates. I took the case out of the box and I immediately noticed how heavy it was! Man, this case is so heavy, it would be a pain in the ass to take it to a lot of LAN party's. But that's not really the aim of this case,
it's a 'SOHO File Server Case', if you want a good LAN box then I could recommend the new Antec
LanBoy case to you! The weight of this case is not really a bad point to me because it's giving me the feeling that this is a really rock solid case that can handle a lot, and I personally don't like flimsy cases.
This is the front of the PlusView 1000 AMG. In my eyes, it looks professional. It has a front door which can be locked to hide those ugly grey CD-Rom and diskette drives. It also has 2 USB ports and one Firewire port hidden under the Antec logo. Under the
ribbles are almost unnoticeable gaps to suck in cool air. Second is a picture with open door. This case has four 5.25" drive bays and two 3.5" drive bays. It has a big power button
but unfortunately a very small reset button, you'll need a small thing like a ballpoint to push it in. It has four LEDs; a green power LED, an orange HDD activity LED and 2 yellow LEDs which can be used for various other things like SCSI LED or for your modem so the LED blinks when you receive a new mail or fax. And if you're wondering what the small rectangular hole is all about, it's used for the lock of the front door.
The rear
Now we'll have a quick look on the rear of this case
Unlike most cases, this case has still a lot of room above the PSU. About 5 centimeters.
No PSU is included with this case by the way. From up to down we have first the PSU mounting plate. This can be taken out to make the installation of a PSU a bit easier. Under that we have the I/O plate. The one that was included with this case was a good one and not one of those sucky flimsy ones. Right of them, you have the grills of the 2 fans. And finally, we have 6 PCI brackets and one for an AGP videocard but this was already taken out. The 2 side panels were screwed to the back with 2 normal screws and they both have a place for 4 screws.
The side panel
The name 'PlusView' is because of the big window in the left sidepanel. The left sidepanel has a handle and can be locked. It has a big window that can be easly removed
by taking out the 15 plastic 'push in screw'. It's easy to take them out but somewhat difficult to get them back in,
so I don't recommend you take it out :P In the window you can find a 80mm fan holder. It's hard to see but between the ribbles are
gaps to suck in cool air. It's a high quality window, but it attracts a lot of dust and dirt so some cleaning is required every once in a while.
Under the case
The case has 4 big feet which makes the case even more solid, they raise the case about one centimeter above your floor or table. Under the front panel of the case, you have the washable airfilter. It's removable and it's used to restrict the amount of dust that flows in your case, but I think that it will restrict the airflow a bit so it's possible that case temperatures will rise a little.
The inside
Let's move on to the dissection of this case!
This case is rather roomy. Above it has the PSU mounting bracket, under it you'll notice 2 steel plates, the PSU rests on those and it also adds to the
overall solidness of this case. This case comes with two silent fans from Antec which are mounted in the removable purple outtake fan holders on the back. Under those you have the PCI brackets. On the right you have 4 CD-rom bays, the drives need to be slide in with Antecs Drive Rail system. These 'Drive Rails' need to be attached with some screws to your CD-Rom drives or fan controllers, and then you'll slide them in from the front of the case. This seems to be an easy system, but unfortunately this doesn't work for all CD-Rom drives! My CD-Rewriter from HP didn't have a problem with it, but my generic CD-Rom drive had his screw holes a little bit more to back, result of this was that the CD-Rom drive didn't fit and stood out 1 cm of the case so I couldn't close the door anymore. Under the 5.25" bays you have two sets of removable 3.5" cages. Two of these 3.5" bays are visible from the front, the others aren't. One of the cages has a fan holder to cool
down your HDDs and under the cages you'll find another 80mm fan holder! At the bottom you'll find 4 drive rail sets and the USB, Firewire, Button and LED connectors which all need to be plugged in to your motherboard.
Pictures of the two included fans and fanholders
The removable 3.5" cages
From left to right: The USB and firewire cables, the cables for the four LEDs and a picture of the speaker, reset button and power button cables.
Here are two pictures with the drive cages removed. At the bottom you see another purple 80mm fan holder. On the right and left side of this case are three plastic clips, push them in and you can easely remove the front panel. (One of them is in the
right lower corner on the second picture)
Naked front
No no not a naked lady (you perverts :P), but the front of this case with the front panel removed. On this picture you can see all the air holes and the two fan grills on the front.
Mobo backplate side
Here's a quick look on the right side of this case.
All the other stuff
First, we have the manual. Nice to see this because most cases don't have a manual with them. It's 8 pages long and it covers some basic installation things and some extra information. In the second picture, you can see what was in the little brown box. A bag with screws and motherboard stand-offs, an Antec case badge, and 2 bags with keys (they are all the same for all Antec cases and are used to lock the left sidepanel and the front door)
And finally here's a picture of the case in all its glory!
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