Calling any Antec Aria Owners!

[Danske]

Hi all, im really thinking of buying a Antec Aria, and making as p-M desktop with that, looks like a very cool box, saw few reviews all are positive, but i need to know from acual people that own/owned them.

Are they any good in general?

I have a 9800 modded, so its hot, should i get Artic silencer (exhaust the heat out), or the Zalman VF700? both almost same price. but i think the silencer is a tad to large.

thanks all.

[Varuna]

If you want it to be quiet, you'll need the silencer to exhaust the heat. The aria power supply is very loud if it has to exhaust large loads.

[Danske]

mmm good point, but will the artic silencer onthe card Fit??? inside the aria looks very crammed

[Zzapped]

Voodoo has one.he bought mine ask him

[Danske]

i just asked voodoo, he says i was told wrong

[Zzapped]

Im sure it was voodoo who brought it off me last year.........

[Danske]

LOL

well guess not, anyway i bought a Artic Silencer for my 9800SE softmodded to pro, it was a 3 series, it says it goes on 9800's (xt and pro), but i dont see why it would not go on a SE, their all pretty much same board based.
it should fit fine in the aria, if not, then im screwed

[Zzapped]

Theres a surprising amount of room in the aria case

[Danske]

kinda off topic, but u think the silencer would go on my 9800se?

[stroggos2k]

ATi Silencer 1 will fit 9800SE.

[Danske]

i exactly bought a : Arctic Cooling ATI Silencer 3

the "1" is like $40, and this is half its price, and it says made for 9800's

[RyoSaeba]

The area can accomodate a mini-atx mobo. Meaning it HAS room for 3 PCI + 1 AGP slots. Now next to the AGP Slot is the PCI slot. Unless you plan on putting one of these ... somehow... then yeh should have no problem that i can see.

[stevodude]

Yea, I have an aria in my lounge, and it's one of the best M-ATX cases's around I recon, due to the large 120mm fan at the back, my unit is not very loud at all, having the TV on about 10( low volume so I can hear ppl walking up the back stairs) so is not very loud, and the Aria is reasonably quiet.

has a Celeron 1.7Ghz with stock Intel HS&Fan is louder than the case fan.

the space in side these units are quite deceiving and larger than what you would think looking at the case ( bit like a tardis :-) hehehe ).

my next htpc case I think will be a low hight case thats wider to look more like a dvd player, but overall the aria case is pleasant to look at.

mind you the Card reader sockets are full of dust as I dont use them as I have a gigabit card in it and copy all movies/photo's direct to hdd for viewing, or use the camera's built in slideshow to view photo's.

the hiden cdrom tray works fine and haven't had an issue with any sticking or anything.

Only problem I have is sometime when I come home my daughter has been pressing buttons and the unit is powered off :-) hehehe.

My only gripe is it would be nicer if it wasn't so tall ( but unavoidable in that configuration ) and a hidden power switch.

recommended as a cheap htpc case cause you can fit SO MANY configurations compared to the really SFF HTPC case's/

rating for me: out of 5.

[archie]

the only fault I've noticed is, the little piece of aluminium they use to hold the PCI/AGP cards in, the aluminium is so soft (after a few changes of cards etc) the screw holes have become bigger and now my cards dont sit tight

[stroggos2k]

Originally Posted by Danske

i exactly bought a : Arctic Cooling ATI Silencer 3

the "1" is like $40, and this is half its price, and it says made for 9800's

It's made for 9800XT's not 9800 Pro, make sure it fits because I know for sure the ATi Silencer 3 wont fit on my card (128mb R360 based 9800 pro)