Anyone using an Antec Aria?

[huesmann]

Aria is such an ugly-ass case compared to the rest of the Antec, um, musical cases. If it were piano black and silver, it wouldn't be so bad.

 

[CoBRaXT]

Just got my Aria setup a couple days ago. Will try to answer any questions if you guys have them...

 

[Mik3y]

how hot does it run and what components are in your system? do you think an a64 3000+, 1gb ram, 9800 pro and a 7200rpm harddrive will be able to run with a 300W psu that antec provides?

 

[arcitech2]

My Rig:
3200+
Gigabyte GA-K8VT800M
2x256 Corsair XMS 3200LL
Chaintech Geforce 5900XT
SB Audigy Gamer
Lite-On 16X DVD
WD 160JD HDD

Heat is an issue with this case. I've seen CPU temps up to 48C(not gaming). When the case side is off, it drops to a normal 40-41C. Prolonged gaming will heat the case up to the point where the PS fan is at max speed, and the CPU fan is at max, and the chipset heat sink is too hot to touch. This case needs better cooling, the PS 120mm fan is fine for internet surfing, but totally lacks while gaming. I like the case, but I'm toying with the idea of modifying it to get cool air directly to the CPU, and the chipset will get a fan cooler.
The power supply will support 2 drives and a 9700Pro, but I haven't tried to run a DVD at the same time. The 9700Pro heats up the inside too much for the system to take, and I switched to the 5900XT. If you are going to game, or overclock, I'd look to the Lan Boy, or similar case, something that you can add fans, and control the interior heat better.

 

[Quink]

Just curious, i am planning on getting the aria(somewhat rethought it) and putting in a PVR250 tv tuner, a normal generic bttv tv t uner, radeon 9200se(passive cooling), xp2200+, 3 ide drives + 1 dvd rom.
How do you think the heat will hold in a system like that? Its going to sit next to my tv as a PVR system(no gaming at all) and a server. Should be low cpu usage for the most part. Will i need a fan cut in the side of the case? If so will it make things very noisey? I want a quiet system, not noisier then a shuttle. Right now my shuttle system gets very warm with my 2 hdds and dvdrom. Very hot outside(and inside the house) at this time of the year. CPU idles at 45-47C and hard drives at 45-49C
Any thoughts?

 

[CoBRaXT]

yeah, this case does run awfully hot. i get temps in the low to mid 60's on my 2100 xp. i disconnected the fan on my ti4200 and instead am using the pci slot blower which is placed right in front of the card. for a hsf, i'm using the arctic cooling slim silent pro tc which barely fits the case but is close to dead silent. so overall, i think the low noise makes up for the high temps.

 

[hkctr]

I installed an Aria over 3 weeks in my for my son's PC. I used a MSI K7N2GM-IL mb and an Athlon 2500+ along with a TV tuner card. I had a hellava time getting things installed and was not impressed at all with case/mb combo. Ended up using the stock Athlon HS because the old cooler didn't fit. Anything wider or taller than the stock cooler will not fit. It was a very tight squeeze getting the mb w/heat sink attached into the case. Thought removing the power supply would give me more room but was sadly mistaken. Can't put the power supply back in because the hs is in way. Took the hs off and there was not enough clearance to put the hs back on after reinstalling the ps. Ended up wedging the board in, luckily avoiding scratching any of the circuitry on bottom of the board on the spikey setoffs. The mb audio connectors effectively block the 2nd PC slot from being used. The supplied auxillary exhaust fan is a must to keep the unit cool and uses up one of the pci slots. 2 out 3 pci slots on the board were rendered useless by this configuration. 2 out of the 4 screws that hold the pci cards in place were completely stripped at the factory and I had to push them out from the bottom. Advice: take out the blanks in the case pci slots before you install the mb. You will end up bending the very thin aluminum brackets otherwise and your pci cards may not align properly.

I can attest to the fact that the overheating sensor on the mb works as advertised. After I got everything together, I turned it on and it worked up until XP started loading and then stopped. Opened the unit up and got hit with a heat wave. When I put the cover and sides back on, the hd wires must have pressed down on the heat sink fan, preventing it from spinning. Once that got sorted, everything seems to work OK. Only remaining problem to resolve is why when I plug in the both front usb connectors and the firewire connector, none of them will work. Connect only one usb connector and the firewire and it works fine. Doesn't matter which usb port is plugged in into either of the usb connectors on the mb. Wierd, but a mb problem and not a case problem.

 

[KoolAidKid]

I just got my aria system together. I am running a P4 1.6A with stock Intel HSF. Idle temps are 41-42 C, and 52C under heavy CPU load. I will soon get a Zalman 6500 AlCu from newegg, so I will post updated temps then. I will be pairing it with a 80 mm Panaflo L1A fan.

Putting the system together wan't too bad, although I found the retention system for expansion cards to be annoying.

 

[MIDIman]

Fascinating discussion here on the Antec Aria...

Curious if anyone has thrown a Thermalright slk-948u onto their motherboards and if it did not work with one of them.

Also - any performance difference between the nforce2 IGP and KM400 chipsets? Sure as heck is a price difference!

 

[ricko2004]

Originally posted by: Tabb
I dont think it would be able to power a AMD 64...

35 watts? You better believe the Aria (excels) with these new mobile A64's ... just buit mysecond rig with one of these, on an AOpen MK89-L (nf3-150 s754 board) and my CPU temps are under 30C idle and under 40 full load (running A64 Mobile 2800+), but even the full blow A64's only draw 79 watts max if my memory is right. So yeah, there's plenty of power from the Antec PSU (though the 300 watt rating is a bit aggressive since the PSU even says combined max power output is 280 watts, but at least with it being an Antec PSU, you can bet it will deliver all 280 watts if needed)

Now if we could just find a decent priced Pentium M board, I'd love to get my hands on one of the new 2 GHz chips (err as Intel calls them now, the Pentium M 755) with the 2 meg of L2 on it and the shorter instruction pipeline. That would make a monster of a machine

 

[Shink]

Hey guys, great thread.. In the process of building a HTPC around an Aria. Last thing to pick is the MB. The aria manual says you need a board with 3 usb headers for the front ports + the card reader. The only board I have found that has this is the ECS KM400A-M2 Deluxe (currently sold out @ Newegg). However, nobody else here is using that board, and nobody is complaining.. So what's the story?

I've also looked at the MSI KM4AM-L.. If this board has all the required headers for the front ports, then this is my board.

My other parts so far (none ordered yet):

XP 2500+ Barton
Mushkin Basic Green DDR333 512M
Chaintech Geforce FX5200 128M
Zalman CNPS7000A
Existing WD 250G

I also have an audigy ls (oem) which I may or may not throw in there, depending on how Beyond TV likes the onboard audio.

 

[MichaelD]

Hehehh, I'm very happy that so many are getting so much info from this thread. I, OTOH, have completely changed my direction. I went from "thinking small" to "living large."

In part, it was prompted by my MAJOR disappointment w/the LianLi PC65B case I bought. It's gorgeous...empty. As soon as you start putting the parts inside and attempting to hook it all up, you quickly realize that it doesn't have as much room as you thought. :disgust:

Being that I've decided to go all out and build a dual-Opteron rig, I needed a case that would hold it all. I'm partial to large cases...but this one takes the cake.

Behold!! The Yeong Yang WW201 rackmountable server case!!! Space for days!!!

Carry on, please.


Got space in the case? This pic says it all.

 

[KoolAidKid]

Originally posted by: KoolAidKid
I just got my aria system together. I am running a P4 1.6A with stock Intel HSF. Idle temps are 41-42 C, and 52C under heavy CPU load. I will soon get a Zalman 6500 AlCu from newegg, so I will post updated temps then. I will be pairing it with a 80 mm Panaflo L1A fan.

Putting the system together wan't too bad, although I found the retention system for expansion cards to be annoying.

With the Zalman my temps are around 37C idle. Plus the machine is VERY quiet, which is a nice change from the stock HSF. I decided to overclock the 1.6A to 2.4, now temps are back where they were around 41C.

 

[akira34]

I put the guts of my server into the Aria just a few days ago. I had to remove the PSU in order to get the mobo in (with the processor and HSF installed) so it took a bit more work than normal cases. I kind of expected it wouldn't be as easy, but I didn't think I'd need to yank the PSU on it. Anyway, I just connected the external items to it a few minutes back and I have to say, this thing is QUIET. Even with the PCI fan/cooler it's damn near silent even a couple of feet away from it. The temps I'm seeing so far are nothing more than I was seeing with the previous case. If anything, they're lower.

I plan to build up a new server in the next month, or so, using an Athlon64 (2800+) and such. So, when I do that, this rig will be reconfigured to go to a family member that's without a computer at home currently.

 

[konakona]

so does zalman 6500/7000 series fit in this case? previously i had a soyo k7VME which wouldnt allow these fans but now i upgraded to a biosatar M7NG (thank god) and hoping i could improve cooling a bit. right now i am using ALX-800 with 92mm panaflo at 5v. actually i think heatsink is getting its job done as it gets super hot. the hard part is keeping it cool by sucking hot air out of the case. one of the primary uses for this box is quite music listening environement, so loud fans are not an option for me

Also - any performance difference between the nforce2 IGP and KM400 chipsets? Sure as heck is a price difference!

cant give you a benchmark result on this, but things do feel much snappier going from 13*158 to 11*192. stability is an added bonus, i used to get random video card crashes or sound card needing a driver reinstall. i blame the absence of pci divider and agp lock on KM400 for that :thumbsdown:

the hd wires must have pressed down on the heat sink fan, preventing it from spinning.

i had the exact same problem which eventually killed my FAR soyo mobo from overheating. funny, all other components including the CPU survived it... anyway i ordered a rounded cable for hdd with the new mobo and it works like a charm.

AntecCSR, we appreciate your active participation in this thread. my suggestion is drop the loud cyclone fan and replace the hdd cable with a rounded one. thx.

 

[KoolAidKid]

That's weird, my Aria came with a rounded IDE cable.

 

[akira34]

Originally posted by: KoolAidKid
That's weird, my Aria came with a rounded IDE cable.

Same here.

I might install a side fan to pull more air in for the processor cooling, but that's the only change/mod I'll do. The processor is running about 15C above room temp at idle... I'd like to get that closer to (or under) 10C over room temp. Hence the case fan mod will probably be needed.

 

[konakona]

Originally posted by: KoolAidKid
That's weird, my Aria came with a rounded IDE cable.

no, mine came with one too. but IIRC that one is ATA33 only (only good for cdrom/dvdrom drives) what i am saying is they need to include an extra rounded cable, sorry for not being too clear about it

 

[akira34]

Originally posted by: VanillaH
no, mine came with one too. but IIRC that one is ATA33 only (only good for cdrom/dvdrom drives) what i am saying is they need to include an extra rounded cable, sorry for not being too clear about it

Where did you find that says the included Cobra cable is only ATA33?? No place in the manual does it mention the cable being ATA33. I also just checked, it's a standard 80 wire, 40 pin cable (supports ATA100/133 speeds). Just like every other round ATA cable I've come across...

 

[konakona]

i might be mistaken. even then it would be nice to have 2 as you need 1 for each channel.

 

[akira34]

It might be nice to have a single connection cable for the optical drive. Then again, all retail boxed (and some oem) optical drives come with cables. I just used one of the single connection cables I have for the optical drive and was done with it. When I build up my next server (to replace this one), I'll probably have one IDE drive and then two SATA drives for storage (booting from the smaller IDE drive).

 

[roninmagik1]

Hello all, well, i got my Antec Aria today, i'm going to be using an old Athlon 1400, palomino core, i think...266 mhz fsb...i also have 2 old pc2100 memory modules, 128 megs a piece, and a 7200rpm 30 gig maxtor, so i'm basically gonna be building it from all leftovers...i'm planning on buying a shuttle mAtx board, i think it's mn31L, that's the model number, it's based on the nforce chipset, and it's pretty cheap at newegg, for about 70 dollars shipped. mmm...well, i'll be posting in this forum, as i start this project, so stay tuned, and if there are any aria owners out there who feel like throwing me any advice, then please do!! i'm still not sure of which cpu fan/heatsink to get. I've seen a few mentioned in previous posts, and they all seem to cost an arm and a leg! The most i've spent on a cpu heatsink/fan was about 9 bucks, and so spending 30 or 40 seems outrageous to me! mmm...thats all for now..

 

[CraigRT]

You should consider some other SFF systems... like the Soltek QBIC PC's... there are many others too, Shuttle is another good one.

not just the Aria..

 

[faenix]

Arias are sweet.

 

[roninmagik1]

Yaawwnn....it's 5 am, so sleepy, but anyhow, although i haven't put it together yet, the main reasons, i got the aria, were that i can upgrade it as new mobo/processors/etc.. come out, i also love the looks of the aria, can't wait to get it together and see those blue led's light up for the first time. I did check out other SFF cases, such as the athenatech sff case, but the looks of the aria, as well as the reputation for quality from antec got me! Laugh*, i gotta get some sleep, work in 2 hours, but i'll write more as i make some progress w/ my system build. g'nite/g'mornin all.:laugh: