Antec ARIA Small Form-factor PC Gaming Case With Customized 300W ATX 12V Power Supply

Customer Reviews:

Great Looking Attractive Design-Poor ventilation and Overheating problems [Posted on 2006-08-16]
Strength:
Sharp and Attractive Looking Case-Sturdy-fairly quiet- card reader a plus-mine does work in XP-Pro. Uses all M-ATX boards,Front panal 1394a, USB and sound a plus.

Weakness:
Poor ventilation-Serious Overheat problems-Factory CPU fan w/Intel P4 (2.66), cause MB to over heat. Poor cable management. Antec told me case not designed for Precott CPU P4, to hot. No available Heatpipes without modification.
Overheating problem can be Re-solved Read on.

My Comments:
I would have given 5 Stars for this Aria, it still could be, with some changes. If it would not be for the following reasons. Some Mfg re-designing effort and sincere concern to solve simple problem. How many will go through this much work, extra money, as I have to correct overheating and add more air vents, pennies for mfg. to fix problem on any future cases.
I was not a happy camper, when Antec tech support told me the case was not designed for Prescott P4 (2.66/1mb). They actually told me to get a AMD, What! I said! I had bought 2 of these Aria cases,w/ Intel Cpu's and motherboards. MB lasted 6 weeks from overheating, Power supply fan was always in overdrive to keep the temp down. I wanted to send them back, Antec tech support refused my request, I told them they should have printed a "caution or warning statement" in there manual or even a after market label on box, about overheating and "use AMD only". Aria very poor ventilation design.
I kept the cases, decided I could improve on Antec's cooling design considerbly,with some re-designing. I thought a push-pull type w/dual fan CPU heat pipe would be the most effective. Searched many hours for over a month and found 2 that could possibly work. Purchased Silverstone NT-05, 1-70mm push fan, fits 1 direction only, wrong way, of course. It Is also 10-12 mm to high and will not fit under power supply,need to turn fan direction so I can pull in fresh air. (Wasted $50 plus , Scrapped that)
NT-03 is a 60mm push-pull all copper heat sink (very Impressive) and a little shorter in height, specs do not tell you height, ordered one anyway, it's still 5-6 mm to high and hits the power supply. I was not going to give up on my push-pull cpu radiator cooling unit.I carefully studied NT-03's design and realized I could actually cut down and lower the overall height fairly easy and keep its professional look intact. I Modified NT-03 by lower exterior housing flush with the top of the copper radiator. This gave me the 5-6mm clearance I needed. I Drilled three holes in top of housing, lined up holes with the top 3 extending vertical tubes, that extend over the top radiator fins. It Dropped down the housing unit so 3 tubes will now protrude through, You need 3 longer Black screws (1/2") to replace bottom (1/4")ones removed. Plus you need 3ea. 5mm long spacers cut from 1/8" copper tubing. You can find and match up screws and tubing at Ace Hardware. Pictures tell the whole story. I have photos of this proceedure, if anyone would like to contact me,
Stan Kilber at skilber1@msn.com

This little dual 60mm push-pull fan heatsink is now very effective and powerfull enough to cool down my Prescott cpu by forcing fresh outside air over cpu and of course with the added fans I have added.
Silverstone could easily fix this NT-03 to make it more adaptable to more cases like the Aria.
You need to add a 60 or 80 mm hole in right side panel of Aria case, directly adjacent to cpu fan you installed, for air intake. Antec could easily re-design panal with this vent included. They did re-design top panal by adding a air vent, over PS unit.
I added another 80mm hole and attached fan directly to inside left of side panal, because of such a small crowded case. I wanted as much cool fresh air comming into my system as possible, I Installed some nice Alien grill covers, painted them same color as front of case(very dark blue almost black). I also mounted a blower fan directly above cpu, onto the side of PS, facing up (line up with top cover air vent), almost flush with top of PS. This will help assist (other slot blower fan) pull out more hot air comming off CPU, (Remove-metal slot bracket from blower, cut off plastic bevel edge of blower fan opening-to reduce its size) , Looks very professional when case has been finished, PS fan has never gone into overdrive since. My system temp is now running at 120-135F max, very happy so far with my improvements, no thanks to Aria support help. I also added an extra blue Led light to match front panel lights.
I am a consummer who wants small powerful computers, I built 4 this year so far, 2 more 2 go. I believe No longer will end users want to go big and bulky, Small with the option to be powerful. Laptops are ok, I have a Fujitsu 17" Lifebook, but not near as powerful as my Micro-ATX I have built.I believe the future will go this way and Some manufacturers realize this then some have been slow to start.I hope Antec will read my comments,Improve on the Aria. The Aria is a great looking product but just needs some fine tunning. Offer another front panal color (Green,Red) Flip up power supply for easier installation of MB and access to cpu-heatsink, more Added air vents.
Advertising slogans should read "We build products the way you want them" "not the way we want"
I Hope my Info will be of use to someone (Antec Included), feel free to email me for photos of my changes to this Antec,Aria enclosure.

Stan Kilber
skilber1@msn.com

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