Antec ISK600 Review

The Build

As always it’s power supply in first.  We’re not saying this is the only way to build, but we think there’s less chance of damaging the motherboard if you do it this way (mainly because the motherboard is still in its box as opposed to laying in the case ready to be knocked and damaged).  We’re trying not to get too worked up by the lack of cable management options, and certainly this is nothing unusual in a case of this sort so don’t think of it as a black mark.  What isn’t so great though that Antec have located the securing holes for the PSU behind a cover plate, meaning that to stand half a chance of getting them in you’re going to need a magnetic screwdriver and a degree of patience.  As you can see from the image below left, the PSU is mounted in a decubitus position, being connected to the rear power outlet via an included cable.

     

 

With the Motherboard in we can start wiring things up.  Unfortunately although there’s plenty of length in the PSU cables, the same can’t be said for some of the front I/O connection cables.  For some reason the Blue/Black HDD LED cable is much shorter than the others and so can’t make the journey round the top corner of the motherboard, necessitating that it crosses over the RAM area.  The only real place to stash unwanted and unused cables in the case is immediately behind the PSU.  This bundle of cables however will have an impact on the quoted 12.5″ max GPU length.  The old 8800GTwe stick into our test builds is by no means a huge card at just 9″ long, but as you can see there’s hardly any room between it and the cable bundle.  Our feelings are that 10.5″ is about as much usable GPU space as you’re going to get.

     

 

With everything but the storage in place let’s have a look at how things are progressing.  Remembering the top cover panel it’s interesting to note that although provision has been made for the PSU to be able to vent its hot gases there’s no corresponding mesh area adjacent to the GPU to allow it to suck in some nice clean fresh air, bizarely, the small mesh area we noted when we looked at the base of the case which may have given a little more ventilation is actually on the other side of the case to the GPU.

       

 

Before we fit the storage let’s take a look vertically down into the ISK600.  As you can see there is a small track between the edge of the motherboard and the PSU down which cables can be routed on their way round.  The floor of the case in this area has a few cable tie points which do help to a degree to keep things as tidy as possible.  With small cases such as this which by their nature have quite limited airflow, good cable management isn’t just a way to vent your OC3D urges, it’s practically essential to maximise what little airflow there is.  Do a bad  job with wires all over the shop and you’re going to be left with £65 pounds worth of solid fuel heating.

     

 

Having mounted the HDD in the caddy as shown above it’s time to drop the caddy back into the case.  Again Antec have been a bit disingenuous with their measurements when it comes to the max CPU cooler height, as no mention is made in the information that this max height of 170mm is only achievable without the HDD caddy mounted.  Mounting the caddy drops the max height to 140mm, and should you wish to sling the second HDD under the caddy then the total height available drops to 115mm. 

     

 

In all likelihood though you’re going to be looking to mount a 120mm fan based AIO in place of the rear fan.  Just be careful to check that the radiators dimensions do not exceed 120mm in at least one of the planes as the rear fan is abutted against the top lip of the rear of the chassis.  It’s also worth noting that if you want to put in a dual fan AIO set up then to retain the HDD caddy the total push pull assembly must be below 80mm.