Antec Skeleton Black ATX Tower Computer Case

Pros: I built my first computer in this despite it being a non-traditional and more 'difficult' case to build in.

Nice air flow since it's all open air. Big Boy fan has pretty lights and is quiet on lowest settings.

Best of all, it has a very very distinct look. Some think it's rather ugly, 'dumb', or vain-look to it but if you like the way it looks then it's totally worth it.

Cons: Difficult to build in.

When I plug things in the USB ports in the front of the case, the computer shorts out and turns off. I just plug things straight into the motherboard instead.

Other Thoughts: Wicked looking case.

Pros: Still loving it after more than 3 years!

Cons: Not much. All is well.

Other Thoughts: Hmm, is this case gone for good? Just stopped in to see when the last review was done and it's been a year and a half. Not sure why this case isn't still selling at the Egg. Maybe it can only be bought from the source site now, I'm not sure.

Pros: huge fan, cool LEDs, open air design, some nice building features, sturdy build, built to last

Cons: even though the design is pretty striking, i wouldn't recommend this to most people who are looking for an easy parts swap case. In order to adjust almost anything you have to disconnect the front panel connectors, and possibly most of your power/ data cables. The front panel wires are way too short meaning i can't hook up audio and my usb cords are really tight. If your video card has its power coming from the side then you have to disconnect power before sliding the tray out because they won't clear the fan (gtx 260).

Other Thoughts: over all it is a really cool design and it was a fun build, but for the price, it is way more worth your money to buy a nice mid tower with great cable management and a cool look/ style. for $100 it would be worth it. also, water cooling is kind of a pain with this case, not recommended unless you are going to mod some things.

Pros: The case accessability is great, its light and has a great amount of airflow! (I know its an open air case, right!)

Cons: I have a slew of cons but nothing that is worth removing more than one egg for IMO. It gathers dust like crazy, but since it is open it is quite easy to clean. The clearance under the main fan cowl in the back is pretty low, I had to cut it away to fit my Koolance water cooling blocks for my dual HD4870x2's. The top fan can change to a MULTITUDE of colors but there is an annoying delay between hitting the button and having it actually change colors. The rear Expansion slot bracket is a VERY flimsy piece of plastic and if you lift it from there by accident you will tear all of your PCI cards clean out of your mobo. BE AWARE! Cable management can be a real pain if your PSU is not modular.

Other Thoughts: Otherwise, its a nice case and is extremely quiet itself. if you have a CPU or VGA cooler that is loud, there is no walls to enclose the sound.

Pros: -Easy to add components. The tray sliding is an awesome thing to have. The way you can also slide the hdd's and dvd-rom's is cool. all of them fit very nicely underneath the tray.
-Good air flow. The 250 mm on top gives a cool breeze to all the components. And since its an open case, the air gets recycled quick.
- looks really awesome. (open brain). Every person that sees my computers gets really impressed by the looks. The fan changes colors and you can lock if you want any color or turn it off. (i like the red color at night to give a warm feeling.
-No issues of height for my Nvidia Ge-Force 9800 GT 1024mb and the cooler for my AMD phenom x4.

Cons: -The dust accumulation is an issue. The 250mm fan is not powerful enough to leave all the dust out of the motherboard. The fan also accumulates dust. I have an air blower, so usually clean the entire computer every 2-3 months. Not so bad.
-Some wires of the front panel are not long enough to reach parts of the mobo. I've Got an asus M3N78-pro mobo and the high def audio cable is not long enough to reach the pins in the mobo. I had to connect the ac-97 plug.
-Also there is not much room for all the cables of the power supply. I have an 860 Watt OCZ turbo-cooler power supply. This PS has a lot of cables so i had to shovel it in with a lot of effort. Also i had to take the side fence from the case to take the AC cable out.
-The plastic bar on the back of the case to secure all the PCI devices is a good idea, but i had to bend the metal part of my video card in order to screw it. I dont know if its a video card problem because of size or that the bar is a bit lower than it should be.

Other Thoughts: i've had it for bit longer than 2 years, and have had no problems with my computer.
If i had to get a new case, i would probably get one with an enclosure, just because im lazy and dont want to have to clean my entire computer from dust accumulation. But it looks awesome, and most people get impressed by the looks.

Pros: Unique, stylish, and great for seeing what's inside.

Compared to most cases, it's much easier to work with during and after build. It's not a test bench, however; if that's what you need, there are much better options.

Great airflow, running very cool. I haven't seen above 50°C yet, typically 30° - 40°, and that's with nothing but stock fans and sinks on everything...for now...

Plenty of space for wire management, although you may have to experiment to find the right balance for wire length, airflow, and visual considerations.

Extremely quiet. I had to crank that Super Big Boy all the way up to hear it at all. I'm more likely to hear the HDD spinning than any of the fans!

Light show is surprisingly subtle even in a darkened room. You'll definitely need extra case lighting if you want a more over-the-top effect.

Cons: Not for everyone. In fact, nobody should have one but me.

IMO, the only rflaw is the HDD mount. My Corsair PSU has maybe 1/4 inch of clearance under mobo tray, and I need to reach pretty far inside to get to the power switch and AC plug. Not loving all that AC power next to my components (sure, it's insulated, but still...).

Length of front-panel connector wires may be an issue with some mobos. Sabertooth X58 couldn't accommodate the front firewire (no biggie). I actually would have preferred an option for NO front panel holes, or a cover (less convenient, but cleaner).

CPU cooler height is obviously limited, but not as much as I expected. People who like to show off (or compensate for something?) may not be happy, but anyone who cares about actual results can find plenty of efficient options.

I'd prefer red LEDs, but blue is definitely the herd's choice these days. Oh well.

Other Thoughts: PSU mount almost lost an egg, but it won't be a problem for everyone. If you're thinking of getting the Skeleton, consider getting a PSU with a fan on the rear or side instead of top or bottom.

Speaking of which, I thought a modular PSU would be perfect for this case, but it didn't end up making much difference in the amount of wiring I had to deal with. Oh well. Still a good idea, just not as essential as I thought...

Of course, you don't want this case if you constantly spill liquid or other things on your PC. I picked up the optional mesh to protect against curious critters and flying debris, and because it makes the case look even more awesome.

I'll check back in about the dust and heat. Compressed air should take care of buildup, but I live in one of the hottest, dustiest places in North America, so I won't get a full picture for another 7 months or so (i.e., summer).

Pros: Excellant airflow & cooling from the open case design and 250 mm ultra quiet overhead fan. I use my as my breadboard machine with an ASUS P5Q Pro MB, Intel Core 2 Duo 3.0 Ghz, 8 Gb ram runnung WinXP x64. I assembly servers for and use this to trouble shoot cards, drives, ram, Wipe-Drives, etc.
I can't imagine where Jase had noise from this unit. my Antec 650 Watt 'Blue' power supply with low speed 120 mm fan can't be heard running. I changed out the Hard drive cooler with a low speed (1000 rpm) fan since only a little air flow is needed in this design. Drives run at approx. 96-105 degrees F. I agree that case cables need another 6" to 9" in length.

Cons: Worked for about 4 months, maybe turned on and off two dozen times before "Power Button" failed. But,
I've had only about three failures from Antec out of two dozen cases and power supplies in the last four years.

Other Thoughts: I waited 6 months after this came out waiting for a sale and finally gave in and spent $149.99. Newegg needs more aggressive sales...I've purchased 28 Hitachi or Seagate 2 TByte hard drives in the last 5 months from the local Chain store at lower prices or better warrantys.

Pros: Open air design,huge 250mm VERY quiet fan( at low & medium setings)keeps everything inside cool. I don't even need the 92mm hdd fan,but i'll take that off later JUST to test the temp differences under different load types. Seemingly good powder coat/pain job on the chassis, all cosmetic stuff and advertised features work. Easily installed all my hardware. Public is correct, TAKE YOUR TIME & plan to spend 20+ minutes on this to get it right. NO REAL INSTRUCTIONS NEEDED if you know what "HDD screws" & "optical drive screws" means. Not sure about previous shipments, but the bags of screws I received were labeled EXACTLY what those screws were for. No headaches on most of the build. Perfectly sized Power button, no parts missing, gave Antec support newegg order info and they shipped the I/O extension cable free w/out hassle although I dont think really need it. My case need not be pristine. Use common sense.Dont put case near carpet floor.Not heavy.quality. FAST SHIPPING! NEWEGG ROCKS. :D

Cons: Pci bar should be aluminum or steel, but Antec probably would raise price by 20 or more bucks. Still not enough to knock an egg. Price? I felt this should be 110.00 tops, then again for all I know it may take real work molding the steel parts of the frame properly. No real complaints. MEASURE YOUR VIDEO CARDS cooling system height. If it DOESN'T stick up above the circuit board of the gpu. YOU'RE probably FINE. Otherwise it depends on where you put them on your normal atx mobo, SOME aftermarket coolers make the total gpu card size 1/2" taller and WILL hit the lowest point part of 250mm fan frame shroud. Example-Normal ATx mobo, you put gpu on 2nd PciExpress slot that has a cooling system that ups the height of the gpu card 1/2"=YOU WILL BARELY be able to fit it without hitting that ascending part of the shroud. Again PLANNING AHEAD is crucial to avoid "part-reordering-headaches". Just trying to help others out ahead of time. considering price I feel mesh kit should be included.

Other Thoughts: psu with long enough power cables to reach WITHOUT going outside the case= DEPENDS on the mobo size.Micro Atx=2 mobotray holes to work with. Otherwise U must route the p4 cord outside back of case. np to me.Dust? Take a bath everyday,clean/replace home air filters,vacuum weekly=NORMAL hygiene! Fear psu fan heating up mobo?Open psu, turn fan opposite way,install psu where fan faces down, put 1" foam piece under each corner of casefeet. :)
Zalman 9500 DOES fit just barely while still allowing mobo tray to slide in and out without hitting anything. At the LOWEST "dip" point of the 250mm fan shroud/frame near pci bar, it is( measuring from part of mobo not it's pcb's or anything) BARELY .05 or .10 inches under 5 inches flat-for all those who are measuring off review websites about skeleton & aftermarket cpu coolers. MOST mobo's cpu socket location, versus BIG fan frame dippoint, BIG cpu coolers will hit at highest point of it. Thus why the Zalman 9500 at 4.92 inches barely fits.cheers

Pros: It's very unique. It's very open. And it'll heat up your room, meaning it won't heat up your computer parts.

It's not a bad case, it's sturdily built and it turns heads but there are two MAJOR flaws that keep most people from getting this case.

Cons: By far the worst and most shortsighted thing about this case is the fact that you can't fit most aftermarket CPU coolers in this thing without taking off the big 250mm fan. Obviously this case is obviously aimed at the enthusiast market, and not being able to fit in an after market cooler knocks down 1 egg. Also, the cables for the front I/O ports need to be longer. The whole point of this case is for you to work on it, and obviously you can't work on it with a huge fan in your face. The cables are JUST long enough to reach most of the headers meaning that when won't be able to slide out the case without unplugging everything first, another egg marked off for that.

Other Thoughts: If you REALLY want an open air case. Lian Li makes ones that is not only cheaper but allows you to fit in large cpu coolers. It's called the PC-T60 Pitstop. You do lose the large fan, and you do lose the I/O ports, but you can buy those later if you really want.

If you're adamant on getting this case I have two suggestions for you.

Probably the best cooler you can use for this will be the Zalman 9500. There's a Thermaltake one that fits too, but I think the Zalman is better since the top fan won't just be blowing on just the top fit, and will pass air through the whole entire heat sink instead.

Secondly, get a modular power supply. Believe me, get one. It's a huge pain to stuff all those extra wires in the back.

Pros: Awesome cooling with little dust.

Cons: The cables of the case do not extend so you can move the back panel and change parts. I have no idea why they did not think of making longer cables... it makes the whole movable motherboard plate idea useless.

Other Thoughts: It has accessories too you can buy for it.