Recently Viewed
Antec NSK 3480 MATX Micro Tower - With 380W EarthWatts PSU ATX12V 2.2 USB/FireWire/Audio
- £45.18ex vat
- £51.96inc vat
(price includes 2.5% VAT discount)
Need it fast? You have:
Wednesday, 3rd December.
Bookmark & Share
- manufacturer #: 0761345-00391-9
- quickfind code: 130946
- 16 in stock for next day delivery.
8 reviews
/
write a review
Product Reviews
Very Good Case
os:
OtherI'm very pleased with this case:
1. Solid Construction, but easy to use.
=======================================
Two thumbscrews open it up. The panels are easy to remove/replace and are sturdy. The 3.5" blanking panel came off easily, and I didn't get cut doing it.
As the other reviews said, the top compartment is cramped. One 5" drive goes in easily - with room underneath for spare cables. There is (officially) space for another 5" or a 3.5" (on a very neat tray - with rubber anti-vibration fixings). It looks possible, if you're good at cable positioning!
I used the other 3.5" drive fixing on the bottom of the case. Again very neat, but would interfere with a bottom PCI slot.
2. Good Power supply & fans
===========================
It's eco-friendly, apparently. It's quiet. Lots of connectors:
20+4 pin power, 4 pin power, 6x MOLEX 1xFDD), 4x SATA, 6 pin (2x3) PCI-E
More info: http://www.antec.com/connectors.php?ProdID=04639&SetZone=en
I had no problem with the 20+4 lead reaching the motherboard (Asus P5L-VM 1394)
The back case fan is 12cm, with three-position speed control. Quiet enough.
3. Good Case connections
========================
Well labelled and lengthy connectors for front-of case.
4. Nice looking
===============
The case looks great - in the study, or the sitting room. Goes well with Logitech S 510 keyboard + mouse. Bigger than cube HTPC cases, but would still look good next to a big screen.
The power button has a tasteful blue glow around it. HDD LED is blue, but not too bright.
The ventilation holes on the front are clever - ie they're not visible!
fantastic
os:
Windows XPtop finish, stylish looking, quality construction, super quiet.
Only criticisms are tiny - could do with more fixing mount points, though it is a flexible system that antec use there was nothing near my power connector so had to be careful to support the motherboard when pushing the connector in.
too many erroneous cables. the case only has 4 drive bays 1 of which likely won't be used because it's a floppy and yet there are power connectors and cabling for 9 drives. these things matter in a small space!
infinitely more impressive than the Antec NSK1380 Black/Silver MATX Cube Case.
Neat little case
os:
Windows VistaSecond Antec case I have brought that does the job well enough. PSU is good and much better than budget - don't skimp on power to your expensive components! Used it to build PC for my 7 year old. Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H fitted perfectly and no problems with MB power connector length as some others have commented.
nsk3480
os:
Windows XPI`m quite impressed with this case, its definately compact and i like the extra touches. The hard drive bays have small silicon grommets to cushion the drives to prevent vibration. comes with a 12cm fan with a 3speed switch.
The power supply isnt silent although it is a energy efficient 80plus model.
Because of its small size fitting all the stuff inside can be a bit tricky, and on the likes of the hard drives its easier to fit the cables before securing them into the bays.
overall though i`d give this 9/10.
Classy Case
os:
Windows XPThis is a sturdy case that oozes quality. It come apart nicely after removing two thumscrews, and although space in the upper section is restricted, there are no real problems of access. The power supply now comes installed "upside down" so as to maximise the useful length of the cables and improve airflow. The only problem is deciding where to fit drives, as there are several options. I settled for DVD in the top compartment, hard drive in the base and a card reader in the floppy disc bay.
If there is a downside it is the sheer number of cables from the PSU, far more than could ever be needed.
A great buy, but watch the price, it can sometimes soar before dropping to normal level.
Antec NSK3480: Quality little case
os:
Windows XPBought this case for my first PC build - a living room HTPC. Was definitely worth spending a bit more over a budget case. Overall, really pleased with it.
Pros:
- Solid construction, good looks.
- Very quiet. Provided case fan and PSU both near silent. Rubber feet and rubber mountings for hard drives to prevent vibrations.
- Runs nice and cool as plenty of vents.
- Clear instructions, installation was a breeze.
Cons:
- Top compartment is quite cramped.
- I had to turn the psu upside down as otherwise the motherboard power cable wasn't long enough. This was very easy and took about 5 mins.
- 380W power supply probably won't have enough grunt to run top end graphics cards (the HD 2600XT in mine is fine however).
- Only room for 2 optical drives and 1HD (or 1 optical drive and 2HDs) but then what do you expect for a small case?
Take a look at http://www.silentpcreview.com/article763-page1.html for a detailed review.
A 'proper' Micro ATX Case
os:
Windows VistaI wanted a small case to fit into the cupboard of my desk. True micro ATX cases seem hard to find with so many so called micro cases being quite large. This one is exactly the size I was looking for, with just the right amount of space for a standard set of components for general home use. It's quite heavy though due to the gauge of construction, but that's no bad thing. The HDD can be mounted in the top or bottom section, but the top is a bit tight for space. One bad point to take into account is that because the PSU is in a separate compartment, the 24 pin power lead won't reach the motherboard, so will need an extension lead or as another reviewer here has done, turn the PSU upside down (didn't try this). All other cables are fine. I feel this should have been addressed, but otherwise a great product. Yes it is quite expensive for a small case, but it's well made and does come with Antec's Earthwatts PSU, so I hope to save on running costs. Ebuyer delivered it sooner than expected, so full marks to them.
Poor provision for hard drives and cabling, noisy PSU
os:
Not ApplicableI bought this case to rehouse my MythTV system from an Antec NSK4000 with a Seasonic S12 PSU. The cooler is an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro which has a big heatsink and a nice quiet fan. I have 2 hard drives, a DVD writer and 3 LeadTek freeview cards.
There are 2 places for mounting a hard drive. One is at bottom of the case, and fouls the lowest PCI slot. I got round this by only using 2 of the mounting holes and resting the end of the disk drive on some foam rubber. Not ideal, but it worked.
The second place is in the lower 5.25 drive bay. I have concerns about lack of cooling here. This is in the "upper chamber", the theory being that the power supply pulls air through here. However there is so much cabling that it obstructs the flow and the top of the case is well vented, so the airflow would be through the top panel to the PSU, not past the drive.
It might seem that a 3rd position would be in the floppy drive bay, but this is too flimsy and only allows one mounting screw into the side of the drive.
The ATX format power supply is too long for its position in the upper chamber, making the cabling particularly difficult. There is a separate hole available for passing data cables, but this emerges by the CPU cooler, effectively blocking it. I had particular difficulty with the IDE and motherboard power cables.
The cabling emerges to the side of the upper chamber and has to bend sharply to avoid the side panel. The effect is to stress the cabling and make it difficult to fit the side panel.
In operation I found the Earthwatts PSU too noisy for an HTPC, so I replaced it with my Seasonic S12 and peace reigned again. I had to mount the S12 inverted so that it draws air from the top not from the main chamber (previously it had acted to extract air across the heatsink). It could be vulnerable to liquid spilled on top of the case.
I was very disappointed at the lack of flexibility offered for placing hard drives and cabling. The space is very very cramped, and in particular the case would have been a lot better if it had been a couple of centimeters deeper. This would have significantly increased the cabling space in the upper chamber and reduced the problem of the hard drive fouling the PCI card at the bottom of the case.
The 12cm fan is the same as in the NSK 4000, and is acceptably quiet in the low speed setting.
If you have the space, the NSK 4000 + Seasonic S12 is a much better solution.
