Antec LifeStyle Overture-UK

Author's product rating:   

Ease of Use	Simple
Quality	Excellent
Durability	Good
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	Looks Good
Disadvantages:	Minor Heat Issues

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I bought this case for use in my home entertainment center. I wanted it to look more like a piece of A/V equipment and less like the typical "beige box". At the same time I didn't want to pay the outrageous prices that Ahanix charges for its "HTPC" cases. And this case fits the bill well.

FINISH: The finish and build quality on the Overture is very nice. The cover is a high gloss "piano black" which loves to show finger prints, but is nice none-the-less. The front of the case is silver, which despite being plastic has a nice fit and feel to it. Inside the edges are rounded to prevent cutting your hands. And Antec has included rubber mounting grommits for the hard drives. My biggest complaint about the look is the lack of covers for the face of the CD/DVD-ROM drive. Without these you have a beige or black drive that looks out of place. Several attempts at color matching the drive with a can of spray paint have proved to be very challenging.

POWER: Inside, Antec has included a 380W powersupply of their own design. Other reviewers have said that the cables for this power supply were not long enough, however this was not a problem in the case that I purchased. The power supply is stable and powerful. My only complaint about the power supply is that its single van blows hot air from the power supply into the case which adds to the one big problem this case has, heat.

COOLING: Antec included one 92mm fan in the rear of the case for exhaust. In my experience this is insufficient. Only after adding a slot fan did the heat of the CPU and the case itself reach what, in my opinion, are reasonable levels.

NOISE: The reasoning behind their decision to use such a fan setup was to reduce noise which the Overture excels at. In its stock setup, the Overture is virtually silent. (If you add a slot fan to help the heat, I recommend spending a little extra for a ball-bearing model to help keep noise levels down). The aforementioned rubber mounting grommits for the hard drives also help reduce noise from vibration.

EASE OF USE: Once you start to actually build the PC the Overture is designed well. It fits a full ATX style motherboard so you'll have plenty of room to move around. The placement of the hard drive cage is unusual (where the powersupply would normally go) so be prepared to use seperate cables for the DVD and hard drives (which you should do anyway). One thing, which in most situations won't be a problem, but something you should watch out for in your particular setup is the use of expansion cards, where the height of the circuit board extends beyond the top of the metal bracket, you may not be able to get the lid on the case without bending the lid or breaking the card.

CONCLUSION: This is an excellent case, especially for use in a home theatre environment. In 9 out of 10 cases any hardware you want to put in this case will fit without issue. Combine that with a rock-solid powersupply and this case is well worth the cost.