Antec - Great Cases, Great Customer Support

[kjv1611]

A few years ago, I bought my first personal case from Acer. Well, not direct, but I bought one - I think it on sale at NewEgg.

The case I got is the Acer P180b. Ah, it is one nice case. The PSU routing of cables is quite cumbersome, but I can deal with it, as I don't change the PSU out very often... especially not for the past few years.

I've now had 2 experiences with the case:

#1. When I first got the thing, I was trying this and that, and moving stuff around, connecting, disconnecting, etc... trying everything out... well, I goofed... I let a hard drive cage slide out just a little... then the side panel got caught when I tried to open the case. Well, I didn't see (at the moment) what was holding the case, so I just forced it. Yeah, I broke the clips for the side panel.

At first, I despair, thinking, well dummy, you done it now... Then I figure, why not contact Antec, just to see.

I did. I explained that it was probably 100% my fault for the breakage, and explained exactly what happened. The same day or next day, I received an email saying a new side panel would be at my house to replace the broken one. Literally, within 2 days tops (might of been 1), I had a new side panel, and it was packed in such a way that a tank woulda had a hard time damaging it.

So, I've been using the case ever since.

Event #2: Front USB ports
A few months ago, somehow one of the USB connections I had plugged in and pulled out go stuck in the USB front connectors. Well, again, I try to fiddle for a short while... but finall give up. I just yank the sucker out - USB wire that was connected, along with the USB ports from the case. I mean, yanked 'em clean out.

Well, it had been at least 2 months after that, when I thought, why not contact Atnec - again - on the same case.

I did, via email... didn't even provide any proof of ownership, nothing. I just said, hey, here's my email address of course, and I bought this case something around 3 years ago - might be out of warranty, and here's what happened.... a few days or a week later, I get a response asking for my address so they could mail replacement parts... I send my address... the other day, package arives - the whole front panel portion that contained the USB, firewire/1394, and audio ports! Yippee!

Well, just thought I'd share that.

Antec ranks up there among the best of companies I've ever dealt with in regards to Customer Support/Service.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[kmcferrin]

Not only that, but they make awesome cases. I have a P180 (second gen, might be the P180b you mentioned) and it's by far the best case I've ever owned.

The only half-complaint that I have about them is that the tri-cool fans that it comes with have manual controls on the back of the case. I usually leave them both set to the lowest setting so that the system is quiet, but then when I play a game I turn them up a notch or two to dissipate the additional heat from the CPU and GPU (since I won't hear the fans over the sound effects and music this isn't an issue). It could be great if they were hooked to one of the temperature-controlled fan controllers so this could happen automatically.

Other than that, it's almost perfect.


________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
MCTS:Windows 7
MCTS:Hyper-V
MCTS:System Center Virtual Machine Manager
MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator

 

[kjv1611]

Yeah, that's a good point. I fully agree that if you're going to have switchable fans, the switch ought to be a little easier to access. I know from reading reviews before that a lot of people went and bought other fans, just to get around that. I initially had mine set on low - rear and top. However, I had to set one or both to high after an incident where a wire got stuck in one, and must of killed the motor enough to where it wouldn't turn on low settings.

Even on high, the fans are still pretty quiet - not the quietest by far, but not noticeable, really.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[kmcferrin]

Well, quiet can be relative I guess. A lot of it depends on where you have the case positioned. I have a funky desk with a lower "side tier" of the desk that the case sits on. Unfortunately this position puts the fans at the top and rear of the case at ear level. There's a small cabinet under the desk for a PC, but the P180 is too big to fit inside it. The only option is the floor, and after seeing how much crud and gunk gets sucked into a PC that sits on the floor, there's no way I'd ever do that.

I guess I just need a new desk.

________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
MCTS:Windows 7
MCTS:Hyper-V
MCTS:System Center Virtual Machine Manager
MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator

 

[Grenage]

Or you could turn your desk into a PC case! Some cupboards make wonderful cases.

"We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area" - Major Mike Shearer