Antec Aria mini review with pics

Cyrus

Antec Aria mini review:

I got my aria last week from ocuk.

Initial impressions:
1) Nice size, noticeably bigger than my sn45g I used to have but still a very neat size
2) Looks better in the flesh than in pictures, nice insulated panels give a gentle thud if you knock them
3) Buttons on the front a bit unfortunate looking, could have been a little bit better styled at the front

The components I was putting in were as follows:
1) P4c 3.0ghz
2) Asus P4p800 vm
3) 512mb adata pc4000
4) Rad 9800 pro with artic cooler
5) Zalman 7000
6) Leadtek tv card
7) Audigy 2
8) Dvdrw and 120 gig sata hd

I was worried about a few things, namely would the artic silencer fit and also would it overheat with all the pci slots filled and the cyclone blower not installed?

First thing to note is that it takes about twice as long to install a system in here as it does in a regular case, and also take the top and sides off and remove the psu before you attempt to do anything!

All the bits and pieces fitted incl the artic silencer which surprised me as a few reviews said it wouldn’t. I fitted it all in and fired it up, only fans are 120mm exhaust, 92mm fan on zalman at low speed and fan on rad 9800. Noise is fine when you switch it on but with my config when it loads up the 120mm fan is loud, not very loud but circa 28-30 dbs imo.

Everything installed:






I decided id remove the stock fan and replace it with a 7v akaska blue led fan, big mistake, temps increased circa 10 degrees with the slower moving fan so out it came again!

Another thing to note is that this mobo allows overlclocking via clockgen, main two provisos being that there is no voltage control on cpu and no dividers, works to clock my 3.0 to 3.4 1:1 a treat tho!

So for now that’s it, any questions im happy to answer, overall im happy, its loud when loaded up but that only happens playing games so I don’t notice anyway oh and the psu is an excellent unit,

Any questions feel free to ask!!

Finished article

Temps full load - 54 for cpu and 42 for case


Ps the tft is a dell 1800 FP 18.1" jobby

RicardoSmith

Sorry to have to do it to you, but you do realise you'll only want one of these next...

http://www.iwill.net/zmax/zmaxdp_1.htm

Cyrus

its nice but only 1 pci slot

RicardoSmith

True. Where did you get the Ferrari photo? Me want...

Cyrus

go here for all ur fast car needs

http://www.highresautoimages.com/1280/index.html

RicardoSmith

Heaven ww)

Woden

thats a really sweet looking setup you have there cyrus

The Real B-man

nice setup man nice setup if only i had lots of money:(

Cyrus

thanks fellas

BeatFreak

That is a nice setup alright, and thanks for the wallpapers (some nice new SLR pics adorning my screens now )

But you think thats tight? Try fitting all your hardware in Here

P.S apologies about the size, this is a fresh install haven't got the chance to install photoshop to reduce the size

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by Beat Freak
That is a nice setup alright, and thanks for the wallpapers (some nice new SLR pics adorning my screens now )

But you think thats tight? Try fitting all your hardware in Here

P.S apologies about the size, this is a fresh install haven't got the chance to install photoshop to reduce the size

What is that?

BeatFreak

It's a Travla C137 and a Via Nehemian (sp?) Mini - itx, I'm still not sure how I fitted everything in there, but I must admit it looks the bees sitting under the tft

Woden

does it have a pci slot?

BeatFreak

Aye it does, but it would be next to impossible to use a PCI card in this case, unless you use a riser and used a 2 1/2" HDD instead of 3 1/2" maybe... It's got sound and GFX onboard so I have never seen the need for a PCI so far

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by Beat Freak
It's a Travla C137 and a Via Nehemian (sp?) Mini - itx, I'm still not sure how I fitted everything in there, but I must admit it looks the bees sitting under the tft

Hard to see it in those pics. Can you post some "optimised" pics of the system, all set up. I like the idea of these mITX systems.

BeatFreak

Erm, kinda inna rush but here's a quick one. Is that what your looking for?

Woden

Originally posted by Beat Freak
Erm, kinda inna rush but here's a quick one. Is that what your looking for?

thats fairly sexy as well, i like the carefully placed bottle of beer for image as well

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by Beat Freak
Erm, kinda inna rush but here's a quick one. Is that what your looking for?

Yeah thats better. Trying to hide your messy office? David Bailey you're not, but thats a sexy little unit. What sort of cost did that rig cost you, if thats not a rude ques.

BeatFreak

I'm not usually that messy
I bought the case from http://www.linitx.co.uk and it was pretty expensive around €160 I think, I'm not sure if its still available though the last time I looked I couldn't see it, the rest was bought from komplett, Mini - ITX was around 230 I think, that also seems to be unavailable from them these days 160gig Samsung spinpoint ~€130, el cheapo 512mb ram ~€70. Thats about it I think, it was around 600 at the time, I can't remember the exact prices.

Does the job nicely and looks the part too.

Oh and I forgot to mention it's pretty much silent