Antec Skeleton Open Air Case Review

Installation


We hit a major issue when we tried to install our test board in the Skeleton. Not only did the expansion card retention frame interfere with the Noctua NH-U12P tower, there is simply no way to use full-sized tower heatsinks in conjunction with the Skeleton. This means that all those with NH-U12Ps, TRUEs and the like are out of luck. Only very short towers and down-draft heatsinks will fit. We have no idea how Antec could have overlooked such a glaring clearance problem. The Skeleton is targeting the enthusiast market, but does not support enthusiast coolers—what a huge disappointment.

Water cooling is pretty much out of the question as well as there is almost nowhere to mount a radiator. With such a limited selection of coolers available that will fit, the Skeleton really limits a buyer’s choices.


After removing our trusty NH-U12P, we installed the AMD retail heatsink and were able to clear the expansion card bracket and frame without issue.


Installing a PSU in the Skeleton first requires mounting it on the slide-out tray. We mated the Skeleton with Antec’s modular Signature 650W power supply.


The PSU mounts almost dead-centre in the case, which does not leave a lot of space to route cables. Those without a 90 degree AC power cable will find it frustrating to connect due to the lack of space. However, removing the mesh screen allowed it to be connected from the side as opposed to the back of the case.


There are three cable openings in the bottom deck to allow PSU and other cables up to the motherboard. There is also some space between the optical and hard disk bays to shove unwanted leads but it would have been nice to see some more innovative cable management features to make this case a bit easier to work with. All of the header leads combined with PSU leads made the front of the case a bit messy.


Installing the graphics card was also way more difficult than it needed to be. That expansion card bracket does not slide out with the lower deck and motherboard tray, so the card needs to be inserted through the opening at and angle and then wiggled into position. Antec states that the Skeleton is TRI-SLI ready, but I’d imagine a buyer would have one heck of a time trying wedge three huge 11 inch cards in there.

Aside from the slightly difficult card installation, there shouldn’t be any issues with the majority of cards on the market today. Our Radeon HD 3850 fit without issue and with some space to spare. Longer cards may obstruct some of the header cables but should fit.