Antec's Signature-Series S10 Is Huge, Fancy, And Expensive

For Computex 2015, Antec introduced the Signature series of cases. For this series, it's only launching the S10 case, which it teased a couple of days ago. The Signature cases are intended to be taken as the new flagship series, showing off Antec's innovative thinking and craftsmanship. With the S10, the company aims to show that there is a new way of thinking at Antec.

The Signature-Series S10 therefore features a rather different design from most cases, with not one, not two, but three internal chambers. One of the chambers houses the motherboard and graphics cards, another chamber houses the PSU and a handful of drives, and a third chamber accommodates the remainder of the hard drives.

With all the space, the case has room for motherboards as big as E-ATX, or down to Mini-ITX boards at the other end of the scale. It has ten expansion slots, which gives you room for up to four dual-slot graphics cards, each of which can be up to 330 mm long. Tower CPU coolers can be up to 165 mm tall.

In the bottom chamber, you’ll be able to fit long ATX power supplies, along with five 2.5" SSDs or hard drives. The front chamber can be home to six 3.5" hard drives and three 2.5" drives.

Airflow is handled somewhat peculiarly. Rather than being drawn from the front of the case, about one third of the way back, there is a gap between the motherboard chamber and the front hard drive chamber. The air is drawn into the motherboard chamber through that gap, passing through a removable air filter on the way.

In the front chamber, cold air is drawn from the top of the case, pushing the warm air down to the bottom. Because this goes against natural convection, we reached out to Antec to ask about this design choice. A rep told us that due to cold air being heavier and sinking, a high pressure fan can pull cold air down and create enough pressure to force the small amounts of heat down with it out the bottom. He said this reduces the need for high fan speeds, enabling more silent operation.

The exterior of the case has a very elegant and minimalist design. Even so, the S10 isn't a small case by any means. It measures 602 x 230 x 590 mm, and it weighs a hefty 17.71 kg when empty. The motherboard and PSU chamber share side aluminum panels, as does the hard drive chamber. All of the side panels sit on hinges, which makes them doors, actually. They are removable for easier assembly.

For cooling, the front of the motherboard cabin can hold a top-mounted 280 mm radiator, and the front has room for a 360 mm radiator. The rear exhaust will also house a radiator, albeit just a 120 mm unit. The PSU chamber and hard drive chamber both have support for a single 120 mm fan.

Front I/O is handled by four USB 3.0 ports, HD audio ports and a power button. There is also a short-depth 5.25" drive bay, although it won't fit an optical drive. It is only intended to house a fan controller. These are all mounted at the top of the case, and if you were to mount a fan controller or a card reader in the 5.25" bay, its façade would also point upwards. The case does not have a normal 5.25" drive bay, so you're out of luck if you need one. Even so, for a device that's rarely used these days, we'd say that's a worthy tradeoff for a clean exterior aesthetic.

Antec priced the case at $499, which is by no means cheap. If you're looking for a high-end case though, and you want something that's a bit less flashy, this one may be interesting to have a look at. Antec will also build a variant of the case with glass side panels, which will be known as the S10G. Unfortunately, we have no word on pricing or availability.

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