THE ANTEC KS282 MID-TOWER COMPUTER
CASE
Last updated: 2/2/02
DRIVE BAYS. The KS282
has six drive bays: two hidden and one partially hidden 3 1/2" bays
and three exposed 5 1/4" bays. All of the exposed bays come with
snap-on dust covers. 5 1/4" drives are easily installed without
rails. The three 3 1/2" bays are in a removable cage which is
secured with a large, easily-accessed lever, fingers on either side of the
top of the cage, and no screws. To install it, one lowers the cage
to engage the fingers, pushes the cage forward, and locks it into place by
pushing the lever forward. This makes it a snap to install and service, all-at-once,
a couple of hard disks and a floppy drive.
The partially hidden 3 1/2" drive bay
provides full access to the Panasonic floppy drive I installed . The floppy
worked fine. The floppy LED was clearly visible through the plastic
lens on the front of the front panel. The bay looks nice, but I would
trade a little in the style department for two open 3 1/2" drive bays
so a Zip drive could be installed in a 3 1/2" drive bay instead of in
a one of the 5 1/4" drive bays with a 3 1/2" to 5 1/4" mounting
kit.
EXPANSION BOARD SLOTS. The
case has seven slots. It will accommodate motherboards with 1 ISA,
one shared ISA/PCI, 4 PCI, and one AGP expansion board connectors, or other
combinations thereof. All of the slots except the AGP slot come equipped
with old-fashioned, removable, screw-on slot covers (and not those annoying
knock-out covers I've seen the last few years in many cases).
 ATX
I/O BACK PANEL. The KS282 has an A.3.a I/O (Intel "Universal")
back panel which was already snapped into a cut-out in the back of the
case. It matches all of ATX motherboards reviewed in the Digest to
date. It is a bit on the flimsy side and its appearance is somewhat
marred by the indents which were formed when the labels were stamped on
it.
HARDWARE. An adequate assortment
of hardware was included with the case, but I have seen better. It
would be nice if some zip-ties were included.
PACKAGING. The case came wrapped
in plastic and packed in a thick cardboard box. The styrofoam packing
used to cushion the top and bottom of the case is thinner than I would like
to see. I do not, therefore, recommend shipping a computer built with
this case in the original box without double-boxing it.
DOCUMENTATION. There
was none.
DIMENSIONS: 17.3"(D)
x 7"(W) x 18.1"(H)
WEIGHT: 27 LBS.
[_include/artend.htm]
Larry
2/20/02 Copperpipe, a charter member
of our Forums writes: "I
just picked up a KS282 for $69 at the local
computer store. Some new features of this
model: it now comes with the Antec 303XP [300
Watt] power
supply (180 Watts total on the 3.3/5 V bridges
vs. 160 Watts previously), power switch on
the power supply box itself, fan monitoring,
and printed manual.
I don't care for the 3.5" floppy drive
slot on the front..would have preferred a plain
half-height slot over the "tongue" cavity.
But it's a great case." |
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