Antec Add-Ons Ideal For Easy Upgrades

The SLK3700 from Antec, Fremont, Calif., offers ample room for expansion and has no sharp edges inside. The ATX-compliant case has four 5.25-inch external bays, two 3.5-inch external bays and five 3.5-inch internal bay. The case also features seven expansion slots and a 350-watt ATX power supply.

The casing, whose pricing starts at $84, has a swinging door on its front panel, which hides all the drive bays. It also has slide-off side panels for easy access and comes with all necessary mounting hardware and an Antec sticker for the front panel.

"The bronze color and sleek design stood out for me," said E.C. Griffin, CEO of Griff-Comp Services, a Bronx, N.Y.-based systems integrator. "This is the way modern cases should look."

Test Center engineers transplanted all the components from a 400MHz Pentium II-based system to the SLK3700 and were pleased at how easy it was to do. A groove in the case held the motherboard securely, eliminating the need for screws.

As for Antec's hard-drive cooling system, it's inexpensive,at $29.95,but looks like a million bucks.

Also, the system should prove an easy sell for solution providers, which can explain to their customers that overheating in computers is usually due to unsuitable or inefficient cooling systems. Given the business-critical data residing on today's computers, a solution such as this one is a necessity, not a luxury.

It took engineers only 5 minutes to install the system in a PC by sliding the computer's hard drive into the cooling system's aluminum heat sink and connecting the temperature sensors.

The chassis features a digital display, and users have the option of reading a hard drive's temperature in Celsius or Fahrenheit degrees.

Whether supporting IDE or SCSI drives, personal information or business-critical data, solution providers can offer these hassle-free upgrades to their customers.

Antec's SLK3700 and hard-drive cooling system can help systems builders earn some extra cash, extend the life of their customers' PCs and, most important, cement their relationships with clients.