Antec S10 Full-Tower Chassis Review

Introduction

Antec, one of the most historic names in the chassis business, are set to take back the enthusiast market this year with the release of their new flagship chassis, the S10. The new chassis comes with a hefty price tag, an eyewatering $499/£399.99, which is a lot of money, no matter which way you look at it. Of course, the likes of InWin, Lian Li, Silverstone and Coolermaster, to name but a few, have proven that you can command these extreme price tags, so long as you deliver the quality and features to justify it.

“The full tower S10 is the flagship case of the Signature Series by Antec, a new family of chassis characterized by a patent pending internal architecture featuring an innovative Central Air Intake System and easy expandability with a striking, yet refined, exterior design. The exclusive Three Chamber Design separates the enclosure into three thermal zones, providing clear airflow paths and efficient cooling to all of your components quietly. Seven (7) pre-installed fans plus one optional fan mount combine with support for top, center, and rear radiators to showcase the ample cooling options available in the S10. Ten (10) PCI-E slots and fourteen (6 HDD, 8 SSD) tool-less drive bays make building a high-performance system a simple process. Finished with a smooth front bezel and Opposing Brushed Aluminum Doors, the S10 provides performance, security, and style for any computer system Elite builds start with the right chassis – the S10 Signature Series by Antec”

The S10 certainly packs a mean punch in terms of specifications, with 14 drive bays, room for mini-ITX and E-ATX motherboards, as well as all the sizes in between. Component compatibility isn’t an issue, the largest graphics cards, power supplies, CPU coolers and more shouldn’t have any issues here. There’s seven pre-installed fans, room for optional water cooling and much more.

• 14 drive bays:
  6 x Quick Release tool-less 3.5″ Bays
  8 x Quick Release tool-less 2.5” Bays
• Motherboard support:
  Mini ITX / Micro ATX / Standard ATX / XL-ATX/E-ATX (up to 12” x 13” ) 10 PCI expansion slots
• Chamber dimensions:
  Hard Disk Drive Chamber: 5.51 in (W) x 7.87 in (D) x 18.11 in (H)
  Motherboard Chamber: 14.76 in (W) x 7.08 in (D) x 17.51 in (H)
  Power Supply Chamber: 15.15 in (W) x 8.07 in (D) x 4.01 in (H)
• Maximum graphics card size:
  12.5” (317.5 mm)
• Maximum CPU cooler height:
  6.5“ (165 mm)
• Cooling System:
  2 x 140 mm top exhaust fans (Motherboard Chamber)
  3 x 120 mm intake fans (Motherboard Chamber)
  1 x 120 mm rear exhaust fan (Motherboard Chamber)
  1 x 120 mm exhaust fan (HDD Chamber)
  Optional – 1 x 120 intake fan (PSU Chamber)
• Side Panels 4 mm thick Anodized, Brushed Finish Aluminum Doors
• Water cooling support – Motherboard Chamber:
  Top: 240 / 280 mm radiator
  Center: 240 / 280 / 360 mm radiator
  Rear: 120 mm radiator
• Intake Filters:
  1 x Central Intake
  1 x Hard Disk Drive Chamber Intake
  1 x Power Supply Chamber Intake
• Front I/O ports:
  4 x USB 3.0
  Power Button
  HD Audio In and Out
• Unit Dimensions:
  23.70” (H) x 9.05” (W) x 23.22” (D) / 602mm (H) x 230mm (W) x 590mm (D)
• Package Dimensions:
  27.84 in (H) x 13.23 in (W) x 26.89 in (D) /
  707 mm (H) x 336mm (W) x 683mm (D)
• Net Weight:
  39.05 lb / 17.71 kg
• Gross Weight:
  45 lb / 20.4 kg

As a nice bonus, aside from the usual nuts and bolts, you’ll also find a bundle of extra long SATA cables included with the S10, which will help you fit your hardware in this rather sizable chassis.

Out of the box, first impressions are promising. The S10 has a rather overbearing presence and managed to look monolithic and sleek at the same time. The left side features a dual-door design, with two thick brushed aluminium hinged doors.

There’s a door release chip at the top, which I’m sorry to see is only made from plastic. It likely won’t break, but it does feel a little cheap, especially in contrast with the virtually bulletproof side panels.

There’s another clip near the button, which helps lock the central dust filter in place.

This filter is located between the smaller front door and the large main door. The main section of the chassis draws in air from this filtered vent, keeping airflow independent of the hard drive and PSU sections of the chassis; more on this shortly.

Around the back, another dual-door design, giving the S10 a rather nice symmetrical appearance. Here you can better see that ventilation gap between the front and main sections.

The side panels are immense. The thick aluminium is ultra strong and also pretty heavy, adding a stunning visual quality to the chassis overall.

The top of the chassis has plenty of ventilation, as well as some kind of top plastic cover. This cover looks terrible, there’s no other way of putting it and if I’m honest, I don’t fully understand its purpose.

Fortunately, it just lifts right off, that looks much better in my opinion.

The front panel has a shallow 5.25″ drive bay cover, this would be great for use with a card reader, fan controller or similar device. There’s a pair of HD audio jacks and four USB 3.0 posts (dual USB 3.0 headers inside chassis). It’s worth mentioning that the USB 3.0 headers also have break-off cables for USB 2.0 to ensure maximum compatibility with your system.

What is sad to see, is the tiny power button, it has a bit of a wobble with it and when given a little jiggle, it tends to jam like this. A little poke sorts it out again, but on a chassis of this price, the little details really matter.

The front panel looks stunning but is disappointingly just matte plastic. This is a stark contrast to the premium side panels and I’d have loved to see that aluminium trend continue around onto one of the parts of the chassis you’ll likely be seeing the most.

Despite the mixture of plastics on the top and front with the aluminium side panels, the chassis does manage a nice uniform look and the stealthy black finish is something to be admired.

There’s not much going on around the back, just a 120mm fan mount, a towering array of expansion slots and two water/cable routing grommets.

The PSU mount is self explanatory enough.

Below it, you’ll find a slide out PSU dust filter.

The hinged doors  on this chassis are mounted on pegs, so you can easily lift them off when you need to. Although, it is worth pointing out that there’s no locking system here, the doors are magnetically held shut, but that’s not going to stop sticky fingered individuals any time soon.

The base of the chassis is quite interesting, as the is mounted on a plinth, so the front and back look like they’re floating above the base, which is quite cool. The base is plastic and a little flexible, so I wouldn’t suggest using it as a gripping point when moving the chassis, but it feels sturdy enough when the chassis is upright. I also discovered, the hard way, that the lack of a locking system for the side panels resulted in the rear panel falling off while taking this picture, whoops.