Antec NSK6500 & Antec NSK4400 case

Macca · 19 May 2007 at 16:41

What is the size different in these cases, is there a big difference? And are they basically the same cases but different sizes and couple of different features? What are your experiences with the cases aswell, and can you suggest any alternatives maybe?

Also, the power supplies, how good are these? Would the either of them handle an 8600gt with a e4300 being overclocked?

p4radox · 19 May 2007 at 17:42

I can't comment on the relative sizes, but the PSUs are excellent. They should be fine running the system you suggest.

Macca · 19 May 2007 at 18:04

p4radox said:
I can't comment on the relative sizes, but the PSUs are excellent. They should be fine running the system you suggest.

Ok, thanks, i think i'll be ordering the one with 430 PSU, but i just wanna check how much bigger it is than the smaller one as my friend doesn't want a massive case.

Sultan of Ping · 19 May 2007 at 19:46

The NSK6500 is a couple of inches taller than the NSK4400, because of the extra 5.25" bay. It looks like the NSK4400's big brother!

The main advantage of the NSK6500, for me, is that each HDD is mounted into it's own little tray, which can be slid out of the main HDD cage. The whole HDD cage (which holds upto 5 x HDD) can also be easily removed from the case. And then of course there's the better PSU.

Personally I wouldn't want to rely on a 430W PSU, even if it is an Antec, to keep a phat overclock stable - a mild one maybe, but it would be nice to have the headroom to go further. I have built some powerful (stock) systems into the NSK6500, however, like AMD X2 with 7600GS in SLI, and they ran well.

As an alternative I would go for the Antec Atlas 550W, or an Antec SOLO (no PSU) with an Antec Trio 550W, or perhaps an Antec NEO HE 550w Modular. These two options would cost more, though. The SOLO is really nicely made, in my experience.

Hope this helps.

Sultan of Ping · 19 May 2007 at 19:46

Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention that the exact dimensions for the cases are available on antec.com.

Macca · 19 May 2007 at 19:48

Sultan of Ping said:
The NSK6500 is a couple of inches taller than the NSK4400, because of the extra 5.25" bay. It looks like the NSK4400's big brother!

The main advantage of the NSK6500, for me, is that each HDD is mounted into it's own little tray, which can be slid out of the main HDD cage. The whole HDD cage (which holds upto 5 x HDD) can also be easily removed from the case. And then of course there's the better PSU.

Personally I wouldn't want to rely on a 430W PSU, even if it is an Antec, to keep a phat overclock stable - a mild one maybe, but it would be nice to have the headroom to go further. I have built some powerful (stock) systems into the NSK6500, however, like AMD X2 with 7600GS in SLI, and they ran well.

As an alternative I would go for the Antec Atlas 550W, or an Antec SOLO (no PSU) with an Antec Trio 550W, or perhaps an Antec NEO HE 550w Modular. These two options would cost more, though. The SOLO is really nicely made, in my experience.

Hope this helps.

Thank you it does, the problem being the budget is why we opted for one of these cases. But if the PSU could be a problem then we're going to have to rethink what we'll do.

p4radox · 19 May 2007 at 20:24

I'd just like to say that I think the PSU will be fine, even for overclocking. I've got an Antec 300W and run an overclocked Opteron and X850XT.

The system I built with the NSK4400 380W PSU is a mildly overlocked 3500 and 7600GT. It feels as though it has plenty of juice left.

If you look at any PSU calculator you'll probably be surprised how little power your computer draws, even at 100% load when overlocked.

Macca · 19 May 2007 at 20:27

p4radox said:
I'd just like to say that I think the PSU will be fine, even for overclocking. I've got an Antec 300W and run an overclocked Opteron and X850XT.

The system I built with the NSK4400 380W PSU is a mildly overlocked 3500 and 7600GT. It feels as though it has plenty of juice left.

If you look at any PSU calculator you'll probably be surprised how little power your computer draws, even at 100% load when overlocked.

Ok thanks for that info, i will be using the NSK5600 so it will have the 430w PSU, i'm not sure how much my mate intends to oc the CPU but, i'm now worried about getting this now after reading above posts about it not handling it. As if something goes wrong i get blamed

.

a1ex2001 · 21 May 2007 at 11:49

Macca said:
Ok thanks for that info, i will be using the NSK5600 so it will have the 430w PSU, i'm not sure how much my mate intends to oc the CPU but, i'm now worried about getting this now after reading above posts about it not handling it. As if something goes wrong i get blamed .

You should have no problem what so ever with the power supply unless of course you planning on SLI 8800's a pile of hard disks and a couple of optical drives! For a normal build ie decent single graphics card on possibly two hard disks and a dvd-rw you will have plenty of juice for some good OC's