Antec ISK-600M Micro-ATX Chassis Review

Introduction

It has been many months since we first reviewed the Antec ISK-600 mini-ITX chassis. I absolutely loved the case as it offered a great range of features for a very affordable price tag; which is why it won our eTeknix Bang for Buck award. Now we are back once again with a review of the latest entry in the Antec range, their bigger and hopefully even better ISK-600 Micro-ATX chassis.

Many of the features of the new ISK-600 are similar to the previous model, with the most notable difference being that this new one is slightly larger to accommodate larger motherboards. The previous model was mini-ITX compatible, while the new one can support up to Micro-ATX. Of course, this small increase in chassis size can make a huge difference, as it can free up more room for longer and multiple graphics cards, extra hard drives and more.

Features:

• Product Name: ISK600M
• Case Type: Micro-ATX
• Front bezel Material: Aluminum + Plastic
• Color: Black
• Body Material: 0.8mm steel
• 1 x Slim ODD bay
• 3 x 3.5 drivers bay
• 3+1 x 2.5 drivers bay
• 4 x Expansion Slot
• Compatible Motherboard: Micro ATX, Mini-ITX
• Graphic card size: ≧12.5″(317.5mm)
• System Fan: – 1 x 120 mm rear exhaust fan – 1 x 80 mm rear exhaust fan(optional) – 1 x 140 mm front intake fan – 2 x120 mm front intake fan  (optional)
• I/O Ports: – 1 x USB3.0 – 1 x USB2.0 – Audio I/O (AC97)
• Product Dimensions: – 290mm (H) x 272.6mm (W) x 340mm (D) – 11.4” (H) x 10.7″ (W) x 13.3″(D)

The left, top and right side panels are made from a single piece of folded 0.8mm steel. The panel is held in place by three thumb screws at the back and can be removed easily when you need to install something or maintain your system.

There’s a little extra ventilation on the left and right side panels, which should help vent excess heat from your graphics cards, CPU cooler and other components. There’s also some ventilation on each side of the front panel, which any front mounted fans can use to pull air into the chassis.

The front panel is pretty minimalist in terms of design, but it has been treated to a rough textured brushed aluminium panel that really adds a premium quality look to the front of the chassis. Annoyingly there is only a single USB 3.0 port, Antec should get with the times and put dual USB 3.0, perhaps include a 2.0 converter cable for those with older motherboards.

The ISK-600M will support two dual-slot graphics cards, and there are four ventilated and reusable expansion slot covers pre-installed. At the base of the chassis is a small tab, this allows you to slide out the PSU dust filter.

The expansion slots have a locking bracket over the top, removing this will give you a little more manoeuvring room when installing your cards. There’s also a pair of cable/water routing grommets at the top of the chassis.

The base of the chassis has four gripped feet and the front two have been given a little silver trim to ensure they look great from the front of the chassis. You’ll also notice there are two sets of screw holes, these are used for directly mounting a pair of 2.5″ drives on the chassis interior.

Interior

With the cover removed you can clearly see that the ISK 600 is split into two section. The top section houses the motherboard and graphics cards, while the lower section is used for the PSU and storage devices.

There’s a large cut-out to the right of the motherboard, perfect for passing through cables from the PSU.

There is a slide out tray in the top of the chassis. This is your hard drive mount and can also be used to mount your slim-ODD. There’s a rubber strip along the top that will help prevent vibrations between the tray and the chassis exterior panels.

The tray simply lifts out, making it super easy to install your drives or access any components that are under it; such as your motherboard.

The base of the chassis has a thick foam trim for helping reduce vibrations from the PSU; there’s also a high-quality washable dust filter pre-installed.

The removable drive tray is designed to support two 2.5″ drives on the top and there are some cable pass-through cut-outs towards to front to help with installation.

If you need to, you can remove the ODD tray from the bottom via four screws.

Behind the front panel you’ll find room for a large cut-out towards the left side; this allows longer graphics cards a little extra space. There’s quite a lot of ventilation on the front panel too, allowing for airflow from the pre-installed 140mm fan.

Unfortunately, the internal cables look quite scruffy, but since this chassis doesn’t feature a side panel window, it doesn’t really matter too much.

Here you can see the single piece top cover. It simply slides onto the chassis and can then be screwed back into place.

Complete System

The ISK 600M built took me 30 minutes to complete and overall I found the chassis to be rather easy to work with. Everything installed easy enough and there were only a few minor cable routing issues with the build; there are no cut-outs next to the motherboard for SATA cables.

There are three 3.5″ drive bays here, you simply screw your drives into the chassis rails; you can also screw extra 2.5″ drives to the base of the chassis.

The Sapphire R9 270X is hardly a small card, but it fits in the ISK-600M thanks to the cut-away at the front of the chassis. This cut-away allows the card to use the extra space behind the front panel and there’s certainly enough room for two graphics cards if you feel the need to get some extra gaming performance.

With the front panel on, you can see that cable routing isn’t ideal on the ISK-600. At least there’s plenty of space in the lower section to keep excess cables out of the way; leaving the top sections airflow as unrestricted as possible.

Here you can see I’ve used the bottom of the chassis to store excess PSU cables, leaving the top section looking neat and tidy with just one exception; the 4+4 pin CPU power cable has to trail across the motherboard.

There’s plenty of room for a large CPU cooler and you could even install a 120mm AIO cooler in place of the stock rear fan if you needed to.

All panels back in place and you can see how the side panel ventilation gives a little extra airflow to our graphics cards.

Overall a very nice looking build and a relatively easy chassis to work with.

Final Thoughts

Pricing

The Antec ISK-600M Micro-ATX Chassis is currently available for £56.99 at Overclockers UK. This also means it’s priced similar to a range of BitFenix, Silverstone and CoolerMaster mATX chassis, but spec for spec, the ISK is still competitive.

Overview

I like what Antec have done with the ISK-600M, which is no surprise given that I liked their mini-ITX offering and this one is simply a little bit bigger. Of course, there are a few aesthetics changes, such as the blue strip has gone from the middle of the front panel in favour of some blue LED under lighting at the front of the chassis.

The chassis isn’t perfect, and there are a few minor niggles that caught my attention while working with this chassis, but nothing that would put me off of a potential purchase. The internal cables look a little scruffy, but as I mentioned before, there’s no window on this chassis and interior design isn’t really a priority. The front panel only has a single USB 3.0 port, which is fine, but USB 2.0 is getting a little old school. Most new chassis now just come with a pair of USB 3.0 ports that are ideal for copying files quickly between two external storage devices. There’s also limited air filtering for the vents on the chassis, so dust could become an issue. Finally, a few extra cable routing cut-outs on the interior of the chassis would have been welcome, trailing the CPU power cable over the motherboard isn’t what I would call ideal.

The minor issues I have with this chassis are easily put aside, as they’re pretty common issues with chassis in this price range and even more so with a chassis in this form factor. What you do get for your money is a decent amount of internal space that will suit a high-end, multi-GPU equipped and partially water-cooled gaming rig. There’s certainly enough appeal here for the smaller form factor gaming market, especially those who need a relatively portable rig for LAN gaming events. The smart looking exterior of this chassis makes it very appealing for the HTPC market, as the brushed aluminium will easily blend in with most AV equipment. Just keep in mind that this isn’t designed to be very sound proof, so HTPC builders may want to choose their internal components wisely.

Pros

• Nice aesthetics
• Lots of room in lower section for excess cables
• AIO water cooling support
• Room for two high-end graphics cards
• Plenty of hard-drives mounts
• Aluminium front panel
• Competitive price

Cons

• Limited air filtering
• Only 1 x USB 3.0 port on front panel
• Interior cable routing could be better

“The ISK 600M is ideal for a small gaming rig that packs big levels of performance. If you need a system that going to look at home in the office, as part of your gaming setup, next to your TV or at LAN, the ISK 600 is well worth your consideration.”

Thank you Antec for providing us with this sample.