Installation:

   The most prominent internal feature of the case, is the drive bays. It can hold one optical drive and 2 hard drives (or 1 hard drive 1 floppy style drive). You only need 1 or 2 screws to secure the optical drive, the hard drives lock in with 2 screws on one side, and small points on the other. The best part really shows up when removing the bays, the whole unit simply slides back and up, and can then be lifted out. It makes changing drives a painless task. The drive bays sit on top of a rubber stopper that keeps things level. This has a double benefit of also showing you exactly how much room there will be when everything is installed, making cable management easier.

   With the drive bay removed, there is lots of room inside to work with the motherboard CPU or add-on cards. Actually aside from the cables from the power supply, and a couple wires from the front ports, there is nothing to get in your way at all. I have many cases that are much larger and still much harder to work inside. About the only tight spot is the distance between the power supply and the heat sink, but the stock AMD cooler does still fit.

Noise / cooling:

   These two go hand in hand. Antec has the case setup with quite a bit of airflow, and managed to keep the case from being heard while watching TV or listening to music. The holes in the top and back of the case also let the CPU cooler get the airflow it needs. The single 80mm fan has a 3 step selector switch in case you think it needs more cooling, or want even less noise. Even at high, the fan is quiet, but I just leave it in the middle for my setup. Pairing with the power supply fan, it draws the hot air away from the heat sink.

Looks:

   Normally, I don’t care what most parts look like. Heat sinks, video cards, motherboards. Why do I care what they look like 99% of the time. I see them once every month when I clean out a case. This is one of those 1% times where I do care what something looks like. It’s setup where I will be looking at it for a long time to come.

   Of course aesthetics is all opinion, so what I say has absolutely nothing to do with anything you think. But I do like the looks of the Minuet. It does stick out a bit when placed beside all my purely black Amp/DVD player, but not annoyingly so. My biggest complaint about the looks, is that there is no functional “stealth” cover for the optical drive.

Conclusion:

   For roughly $100 USD, the minuet is definitely a bit high on the price point. It is still a great case to work inside, and does everything it was made to do. I like the looks of it, I like the that it’s simple and clean without annoying blinking blue blooming LED’s. Would I recommend the case for your next project? Absolutely, Antec did some good work on this case. I think if someone doesn’t like the case, it won’t be for quantifiable reasons.

Pro’s

• Easy drive removal

• Roomy

• Clean looks

• Quiet

Con’s

• No color choice

• No stealth drive bay

• Short power cables