Osaka

 

Osaka was interesting because she had a relatively high-end case -- an Antec Aria. While it had a small and well engineered form factor, it allowed for a ATX-mini motherboard and standard components. The problem with the case is that I stuffed three hard drives into the poor thing and it developed a ventilation problem. I still have the case, hopefully I'll use her again in the future.

The inside of Osaka always impressed me. The engineering of the Antec Aria case was impressive. All the corners were rounded over, making it a joy to work with. The case could be stripped down to this level without a screwdriver. Only a single thumscrew kept the covering on the case. After that, a series of latches held the panels in place, but could be easily slid off.

The CDROM, and hard drives were kept in a separate assembly that could be easily removed without tools. The IDE cables always had trouble with the small amount of clearence between the drive assembly and the case, but it was enough most of the time. Round cables would have really helped.