Palo Alto Products may not be the first name that comes to mind when you think about computer cases, but chances are pretty good that you've actually used one of their cases before. They are the creators of the sleek Palm Pilot casing. On the PC case side of things, they are the ones behind the enclosures used in Dell's Dimension and Micron's Millennia PC lines.

Palo Alto was brought to the attention of AnandTech by consistent praise for the Dell/Micron case in numerous print publications for its high quality construction and ease of access. So when we decided to start doing case reviews, Palo Alto was at the top of our list. A little bit of research led us to Palo Alto's ATCX ATX enclosure as the one used by Dell/Micron. While the bezel is a little different, the case is otherwise identical.

Ok, so what if the people over at PCMagazine (no offense guys ;) think they're great - how do they fare under the scrutiny of AnandTech? Definitely a tougher arena to succeed in, where overclocking and hot hardware are virtually the norm.

The ATCX is referred to as a "convertible" case by Palo Alto since it can be configured as either a desktop or a mid tower by simply swapping out the bezel and some of the external panels. As a desktop, the specifications change just a bit as an external 3.5" bay is lost, but an internal 3.5" gained. Note however, that when ordering the ATCX that you won't receive the parts necessary to make the conversion yourself, so be sure to specify which configuration you would like.

Design

The high quality engineering and construction is apparent as soon as you get a hold of an ATCX case. The first thing you notice is that the bezel, side panels, and base are made of strong plastic that won't break, bend, or chip easily. A single thumb screw and two plastic clips secure the left side panel and allow for extremely quick and easy access to all system components. The thumb screw is termed "captive," meaning that it stays attached to the panel even when it's not screwed in. The left side panel is lined with metal for EMI shielding purposes. A small clip (shown here) allows the case to be locked and prevent unauthorized entry.

Mounting a motherboard in the ATCX shows yet another of its unique features - its one screw motherboard mounting system. A trick metal clip attaches to the the back of the motherboard (shown at right). That assembly is then inserted into the case and secured using a single screw from the rear of the case. Clip in metal standoffs, which are premounted for the most part, support the rest of the board. While not quite as convenient as a removable motherboard tray for troubleshooting, but it's much faster for OEM's looking to minimize assembly time.

Drive installation is similarly convenient. The top four bays (two 5.25" and two 3.5") are all contained with in one metal bracket that simply slides out of the case, allowing easy installation outside of the case. The floppy and upper internal 3.5" bay offer similarly easy installation through the use of custom brackets that attach to the drive with screws and then slide right in. Once again, this helps minimize assembly time greatly. The last hard drive bay features a very unique vertical mounting configuration. Just drop the hard drive in with connectors facing up and attach with two screws from the front of the case to the bottom of the hard drive. With the airflow setup in the ATCX, most of the cool air enters from the lower part of the bezel and flows right over the lower hard drive bay, affording excellent cooling.

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Speaking of cooling the ATCX does a phenomenal job for a mid tower ATX case, as you'll see in our new cooling tests below. An optional 92mm Sunon fan is mounted below the power supply and right next to the processor. There are actually two different configurations available - one with the fan mounted flush against the case and the other a " horizontal fan assembly for enhanced cooling of Pentium II" to quote Palo Alto. Either way, these fans come configured to exhaust air and feature a standard power supply connector with pass through. You can of course replace it with a 3-pin fan for fan speed monitoring purposes. The horizontal fan assembly places the fan just above the CPU. Unfortunately, that also means that access to the CPU is blocked without removing this fan. On the rear of the case, as much metal is cut away as possible to maximize air flow and minimize noise.

Of course, there is also the 80mm exhaust fan built into the power supply, which is actually optional from Palo Alto, and may not be included by every distributor. The model Palo Alto includes is a Delta Electronics 235W model that is fully ATX 2.01 compliant, FCC/CE approved and includes 5 standard and 1 mini power connector. Just like with the exhaust fan mount, the slots for air to flow into and out of the power supply are cut as large as possible. Unfortunately, the power supply does not feature a physical power switch on the back that many other units do and that can come in quite handy at times.

The ATCX case itself also meets all ATX 2.01 requirements, including a standard cutout at the back of the case for a standard ATX I/O shield. Yet again, Palo Alto has gone the extra mile with the ATCX by increasing the EMI shielding in this area to a practically unheard of level (as shown here).

With drive bays are configured such that an extended ATX motherboard should fit fine as long as the front right corner is cut out as the extended ATX specification calls for (similar to the Tyan Thunderbolt). An impressive feat considering many cases this size can't even hold the ABIT BX6 Revision 2.0, much less an extended ATX board. This is actually the reason that the upper two 3.5" external drive bays are included - a 5.25" device in that space would run right into many ATX boards. With the vertically mounted hard drive in front, there's plenty of room to work inside, despite the fairly small external dimensions.

As can be seen in the pictures of the interior, there is a bar that attaches the front to the rear approximately half way up the case. This bar snaps in places and is then secured with a regular case screw. It gives the case added rigidity, but you are warned to not use it as a handle.

The ATCX's front bezel snaps in place and features two orange LED's for power and HDD access as well as power and reset buttons. Both buttons have good tactile feedback and are small enough that they won't accidentally be pressed, but aren't so small that they are unusable. Fairly large holes are cut in the front of the bezel to allow for unimpeded air flow. Front panel connectors are all standard connectors with the appropriate labels on the connectors. One minor issue with the connectors is that the power LED connector has the middle pin blocked off (as shown below), which is OK for some motherboards that don't have a pin there, but requires bending away a pin on others (like our test bed ABIT BX6-2).

With the rest of the case so well built, it's no surprise that all metal edges are carefully rounded and not sharp at all.

The Test

With the Palo Alto ATCX, we introduce AnandTech's new case testing methodology, which includes temperature and noise testing following your suggestions and requests. We've created a whole page with all the details of the method.

With the ATCX, there are three different purchase options as mentioned above - standard exhaust fan, horizontal fan assembly, and no fan. So we tested each configuration.

It's a little hard to tell here which configuration is best or even what's going on here, but don't worry, more graphs are to come on the next page.

Cooling Summary

No surprises here, adding fans decrease the CPU, HDD, and case temp. The horizontal fan assembly does come through as promised by cooling the CPU better than the standard exhaust fan. Unfortunately, case and HDD temps are slightly higher with the horizontal fan, although not enough to make a fuss about.

It's interesting to note that the AAVID heatsink/fan does a good job of cooling the CPU regardless of this cases fan setup. The horizontal assembly would probably by more important when used with a passive heatsink.

Noise

Conclusion

Since this is AnandTech's first ATX mid tower review, we won't be giving out any awards just yet to Palo Alto Product's ATCX. However, it is definitely in contention for an AnandTech editor's choice award, but that decision will have to wait until we get a few more cases in our test labs.

The biggest blemish on the ATCX is probably the difficulty in actually locating it for purchase in single unit quantities. Until recently, Palo Alto would only sell the ATCX in quantities of 1000 per month or more - so basically only to system builders. Recently, however, the ATCX has been opened up to distribution and it should be possible to order the ATCX.

With that said, there's no denying that the Palo Alto ATCX is an excellent case and it's no surprise that the likes of Dell and Micron have chosen and stuck with the ATCX since their first ATX systems. The construction, use of space, cooling, noise, and attention to detail are all top notch - an extremely rare combination these days. If the ATCX meets your expansion needs, and you can get a hold of one, don't pass it up - you won't be disappointed.