Antec Skeleton Open Air PC Case Review

Installing Parts into the Skeleton

Accessories for the Skeleton are pretty slim, but its all you need. Antec provides 4 hard drive caddies, cooling fan for the 3.5 drive bay, mounting hardware, and a couple wire ties. What is missing is a manual — thats right, no manual. You do, however, get a sheet that has a technical type drawing of the case that tells you what each part is, but you’re left to your own imagination on how to go about working on it.

After I scratched my head for a minute (or 30) and looking all the parts and the case over, I started in on assembling the test system into the Skeleton. Your first step is to slide out the lower tray so you can get to the motherboard tray. To do this you have to loosen 2 retaining screws on the back.

With the lower tray slid out and the side panels off you now have more room to work. To remove the motherboard tray there are 3 screws that hold it in place, 2 in the rear corners and one front center.

With the tray out you can install the standoffs and the motherboard.

The cutouts in the tray allow you to run wires through and have access to the CPU backplate.

When I put the tray back into the system I found my first oops. The cooler I had installed in the test system was the Cooler Master V8 and it is a very tall cooler. The cooler looked like it would fit under the fan, but I failed to pay attention to the shroud around the fan. So your choice of cooler for the Skeleton will be VERY limited. If the cooler you have is taller than the video card, it will not work with the Skeleton.

Annoyed at having to take the cooler off and find one in my stock that was short enough to fit, I moved on to installing the optical drive. The 5.25 and 3.5 bays have a somewhat tool-less retention system. I say somewhat as you need a screwdriver to install the retaining stud on the device prior to installing it into the Skeleton. Now if you dont move the system around a lot then this will be enough. Otherwise, you need to remove the side cover and install a case screw to hold the drive more firmly.