Palo Alto Products ATCX Mid Tower/Desktop ATX

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.