Antec Nine Hundred

[Rob Williams]

Antec has launched a gamers case that they tout as being the "most versatile ever". It also takes on a huge task of keeping your components cool with it's 200mm fan. We are taking a thorough tour of the case to see if it's worth your time.

You can read the full review here and discuss it here.

I think everything said pretty much hit the mark, although those recorded temp comparisons are nothing to sneaze at...I have this case and even with everything packed in it the way it is, my idle temps are 27(CPU)-30(PWMIC)-35(NB) with SLI both cards are at 40 and 38 respectively. The HDDS idle at 22-24-19-22(4 drives). Now during full load add 5 to all of these...great numbers indeed. I dunno, I just would mentioned the temperature aspect a bit more.

Thanx!

Great case, but one thing to note is that the FP audio connector lacks HD Audio, which if your motherboard FP Audio is HD, you might be out of luck. I tried following directions from Intel's web site on how to connect the AC97 pins, but to no avail.

[Greg King]

To you both, thank you for the compliments and suggestions.

As far as the temps are concerned, I agree, the Nine-Hundred is a winner for those who depend on air cooling. And you are also right in that I should have spent a bit more time talking about the impact of so much air movement on overall system temps. I am sorry for that.

Great point on the HD audio as well.

[moon111]

I'm not sure about the price. Even with all the fans. It's a nice looking unit on the outside. I hate boring grey insides... would have to paint it. If it were cheaper, I'd consider it.

[Rob Williams]

I know I'd spill something into that huge 200mm opening.

[werty316]

Great case but the price is a bit high considering it doesn't include a PSU.

[Rory Buszka]

I don't think the price is high for what the case delivers -- the Nine Hundred has excellent materials and build quality. If you want to pay less for a case, buy a cheap Thermaltake case. You gotta pay to play; I'm tired of the current consumer mentality that anything that costs more than $0 is overpriced -- I'm willing to pay what's necessary for a high-end product. Otherwise, I'm prepared to accept compromises.

What I disagree with in the review is the idea that the Nine Hundred is 'cramped'. How big does a case have to be before it isn't 'cramped'? From the photos, it looks like a motherboard can drop straight down into the case without being tilted, angled, or otherwise jiggered around. With a smaller ATX case like the SOLO/P150, I could see someone thinking of it as 'cramped' because the motherboard needs to be angled in order to slide in. If you want a bigger case, buy an Antec TX1050.

[Greg King]

Cramped is a relative term. My angle in the review was as such: I use a full ATX chassis whenever possible and I have since my first PC. I am used to large open cases with plenty of room to work in. I also did not buy this case. It was sent to us to review and then provide our readers with an honest assessment of our time with the case. I said it was a cramped case because I honestly feel that it is.

And to weigh in on the pricing issues, the Nine-Hundred can be found online anywhere between $100 and $130. For the money, and I mentioned this in the review, that the P180 would be the better route if an ungodly amount of airflow wasn't tops on your list of must-haves.

the Nine Hundred does tend to get cramped if you use large size graphics cards like the 8800 gtx. Two of them in SLI will be a bit too much for this system

Hello. I seek a hardcore gamers case and the looks, ammount and size of fans and unique qualities of this case have mezmerised me But the main reason I am in need of a new case is because my current and shit case is way too noisy for running at night. I put up with it while sleeping as it downloads.. I do have 11 fans in it, which is ridiculous but each component including the 3 hard drives is cooled, but I turn all of them off so its only 3 fans but my hard drives make too much noise. I dont want to lean towards the P180 because of looks and I wont be able to use the lights I have. What would the accoustics be like in this case with only the fans it comes with plus one Arctic Cooler for the graphics card and the hard drives of course, all turned on low?

Thanks in advance (long read lol soz)

[b1lk1]

You have too many fans and hard drives don't need active cooling. It has been shown that cooling them doesn't help them in the least. Every component does not need active cooling. Even when highly overclocked, all you really need is good case airflow and active cooling on the CPU and video card. This case would be great since it is very quiet as long as you don't put extra fans in it. The fans it has are perfect for airflow, and they are pretty quiet on low. Any fans you think you need should be swapped for ultra quiet low flow fans if you gotta have them. Any way you look at it, 11 fans is atleast 5 too many.

[NicePants42]

Originally Posted by MountainBikeMike

Hello. I seek a hardcore gamers case and the looks, ammount and size of fans and unique qualities of this case have mezmerised me But the main reason I am in need of a new case is because my current and shit case is way too noisy for running at night. I put up with it while sleeping as it downloads.. I do have 11 fans in it, which is ridiculous but each component including the 3 hard drives is cooled, but I turn all of them off so its only 3 fans but my hard drives make too much noise. I dont want to lean towards the P180 because of looks and I wont be able to use the lights I have. What would the accoustics be like in this case with only the fans it comes with plus one Arctic Cooler for the graphics card and the hard drives of course, all turned on low?

Well, you've got three (unspecified) fans plus (unspecified) HDDs in your current (unspecified) case. With the Antec 900, you'd have three 120mm fans, your hard drives, and a 200mm fan in the top. Unless you're currently using 80mm fans, I'd imagine that the two would sound very similar (at night), especially since you're main gripe seems to be with HDD noise, not fans. Notice that the front of the 900 is basically a mesh in order to let air pass - this isn't going to muffle the HDDs very well, and I didn't see any special neoprene mounts or anything to reduce vibrations, either.

So, from your post, it sounds like your 3 fans are quiet enough, but you need to either get some quieter HDDs or find a way to dampen them. There are several ways to go about silencing a HDD, including using plastic screws, rubber grommets (even a strip of electrical tape can help if grommets are too large/thick), or a special HDD enclosure.

Some cases (I apologize, but I don't know exactly which ones atm) use grommets in their HDD racks, similar to this bay device. In the second picture you can see the inner rails where the HDDs are screwed in. Notice that there are large circular cutouts instead of small screw holes. There are rubber grommets that fit into these cutouts, and the screws fit through the grommets, so that when installed, the HDD/screws are not in direct contact with any metal framework. This particular Lian Li model does not fit every case. It may be worth trying to get a case that uses a similar type of HDD mounting method.

Originally Posted by NicePants42

Well, you've got three (unspecified) fans plus (unspecified) HDDs in your current (unspecified) case. With the Antec 900, you'd have three 120mm fans, your hard drives, and a 200mm fan in the top. Unless you're currently using 80mm fans, I'd imagine that the two would sound very similar (at night), especially since you're main gripe seems to be with HDD noise, not fans. Notice that the front of the 900 is basically a mesh in order to let air pass - this isn't going to muffle the HDDs very well, and I didn't see any special neoprene mounts or anything to reduce vibrations, either.

So, from your post, it sounds like your 3 fans are quiet enough, but you need to either get some quieter HDDs or find a way to dampen them. There are several ways to go about silencing a HDD, including using plastic screws, rubber grommets (even a strip of electrical tape can help if grommets are too large/thick), or a special HDD enclosure.

Some cases (I apologize, but I don't know exactly which ones atm) use grommets in their HDD racks, similar to this bay device. In the second picture you can see the inner rails where the HDDs are screwed in. Notice that there are large circular cutouts instead of small screw holes. There are rubber grommets that fit into these cutouts, and the screws fit through the grommets, so that when installed, the HDD/screws are not in direct contact with any metal framework. This particular Lian Li model does not fit every case. It may be worth trying to get a case that uses a similar type of HDD mounting method.

Thanks for that. My hard drives are a WD 80gb IDE about 1 year old, a Seagate 200gb IDE nearly 2 years old, and a Seagate 320GB SATA 16MB about 4 months old. They have a weird noise pattern I havn't witnessed before, that can be heard when running the fans on low or off very clearly. They vibrate in slow pulses 3-4 seconds apart, every few pulses slowing down or taking less time to get through so its no set pattern. Every HDD is cooled with a heatsink, 1 has a 7800 cooler which blows air strait out of the case, the other has a fan sitting on top of the heatsink, the other- no fan just passive.

I think with the Nine Hundred with 7 fans (inc GFX which is Silent, PSU 120mm, and posssibly the 120mm fan I have for the cpu (which is a silent cooler so it doesn't always need any fan)) I could get a result with the help of these:

http://pccasegear.com/prod5050.htm - Noise Reduction Kit
Would help with HDD's, I have a fan speed adjuster so don't need those cables. [probably best option]

http://pccasegear.com/prod1050.htm - These have worked good in the past and cheap..

http://pccasegear.com/prod1638.htm - ..So this should work good as well

http://pccasegear.com/prod1327.htm - This should work but then the front case fans wont do shit

Does anyone know how well the noise reduction kits work and why my HDDs vibrate up and down?
Thanks

[NicePants42]

Of this links you mentioned, I have to say that I've tried both the fan and PSU gaskets, and I don't think they make much difference, honestly. They can't hurt, but if you're already using quiet fans that are properly mounted, you shouldn't need them.

As for the silencing kit, the main thing I'd recommend are the rubber HDD screws, however you can buy nylon or UHMW screws at Home Depot (or whatever) for like $2 - I don't see how you need to spend $25 on the entire kit when you might not use the rest of the stuff.

The HDD silencer looks like it'd make a noticeable difference, however the first thing I'd suggest is dropping ~$2 on plastic HDD screws from Joe's Hardware Store or whatever, and maybe put a couple strips of electrical tape along the interface between the outside of the HDD and the inside of the frame where they're attached, to help prevent metal to metal contact. If that $5 project doesn't make a dent in your HDD noise, then you may consider spending a little more. I'm not sure if the HDD silencer will interfere with the front case fans - it looks like it probably will, but you may be able to modify (read: hack off) a chunk in order to allow the fans to remain in place.

You can also find rubber grommets at a hardware store, and if you have a drill, you may be able to drill out the HDD mounting holes such that you could install your own grommets. You will need to get some slightly longer screws to mount the HDDs if you do this. I don't know the thread size of the top of my head, I want to say M6, but you should check.