For the past two years, Antec's Nine Hundred has dominated the field at lan parties and in the hearts of gamers. The high airflow and slick looks made the case very popular. Two years later there are numerous competitors who have brought out products to tap into that same market. Recently, Antec brought out the Twelve Hundred with a similar design to the Nine Hundred but with some much-needed changes. They have decided to add some of those changes to the Nine Hundred along with a few new ideas. The new product is called the Nine Hundred Two, today we are going to take a closer look.
Product Name: Nine Hundred Two
Review Sample Provided by: Antec
Review by: Wes
Pictures by: Wes
Specifications
| Drive bays: | - External 3 x 5.25"; Internal 6 x 3.5" for HDD, or - External 6 x 5.25"; Internal 3 x 3.5" for HDD, or - External 9 x 5.25" |
| Cooling system: | - 1 rear 120 x 25mm TriCoolTM blue LED exhaust fan - 1 top 200 x 30mm "Big Boy" TriCoolTM blue LED exhaust fan - 2 front 120 x 25mm special black blue LED intake fans with front speed control - 1 side (Optional) 120 x 25mm fan mount - 1 middle (Optional) 120mm fan mount |
| Front mounted I/O ports: | - 2 x USB 2.0 - 1 x eSATA - Audio In and Out (AC'97 and HDA compatible) |
| Motherboard: | Mini-ITX, microATX, Standard ATX |
| Unit Dimensions: | - 19.4" (H) x 8.6" (W) x 18.6" (D) - 49.3cm (H) x 21.8cm (W) x 47.2cm (D) |
| Features: | Built-in washable air filters 8 expansion slots to support multiple graphics cards, including NVIDIA 3-way SLI® |
| Power Supply: | No power supply included |
| Package Dimensions: | - 22.7" (H) x 11.3" (W) x 20.1" (D) - 57.7 cm (H) x 28.8 cm (W) x 51 cm (D) |
| Weight: | - Net: 25.4 lbs / 11.5 kg - Gross: 28.9 lbs / 13.1 kg |
Packaging
The Nine Hundred Two came in a box that is almost a dead match to the box the Twelve Hundred came in. Of course, the size of the box is in proportion to the smaller case. The picture on the front of the box was so similar to the Twelve Hundred's picture that if it wasn't labeled you wouldn't be able to tell the two apart. On the back of the box you will find a few pictures around the case showing off the sexy black interior. Under the pictures, they have included a specifications listing in English, Spanish, and French. Inside the box, the case was packed securely with foam padding and a plastic bag protecting it from any scratches.
Outside
It's very obvious that the redesigned Nine Hundred is basically a Twelve Hundred only shorter. Every single feature of the Twelve Hundred was implemented on this design; in fact, I could copy and paste my Twelve Hundred review and it would apply. Without going in to the same amount of detail, everyone must know about a few features. I love the design of the side panel window, is great to see companies trying things other than a square window. On the top of the case, there is a large flat area that is perfect for setting things if needed and a very large fan to help keep the case cool (ironically, the fan is the only difference I could find from the Twelve Hundred, the new design looks much better). Also on top you can find the power & reset buttons along with a list of front mounted I/O ports. The microphone and headphone ports are un labeled just like on the Twelve Hundred (I spoke with the product designer at CES about this issue, the reason they are unlabeled is because when using today's HD audio ports they auto detect. Unfortunately, I never have very good luck with HD ports).
Looking at the front of the case, I was happy to see the strong mesh panels that help airflow while being strong. You will also find two knobs hidden in the mesh front panels; the knobs control the fan speed for the two front mounted fans. Speaking of fan controllers, the back of the case has the same control panel that we saw on the Twelve Hundred; they just removed a few of the switches due to the lower number of fans. Lastly, I was impressed with the black color of the back panel, normally this area is overlooked and unfinished, this level of detail is a blessing.
Inside
The most dominating feature of the inside is the satin black finish on every panel. As with the Twelve Hundred I was really happy to see, the black makes the components stand out more. The downside to the rear mounted fan controller are the small wires that have to run too it, when I build a pc I am always looking to hide every wire that I can. It would be nice to see the wires in an all black color or with a sleeving on them. On the back, there is an all black fan up top along with the expansion slots. The most impressive change here was the eight expansion slots, even the much larger Twelve Hundred only had 7. The extra slot may be helpful with slot mounted fan controllers in the future. Up top, a 200mm "Big Boy" led fan is a staple of the Nine Hundred and Twelve Hundred. The large size should keep noise down while moving a lot of air.
The front of the case has two triple bay hard drive enclosures with LED fans mounted on the front. The fans give the case its signature look while keeping your hard drives cool. As much as I love this feature, I hate the thumbscrew mounts. Each of the enclosures requires eight thumbscrews to be removed before you can pull them out. This is an even bigger issue considering you have to pull them out to clean the fan grills. If the stock airflow isn't enough they have included two mounts for 120mm fans. One is on the front attached to the back side of one of the hard drive cages, the other is in the middle of the side window. I think it's great they left those as an option; this is the type of consideration that made the original Nine Hundred so popular. Speaking of the side panel, there is one feature that both this case and the Twelve Hundred have that I missed in my last review. Half of the side panel has a mesh covering but with a window behind it. If noise isn't an issue for you, they made it simple to remove that window opening up even more airflow into the case.
Our Test Rig
Gigabyte EP45-UD3P 775 Socket Motherboard Intel Q6600 Quad Core Processor Noctua NH-C12P Heatsink 4 Gig's of Mushkin Ram XFX 4870 Radeon Video Card BFG 680 Watt Power Supply Seagate 320 GB Hard Drive Western Digital Green 1TB hard drive Samsung SATA DVD Burner
Installation
Having built the Twelve Hundred in the past, I knew what to expect jumping into this build. Because of that, everything went very smooth. The numerous thumbscrews along with every other part being attached by screws made me long for the screwless cases that I sometimes complain about. There has to be an easier way to be able to take things apart and put them together. When installing the Noctua NH-C12P I was worried that the heatpipes were going to touch the top fan. In the end, they barely missed. I found the wire management to be above average but still left me wanting for more. The bottom mounted power supply with no bottom grill forces you to install your power supply upside down, this moves the power supply wiring right in front of the side panel window instead of near the back. Lastly, the lack of a motherboard access hole on the back is disappointing; being a gaming case they should expect people to be swapping out heatsinks in the future.
Performance
Antec stuck with the same cooling formula that kept the original Nine Hundred cool. Three 120mm fans is more than enough to keep most rigs running very cool, but to top it off the 200mm fan up top creates a whirlwind of air. Of course, with all of the fans and mesh you have to expect some noise. In order to keep that noise to a minimum Antec included fan controllers for each of the four fans. When the fans are turned to their max, you know that they are running. When they are turned down they are almost inaudible, as long as your internal components are quite, noise shouldn't be an issue.
Overall
Considering the heavy construction moving the case around can be tiresome, I would love to see Antec follow the lead of some of the other manufactures and consider an easy to use handle of some sort. It would make taking the case to lan parties and friends house's much easier. The lack of an access hole for the back of the motherboard and dropping a few of the multitude of thumbscrews all would make living with the Nine Hundred Two much easier. Of course, it's not all bad things, the case looks amazing. The extreme amount of fans keeps everything cool while the fans built in blue lighting give the case a sharp look at night. The black interior and fan and lighting controls are proof that every detail counts. So does the update help the Nine Hundred compete against its competitors? I think it's a great improvement, but I would like to see a few small details like the thumbscrews and rear motherboard access be improved before I would give this one a 10.
