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Antec Nine Hundred Mid-Tower Case
The Inside
Overview The inside of the case is about as special as the box the thing comes in. The construction is very simple, with a single plate for the motherboard and the drive bays making up the majority of the interior. The steel is folded cleanly and divides the case into its only two compartments: motherboard and PSU at the back, and all nine 5.25" drive bays in the front. The drive bays look very nice without any tool-free brackets--just thumbscrews. From the inside, one concern about the 200mm fan becomes apparent: should the fan fail, it will be difficult to replace once hardware is installed. Motherboard Tray This is just your standard ATX non-removable motherboard tray. Not much to talk about here.   Power Supply The Nine Hundred's PSU mount is below the motherboard at the bottom of the case. Normally when you see the PSU mounted in the bottom of a case, there is some sort of departmentalization going on so the hard drives and power supply have their own little channel for air to flow in. However, in this case the PSU seems to have mainly been mounted on the bottom of the case so as not to inhibit the sucking power of the giant 200mm fan up top. While positioning the PSU in such a way has the benefit of making a case less top-heavy and thus more stable, it also means that the 12V AUX cable to the CPU might need to be stretched across the motherboard, unless it is uncommonly long enough to go all the way around it. And without a Dremel, it's not going behind the motherboard tray. The rest of the cables are luckier, since there is a small amount of extra space underneath the bottom 5.25" bay, just enough to take care of loose wires. The PSU only mounts upside-down. Antec could have left the direction of the mounting up to the owner, and stuck an intake vent in the bottom of the case, but that didn't happen in lieu of using the PSU as another exhaust fan. The Drives The Nine Hundred has a probably-not-coincidental nine 5.25" drive bays, with a pre-installed 3-to-3 3.5" bay converter, a pre-installed 3-to-dual 120mm fan-mount converter, (that may forfeit one fan to accommodate three more hard drives) and a third 5.25"-to-3.5" external bay converter. The bays don't fool around with tool-free mounts, but all of the bay converters have thumbscrews. In a blinding instance of common sense, all of the bay converters are installed through the front of the case, so it won't be necessary to remove any expansion cards or memory sticks when working with them. They do, however, need to be screwed in on both sides of the chassis, so both side panels have to come off when working with the drive bays.     Unfortunately, there are no spaces behind the bays to conceal cables, because the right side of the drive bays is also the motherboard tray. The fact that three 5.25" bays are used to hold three hard drives tells of the Nine Hundred's priority of cooling over all else. While it's possible to mount four hard drives in three 5.25" bays, that would block most of the air from the 120mm fan in front of them. Add to it that six of the nine bays are set up for fans and hard drives, with an optical drive, there are only two bays open for bay devices. Anyone looking to use lots of bay devices is going to have to forgo some of the Nine Hundred's cooling advantage to fit them in. Cooling The 200mm fan makes a difference somewhere between astonishing and crazy. Size isn't everything either, as it is so close to the CPU and power regulation hardware (and heatpipe-cooled chipsets when applicable) that heat just can't linger. The dual-fan air pipe right to the expansion cards is just icing on the cake. All the fans are set for maximum airflow, and Antec has done quite a bit to make sure that nothing about the Nine Hundred will restrict it, to the point of not including air filters. Even with all the fans set to low, the Nine Hundred is the coolest case I have ever used, including Thermaltake's Mozart TX, with its ten fan mounts. With the fans set on high, it is also the loudest. Despite its size, the 200mm fan is audible when set on low, but it's the sound of air being moved, not the fan motor.
Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: First Impressions Page 3: The Inside Page 4: Quality Check Page 5: Conclusion 
Related Reviews Add Comment
12 User Comments 1 - Posted by
PsychoSnowMan
on February 11, 2007 - 4:51 pm Beautiful case, great article. But could we get some shots of the case running with everything installed and the lights on? Not a complaint, just a suggestion. 2 - Posted by
Max Slowik
on February 11, 2007 - 6:25 pm I can get a hold of a camera this weekend, toss some parts back into it, and shoot it. Right, tomorrow's Monday. Oh Hell, it's all the same. The photos won't be great, because unlike Kurtis, I lack |=0+0 S|<1||Z. Also, thanks. 3 - Posted by
Kurtis
on February 11, 2007 - 9:33 pm Normally we do that, and I suppose I should have put a disclaimer in the article somewhere, but here's why we didn't: I personally take all product photos here in my photo studio before I forward products onto the respective reviewer. I've installed hardware just for photos in cases myself, but I decided to stop doing that because it takes me FAR too long to finish taking photos when I actually install hardware in the case. With that said, in our case reviews, we always install hardware and actually use the case before we review it. We're sending Max a camera and a photo backdrop, so in the future we should have photos of all the hardware installed in case reviews again. 4 - Posted by
daytroxative
on February 13, 2007 - 1:58 am I work as a tech. I've built quite a few of these cases with decent gaming setups, and we always try to roll in 10 or so of them in stock. Great selling item. People really like it's utility, and not looks, although i personally like it. It's true, it's one of the coolest (temperature-wise) cases you can get. We have like 5 other 200mm cases, this one by far has the best design. Looks pretty cool to me with the blue LEDS on the front through the perforated grill. Right now i own a Cooler Master Centurion case, with the same kind of grill, I have blue LEDS everywhere, (cpu/vid/front/back (maybe i'll modify the PSU or buy the crap ocz gamexstream :S) it's still not as clean as the antec fully setup with the whole LED scheme. This is also a very deep case, for it's relatively mid-size it can fit most things under that side panel. Keep in mind about the power supply position when choosing your power supply, it's absolutely imperative you check the length to the cpu header on your motherboard before choosing one. I've fit an Enermax Galaxy Power supply 1000watt like a breeze (This is a fairly long one). My favorites are Silverstone(with 120mm)/Seasonic. I've seen the same problem on the hard drive cage, the stripped screw. something about the metal, they are all easy to strip. I think even the motherboard/chassis standoffs tend to strip. Now when i build them i use a set of pliers and try to clamp the metal around the screw (with screw in place) while tightening it in. making sure they're nice and snug. Not really stripped i guess i could stay, Maybe the holes are made oddly, or just bad luck with the metal. The tray and upwards facing front-panel is awesome for my needs (Computer on the floor), and it's worth using the 120mm add-on for the side panel. Lights look cool in there, The front comes to you looking cool. I don't even have one of these, but i would consider buying one just from experience. 5 - Posted by
Kurtis
on February 13, 2007 - 9:10 am thanks for the input daytroxative. welcome to the forums, by the way. :)
6 - Posted by
Max Slowik
on February 14, 2007 - 3:51 am I didn't, by the way, get my camera back from my dad's. . . For a tech guy, I'm sort of analog. I suppose I can shoot it with my FILM camera and use my NEGATIVE SCANNER to post the photos ;) 7 - Posted by
daytroxative
on February 14, 2007 - 3:26 pm I will have one built sometime this week. I have a camera i can take some shots with, it will be a decent system, high-end parts - e6400, enermax liberty + asus p5w DH mobo + more. It will even have raid, my camera should be decent enough for some good shots. Pentax E10 - or should i say prunetax. I'll post them on the forums and link it here in comments.
8 - Posted by
Kurtis
on February 14, 2007 - 10:32 pm Cool, thanks daytroxative. :)
9 - Posted by
Kurtis
on February 15, 2007 - 5:07 pm Note: I'm posting this on daytroxative's behalf: The parts inside include: - WinTV NOVA-S-Plus digital satellite TV card. - Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Ultimate Gamer Tower Computer Case.. - Bytecc (BT-618) USB 2.0 Internal 5.25" Memory Reader/Writer w/ USB, IEEE1394 and SATA. - Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13GHz (1066MHz) 2MB L2 Cache socket-775 - Pioneer DVR-112D 18X DVD-writer, black - OEM - 2 x Western Digital (WD3200KS) Caviar 320gb SATAII 7200RPM 16MB Buffer (OEM) - in raid 0 (stripe) - ASUS PW DH Deluxe Socket 775 Intel 975X + ICH7R Chipset 1066 FSB DDR2 800/667/533 Dual Gigabit Lan 8-Channel Audio Firewire Dual Design Support Intel Core 2 Duo Processor - OCZ (OCZ2P8002GK) DDR2-800 PC2-6400 Platinuk XTC 2GB (2x1024MB) Dual Channel Kit - Foxconn nVidia 7950GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphic Card. I have included before & after cable management, different angle views + i show the case while powered on. some immediate comments i have about it, is this MOBO + the front panel = alot inside a mid tower. idle CPU temperature is 30 degrees on the stock intel cooler. This is a pretty insane computer for a customer. Although this mobo isn't the most impressive to me. It is however the only mobo you can use to power on your pc via remote! Sorry for the hastle, i'm just at work and probly wouldn't get around to it myself very quickly. 20 mb worth in pictures :O i hope you have big inbox and can accept large attachments, it's split across 5mb x4. http://www.thetechlounge.com/random/kurtis/daytrox... http://www.thetechlounge.com/random/kurtis/daytrox... http://www.thetechlounge.com/random/kurtis/daytrox... http://www.thetechlounge.com/random/kurtis/daytrox... http://www.thetechlounge.com/random/kurtis/daytrox... http://www.thetechlounge.com/random/kurtis/daytrox... http://www.thetechlounge.com/random/kurtis/daytrox... http://www.thetechlounge.com/random/kurtis/daytrox... 10 - Posted by
Max Slowik
on February 16, 2007 - 4:19 am You get a new 'puter, Kurtis?
11 - Posted by
Kurtis
on February 16, 2007 - 11:43 am ^^^
12 - Posted by
Max Slowik
on February 16, 2007 - 11:56 am Good thing I have an eye for detail. I should do news writing. And shit.
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