Antec Nine Hundred (aka. A900) - Should you buy it? (WIP) - Overclock.net

nicoloco · 01-10-08

At the time I am writing this I have been to this forum long enough to know that I lack the knowledge some of my fellow OCN'ers have. However I do enjoy a discussion now and then, and every time a A900-thread pops up have to state my opinion. This thread is written with mostly my opinions, but I have borrowed some information from other threads on the forum. Now, on to the things I came here to say.

Foreword:
When you build a computer you have to think about many things. I think it is safe to say that everybody who buys a computer wants as much as they can get for their money. Many of you guys have deep, endless pockets full of green bills. Others in here have to ask their parents or perhaps girlfriends if they can buy/have a new computer, I am one of the whipped ones.

Overclocking is a great way to get the most out of your computer, either it is in the lower end of the scale or in the top of the scale, with a high-end CPU, tri-SLI and a 3,5" diskette drive! Common knowledge is that you need a beefy CPU-cooler to overclock your CPU, but many beginners don't think about how their case can impact their results. I always ensure that airflow is at is best before I recommend expensive CPU-/GPU-/Chipset-/RAM-coolers. This is where the A900 is at its very best, and it is one of the reasons why I will be recommending this case later in the thread. Before you buy a new I think you should always ask yourself a couple of questions.
1. Looks - What should my case look like?
2. Space - What will I be putting in it? (Always leave space for upgrades)
3. Noise - Is it important that my case is silent?
4. Tidyness - Is it important for me that my case looks tidy on the inside?
5. Funds - How much can I afford?
6. Overclocking ability - Is the case built to give good airflow?
I will be giving my own look at the A900 based on these questions.

The Antec Nine Hundred EC - Ultimate Gamer Case:

1. Looks:
In my humble opinion the A900 looks rediculous. It looks like a wannabe Thermaltake Armor, and it looks cheap.
Conclusion: Will give you massive streetcred if you are 15.
Rating: 2/10
My case

2. Space:
With 9 drive bays in the front the case has a fantastic range of possibilities for those who want to arrange their disks, optical drives, fan controllers, card readers and diskette drives (but who would bother with one of those?).
On pictures the case looks bigger than it actually is, and the space inside the case is not as good as you might think. It should never be labeled as a bigtower, as I have seen some webshops do. You get 2 cages for 6 3.5" drives and that should be enough for most of you guys. The cages have a 120mm fan attached to the front, and the fans cool the disks as well as suck fresh air into your case. I would suggest placing the cages in the 6 lower spaces to get the coolest air in to your case. You can fit an additional 120mm fan to one of the fan cages, but you can not have drives fitted in the cage if you wish to do so.
Conclusion: Enough space to fit all your drives and accessories.
Rating: 8/10

3. Noise:
The most common reasons for noise in a computer are fans and drives. The cheap DVD-/CD-ROMs are the noisiest components you can buy, however I can't see the reason why people should have a DVD-rom running at full speed constantly. I would say that the more fans you get, the less noise you will get, as each fan can be set to run at low RPM and that will be compensated by the sheer number of fans. FYI the fans that come with the case all have molex-connectors (oooo) and a very simple fan controller with 3 levels. Each fan has to be set manually inside the case.
Conclusion: Excellent potential for e near silent case.
Rating: 9/10

4. Tidyness:
Here is where the case takes its first major blow. There is, apart from a few small holes, NO place to hide wires. If you want to turn HD's around you will have to buy extra brackets to do so, note that you will have to fit the HD's fairly far out due to the fans in the front, which can be removed, but I don't see the point in that as the main reason why you should hide wires is to maximize airflow. You can give it a shot, and many wires can be hidden behind the mobo-tray, but their isn't much room to manouver. Take a look at my case for instance, their isn't much space left to manouver.

Also note that the wires for the pwr-switch and such are very short, and in most cases need to be lengthend or drawn through the case and not behind the tray as you probably would like to.
Conclusion: This case is not for the supertidy. You need to be handy and know your way around a saw to get a half-descent result.
Rating: 2/10

5. Funds:
Face it, this case is cheap. One of the main reasons people would/should buy it.
Conclusion: Cheap, and very good value for money
Rating: 8/10

6. Overcloking ability:
One can discuss if a case has any overclocking ability, in it self it obviously doesn't, but the way this case cools your components if you set it up correctly gives you an advantage when it comes to clocking. This case WILL lower your temperatures on devices cooled by heatsinks, their is no doubt about it.
Rating: 9/10

Overall Conclusion and Rating:
If you have maximum 3 hard-drives, small graphicscards(or just one, cheapskate!), don't care TOO much about cable management and how your case looks this is DEFINATELY the case for you.
On the other hand, if you are looking for a case for your 6 harddrives, your Ultra's in SLI and a sleak looking case, you are going to be better off with a Lian Li or something in a higher price range. Face it, you spent endless money on your mobo/cpu/gpu's, why not spend a couple of extra bucks so you can complete the build?
Rating: 6/10 - Fairly good rating for a case that I am not happy with

How about you posting your own conclusion and rating on the case, only based upon your own experience. Would be fun to see peoples overall rating. If you base the rating upon my 6 points it will be fair.

Please PM me all errors you find so I can correct them, I am Norwegian and my English is not as good as it should be.

Links:
Dust Problems
Does a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme fit?
Discussion on fans
OCN'ers views on the A900 vs P182
A Discussion about the A900 - h3xw1z4rds thread which I found amuzing

dustandechoes91 · 01-10-08

Also there is an Nvidia version of this that can be purchsed from thier site that has all green fans and lights

nicoloco · 01-10-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by dustandechoes91

Also there is an Nvidia version of this that can be purchsed from thier site that has all green fans and lights

Nice! Thanks for the info.
That looks......... great?

Too bad the only thing they changed is the fan colour and that they put a sticker on it. I would like to see if it could fit 2 8800GTX's any better because of the sticker, though

h00chi3 · 01-10-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by nicoloco

1. Looks:
In my humble opinion the A900 looks rediculous. It looks like a wannabe Thermaltake Armor, and it looks cheap.
Conclusion: Will give you massive streetcred if you are 15.
Rating: 2/10

Opinions are like, well you know. I think it is a very nice case with plenty of potential. I don't see any flaps over my drive bays that move when my dvd-rom opens up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nicoloco

2. Space:
It should never be labeled as a bigtower, as I have seen some webshops do.

It is a midtower case

Quote:

Originally Posted by nicoloco

4. Tidyness:
Here is where the case takes its first major blow. There is, apart from a few small holes, NO place to hide wires. If you want to turn HD's around you will have to buy extra brackets to do so, note that you will have to fit the HD's fairly far out due to the fans in the front, which can be removed, but I don't see the point in that as the main reason why you should hide wires is to maximize airflow. You can give it a shot, and many wires can be hidden behind the mobo-tray, but their isn't much room to manouver. Take a look at my case for instance, their isn't much space left to manouver.
Also note that the wires for the pwr-switch and such are very short, and in most cases need to be lengthend or drawn through the case and not behind the tray as you probably would like to.
Conclusion: This case is not for the supertidy. You need to be handy and know your way around a saw to get a half-descent result.
Rating: 2/10

This is where it gets me every time. If this was just a review website, I would totally agree with you, but it is not. This is overclock.net, where we are in "the pursuit of performance." Mods mods mods. I don't want to buy and case and then do nothing to it but installing my hardware.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nicoloco

5. Funds:
Face it, this case is cheap. One of the main reasons people would/should buy it.
Conclusion: Cheap, and very good value for money

I don't consider 129.99 cheap, maybe you are rich or something

nicoloco · 01-10-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by h00chi3

Opinions are like, well you know. I think it is a very nice case with plenty of potential. I don't see any flaps over my drive bays that move when my dvd-rom opens up.

It is a midtower case

This is where it gets me every time. If this was just a review website, I would totally agree with you, but it is not. This is overclock.net, where we are in "the pursuit of performance." Mods mods mods. I don't want to buy and case and then do nothing to it but installing my hardware.

I don't consider 129.99 cheap, maybe you are rich or something

Thanks for the input. It will be valuable when somebody looking for a case reads this thread! The case definately deserves some defending, as I am sort of butchering it in some parts of my "review". Nobody should ever base a desiscion upon one user-review.

h00chi3 · 01-10-08

I totally agree. There are some cases that people hate, and then they get modded up and now everyone wants the case. I mean look at CyberDruid, it is like the 900 was created for him, so that he could mod it.

+rep for an honest review

Namrac · 01-10-08

THANK YOU! Finally someone that agrees with me on the Nine Hundred's looks. -_-

Run N. Gun · 01-10-08

The 900 is an easy case to mod for cable management (which it does need).
Considering the case is a midtower, it will support a SLI configuration with no problems.

Just because your case isn't tidy, doesn't mean it can't be done. Here are my two 900s:

This pic didn't have the video card installed, but you get the idea.

You said that I will get massive streetcred if I'm 15? I'm 40, so I guess I have massive streetcred 25 years too late. LOL.

BTW - this system will easily support 9 harddrives, no problem. I don't know where you come up with 3 or 6 hdds, but 9 work just fine. There are plenty of folks on this forum and couple of guys that I know personally, that have all the slots full.

I am not picking on you, just offering my opinion, as you have offered yours. Nice job, Nicoloco.

**mega_option101** · 01-10-08

Here is mine:

Haven't got around to trying to sort out that 4-pin yet lol

Run N. Gun · 01-10-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by nicoloco

Nice! Thanks for the info.
That looks......... great?

Too bad the only thing they changed is the fan colour and that they put a sticker on it. I would like to see if it could fit 2 8800GTX's any better because of the sticker, though

Where did you get your information? The Antec 900 will fit two 8800GTXs in SLI, with room to spare.

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Antec Nine Hundred (aka. A900) - Should you buy it? (WIP)

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