Antec Nine Hundred Two: Second Generation Gamer Case
by Christoph Katzer on February 13, 2009 3:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Comparison
With everything installed, let's take a look at one of the more important aspects of any case: cooling performance and acoustic noise.
Noise levels are good but not spectacular. We have definitely seen better cases when it comes to keeping things quiet, but we have also seen worse designs. As expected, high fan speeds increase noise levels quite a bit. It's also worth mentioning that the fans that Antec includes are not particularly quiet; purchasing fans from a different vendor noticeably reduced noise levels.
Temperatures are quite good overall, particularly the hard drive and ambient temperatures. We tested with the fans set to both low and high speed, and as expected the temperatures are generally lower at high fan speeds. However, it's interesting to note that CPU temperatures actually increased at the higher fan speed, potentially indicating a problem with airflow at that setting. Now let's see how this case compares to other cases when it comes to proper cooling.
Note: The first column is the CPU temperature, the second represents the graphics cards, the third is for the hard drives, and the last one is the ambient temperature.
Note: The first column is the CPU temperature, the second represents the graphics cards, the third is for the hard drives, and the last one is the ambient temperature.
Temperatures are very important when comparing different cases. Naturally, some cases are larger or smaller, but in terms of raw cooling performance the Nine Hundred Two is near the top of the charts. Again, keep in mind that we are using a high-end build with a quad-core CPU and three of the hottest graphics cards around -- not your typical setup. We will add a midrange system in the near future in order to provide additional performance insight.
The idle temperatures are the lowest of any of the tested cases; only Antec Skeleton offers a lower ambient system temperature, but you would expect that from the "open" design. The Silverstone FT01 and Raven along with the Antec Skeleton also offer better CPU temperatures. Moving to the load tests, overall performance drops somewhat, with a CPU temperature that is higher than everything but the rather old Silverstone TJ10. GPU temperatures are near the top, with hard drive and ambient temperatures clearly benefiting the most from the cooling design.
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JeBarr - Saturday, February 14, 2009 - link
This might have made sense on the full size 1200 and I suppose still useful for some, but still seems like a waste for the targeted audience. Thanks for the nice photos I don't always get that here and is appreciated.CZroe - Saturday, February 14, 2009 - link
Many people mount their HDDs backwards in Antec 900 cases. It certainly looks cleaner and it solves the problem with clearance behind the graphics cards. My older 900 required me to Dremel some holes under the motherboard to route the wires but Antec caught on quickly and pre-drilled them in later 900 cases. I'm sure that they didn't forget when making the Nine-Hundred Two.jjj - Saturday, February 14, 2009 - link
It's nice to see that you guys try to test cases with high end parts but I wish you would use some bigger CPU coolers too.I'm farely sure a TRUE on a DFI LP UT X58 or EVGA x58 wouldn't fit because there isn't enough space above the mobo.7Enigma - Tuesday, February 17, 2009 - link
That does seem like an omission. If you are going to go with 3 freaking GPU's in tri-SLI I would assume you would have a Tuniq Extreme or something on there that is massive.Mr. Katzer, please at least test this in the future to make sure large cpu coolers will fit. I understand you want to keep the setup the same for comparison purposes to previous reviews, but just pop a larger cooler on to make sure clearance issues don't cause problems.
Christoph Katzer - Thursday, February 19, 2009 - link
I am currently building a second system (i7) and Noctua sent us two different coolers that we can test different setups. First ones tested with two systems are the Thermaltake ElementS and Antec NSK4480II.poohbear - Saturday, February 14, 2009 - link
u guys say:"The drawback of course is that you can only fit a maximum of nine hard drives"
wow, so, their target audience might need more than 9 hdd?! lol that's hardly a drawback man. jebus.
yacoub - Friday, February 13, 2009 - link
Using dictatorial software, eh? :)
7Enigma - Tuesday, February 17, 2009 - link
Ha I wondered what that meant, now I just read it phonetically and see how Dragon misconstrued that. :)strikeback03 - Friday, February 13, 2009 - link
Glad to see they added a side filter to this. I built a system for by brother in law in a Three Hundred and we ended up having to tape cheesecloth to the inside of the side panel behind the side vent to filter dust. Has the standard fans at the top/rear, and a 120mm blowing in through the hard drive cage, all fans at slow.ianken - Friday, February 13, 2009 - link
...that's a pretty sloppy cabling job there guys.Alos, this might make a nice server box. Nine bays up front, I could fit three four disc traless hotswap cages there.