Antec Nine Hundred Two: Second Generation Gamer Case
by Christoph Katzer on February 13, 2009 3:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Conclusion
The Nine Hundred Two doesn't come with many features to really separate it from other offerings, but it's still a good design overall. You get a conservative yet attractive design, with an all-black interior and exterior. Performance is very good, especially in terms of ambient and hard drive temperatures on high-end systems. CPU and GPU cooling is also good, but not at the top of the charts.
Installing our system was generally straightforward, although we ran into problems with our choice of graphics card and the hard drive cages. You will want to carefully consider what sort of components you plan on utilizing before purchasing this case; we definitely don't recommend it for anyone using longer graphics cards.
One feature that we definitely liked with the ability to control fan speeds of all of the fans from the case exterior. That makes it very easy to utilize this case to increase fan speeds when you plan on playing a game that will stress the system more, but you can turn fan speeds back down when you're finished.
At present, only one version of this case is available, and that version includes a windowed side panel. Current prices start at around $140 -- $160 at Newegg. European users just began receiving the first shipments last week, with prices starting at €105 and averaging €115. Given the newness of this case, however, we expect to see prices drop somewhat before production and supply stabilize.
What's the bottom line? The Antec Nine Hundred Two is an attractive case with a relatively conservative design, and it turns in a rather good performance. Our only real reservation right now concerns pricing, but we expect that to change soon enough. As prices continue to drop, we definitely recommend keeping an eye on the Antec Nine Hundred Two; with the right rebate, we'd have no hesitation in recommending this case for just over $100.
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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.