Antec Nine Hundred Two: Second Generation Gamer Case
by Christoph Katzer on February 13, 2009 3:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Appearance
The Nine Hundred Two case is completely black -- inside and out. The main structure of the case is composed of steel, with plastic parts for portions of the top and front. As with its predecessor, there are nine 5.25" drive bays with perforated covers on the front to allow air to pass into the chassis. Like most other cases that have a bunch of 5.25" drive bays, Antec uses hard drive cages placed behind some of the 5.25" covers. Two cages are included, with each cage occupying three 5.25" bays and supporting up to three 3.5" hard drives. If you want to forego using any optical drives, you could purchase a third hard drive cage separately.
There are power and reset buttons at the top, along with audio, USB, and eSATA ports. The top panel looks similar to the Twelve Hundred, with a large 200mm fan serving as an exhaust. The top panel is largely composed of plastic, which does make the case feel a little "cheap" -- or at least not as nice as the expensive aluminum cases -- but it's thick enough that you won't worry about accidentally breaking it. The combination of steel and plastic does help keep costs down somewhat, although at ~$160 this certainly isn't an entry-level or even midrange case.
The left side panel has a large window that extends from top to bottom, allowing you to see all of your internal components including the power supply and the back of any hard drives. You will want to take some time to make sure your cabling is clean, which is one of the drawbacks of such a large window. The rear portion of the left side panel has a cutout where you can install a 120mm fan, which would blow air directly at any expansion cards -- great for keeping GPUs cool.
Antec includes eight expansion slot covers on the back of the case, which is one more than most computer cases provide. Thumbscrews are provided to secure any components installed in the expansion slots, and most people will end up with an extra expansion slot or two that their motherboard doesn't use, which would be a perfect spot to install additional USB, FireWire, or eSATA ports.
Antec is one of the few companies to include fan speed controls on many of their cases, and the Nine Hundred Two continues that trend. There are two small potentiometers that control the case fans on the two included hard drive cages. In addition, there are three-way switches on the rear where you can select low/medium/high fan speeds for the top and rear case fans. Another switch allows you to turn the LED on the top fan on or off.
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pepsimax2k - Friday, February 13, 2009 - link
forgot to say, this also allows you to clean the filters much more easily (ala p180). another bonus for me :)pepsimax2k - Friday, February 13, 2009 - link
ohhhh, antec antec antec! what have you done! ok, ignore the above, 900 two only has single circular holes, so looks like you can only mount any screws at the front in limited positions. the original has regular long sliding holes so you can screw front drives / bezels in at any position. i spose you could always drill some more...AstroGuardian - Friday, February 13, 2009 - link
This case is not as good as you say it is. The temperatures are the lowest during the first week of usage. After a week the case is filled with dust and fibers and it creates a risk of overheating of components especially hard drives.I think it's quite stupid that Antec do not put filters behind the front plates. If anyone enjoys opening the case and disassembling the PC just to clear out the tons of dust, than this case is just for you
pepsimax2k - Friday, February 13, 2009 - link
900 two has front filters behind the front fans (and side); only the original 900 lacked them. Although they're easy to add even on the original (see my post below).slashbinslashbash - Friday, February 13, 2009 - link
Why has nobody managed to improve upon the original gamer case, the Antec Dragon, aka Chieftec Dragon, aka Antec SX1040, etc? I bought mine like 8 years ago and I still haven't gotten a new case, because I look at the other cases and think "my Dragon has more room than this, and is better constructed!" I'm not an xxxtreme overclocker, so I really don't care about cooling that much. The 2 rear 80m fans in my Dragon work just fine.Things I love about my Dragon: A) Tons of room; B) Easy to customize front bezel LED's; C) removable HDD trays and nicely designed optical drive sleds; D) a huge window; E) nice color choices (I have mine in blue and it still looks better than 90% of cases out there); F) Sturdy as hell (I sit on it all the time); G) nice sturdy latch and nicely-opening side door (no stupid little slots that you have to line up). It still blows my mind that nobody offers a case with all these things, and more. It is big enough to fit all of the HDD's and a long video card, but I have do have to take out the video card to remove the HDD trays. In that respect, something with sideways-inserted HDD's would be better. I also with it had workable front USB, FW, and audio. (I know some later Dragons had these features, mine does not.) Other than those things, there is not much to improve on this design which has been around since roughly 2000. If Antec still sold the exact same case, I would buy it again now, no doubt.
JeBarr - Saturday, February 14, 2009 - link
Yep, the egg still sells chieftec dragon for 100 bucks and worth every penny IMO.Zak - Friday, February 13, 2009 - link
The same reason I'm sticking to my aging, slightly moded CM Stacker 810. With two overclocked 285s, overclocked i7 and 12 hard drives it's cool and nearly silent and still there is room to add more stuff. Except for looks I don't see any better cases out there now in the <$200 range. Heck, even among the expensive ones there isn't anything appealing. I like that behemoth ABS Canyon case but some strange design decisions were made and IMHO it has a few deal-breaking problems, in particular considering the price. The Raven is a nice attempt at innovation, but fails in many areas. We're still using cases that pretty much have the same layout and features as they had 10 years ago.Z.
direfox - Friday, February 13, 2009 - link
Awesome photography! Its hard to get good pictures of all black objects but you guys did a great job and I finally get to see what the case really looks like.cactusdog - Friday, February 13, 2009 - link
Do it got Emails?Its ok but not my style.
hob196 - Friday, February 13, 2009 - link
How come the Idle System temperatures get higher when the fan's running faster? Is this a chart snafu?