Antec Nine Hundred Two: Second Generation Gamer Case
by Christoph Katzer on February 13, 2009 3:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Installing the Components
We didn't have quite as much space in this case as we did with the previously tested Silverstone Raven, although the two cases don't really compete directly for the same audience. We did like the hard drive cages, which provide plenty of extra room for airflow and improved hard drive cooling. The drawback of course is that you can only fit a maximum of nine hard drives -- or six without an extra hard drive cage -- into the case.
We almost always encounter some difficulties when installing our test components into Antec cases, and this is no exception. The big problem is that our 8800 Ultra graphics cards are simply too long. It's not possible to use these particular graphics cards while also populating all six hard drive bays. With the graphics cards in place, we were unable to get the hard drive cage back where it belongs. It ended up sticking out 1 cm at the front, and that's before we even tried to attach cables. With large graphics cards, it's very likely that you will need to avoid using the middle hard drive cage. In fact, we also couldn't use the top drive location for the bottom drive cage. One alternative if you don't need to have more than one optical drive is to move the middle hard drive cage up a couple notches. As it stands, with 380 800 Ultra graphics cards and no change in the positioning of the drive cages, we were only able to use two hard drives.
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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?