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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7Enigma - Tuesday, February 17, 2009 - link
Circular swirling of hot air stuck inside the case? Doesn't make a lot of sense with the huge 200mm exhaust fan at the top but I guess anything is possible when you cram 3 large graphics cards and multiple HD/opticals in there. I did a double take when I saw the open case shot with everything installed. It looked like a mini-ATX!!!Christoph Katzer - Friday, February 13, 2009 - link
Nope,volgagerman - Friday, February 13, 2009 - link
Any chance we'll see a review of the Cooler Master HAF932 on this site? It seems to offer the best possible cooling at the moment, if you can get past the military data center look. Just curious as to how it would compare with the rest of your current lineup from a temp/acoustic perspective.sonci - Friday, February 13, 2009 - link
Not surprised that is a good cooling case, tons of fans without dust filters, certainly not for my living room..Zak - Friday, February 13, 2009 - link
I'm actually running an older CM Stacker with lots of fans and no filters and due to large positive pressure very little dust accumulates inside. It can be done. Z.7Enigma - Tuesday, February 17, 2009 - link
Does....Not....Compute....Unless you have a filter on the intake fan(s), there is no way you are not accumulating dust inside unless that is a jet engine on the intake side that prevents any dust from settling. I'll agree if you have adequate positive pressure on a FILTERED intake you will see very little dust in the system. But if you are telling me you have zero filtration, I just don't see it being possible unless you're in a cleanroom.
fri2219 - Friday, February 13, 2009 - link
Kind of defeats the purpose of the fans.I guess they surmised that if you put enough plastic windows and blinking lights on it, you'd be able to sell a bowl of tapeworms to you average WoWTard.
Bonesdad - Friday, February 13, 2009 - link
I think it's pretty hideous...MamiyaOtaru - Friday, February 13, 2009 - link
Looks better than the original 900 IMHO. That slanted front was hideous. I don't mind this one at all, though I wish the pastic accents would go.Nfarce - Friday, February 13, 2009 - link
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I suppose. I think it's pretty cool looking. Apparently the "in" thing right now for cases is military stealth-type design with angular references. Kinda like something you'd see in a futuristic Sci-Fi flick.