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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poee - Saturday, April 4, 2009 - link
It baffles me why anyone would think it acceptable to market a PC case as a "gaming case" in 2009 and STILL not make allowances for 10.5" graphics cards!How long has it been since the release of the GeForce 8800 GTX? Nearly 2 1/2 years? How in the world can a company think that a "gaming case" doesn't need to comfortably fit a 10.5" card??? And, you know, there are already some 11" cards out now. It doesn't take a crystal ball to see that high-end graphics cards will likely only get longer, not shorter, as time goes on. As it is, ATI and NVIDIA could use even more space for their cards for better cooling, power management, etc., but they must keep the length down as much as possible because most of the cases out there cannot handle longer cards. So why are NEW gaming cases being manufactured that are still not made for these longer cards?
Everyone who wants a high-end GPU doesn't necessarily want or need a full tower case. It's silly to have to get a case that has massive unused vertical space just so you can make use of its horizontal space. How difficult could it be to design a mid-tower case that adds an additional 3" or so front-to-back over the standard (obsolete) dimensions? Or does everyone really believe that the days of long graphics cards are a passing fad?
gnesterenko - Saturday, March 28, 2009 - link
Repeatedly I see these case reviews that continue to ignore the NZXT Tempest. 3x120mm in, 1x120mm out back, 2x140mm up top. This thing moves a LOT of air and is very quiet. I'd like to see it comapred against some other cases for a change...Kenjis - Sunday, March 8, 2009 - link
I use an Antec 900 original, the Mk2 looks great, maybe not worth the hassle of undoing all my cable management and everything to swap to a new case but I do have some complaints about the testingI think your average person who will be building a Tri-SLI rig with 9 hard drives is going to be looking for a much larger case than this personally, I just dont see them picking this one
Now then, I have 4 HDDs and a 8800GTS 512 in there, Yes, its a bit tight, but I've found a lot of cases to be just as bad that are going to fit where I want my case to be
Air filters? My case stays pretty damn clean because its up off the floor....
The Stacker was too tall for my desk, i couldnt reach the power button or anything else, and i hate having my case on the floor for dust reasons, I chose the 900 and loved it so much i bought 2 :)
I'm happy with it, and its quiet as well
Grimm920 - Saturday, February 21, 2009 - link
You tested the 900 2 and you didn't even bother to cable manage the case!!What a rookie mistake... come on Anandtech, you can do better then that.
I've built a couple of computer already with this case and it has great cable management capabilities... I'm so disappointed in this review
thebeastie - Saturday, March 7, 2009 - link
I think case reviews on a lot of review web sites in general need better lab conditions.They have the nerve to often start reviews talking about how cases and PSU choice is often over looked by consumers but when you try to look at the reviews they don't put much effort in them selves!
I would like to see *all* case reviews performed in a professional hosting state of the art environment, I have been to a lot of data centers and gone through their tours, they always talk about how the temperature is always with in 1 degree and the humidity is at a exact percent.
If the humidity is changing for every case review even if the room temperature is the same it is still going to make a huge difference in the thermal performance tests.
Googer - Tuesday, February 17, 2009 - link
No case revuiew should ever be considered complete without having installed and photographed oversized PSU like PC Power and Coolings 1KW-SR or similar. How well would one fit in this chasis?Googer - Tuesday, February 17, 2009 - link
No case revuiew should ever be considered complete without having installed and photographed oversized PSU like PC Power and Coolings 1KW-SR or similar. How well would one fit in this chasis?mazzmond - Monday, February 16, 2009 - link
I just put together an i7 build using this case and I'd rate it as about average to good for price paid. If it comes down to $100 then it would be a good case for money assuming you like how it looks.Pros include excellent cooling, fairly quiet for amount of fans, excellent airflow, ease of putting the system together and at least the case I got didn't have any build quality issues or cosmetic problems. Everything works. The review didn't mention it but it does have a cable management system with several holes cut out and plenty of room for a lot of cables on the side (had no problems putting the side panel down) and they do include some cable ties on the other side of the case for this as well. Dust filters are now included which is nice and I think it looks fine.
Cons include no hole for the CPU 12V ATX power cable. Right now I have it going over graphic cards and in order for me to make it look "neater" would need to buy a cable extension. Also, front headphone jack is not shielded properly. Trying to listen to music through it, you get constant background noise, pops. This wasn't fixed from prior 900 and should have been! So front jacks are useless for headphones. I have my hard drives in lower bay and not running raid so my middle bays are clean so for me not a problem with oversized graphic cards but could be if you need to mount a bunch of hard drives and are using some large cards.
Overall average case with good cooling. If price drops to $100 then I'd say it would be a good buy.
v12v12 - Monday, February 16, 2009 - link
Gawd what is it with these bottom mount PSU cases! It's such a flawed design!!!! Cable management is trash (or use ugly extenders), it's a fact that bottom mount PSU cases are less efficient. Geesh wtf will these manufacturers GET IT?! People want CLEAN interiors, not a rats nest of wires and stupid cable sleeves. That and look at the price of this recycled, cheap aluminum box?! People stop paying so much for this junk... Geesh.Another over-hyped box of boring...
Itguy32 - Sunday, February 15, 2009 - link
This review is a bit limited. There are too few comparisions. Sure, in a few months there will be. I would like to see how rackmount and compartmentalized cases compete against these.