antec 900 or cm690?

NoobieOCer · 2 Jan 2008 at 06:58

as title says

which one should i get? antec 900 is £20 more but then i can spend it on more silent 120mm fans for the cm690 as it fits 7x 120mm fans... but the antec has an 200mm fan... ummmmm

if i was to spend the £20 on a couple of silent 120mm fans for the cm690 would preformance be as good as antec900 case?

edit: noise is not much of a factor so the speeds with be on high on antec900. and i will drill a few holes for cable management.

Ken_Lee · 2 Jan 2008 at 10:22

my personal favourite is cm690 it looks more classical

NoobieOCer · 2 Jan 2008 at 12:19

yea but in terms of cooling preformance is the cm690 just as good as antec 900 when i add 4 more 120mm fans

Chimerical · 2 Jan 2008 at 20:11

The Antec is better, but it suffers from bad cable management (even the new revision with pre-cut holes is no less cramped). The Coolermaster 690 is a really nice case, but simply having the ability to lump fans all over the shop doesn't make good airflow a certainty. It is good though, in that it has plently of meshed area's around the case.

NoobieOCer · 2 Jan 2008 at 20:18

dam it i would love if some one give me a simple straight answer for once here lol.... so antec better cooling but cramped... but once i get evyerthing in i wont have to reopen it again untill i upgrade so not like i always opening it adding new hardwear..... cm690 erm....... come back to the fist question if i add 4 120mm fans to cm690 would it be just as good as antec 900??

Chimerical · 3 Jan 2008 at 14:21

Get the Antec for airflow. The two front fans (with mesh front of case) and 200mm exhaust can't be beaten by the C690.

Adding four fans to a C690 won't make it as good as a 900.

Tbh neither case is in any way perfect, the Antec will get very dusty unless you install filters and cable management Is a problem as no-one likes congested, messy wires but the case is still better for cooling hardware.

NoobieOCer · 3 Jan 2008 at 19:55

Chimerical said:
Get the Antec for airflow. The two front fans (with mesh front of case) and 200mm exhaust can't be beaten by the C690.

Adding four fans to a C690 won't make it as good as a 900.

Tbh neither case is in any way perfect, the Antec will get very dusty unless you install filters and cable management Is a problem as no-one likes congested, messy wires but the case is still better for cooling hardware.

well i can always install air filters and drill a few holes for cable management

MoNkEyMiKeY · 14 Jan 2008 at 12:28

I may be buying a CM-690. I would prefer it over the 900 simply for its looks. They are both going to be as noisy as each other by the looks of them. I currently have a p180 but Ive always prefered CM cases. Got 2 sitting forment in the spare room right now.

Andrew G · 14 Jan 2008 at 12:58

I have the Antec 900 case and it is dust bunny central after a month as there are zero filters on the intake fans. Cable management is no so good either, there are two straps that help with cables running up the case top to bottom, bottom to top BUT around the PSU outlet area it gets very messy, which must dent airflow from the hard drive caddie right in front of it. Must admit wish I had the p182 now or other filtered case.

Darthe · 14 Jan 2008 at 13:22

NoobieOCer said:
dam it i would love if some one give me a simple straight answer for once here lol.... so antec better cooling but cramped... but once i get evyerthing in i wont have to reopen it again untill i upgrade so not like i always opening it adding new hardwear..... cm690 erm....... come back to the fist question if i add 4 120mm fans to cm690 would it be just as good as antec 900??

No simple answers because its not a simple question.

If you added 4 120mm fans to the case it would have equal or higher case airflow then the Antec 900, but that doesn't automatically mean cooler components.

What you've got to understand is that the airflow in a case from case fans is rather low speed, and if you want to cool a component you really need to have a fan blowing directly on it (CPU etc). The role the case fans serve is to keep the air that feeds these fans as fresh and cool as possible, but it can only go as low as room-temperature (the air temperature outside the case).

The point I'm trying to make is having lots and lots of fans isn't always a great idea, or even going to make much of a difference to your critical components. Its going to depend on how much heat you generate (number of heat-generating components and how hard you push them), but there comes a point where adding more or faster fans just makes the case louder and dusty for no temp benifit.

You say noise doesn't matter, but running all the Antec 900 fans on high makes one hell of a racket. I've not found any temp benifit from running mine on high or even medium.

My choice would be the CM690. More options for upgrading later (you say you won't but I've done that too and changed my mind, Always better to have the option). The Cable management in the 900 is also a pain in the ass (don't under-estimate the hassle of cutting holes in steel), and the CM690 looks far nicer. I'd grab that, and maybe 3 good quality Yate-Loons with dust filters to go with it.

Remember that the 200mm on the Antec isn't useful because it shifts a lot of air, but that it shifts a lot of air more quietly then several smaller fans. If your going to have a really noisy case anyway then whats the point?

sepulchre · 14 Jan 2008 at 14:05

I'm using the Antec 900 and found cable management to be easy enough, providing you have a modular PSU and don't use IDE, granted there is a small amount of spaghetti in the top right corner that I need to sort out.

My OC'd Q6600 stays cool enough with the 120mm fans set to low ad the 200mm fan on med, I cant say the noise is an issue at all and it sits on the desk beside me, tbh my Freezer 7 is the noisiest part of the system when at full tilt under prime.

PhillyDee · 14 Jan 2008 at 15:21

Thats the newest version. It has holes. The older ones didnt.

Darthe · 14 Jan 2008 at 15:31

Nice build though. Did you cut the power cables to size? I find they make the most mess.

sepulchre · 14 Jan 2008 at 16:14

PhillyDee said:
Thats the newest version. It has holes. The older ones didnt.

True but they have been shipping them like this for quite some time now, it seems though the 900 got a bad reputation for cable management from the original version and its stuck.

Darthe said:
Nice build though. Did you cut the power cables to size? I find they make the most mess.

Nope, the OCZ psu comes with quite a few different cables so I just picked the oens which were about the right length, some also disapear behind the mobo tray.

NoobieOCer · 14 Jan 2008 at 23:12

Darthe said:
No simple answers because its not a simple question.

If you added 4 120mm fans to the case it would have equal or higher case airflow then the Antec 900, but that doesn't automatically mean cooler components.

What you've got to understand is that the airflow in a case from case fans is rather low speed, and if you want to cool a component you really need to have a fan blowing directly on it (CPU etc). The role the case fans serve is to keep the air that feeds these fans as fresh and cool as possible, but it can only go as low as room-temperature (the air temperature outside the case).

The point I'm trying to make is having lots and lots of fans isn't always a great idea, or even going to make much of a difference to your critical components. Its going to depend on how much heat you generate (number of heat-generating components and how hard you push them), but there comes a point where adding more or faster fans just makes the case louder and dusty for no temp benifit.

You say noise doesn't matter, but running all the Antec 900 fans on high makes one hell of a racket. I've not found any temp benifit from running mine on high or even medium.

My choice would be the CM690. More options for upgrading later (you say you won't but I've done that too and changed my mind, Always better to have the option). The Cable management in the 900 is also a pain in the ass (don't under-estimate the hassle of cutting holes in steel), and the CM690 looks far nicer. I'd grab that, and maybe 3 good quality Yate-Loons with dust filters to go with it.

Remember that the 200mm on the Antec isn't useful because it shifts a lot of air, but that it shifts a lot of air more quietly then several smaller fans. If your going to have a really noisy case anyway then whats the point?

wow 0.0 a lot to read...so...... ** saying that the case fans should put in stratigical locations blowing to certain parts of the computer to get best cooling? eg antec 900 font fans and hdd racks can be moved so move one blowing directly to cpu hsf