Antec 900 vs similarly priced Lian Li

eyemessiah · 28 Jun 2008 at 18:42

Any thoughts? Are the lowish end Lian Lis (£60-70) temperature & noisewise than the antec 900?

And how will people know that I am the ultimate master of all time if I don't buy the Antec? Will the lian li allow me to pwn every noob ever spawned?

Pilky01 · 28 Jun 2008 at 18:54

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17851407

That case is slightly more expensive but it should give you a basic idea of the cooling.

p4radox · 28 Jun 2008 at 19:12

Hello again.

In all honesty the 900 is almost unbeatable for pure airflow. The brute force approach works very well.

But it's a small case, a bit tacky and pretty noisy. And a lot of people report dust problems.

In most Lian Li cases you'll find they have good to excellent cooling, which is good enough for almost everyone. They're also incredibly well built, look attractive and are feather-light.

eyemessiah · 28 Jun 2008 at 19:12

qwerty321 said:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17851407

That case is slightly more expensive but it should give you a basic idea of the cooling.

Thanks a lot, that's really helpful.

]MadBoy[ · 28 Jun 2008 at 21:39

heheh 900 is a magnet for dust, i have put filters on mine now. Still gets in there, its not that noisy and does light up the room at night. Cable managment is crap so cut some wholes in it and its ok

eyemessiah · 29 Jun 2008 at 00:31

]MadBoy[;11985951 said:
heheh 900 is a magnet for dust, i have put filters on mine now. Still gets in there, its not that noisy and does light up the room at night. Cable managment is crap so cut some wholes in it and its ok

What did you use for filters? Or did you buy something specially made for the task?

rodo · 29 Jun 2008 at 08:44

heheh 900 is a magnet for dust, i have put filters on mine now. Still gets in there, its not that noisy and does light up the room at night. Cable managment is crap so cut some wholes in it and its ok

He speaks the truth. Im actually getting an A17 to replace my 900 in a month or so. It looks like a nice case.

Kiro-San · 30 Jun 2008 at 14:16

rodo said:
He speaks the truth. Im actually getting an A17 to replace my 900 in a month or so. It looks like a nice case.

I'll be a third to back up that statement. I have to take my 900 outside every couple of months and clean the damn thing out. Quiet noisey too. I'm going to replace it with a Lian Li A71B soon though.

warren_1979 · 30 Jun 2008 at 16:12

Kiro-San said:
I'll be a third to back up that statement. I have to take my 900 outside every couple of months and clean the damn thing out. Quiet noisey too. I'm going to replace it with a Lian Li A71B soon though.

Have you got dust filters though? I've seen some AC Ryans filters on here and I'm wondering if these might cut down on the dust accumulation, because I'm thinking about purchasing the 900 myself. But the DUST thing as everyone keeps mentioning is really putting my off.

Wayne~ · 30 Jun 2008 at 23:47

IF you have the fans on medium its quiet and on low mines whisper quiet. It does accumulate dust pretty badly though

Kiro-San · 1 Jul 2008 at 13:18

warren_1979 said:
Have you got dust filters though? I've seen some AC Ryans filters on here and I'm wondering if these might cut down on the dust accumulation, because I'm thinking about purchasing the 900 myself. But the DUST thing as everyone keeps mentioning is really putting my off.

No I don't and I really wish I'd bought some when I got the case. The P180 had them and they were lifesavers. The 900 really needs some, which is why I guess the Antec 1200 has them. Personally I think the case is noisey, but that might be down to the other bits in the case. Eitherway, with the plastic window side panel with a hole for an extra 120mm fan it doesn't keep the noise in very well at all. That said, I do really like the 200mm fan at the top of the case.

arknor · 1 Jul 2008 at 13:53

ive got some fan filters from my old case that look exactly the same as the ac ryan ones on ocuk and they were pretty crap, they did catch a lot of dust and hairs but the inside of my case got coated with really fine dust particles, in the end i just ended up removing them because the dust build up was easier to manage without them.

Phil2008 · 1 Jul 2008 at 14:38

I love my 900, perfect sizie, yeh dust is a bit of a prob, but its no biggy for me cos I have akways blown the dust out of my pcs every 1.5 - 2 months anyway, and it only a 5min job todo.. But you do get a lot of dust buldup on the front of the case tho after a few days, but thats not a prob, cos just wipe the front with a cloth.. Heres a pic of he dust build up on the front after about 5 days.

The first pic looks much dustier then that btw, and as you can see theres dust build up in the 2nd pic, even tho I havent got a fan on the side on my case. So that tell you its can pull air in from the side of the case without the need for a fan.

edit : My wavemaster case got much dustyier inside then my 900 does. For me the main prob is the dust build up on the front and side of the outer case and having to wipe the dust off every few days. But like its a 2sec job, so Im sure I can put up with it.

thegoonden · 2 Jul 2008 at 09:53

The dust builds up on the side vent because you have 2x120mm's blowing in, and 1x120mm and one Apache Gunship Rotor blowing out. The result is an over all negative pressure inside the case, so ambient air is sucked in the side vent.

On my winbox, the fans are on high, but the 3x120's are on an fc03 fan controller (along with the CPU fan), the Rotor makes a fairly agreeable noise anyway, so I just let it run full speed.
The Linux box, being the one that runs 24/365 has it's 120's on low, and it's Rotor on high, all through another FC03, it can be rendered all but silent, especially with the HD's on a decent spindown timer.
Me laptop drowns it out.

Phil2008 · 2 Jul 2008 at 16:31

People say that if you changed the window side for a solid side on the 900, you would get better air flow, hows that? Cos more air can get into the case using the window side panel.

rodo · 2 Jul 2008 at 18:58

I think it's to do with a better flow. More air doesn't necessarily mean better air flow and better cooling. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

warren_1979 · 2 Jul 2008 at 20:57

Phil2008 said:
I love my 900, perfect sizie, yeh dust is a bit of a prob, but its no biggy for me cos I have akways blown the dust out of my pcs every 1.5 - 2 months anyway, and it only a 5min job todo.. But you do get a lot of dust buldup on the front of the case tho after a few days, but thats not a prob, cos just wipe the front with a cloth.. Heres a pic of he dust build up on the front after about 5 days.

The first pic looks much dustier then that btw, and as you can see theres dust build up in the 2nd pic, even tho I havent got a fan on the side on my case. So that tell you its can pull air in from the side of the case without the need for a fan.

edit : My wavemaster case got much dustyier inside then my 900 does. For me the main prob is the dust build up on the front and side of the outer case and having to wipe the dust off every few days. But like its a 2sec job, so Im sure I can put up with it.

That's pretty bad dust build up. Is that only after a few days?! Where is your PC and how dusty is the room?

I've just bought the 900 (should be with me friday), I've decided I'm going to give my room a spring clean tomorrow and get shut of all the dust. Thinking about getting some filters as well for the fans.

eyemessiah · 2 Jul 2008 at 21:26

Just thought i'd mention, the arse fell out of my budget so I'm ending up having to get the cheapie Akasa zen!

nevermind...

thegoonden · 2 Jul 2008 at 21:34

The Zen'sa fine case, but I wouldn't build a heat-monster of a PC in it, I had to move mine into a 900 because it was warm....only warm, but warm brand new tends to mean blast furnace after 6 months. Funny, the Zen is now the case for the house server, and it was the server (in it's former "white goods" case), and it's penchant for gently BBQing HD's, that got me worried about the Zen in the first place.

If it IS a touch "balmy" in there, a couple of better fans will sort it out I'm sure.

And Rodo, you're right, more air doesn't necessarily mean better. Open sided machines usually and run hotter, and those that don't need better fans so they will

Not sure about the side vent on the 900 though, because the air will be entering the same way it would if a fan were there.
bit of clingfilm and 5 mins with some temp logging software should provide a definitive answer.

Phil2008 · 3 Jul 2008 at 14:29

warren_1979 said:
That's pretty bad dust build up. Is that only after a few days?! Where is your PC and how dusty is the room?

I've just bought the 900 (should be with me friday), I've decided I'm going to give my room a spring clean tomorrow and get shut of all the dust. Thinking about getting some filters as well for the fans.

thats about 5days worth, got my 900 on my desk, but I dont spring clean that often. But Like I said my wavemaster case got much dustier inside then my 900 does.