Antec 900. The dream that became a nightmare.

miceormen · 9 Jul 2008 at 16:01

Yo

Bought an antec 900. At last. Saved up for a while and now i find how god awful it is to install in.

1. Hard drive cage is just a nuisance. I've seen better cages in far cheaper cases.

2. For the love of god, why does antec provide power / hdd indicator cables that are inches too short. I have a ds3r. Its not an unpopular motherboard. Not least because the layout is almost precisely the same for all the ds3 range.

3. Guess this is just pot luck. But my psu cable only just stretches (had to do some creative trimming to my af7 fan cage) to the 12v input.

grrr.

/rant over

PhillyDee · 9 Jul 2008 at 16:09

You will have to remove that competitor name for a start . . .

1. I never had a problem with the cages. What problem exactly?
2. They were JUST long enough on my DS3. I made extensions for mine for better routing. They should have been longer tbh.
3. The cables reached on my corsair, but thats hardly a case fault. I bought lengtheners for the P4 connector to route it around the outside.

But then, if you had searched the forums, you would have come across these mentioned . .

miceormen · 9 Jul 2008 at 16:16

Took me an age and an assortment of odd tools (i don't own a thin shafted screw driver - so getting the hdds installed was a chore).

I don't know how to lengthen cable. Something i should probably learn

As it is i can't get the power sw / indicator cables in at all with my icy box installed. Which is just lame.

Happy · 9 Jul 2008 at 22:13

You do know the cages slide out the front of the case after you have unscrewed the thumbs screws...right? :confused:

miceormen · 9 Jul 2008 at 22:27

Happy said:
You do know the cages slide out the front of the case after you have unscrewed the thumbs screws...right?

Yes. lol

Just used to using 20 quid cases and was expecting deus ex machina for £66. Nvm. Everything went together well in the end, and the power indicator lights etc JUST fit once i'd stretched them a little and repositioned my icy box.

For the record, once the hdd cages have been moved around a bit (they were majorly stiff and hard to move on their rails), the case works remarkably well. Got my 2 samsung 640s in there on raid now, all working very nicely.

Sorry for the rant. : )

Happy · 9 Jul 2008 at 22:31

Glad everything is working well now, and yes I love the case, just very jealous of my brother's Antec 1200

HighlandeR · 9 Jul 2008 at 22:56

Its a lovely case the Antec 900 but yeah pain in the backside to install into, thats one thing I immediatly said to myself rather then spending a whole day making a perfect tidy build I could have done the same with a large Lian li case in about 1-2hrs.

Antec 900 has its flaws and yeah can be fiddly but still an amazing top end case frankly. Be hard pressed to find a better case around 60 quid imo.

miceormen · 9 Jul 2008 at 23:48

Agreed. Tbh, lian li etc are wonderful designs, but i honestly don't see the point in making a system look so beautiful, only to have it superceded by the next new thing (for instance, wolfdale -> nehalem).

imo, my 60 quid case looks the muts nuts, all lit up with a couple of 5 quid ccfls (those AC Ryan jobs

), and the 1200 and the rest of the more expensive cases would have been a waste.

C64 · 10 Jul 2008 at 01:38

It's a low budget case cant expect it to be perfect.

Phil2008 · 10 Jul 2008 at 12:30

The only prob I had with my 900 is tidying the cables, it took me hrs cos its a right pain to tidy, and yeh the cable is a tad on the short side for the hdd led ect. But never had any probs with the hdd cages, but would hate to remove them cos would mess the fan leads up..lol

ih8modem · 10 Jul 2008 at 16:56

gtx280

Anyone have a GTX280 in one of these?

I have a case (still boxed) and a GTX280 and at the moment I am staring at them hesitant to open in case it don't fit and I need to return one, the other, or both.

Kiro-San · 11 Jul 2008 at 12:46

The 8800GTX barely fits. You have to really be careful routing the HDD cables etc around it to get it in. Not sure if the 280GTX is any longer but if it is you either don't use the middle HDD cage or you find a new case

Phil2008 · 11 Jul 2008 at 22:24

I think I would chop a lump out of the hdd cage if I had any cards that didnt fit.

mmorpheus1 · 11 Jul 2008 at 23:24

Get the dremmell out and start cuttin'

turn the hard drives the other way around

cut a hole in the bottom of the case and flip the psu :eek:

all leads fit without extensions

and there is plenty of room for big graphics cards :cool:

My 900 with Rampage Formula And EVGA 8800GTS :cool:

Althulas · 12 Jul 2008 at 13:14

Well here is my effort. I had the internals powder coated

but may as well had sprayed instead a left the paint to harden for week by the time I got the parts back but finish is so nice though

. I replaced my front fans with some 3pin antecs so I could use in conjunction with a thermaltake hardcano13 fan/temp controller. I did the alternate mounting for my HD too

as is looks neater.

Looks a right mess the other side but plenty of those sticky backed ziptie holders and zipties later and could fit the side panel on.

Phil2008 · 12 Jul 2008 at 15:49

If you think about it, any graphics card will fit in the 900, all you have todo is cut the side of the hdd cage to accommodate the card,

Chimerical · 12 Jul 2008 at 16:40

Althulas said:
Well here is my effort. I had the internals powder coated

That does look really nice. Post smaller pictures though? Please

ih8modem · 14 Jul 2008 at 00:10

Case 1 Done

I have managed to build my first machine, Asus Maximus Formula, 2 x ATi 4870 in x-fire, 2 x SSD 32GB , 2 x 320GB WD.

Now a bit concerned about my NB/Motherboard temps, both are running high 40's to low 50s at the moment.

lokiguesty · 15 Jul 2008 at 16:11

i have a BFG GTX 280 in my antec 900.

all i had to do is remove the optional fan bracket from the case to give enough space to fit the card.

if you leave the black fan bracket inside u will nto be alble to fit the card in as its too long.

hope this helps

Loki