Antec Nine Hundred Worth It?

Mista.Gee

Mista.Gee

Mista.Gee

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18 Mar 2006
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759
Just built a new PC looking for a decent case with airflow and space and read few reviews on Antec's Nine Hundred PC Tower Case. Is it any good, is it worth getting, noticed it's cheap but heard it's a quality tower.

It's a choice between the Antec Nine Hundred or the Thermaltake Tsunami Dream Tower.

Any thoughts.
 
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Antec 900

When I first saw this I thought - great premise, lets see how well this works. In the photographs it looks enormous, but it's actually a very small box (really only barely ATX) with a plastic frame strapped around it. And it's not silent.

It's not that cheap and it's not that good. I dislike it so much I was once heard saying "And even if your case requirements included a tray to hold your iPod I still couldn't recommend it" which pretty much sums up how I feel. If you have a desire for a small, very ordinary steel case packed with fans on the premise that to get good cooling you have to pack a case with fans then go for it.

Have a search for threads about for people looking for fan controllers though - people who need to silence a 5-fanned monster when they have to sleep and you'll discover that have something big enough to feature on a Sikorsky in your case possibly insn't a great idea. Sure everyone rattles on about how good it looks in the dark. Unless you need to sleep in which case you have a big glowing, buzzing blue thing in your bedroom.

For pity's sake - no!

Which leaves the other case you mentioned. I have no experience of it, or Thermaltake apart from their CPU coolers and fans which appear to be in the category of well-executed copies of famous things. Yes, they are obviously copies of somthing else, but they are decently made copies that work, so on that basis I have no intention of putting you off buying a Coolermaster Wavemaster copy that's actually better made and better value than the original (which was quite good).
 
I agree with WJA96 on the Antec900 front,. as to the Tsunami dream, apart from being a really good looking case its not actually as good as the Soprano from what I have read. Poor airflow at the front.

Consider a Lian Li PC7 at this budget!
 
I don't mind it...

I like the way that when you turn the Huge 200mm top fan on full the case hovers off the ground making it look like a UFO.
 
easyrider said:
I don't mind it...

I like the way that when you turn the Huge 200mm top fan on full the case hovers off the ground making it look like a UFO.
Click to expand...

Is the woman in your sig licking the envelope on the application to have to sectioned? It should be because you are MAD :D

And the "easy does it" is what they say as they slip your phase cooled straight-jacket on? ;)
 
WJA96 said:
Is the woman in your sig licking the envelope on the application to have to sectioned? It should be because you are MAD :D

And the "easy does it" is what they say as they slip your phase cooled straight-jacket on? ;)
Click to expand...


LOL

You mean yours doesn't float?

Maybe you need a new fan controller :D
 
easyrider said:
LOL

You mean yours doesn't float?

Maybe you need a new fan controller :D
Click to expand...

No, I decided to water-cool mine but for some reason my wife won't let me turn me on with water in the bath. She has no sense of adventure. She keeps on trying to put her iPod on top of it :rolleyes:
 
Built a set up for someone in the 900 over the weekend,everything WJA96 has said just about sums it up.If i had to choose between the Thermaltake and the 900 it would be the Thermaltake.
 
I have an Antec 900 and when fan controlled it is as good as silent and easily the best passive platform I've come across. If you're looking for a case this size its great. Theres definitely some mods to consider to improve it but I've played with Stackers, Antec 180s and PC7/60 on a load of PC builds recently and none of them are anywhere near the performance of this case.

I can understand if you dont like the looks but when its beating the top end Stacker 8XX series in temperature reviews (Madshrimps.be) I dont think you can complain.

I have all 5 120mm and 200mm fan controlled and have just put in a Ninja cooler that I've fan controlled too. Its easily the quietest rig I've ever owned and the loudest component in it are now my Hitatchi HDs.

Incidently I went from a Thermaltake case (Modded Tsunami with 3 x 120mm) and had a 10d C decrease in temperature on CPU, Mobo and Gfx Cards....plus the screwless PCI slot design thermaltake use sucks....When I was lookign for a new case they were pretty much the only brand I didnt look at....
 
What a load of cobblers some people write!

The Antec 900 is perfectly fine. You'll struggle to find a case that cools as well or as silently for the price. Have a look at the madshrimps report. I've put the fans on the low setting and can assure you it is very quiet (even with the Sikorsky going). I used to have 120mm Akasa ambers, the fans that come with the Antec are quieter. If the level of noise the 900 emits is annoying then you will be annoyed by anything short of completely passive cooling.

With the fans on low the temperatures are about 10 degrees lower than they were in my previous case. The vid card is about 12 degrees cooler at idle.

The build quality is fine and solid.
 
When I said passive I just meant that the usual fan cooled components on the motherboard can be easily cooled simply using a large Passive cooler. I use a Ninja for the CPU and a Thermalright Cooler HR for my NF4 and they now both run happily passive and at a lower temperature than when they were actively cooled (Arctic Cooling 64Pro / Akasa Chipset Cooling) in the Tsunami.

The more airflow you have, especially as directed as it is in this case, means the slower you can run each of the individual fans without dropping the overall throughput of the case significantly...
 
Anybody got internal shots of there Antec Nine Hundred, would like to see internal layout with components fitted..... looks a good case, would have liked to have seen a removable Motherboard tray.. :D
 
5 fans in mine and its quieter than my 360 when in the dashboard !

has a few problems imo but overall a nice case

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:) The 360 on the dash is unbearable to me, it drowns out my raptor when sat on my desk on a mouse mat so the 360 is nothing to compare it to!

If you want a quiet case then it should be obvious that the less fans you need to use the better your case will be are running quietly, more fans means there will be more heat pockets when you turn one off by the rule of thumb.

More fans = more chance for vibration.

Throwing lots of CFM at a system can cool it well, very well in fact. However throwing a concentrated 5cfm at a component exactly as it requires can cool it just as well.

The best example I can possibly give from my first hand experience.

Cheiffy Scoprio full tower fitted with 6 80mm delta fans in total, 2400 cpu temp in the mid 40's. ATCs 500 armed with 2x Zalman 80mm low noise jobbies is givng me at 7v a almost silent rig with temperatures of low 40s idle and high 40s load.

The difference in noise is astonishing, the only real difference I have is my experience over the past 5 years of cooling computers and realising what they need to actually cool them.

The 900 no doubt is good for specialist systems, but it is too small and has too many fans for what I would consider average use.

Out of the two cases listed I would buy the Soprano as I consider it to be the superior case out of the Tsunami / Soprano.
 
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