On a DS3 the Tuniq is facing up (so the fan is blowing to the rear, and there is no room for the side fan (Bought one to find that out). I could probably dremmel the side of the fan off, but cant really see the point. With the TT put in 90 degrees the other way, the side fan should fit fine. The front panel buttons are tight and stretch to the DS3, but do go across the board. I keep meaning to lengthen them with the trusty soldering iron.
Feel bad about buying antec 900? I have time to change!
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Soldato
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My Antec 900 Review, Previous Case Akasa Eclipse62
Ill try to keep it detailed and honest.
The Antec 900 is a lot smaller then my Akasa62, so the Akasa wins in this area I think I spent half a day trying to set it up and run a few cable ties, the Akasa62 has no such issues and is a joy to work with you can easily hide any cables and excess in the bays, I did however find a very narrow small gap at the bottom of the Antec 900 to which I shoved many excess/cables in of course once its all setup its done. But if your forever upgrading/changing parts the Akasa wins.
Looks? No contest the Antec wins here the Plastic front is a lot thicker/higher quality and solid black Its steel and solid grills at the front, the rest is Steel panels/Plastic solid top. The Akasa had a terrible plastic £3.50p look but nice alu side panels.
Cooling: No contest again the Antec wins here unlike the Akasa which has a bottom notch and air vent lines I found air could barely get past that to cool the insides of the case my hdd temps were ok, but even to the touch now using the Antec the hdds are cool and not even warm like before. + the 8800GTX and other parts are definatly recieving a nice cool breeze which they werent before on the Akasa62.
Silence factor: The Antec wins here, for some specific reasons for one thing I replaced the 120mm fans with Zalman 120mm fans using the 7v transistor dongle, I cant stand bloo bright fans ! I have 2 fans on the front and thats all, no need to switch on the 200mm fan. The reason why its overall more silent is since on my Akasa I had an issue the front 120mm fan use to cause an vacuum like hum thru that plastic front! and would often rattle as well!
The Antec shows no such issues. Even with rubber grommets it wasnt solved on the Akasa62 I could solve it by removing the front panel though!. Also cos its more sturder and steel I find it dampens the noise on the Antec900. And I have more hdds/8800GTX in my Antec which I didnt in the eclipse62. Massive rubber feet on the Antec 900 dampen such vibrations/hums and issues over the Akasa62. Its just a case of airflow not being stuck between plastic/filters imo which was the issue with the Akasa62.
Features: Both about same ! Akasa 62 had the removable tray and filters were good and it was highly moddable as in u can remove the cages/bays which was excellent however the Antec 900 with its 200mm fan and proper front air flow and hdd Cage system to allow for 6 hdds and plenty more drives is impressive especially since they got 120mm fans on the front. The Antec has got some other nice features but overall I feel antec put more thought into there design/features.
Would I buy it again?
Yes cos its almost impossible for me to find a good case to replace the Akasa Eclipse62 ! and ive been looking at all the Li Lan cases and others and it seems to me finding a Perfect Case is next to impossible
Having said that next week ill proberly find myself getting another case
Just some pics:
think I need more then Cable ties for my room....
Ill try to keep it detailed and honest.
The Antec 900 is a lot smaller then my Akasa62, so the Akasa wins in this area I think I spent half a day trying to set it up and run a few cable ties, the Akasa62 has no such issues and is a joy to work with you can easily hide any cables and excess in the bays, I did however find a very narrow small gap at the bottom of the Antec 900 to which I shoved many excess/cables in of course once its all setup its done. But if your forever upgrading/changing parts the Akasa wins.
Looks? No contest the Antec wins here the Plastic front is a lot thicker/higher quality and solid black Its steel and solid grills at the front, the rest is Steel panels/Plastic solid top. The Akasa had a terrible plastic £3.50p look but nice alu side panels.
Cooling: No contest again the Antec wins here unlike the Akasa which has a bottom notch and air vent lines I found air could barely get past that to cool the insides of the case my hdd temps were ok, but even to the touch now using the Antec the hdds are cool and not even warm like before. + the 8800GTX and other parts are definatly recieving a nice cool breeze which they werent before on the Akasa62.
Silence factor: The Antec wins here, for some specific reasons for one thing I replaced the 120mm fans with Zalman 120mm fans using the 7v transistor dongle, I cant stand bloo bright fans ! I have 2 fans on the front and thats all, no need to switch on the 200mm fan. The reason why its overall more silent is since on my Akasa I had an issue the front 120mm fan use to cause an vacuum like hum thru that plastic front! and would often rattle as well!
The Antec shows no such issues. Even with rubber grommets it wasnt solved on the Akasa62 I could solve it by removing the front panel though!. Also cos its more sturder and steel I find it dampens the noise on the Antec900. And I have more hdds/8800GTX in my Antec which I didnt in the eclipse62. Massive rubber feet on the Antec 900 dampen such vibrations/hums and issues over the Akasa62. Its just a case of airflow not being stuck between plastic/filters imo which was the issue with the Akasa62.
Features: Both about same ! Akasa 62 had the removable tray and filters were good and it was highly moddable as in u can remove the cages/bays which was excellent however the Antec 900 with its 200mm fan and proper front air flow and hdd Cage system to allow for 6 hdds and plenty more drives is impressive especially since they got 120mm fans on the front. The Antec has got some other nice features but overall I feel antec put more thought into there design/features.
Would I buy it again?
Yes cos its almost impossible for me to find a good case to replace the Akasa Eclipse62 ! and ive been looking at all the Li Lan cases and others and it seems to me finding a Perfect Case is next to impossible
Having said that next week ill proberly find myself getting another case
Just some pics:
think I need more then Cable ties for my room....
Last edited:
My point exactlypaul_64l said:
well done for understanding whats written 
. People do prefer larger cases like the Akasa Eclipse because of the good air circulation/modding/cable management and water cooling properties etc..etc which some cases can't offer 
I had an Eclipse before I thought the front intake was weak due to the design of the plastic front hindering airflow. So I can definitely see how the 900 would cool better then a stock Eclipse, with that huge 200mm fan drawing heat from the cpu area, and 2 dedicated 120mm fans to cool the hard drive and the gpu area.
However I know more fans isn't alway better and the Akasa being more spacious has better ventillation. I'm surprised HighlandeR did not try the Akasa dedicated side panel which makes a significant improvement to cooling the gpu's. That's what I did. It got rid of the hot spot around that part of the case, which in turn helped keep the cpu cooler.
However I know more fans isn't alway better and the Akasa being more spacious has better ventillation. I'm surprised HighlandeR did not try the Akasa dedicated side panel which makes a significant improvement to cooling the gpu's. That's what I did. It got rid of the hot spot around that part of the case, which in turn helped keep the cpu cooler.
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I wasnt even aware of a side panel with the fan for the akasa
Yeah that woulda definatly helped... and yes good to see im not the only one that felt the akasa although amazing and large and good to work on the cooling wasnt that good, how can air even get past the front vent lines, they had a notch underneath so yeah not to bad but it was weak I see £40 jeantech cases with better design/front air vents completly cut out so air can pass directly to the hdds/insides of the case rather then Eclipses method of just blocking 90% air flow..... then again not just Eclipses even the lian lis/silverstones block it a lot !
Im ditching the Antec 900 tbh, I just need a case with plenty more space and ease to work on.... also the side fan on the antec 900 side panel its incompatible with large heatsinks so a sycth ninja or tuniq and u will find the fan not even being able to put the side panel back on !
Yes the Antec900 has great cooling and my 8800GTX is proberly still cooled better but just need the space/comfort trust me one big issue is working on the Antec 900 its no joy and takes half a day rather then 1hr on a decent large sized case !
I may look for one with Larger space, better cooling and more hdd mounting room and of course graphic cooling/More silence features//// along the lines of lian li/silverstone....
Yeah that woulda definatly helped... and yes good to see im not the only one that felt the akasa although amazing and large and good to work on the cooling wasnt that good, how can air even get past the front vent lines, they had a notch underneath so yeah not to bad but it was weak I see £40 jeantech cases with better design/front air vents completly cut out so air can pass directly to the hdds/insides of the case rather then Eclipses method of just blocking 90% air flow..... then again not just Eclipses even the lian lis/silverstones block it a lot !
Im ditching the Antec 900 tbh, I just need a case with plenty more space and ease to work on.... also the side fan on the antec 900 side panel its incompatible with large heatsinks so a sycth ninja or tuniq and u will find the fan not even being able to put the side panel back on !
Yes the Antec900 has great cooling and my 8800GTX is proberly still cooled better but just need the space/comfort trust me one big issue is working on the Antec 900 its no joy and takes half a day rather then 1hr on a decent large sized case !
I may look for one with Larger space, better cooling and more hdd mounting room and of course graphic cooling/More silence features//// along the lines of lian li/silverstone....
HighlandeR said:
i have a ninja rev b in my case.. with the side panel fan on.. and you DO NOT have to mod your fan to get it in there
im also changing cases from my 900 as i want watercooling and there simply isnt room in there for it.. but it does cool well
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paul_64l said:
ahh thats good to know my tuniq towers massive so I just assumed larger heatsinks would also face the same issue cos it does tend to cover over a lot of the space.
At the end of the day the antec 900s not bad at all but yeah space/modding/easy of installation just counts so much, ive made 70 quid doing a m8s pc repair ive recouped my losses so raring to go for the Silverstone TJ09 or better
HighlandeR said:
I think this has got to be the single biggest misunderstandings about air cooling. I can sort of understand why everyone thinks a gaping hole with a fan in it is optimal for cooling, but actually it isn't on an inlet fan.
An extraction fan wants to pull from the biggest possible open surface because you want to move the biggest possible air volume, but an inlet fan wants to pull against some resistance because it increases the air speed of the air entering the fan and therefore air exiting the fan. Faster air travels further and, with a low-mounted front fan you need that air to go all the way to the back of the case, otherwise how is it going to cool anything?
Think of putting your thumb over the end of a hose and you'll get the idea. You get less water, but it goes further under higher pressure.
If your front fan doesn't push air all the way to the back of the case, how will your graphics cards ever get cool?
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I see air in a new light 
Some good points, I do tend to just think a whopping great big hole in the case will pull in the cool air and push further..... I guess an inlet fan will really focus/direct the air flow over the component it wishes rather then just all over the place
Some good points, I do tend to just think a whopping great big hole in the case will pull in the cool air and push further..... I guess an inlet fan will really focus/direct the air flow over the component it wishes rather then just all over the place
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In terms of cooling the 900 seems to be damned effective. I've got an E6300/965P-DS3 with the Zalman CNPS9700 cooler. With the CPU clocked to 3010Mhz (430x7) with WoW running my temps are at 36degrees according to Core Temp. The only downside I think is the poor cable management, but you can live with that.
Some interesting point WJ. There was a thread there a while back about the Eclipse where people were saying the length of 8800GTX cards were preventing that cold air from the intake from getting to the cpu. Given what you are saying about resistance and considering how suitable this case is for G80's due it's depth, I would have thought it would be one of the better cases for cooling. I still think it's good with the optional side panel. However my own opinion is that if you have 3 or more drives in the Eclipses front cage, then that front fan has to do a hell of a lot of work to cool the drives, feed the gpu's with cold air and get air to the cpu. That's why I think people are finding the 900 very good...2 fans on the top pulling air from the bottom of the case, and at least 1 dedicated fan to cool the gpu area. Maybe I'm way off as I have not tested the Antec 900 and you have, but lots seem to give it positive reviews.
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The TJ09 has something similar to what I belive WJ is on about, its a side fan takes air from outside and sorta directs and focuses it towards the graphics card areas on the inside... it apparantly helps out a lot
Anything to keep that hot card a few degrees down Im sure if its not that hot the fan wont spin up also....
Anything to keep that hot card a few degrees down Im sure if its not that hot the fan wont spin up also....
It won't spin up ? The 120mm fan in the silverstone won't spin up ? How does that work. Is it a temperature controlled fan or do you mean the video card fan won't spin up over the heat being down *due to the gpu/duct thing cooling it*
Also - I can't see how the hard drives get cooled effectively with the middle fan in the front having to do a lot of sucking.
Also - I can't see how the hard drives get cooled effectively with the middle fan in the front having to do a lot of sucking.
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Flanno said:It won't spin up ? The 120mm fan in the silverstone won't spin up ? How does that work. Is it a temperature controlled fan or do you mean the video card fan won't spin up over the heat being down *due to the gpu/duct thing cooling it*
Also - I can't see how the hard drives get cooled effectively with the middle fan in the front having to do a lot of sucking.
Ive had a chance to check both my Samsung 500giggers are at 24c ! and cold to the touch !
So the Antec 900 really does offer good cooling/noise ratio... even with 2 quiet fans on the front... the graphics is nice and cool too.
Im still gonna go for a better/classier case though just need more space and better design for silence... TJ09 is coming I feel !
mcc49 said:When you say things like that you should at least cover your tracks by saying 'in it's price range' else people with the big boy's cases might come stomping
erm...ive got a big boys case...and had two or three for your info....and I am still with the opinion as you stated above.