Antec Nine Hundred Two Gaming Case

Antec has been offering cases to consumers who want to build their own computers for a while now.  More recently, they have begun offering gaming cases.  These gaming cases feature tons of fans, side panel windows and many other features that suits the needs of gamers and computer enthusiasts.  It originally started with the Nine Hundred, then the Three Hundred and Twelve Hundred models were added.  The Twelve Hundred featured a slightly different design than the Nine Hundred.  Today, we are going to look at the Nine Hundred Two ('900-2').  The Nine Hundred Two is a redesign of the award winning Nine Hundred and borrows most of the features from the Twelve Hundred.  There will be some comparison pictures that will show the differences between the two (the Nine Hundred and Nine Hundred Two).

Upon opening the box, you will find the users manual, screws, and a 3.5" drive bay adapter (good for fan controllers, floppy drives, memory card readers, etc).

Here are some of the main features and specifications from Antec's Website

The Case:

On the front of the Nine Hundred Two, you can see that the case features a matte black coloring, which makes the case look pretty stylish. The front drive bays feature large holes to allow for excellent ventilation.  Note that the bottom six drive bays feature a mesh grill to filter out dust.  The upper grilles do not have filters.  Instead, a piece of foam blocks air and dust from going through.

The front panel of the case features the power button, reset button, two USB 2.0 ports, an e-SATA port, microphone jack and headphone jack.  Note that the microphone and headphone jacks are uncolored and unlabeled, so it can be confusing.

Note that there are two dials to adjust the fan speed for the two front 120mm fans.  This is a great feature and improves upon the original Nine Hundred, which allowed for only Low, Medium and High speeds and had to be adjusted via a switch coming from the fan inside the case.  The new dial allows for better fine tuning of fan speeds.

Looking at the side of the case, there is a window and a bracket with a removable air filter for an optional 120mm fan.  The window is crystal clear, allowing for a unhindered view into your computer's internals.

On the rear of the case, you can see the exhaust side of the rear 120mm fan.  There are eight expansion slots, two holes for water cooling tubes to exit the case, and a switch for controlling the case's rear and top fans.

The switches on the rear side of the case allows for control of the rear 120mm fan and the top 200mm 'Big Boy' fan.  The available choices are Low, Medium and High.  For the 'Big Boy' fan, the blue LED's can also be switched on or off.  There is also an empty slot for another fan controller.

The top of the case features an area dedicated for storing little gadgets, such as MP3 players, Memory cards, etc.

An example of what can be put in the storage area.

The 'Big Boy' 200mm fan.  It is huge and moves lots of air quietly.

The 200mm fan with its blue LED's on.

Removing the side panel reveals the inside of the case.  Note that the insides are completely black as well, which looks really nice.  Some PC enthusiasts have gone through the trouble of painting the insides of their cases, but now it doesn't seem to be necessary.  From this picture, you can see the rear 120mm fan.  It should be noted that all the fans in this case each use a four pin Molex power connector.  They can be daisy chained if need be.

Opening the other side panel reveals the area behind the motherboard tray, which features holes for routing cables through and ties to hold the cables flat against the tray.  This is something that the original Nine Hundred never had.  I like this new feature, since it allows the computer's insides to appear more neat.  Screws for the 5.25" drive bays and hard drive sleds can also be accessed here.

The bottom of the case features four rubber feet, which grip smooth surfaces really well.

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