Review: Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gamer Case

[Mr. Analog]

Antec claims that the Nine Hundred Ultimate Gamer Case is the "The most versatile gaming case EVER!" but how does it really stack up? I just purchased one from Memory Express and installed a new rig in it last night so, come, let me share with you my experiences.

First Impressions

When I first cracked the box open I was struck immediately by the case finish. While the case itself is steel and plastic the finish is matte and does not show fingerprints quite like some of the steel finish of cases I've had in the past (GMC, Lian-Li). The case itself is a respectable black and very nondescript (I found it stylish however). It's most distinguishing features are of course the built in fan system (more on that later). The weight of the case was a bit more than I expected however it's lighter than anything else I have currently.

Arrangement

The case has been designed so that the power supply rests on the bottom. I purchased the Corsair HX 620W Modular Power Supply which fit nice and snug, however since it has a downward facing fan I had to flip the unit upside down (this is cleverly accommodated by the cases screw hole configuration which supports both orientations).

The device bays are split into three segments; the bottom and middle segment are detachable cages which support three devices each (6 total). The upper portion of the case has enough room for up to three additional drives that require access to the front, the case comes with an attractive front panel adapter if you require a floppy drive. The drive cages are attached to the case via thumbscrews and the mounting screw holes for the drives have rubber mountings to resist vibration (for noise reduction purposes I assume). The cage walls are thicker and therefore require longer screws which are provided with the case, however they appear to be hard to find so I wouldn't dispose of the extras Antec gives you. There is a plastic thing on the back of the middle drive cage which seems to have been designed for no other purpose than to get in the way of SATA power connectors, I got rid of it and I suspect most people using this case would do the same as well.

The motherboard tray is both clever and stupid. The designers at Antec must have known what motherboard I was purchasing because they mounted all the riser screws in exactly the right places. It was easy enough to get the board on and mounted. Of course I made my usual mistake and somehow missed two aluminum prongs on the I/O backplate, but that's my fault. Stupidly, the motherboard was not 100% level with the card slots in the back, all pins are making contact and an initial boot seemed to indicate no problems but it did concern me at first. An additional flub, in my opinion, is that there is no "gap" between the motherboard tray and the drive bays and I was unable to hide cables behind the tray (as is often done with windowed cases). Conveniently however there are built in tie wraps to keep the bundles together.

Case Features

The case features USB, IEEE 1394 (firewire) and audio I/O jacks on the power panel. The panel itself is located on the top front of the case and as far as I'm concerned couldn't be in a better spot. Antec also provided a good length of cable which can comfortably reach desired areas of the motherboard without leaving too much extra.

One of the big features of this case is cooling, it comes with three variable speed fans installed. A monster 200 mm blow hole, a 120 mm rear and a 120 mm intake on the front. With this model the front and rear intakes sport blue LEDs. There is a lot of room for additional cooling including brackets for a side mounted 120 mm fan. Now, the downside to the cooling system; the variable speed fans are controlled manually via switches. Now this isn't a big deal but it is nice to have control of your fans without taking the side off of the case. Another gripe I have is the "kwality" of the molex connectors on the 200 mm blow hole fan and 120 mm cage fan. They were VERY fussy and in one case I had a pin almost pop out of the back. I am a little cautious about this and i will contact Antec about it, however in the mean time all the fans power up and are easily adjusted. Oh and on a really positive note the case is SUPER quiet when running with all gear installed (compared to the BEAST I have now...).

As stated before the built in cable ties are a nice addition but sort of force your cabling to go in a certain way. I installed the eVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTS SuperClocked 640MB PCI-E and given the orientation of the SATA connections on the motherboard (ASUS Striker Extreme) there is a bit of a log jam of cables where the video card rests, I will investigate other cabling possibilities but right now I'm a little unimpressed with where the cables sort of naturally congregate.

Price
$119.95 is the price I paid at Memory Express. It contains a lot of features that excel compared to a basic case (lots of fan options, two thumbscrew drive cages, built-in I/O panel), but it has some shortcomings (manual fan speed controls, overall component quality, tray location / cable configuration options) that force it to fall just a bit short of "ultimate". But, in a world where you can pay anywhere from $90 to $300 for a case with gamers in mind I think the price is well placed.

Conclusions
Overall I am happy with this case, the one thing I wanted it to do it did; keep things cool and do it quietly. There were a few troubles during installation (the plastic useless part on the rear of the drive cage, the cheap molex connector, cable orientation) ultimately they were minor and did not impede me in any way. I like the design of the case itself and I am looking forward to pushing the limits on its cooling potential. Did this case ever make me say "wow"? No. Was I swearing at it? No. Am I happy with it? Yes.

All in all if I were to recommend an affordable case that offered both cooling and quiet operation with only moderate fuss for under $150 I would heartily endorse the Antec Nine Hundred. If asked is this really the Ultimate Gamer case? I would probably smile a little and say it depends on what your definition of ultimate is.

[Cova]

I also have one of these cases - I chose it for my new file server build and it's working VERY well for that type of task.  But I do have a few points to pick at with your little review...

1. Device bays.  It's not so much that the case has "three segments" - actually it's simply just 9 5-1/2 bays all the way down the front.  And there are 2 3-bay-high 'modules' that can be installed anywhere within those 9 bays.  Each of those modules can hold 3 3-1/4 drives.  It's really incredibly flexible - in my case for file-server use I pulled out ALL of the bays, modules, covers, etc. and installed 3 5-in-3 SATA hotswap bays, giving me mounting for 15 hard-drives.  (3 of these: http://www.startech.com/Product/ItemDetail.aspx?productid=SATABAY5BK&c=US)

2. The "plastic thing on the back of the middle drive cage".  That is an additional 120mm fan-mount, designed to blow extra air right onto the video-card area.  Yes, it does make the center 3 bays unusable for drive mounting (leaving you with only 6 bays, still more than many cases), but it effectively gives you a fresh-air wind tunnel pointed right at some of the hottest components.

3. The fan-speed switches.  While most of mine have the same problem you have (not accessible), I was able to run a few of them out the holes in the back of the case that were designed for external water-cooling systems.  But since mine is holding a file server and will spend most of its time in the basement, noise is not a concern for me - I leave all the fans cranked to full speed.


Oh - and if you want an extra one of those HDD module things, I have one.  The case comes with 2, I used one in my Armor case (main gaming box, you all saw it at frag last year), and have one left over.  The Armor uses an almost identical drive mounting system (entire front is 5-1/2 bays, but with only 1 3-bay-high HDD mounting module) but it had forced me to mount my 4th HD in a bay without active cooling.  Now I get dual 120mm fans in the front and all 4 disks get cooling.