Antec Nine Hundred Two (902) Review

Today we take a look at the successor to the much loved 900 gaming case.

Antec have built there reputation on supplying the market with quality cases for years now. Their gaming cases in particular are highly praised for their near silent operation and brilliant workmanship.

The Nine Hundred gaming case has gained much credit amongst gamers in the years it has been available, for providing a great combination of control over airflow and sleek looks. It has now been replaced with an ‘improved’ version, the Nine Hundred Two (902).

Website: www.antec.com
Cost (date of review): £103.49

A short introduction on the Antec website says:

The best-selling Antec Nine Hundred offers gamers an unbeatable enclosure, one that delivers a combination of cooling, performance and convenience that stands head and shoulders above the competition. Now, the Nine Hundred Two builds on this design with improved airflow and dominating style.

Below are the specifications and features for the Nine Hundred Two.

9 drive bays
– External 3 x 5.25″; Internal 6 x 3.5″ for HDD, or
– External 6 x 5.25″; Internal 3 x 3.5″ for HDD, or
– External 9 x 5.25″
Advanced cooling system:
– 1 rear 120 x 25mm TriCool™ blue LED exhaust fan
– 1 top 200 x 30mm “Big Boy” TriCool™ blue LED exhaust fan
– 2 front 120 x 25mm special black blue LED intake fans with front speed control
– 1 side (Optional) 120 x 25mm fan mount
– 1 middle (Optional) 120mm fan mount
Built-in washable air filters
8 expansion slots to support multiple graphics cards, including NVIDIA 3-way SLI®
Front mounted I/O ports
– 2 x USB 2.0
– 1 x eSATA
– Audio In and Out (AC’97 and HDA compatible)
Motherboard: Mini-ITX, microATX, Standard ATX
No power supply included
Unit Dimensions:
– 19.4″ (H) x 8.6″ (W) x 18.6″ (D)
– 49.3cm (H) x 21.8cm (W) x 47.2cm (D)
Package Dimensions:
– 22.7″ (H) x 11.3″ (W) x 20.1″ (D)
– 57.7 cm (H) x 28.8 cm (W) x 51 cm (D)
Weight:
– Net: 25.4 lbs / 11.5 kg
– Gross: 28.9 lbs / 13.1 kg

Over the page and we will begin our analysis of the Nine Hundred Two.

Features – Outside and Inside

Exterior

The Nine Hundred is presented in the usual fashion; it comes packaged in a sleek box with pleasant graphics and detailing of the case printed on the sides. Inside is the case itself, along with some instructions, warranty, an additional fascia panel/bracket and all the necessary screws.

On first impressions you will immediately notice that the Nine Hundred Two follows very similar design concepts to that of the Antec Twelve Hundred case The main difference between the two being that the Nine Hundred Two is smaller but slightly larger than the original Nine Hundred case, this is to accommodate the new goliath of a 140mm top mounted TriCool fan also found on the current Twelve Hundred case. The front panel hosts some useful ports such as 2x USB, 1x e-SATA. Behind the front panel is a tray that is useful for storage – similar again to the Twelve Hundred.

Some of the great improvements Antec have taken care to employ are the overall quality of the materials used for the build. The Nine Hundred Two weighs an additional 3KG’s over the original Nine Hundred case. This extra weight has been used to strengthen the case and give it a solid structure.

On the front side of the case there are two front 120mm TriCool. You can remove these cages to reveal the seating position for HDD storage. On the front side of these cages there is also the option to control the fan speed on both 120mm fans; this feature is also present around the rear of the case giving you the ability to manage all fans throughout the enclosure.

One thing that is distinct about this new revision is that there are now handles on the side panels – making it considerably easier to remove these panels. A small, but very useful design feature!

Interior

Although there has been some significant changes made on the exterior of the Nine Hundred Two, inside the case there has been very little changed. The Nine Hundred Two follows on the trends that the Twelve Hundred is characterised by. A clean, matte black finish and great airflow design along with some great slots to hide those cables – allowing you to neatly tuck away un-needed wires, improving cable management. Behind the dual 120mm fans there are some useful dust filters. These filters can be easily take out and cleaned. A great design idea. Simple and effective.

As already mentioned, the HDD storage areas are easily removed by sliding the entire cage out and installing the device. This is very beneficial as it means that you won’t have to start removing items out of your case to get at the HDD area. Each of these cages is given access by removing eight thumb screws – 4 in each side. This makes it even easier to remove the cage as you won’t need a screwdriver in your hand.

Installation

Installation was relatively trouble-free although I would say that the space that you are left to deal with when the motherboard is installed is quite limited. The Nine Hundred Two allows for the length of an 8800GTX (10inches) to just about fit inside. So you should be able to install most of the graphics cards on the market to date. The GTX 2xx series comes in at just over 10 inches, this will be quite a squeeze. Just observe where the PCI-e power connectors are as if they are on the very end of the card, you might have some difficulties plugging these cables in.

Similar to the GPU, if you are planning to host a tower style cooler the CPU heatsink can appear to be rather close to the top mounted 140mm fan. However this has its benefits because with the two devices being quite close, this allows some additional cooling that you wouldn’t usually receive in another case.

With the close surroundings inside put aside, this is room enough for gamers. After all the Nine Hundred Two is a gaming case and is not directed towards system builders that require masses of space for water cooling and other components. Gamers largely install their kit and leave it.

Almost all of the devices you will install inside the Nine Hundred Two will require the trusty screwdriver to make an appearance. It would have been nice to see some tool-less design ideas go into this revision.

Testing

Now that everything is fitted. It’s time to see just how effective the Nine Hundred Two’s cooling is. There are an impressive amount of fan’s installed inside the case so there should be some interesting results seen.

Idle temperatures will be reported from a cold boot after 30 minutes have elapsed. Temperatures will be read from Everest ULTIMATE.

Load temperatures will be reported after 55 minutes of OCCT stress test. Again, temperatures will be read from Everest ULTIMATE.

The actual temperatures taken will be from the motherboard cathode otherwise known as the system temperature, the CPU temperature and the GPU temperature. This will give a good evaluation of how effective the cooling actually is compared to some other cases in the same league. Fan speed on all fans will be kept at “maximum”. The cases tested along side our Antec Nine Hundred Two are:

Akasa Eclipse 62
Unbranded ATX case (1x intake 1x exhaust fan)

Test System

CPU: Intel i7 920 @ 3.8GHz
Motherboard: Asus X58 P6T Deluxe
Memory: Mushkin DDR3 Triple Channel 1300MHz (2x3GB)
Graphics: Powercolor ATI HD 4870 512MB
HDD: 1x WD 160GB SATA-II 1x Samsung Spinpoint 500GB SATA-II
PSU: Antec Signature Series 650W

Operating System: MS Windows Vista
Testing applications: OCCT, Everest ULTIMATE

So there you have it. The Antec Nine Hundred Two cooling system is something to admire. In each stage of the tests, there are impressive low temperatures compared to Akasa Eclipse 62 and Unbranded ATX case. The system temperatures are the most signficant, this shows to us that the airflow system in the Nine Hundred Two delivers just what it intends, lowering idle temperatures and even more importantly load temperatures too, it’s able to push out unwanted heat with ease.

Conclusion

Antec has clearly seen the success of the Twelve Hundred case and converted some of the brilliant features into this new revision of the much sort after Nine Hundred case. The Nine Hundred Two is indeed a step in the right direction, its nice to know that Antec have taken onboard the critism’s and feedback, addressing some of the key issues the original case had.

It does a brilliant job of keeping the system cool; the airflow system is truly magnificent and should not be underestimated at all, It has one of the best airflow systems I’ve actually come across. Couple this with the satisfying array of features and we have a fantastic gaming case. What I like especially about this case is that it is so functional, you can control each fan, you can install up to nine HDD’s, install more fans, and it looks and feels impressive.

The Nine Hundred Two ticks all of the Gamer’s boxes as being the ideal case. It comes in at an affordable £100, just £10 more than the Nine Hundred and is definately worth the extra considering the features available and improvements. Amongst other cases in the same price range, the Nine Hundred is one of the best out there!