Antec 900 Advanced Gaming Case

A big, black and intimidating case that knows no bounds in the fan department.

At the sight of this case, several expletives were declared. We won’t go into details, suffice it to say many baby kittens were reduced to shivering wrecks in a horribly cruel and lambasting manner.

This has something to do with the 200mm exhaust fan that hangs from the case’s roof like a waiting tiger. Scrub that – it’s more akin to a T-Rex looking to actively destroy its surroundings to get to its delicious victim.

This fan of massive proportions would scream and roar on its own free will, but that is not something that needs to be focused on. It takes care of that when flicked on, as it’s definitely audible at high speed, even though that’s merely 800rpm. To combat it, it has a three-position switch for speed control – high, medium, and low, like all the included fans – but this closely juts out over the blades.

The location of this switch originally put the fear of your favourite random deity in us, but it turns out it’s actually quite safe. It sports a teeth-gnashing dinosaur mouth, but it won’t rob you of blood, even when it’s force-fed human bits. We tried, just for kicks.

Sufficed to say, the case is effective at moving fresh air around. With the power supply positioned at the base, relocating the rising heat grows even more important, especially considering the CPU sits near the top of the case.

This would explain why there is also a 2000rpm 120mm fan attached at the rear-top of the case, just to be sure the CPU area receives more than simply heated air. The last two fans are the intakes on the front. They’re of the same specs, only transparent and embedded with blue LEDs. We don’t know about you, but we’re over the blue LED thing.

Unfortunately these LEDs can’t be turned off without popping out the molex cable or grabbing the Dremel, so if you’re one to leave your system running overnight, the colour to which your eyes are most sensitive will be demanding your attention.

With all the supplied fans set to 10 – each rated at 30dBA – the noise is noticeable. Luckily at medium it sharply drops off to a much softer whimper, while still moving decent wads of air.

The two bays that each fit three 3.5" drives slide out the front for easier access. But not before unscrewing four thumbscrews – on both sides, no less. What is this, 1995? According to the manual, the case also comes with a 5.25"-to-3.5" external bay cover for, say, a floppy drive, but our sample forgot to include that. The three 5.25" bays are of just your regular, archaic screw-
in type.

Quite simply, this case isn’t very special – and lacking a power supply, the price seems a tad obscene. All it does is locate your supplied PSU at the base for some reason. It doesn’t feature a removable mobo tray, nor screw-less expansion slots or drive bays, nor does it have a lid for what we can only assume is a peanut holder on its top.

Speaking of its top, that’s where the power and reset buttons are located, as are the two USB ports, FireWire port, and headset ports. We don’t know why manufacturers do this, but the reset button requires a nigh on pencil-sharpened finger – or our designer Bill’s midget digits. We do know that it’s annoying, because it gives Bill a chance to gloat about his damn Mac.

The Antec 900 is a suitable case for most purposes. We have no big complaints about it, but neither does it feature any of the regular luxuries we’ve come to expect from modern cases.

Not shabby but in no way is it an ‘Advanced Gaming Case’.