February 15th, 2011

Antec Nine Hundred Gamers Case

Testing

Normally a case doesn’t really need testing; however, as the Nine Hundred has so many fans, I wanted to see how well it performs with a fully loaded system.

Click to enlarge

Each of the fans are Antec’s TriCool brand which means they all have a little switch which allows you to choose low, medium or high. Below are the stats for the two different fans:

200mm Fan Specification
Size: 200x30mm TriCool Fan
Rated Voltage: 12V DC
Operating Voltage: 10.8V ~ 13.2V

Speed	Current	Air Flow	Static Pressure	Noise	Power
High – 800 RPM	0.3A	3.80 m3 /min (134 CPM)	0.69 mm-H20 (0.03 inch-H20)	30 dBA	3.6 W
Medium – 600 RPM	0.17A	3.07 m3 /min (108 CPM)	0.40 mm-H20 (0.02 inch-H20)	27 dBA	2.04 W
Low – 400 RPM	0.08A	2.34 m3 /min (83 CPM)	0.20 mm-H20 (0.01 inch-H20)	24 dBA	1.0 W

120mm Fan Specification
Size: 120x25mm TriCool Fan
Rated Voltage: 12V DC
Operating Voltage: 10.2V ~ 13.8V

Speed	Current	Air Flow	Static Pressure	Noise	Power
High – 2000 RPM	0.24A	2.24 m3 /min (79 CPM)	2.54 mm-H20 (0.10 inch-H20)	30 dBA	2.9 W
Medium – 1600 RPM	0.2A	1.59 m3 /min (56 CPM)	1.53 mm-H20 (0.06 inch-H20)	28 dBA	2.4 W
Low – 1200 RPM	0.13A	1.1 m3 /min (39 CPM)	0.92 mm-H20 (0.04 inch-H20)	25 dBA	1.6 W

I’ll test the system at full load (courtesy of Stress Prime and Folding@home) with RTHDRIBL on the graphics card. The fans will all be set to high, medium and then low while at full load and the average core temperature taken. The ambient temperature throughout this test was 18C which is 3 degrees lower than normal room temperature.

Before we get on to the results, just a little about the noise of the case. At low it’s nearly silent. At medium you can begin to differentiate background noise from the case, and at high it’s like a vacuum cleaner.

Antec Nine Hundred (900) Gamers Case

As you can see the extra RPM does manage to cool the system better, but it does come with a hurricane like noise problem. At low, the Nine Hundred manages to cool the computer a lot better than others whilst remaining silent. Also, the case isn’t at maximum cooling potential; there are still another two 120mm fans that could be added. If these were set to low/quiet, then the case would perform even better.

Click to enlarge

When turned on, the case shines a pleasing blue glow thanks to the 120mm fans which all have blue LED’s in their outer bodies. The side window allows you to see this effect fully, and with the lights turned off, this case looks even better (even in our ultra clean office). The front grills allow you to see the fans straight on, and they act as a power LED.

Click to enlarge

The case looks great, but the top grooves which are part of the front bezel harvest dust and other particles from the atmosphere at a dangerously high rate, and are a mission to clean. On the topic of dust the front 120mm fans don’t have dust filters so you’ll get a nice coating of heat trapping dead skin on your PC after a while.

Another thing that doesn’t get tested enough is the rigidity of the case. As this is designed to be used by a gamer, they will more than likely be chucking it in cars and racing off to their nearest LAN party. If the case isn’t strong enough it’ll bend possibly cracking an expansion card or worse. I can safely say that the Nine Hundred is study enough to stand on without flexing (a very scientific test).