Antec 900 review

If this case had any more surface area in fan-blades, it might actually achieve lift-off. And while the thought of a component-packed chassis hovering around at eye level ?lls us with a certain degree of terror, the cooling that such a case provides just isn't in doubt.

Two 120mm fans at the front, one at the rear, and a honking great 200mm behemoth in the ceiling make the 900 a very serious piece of kit indeed.

It's not the quietest rig in the world - even Titanic-grade slow-moving fans like the ones in this case produce a little noise, and in this number, there's a soft yet distinct accompanying whoosh. In aggregate however, it still doesn't intrude as much as a single X1900XTX.

It's also dressed to kill, with a solid-looking front-panel of black steel mesh, behind which the blue LEDs of the front-mounted case fans glow. The side window is cut into a unique shape, and neatly hides the pedestrian aluminium of the drive bays.

Antec's trademark excellent design also stretches to the interior. The front section comprises nine drive bays, upto six of which can be used for hard drives by installing the optional hard drive cage.

There are extra mounts for supplementary fans (like you need them...), and although there's no quick-release locking mechanism in place for drives and PCI-E cards - which seems a bit tight, given the not inconsiderable price of the chassis - everything bolts in snugly.

My only misgiving is the fan port on the roof - that big-holed grill is going to hoover in dust at a rate of knots, and the holes are just wide enough to drop a case-screw into. Careful!