Antec’s Eleven Hundred appears to be an attempt to combine the value of the company's sturdy Three Hundred with some of the features of its mid-market Nine Hundred. We find medium-duty steel nearly everywhere except for the plastic face panel and side window, the latter of which allows a complete view of your high-end components.
A rectangular vent on the Eleven Hundred’s side window supports two 120 mm fans, and each fan mount has two grommets to reduce fan noise.
Borrowing some of the style cues from Antec’s older products, the Eleven Hundred’s top-edge front-panel connectors are easy to reach, regardless of whether the case is on or under a desk. Cables usually dangle in front of optical drives, but most users open those infrequently anyway.
Tall enough to support up to XL-ATX motherboards, the Eleven Hundred’s nine slots give users of standard ATX boards extra space to combine oversized graphics cooling and slot breakout plates in the same system.
Rear vents help equalize pressure inside and outside the enclosure, though the vents lack dust filtration. Builders in dirty environments may instead opt to add fans, assuring that air flows out of, rather than into, these vents.
Antec adds a 120 mm fan mount behind the Eleven Hundred’s motherboard tray, which builders can use to assist cooling at the back of the CPU socket.
Grommets on rear-panel ingress/egress holes help keep you from scratching up tubing when this chassis is used with external liquid coolers.
An LED on/off switch for the top-panel fan occupies one of four positions on the Eleven Hundred’s rear fan controller. The other three holes remain unused, making this extra feature more of a tease than anything. Though some of our builders prefer to let motherboard headers control fan speed, others will be unhappy to find this untapped potential.
The Eleven Hundred has enough space behind its motherboard tray to route thick ATX cables through four large rectangular access holes. Grommets help make the cables less visually distracting as they pass through, while cable tie loops help builders pin excess length into a tidy location.
An even larger access hole aids CPU cooler support plate installation.
In addition to a filter inside its snap-off face panel, Antec’s Eleven Hundred includes a slide-out power supply dust filter.
As delivered, the Eleven Hundred uses exhaust fans to pull air through various vents. But enthusiasts who want even more airflow and better dust control can add up to two 120 mm fans in the front panel, behind a snap-away face with filtered vents.
One of the Eleven Hundred’s design strengths may also be considered by some to be a weakness. Its top-panel 200 mm fan quietly pulls air past the CPU cooler. But the large vent lacks the extra holes that would have allowed it to be repurposed as a radiator mount.
In other words, the Eleven Hundred is large enough to hold a dual-fan liquid cooler, but requires minor modifications to do so. Our next page will show a case that has the necessary mounting holes for large liquid cooling (but instead lacks the required mounting space; whoops).
Only 19” tall, but a full 9” wide, Cooler Master adds modern style and cooling space to the classic mid-tower stance in its Storm Enforcer. A window helps show off those over-sized CPU coolers. A half-length door at the top hides 5.25” bays.
The Storm Enforcer’s front-panel connectors are located along the top edge and angled upwards to ease access from above, which is perfect for anyone who hides their PC under a desk. Don't worry if you keep your computer up on a desk. The connectors are still accessible, and the drive door actually pushes dangling cables out of the way.
A standard seven-slot panel supports full-ATX motherboards, but lacks the added space to mount a double-slot graphics card in the motherboard’s bottom slot, which some motherboards require for three-way graphics configurations. An eighth slot is available from Cooler Master's submission, but as you can see, it's set off to the side exclusively for use with port breakout plates or external cable hangers.
We mentioned that the Storm Enforcer isn’t designed for double-slot graphics cards plugged in to a motherboard’s bottom slot, inhibiting compatibility with three-way graphics arrays on some motherboards. Cooler Master appears to instead target extra-long dual-GPU cards by making its center drive cage removable. After all, a pair of dual-GPU cards yield four-way CrossFire or SLI.
Sacrificing four 3.5” drive bays allows cards up to 16.6” to be used in all slots. A pair of 2.5” drives can be installed in a smaller cage next to the two remaining 3.5” bays.
The Storm Enforcer provides three holes above its 120 mm exhaust fan with protective grommets to support external liquid coolers and pass-through cables.
Cooler Master’s Storm Enforcer does not have internal grommets to hide the points where cables pass through, but does have rolled edges on all of its cable access holes. There’s barely enough space behind the motherboard tray to stuff the main ATX power cable, and the CPU back-plate access hole is just big enough to support CPU cooler installations on most motherboards.
A sheet of dust-reducing mesh covers the Storm Enforcer’s power supply intake, which is important since power supplies are the hardest part to clean. Access to this filter requires flipping the case on its side and sliding several tabs out of place.
A quiet giant, the Storm Enforcer’s 200 mm intake fan uses blood-red LEDs to give the front panel a soft glow. We think its good that this isn’t very bright, since we didn’t find any way to disable the lighting effect.
Non-removable front-panel mesh provides a modicum of dust control.
Designed to hold a second 200 mm fan, separate mounting holes on the Storm Enforcer’s top panel also allow a dual 120 mm-fan radiator to also be installed. Only 1.6” of space exists above the motherboard, however, so a standard 2” radiator and fan stack could only be used on motherboards that have at least 0.4” of clearance between the top edge and tall components (such as PWM sinks and memory slots).
Though its nearly-monolithic design makes Fractal Design’s Arc Midi appear small, it’s actually 0.3” wider than Cooler Master’s Storm Enforcer. The Arc Midi is, however, 0.3” shorter than that competing model, with two fewer external bays making room for two more internal bays.
The Arc Midi’s front-panel ports are located on the case’s top edge, facing straight up to allow easy access for users who place their case on the floor. Alternatively, this design prevents easy port access for users who prefer to keep their PCs on a desk. We also find the number of ports to be a little strange, with a double-row USB 3.0 internal connector feeding a single USB 3.0 port.
Chief among the Arc Midi’s features are its pair of four-drive hard drive cages, which are designed to fit both 3.5” and 2.5” drives. Motherboard and graphics configurations are far more limited, since there isn’t enough space beneath the seven-slot panel to properly support a double graphics card in the motherboard’s bottom slot. An eighth slot to the side is meant to hold port breakout plates or an included slot-mounted fan controller.
Removing the center drive cage opens the case for cards up to 17.8” long, but only in slots two, three, and four. That’s only good enough for one dual-GPU graphics card, and even that pairing requires a typical motherboard layout with primary graphics in slot position two or three.
The rear view of Fractal’s Arc Midi reveals a pair of grommets to support external liquid cooling systems at the top, and a slide-out dust filter at the bottom. An oversized 140 mm fan pulls heat away from the finished system’s CPU cooler.
A slide-out filter covers both the power supply intake and a bottom-panel fan mount. We don’t spend much time discussing bottom-mounted fans, since long power supplies often block them. But we did notice that this one supports both 140 mm and 120 mm fan sizes.
Fractal Design pays particular attention to cable management by giving the Arc Midi a little more space behind the motherboard and using tighter-fitting grommets to hide pass-through points. A nice large hole eases access to CPU cooler support plates.
Two holes in the front panel pass air through drive cages from intake fans that are mounted to the Arc Midi’s face plate. A breakout on the second external bay is replaceable, hiding a 3.5” bay adapter. It can have its center section removed for use with that adapter.
The Arc Midi’s face plate holds up to two 140 mm fans, but includes only one, with dust filters on both mounts to further reduce internal cooler contamination.
The Arc Midi hides a trio of exhaust fan mounts under a vented plastic cover, yet supports a dual 120 mm-fan radiator at most. That’s because two of the fans are offset to the extreme left to make extra room between the motherboard and radiator assembly, while the third fan is centered over the top 5.25” drive bay to fit within the bay’s structure. All three locations support both 140 mm and 120 mm fan sizes.
Loosely borrowing some of the styling from its motoring namesake, the Agusta appears to be Raidmax’s first attempt to deliver a true full-tower chassis to the gamer-oriented market. Compared to the large mid-towers that many vendors mislabel as full-towers, this true tower has enough room for a hard drive cage beneath its power supply. That design gives the Agusta a height of 23.8”.
A large grille on the left side-panel fits both 180 mm and 120 mm fans, which must be purchased separately if you want them.
Though niceties like separate fan speed and fan lighting controls dress the front edge of Agusta’s top panel, Raidmax still makes the questionable move of tying a dual-row internal USB 3.0 header to a single port. The other two ports only support USB 2.0.
Two lower 5.25” external bays hide behind a door on the Agusta, in addition to the three upper bays. This could be an ideal location to stash a full height or two half height backplanes, or simply a place to hide an old and ugly drive that’s still needed for a specific application.
The Agusta is split into two compartments, with the upper portion supporting main components and 5.25” drives, and the lower portion accommodating six 3.5” and 2.5” drives.
A panel on each side of the Agusta’s lower compartment opens to reveal six trays, each supporting 2.5” and 3.5” drives. There is no backplane in this design, so centering of the 2.5” drives within each tray is acceptable.
Handles on each of the Agusta’s side panels fold onto the back of the case, though card connectors and external liquid cooling lines could block them. Three ingress/egress holes support abrasion-free cable and hose routing, and a second set of fans in the drive compartment supplements the 120 mm fan in the top compartment.
Though the Agusta has all of the necessary holes to route cables behind the motherboard tray, the space between the tray and side panel is too narrow to hold them. Builders must instead follow a meandering path within the C-shaped protruding section of the side panel to find space for thick cables, and then tie them to appropriate points on the tray.
The Agusta’s top and front panels are not designed for easy removal, as the design instead favors replacing large fans from inside the case. When you build up a machine inside the case, though, components block access to the requisite screws. Furthermore, the face panel must still be unscrewed to access the little 80 mm lower-compartment intake fan.
Though two top-panel fans are included, the Agusta lacks room above the motherboard to place a radiator upon them.
Though many users prefer the speed of SSDs, it's still almost mandatory to mix solid-state and mechanical storage, even in a high-end build. That means you're going to end up with one or more warmer-running disk drives. Raidmax attempts to optimize drive cooling by using twice as many exhaust fans as intakes in this compartment, relying on side-panel vents to cool the Agusta’s lower compartment. These particular fans can also be replaced without disassembling the PC.
Currently available in the basic black KL04B and windowed KL04B-W, SilverStone’s KL04 presents a smooth and simplified design lacking so much as a vent in the front panel. Molded-in grain provides a simulated brushed-aluminum finish on the plastic front, while ports have been moved to the top of this 19.3” mid-tower.
SilverStone knew that USB 3.0 would soon take precedence when designing its KL04, placing two of these ports on its top panel. Both ports face forward for easier reach under a desk, surrounding a pair of likewise-angled headset jacks.
The KL04 opens up to reveal eight expansion slots, an eight-bay removable 3.5” drive cage, and a six-bay 2.5” mini drive cage behind it. The eighth slot of the back panel allows double-slot graphics cards to be mounted in a motherboard’s bottom slot, as required for three-way configurations on some motherboards.
The KL04’s removable 3.5” drive cage supports hard drives using only three screws. The shorter side of this design provides added expansion card clearance—up to 17.3”—where you find empty bays. Removing the cage altogether allows cards up to 18.1” to be installed, while occupied drive bays provide only 12.5” of card clearance.
A 2.5” mini drive cage attached to the bottom of the KL04 can be relocated onto the removable 3.5” drive cage, and the base of the 3.5” cage holds one additional 3.5” drive.
SilverStone moves the intake panel of its KL04 to the case’s right side, cleaning up the face design. With shades of Antec’s old Sonata IV, the side-panel intake also reduces noise pollution from internal components.
The rear panel is far less exotic, with indications of cost cutting manifesting as knock-outs for liquid cooler pass-through lines and a flimsy metal cover over an outward-bent card holder tab.
SilverStone provides exceptional space behind the KL04’s motherboard tray for cable management, going so far as to roll the edges of each access hole. That treatment makes internal grommets a mere aesthetic feature, so SilverStone omits them on this non-windowed case.
The ultimate contrast of cost-cutting and advanced features is found in the pair of slide-out filters appearing in the same photo as the flimsy card holder. Extra care is taken to roll the edges of internal cable access holes, even as the previously-viewed liquid cooling line holes lack grommets.
The KL04’s right side supports up to two 120 mm intake fans, but includes only one. The face panel is not designed for removal, but a little ingenuity helped us take this photo without destroying the case.
Popping the mesh grill off the KL04’s top panel, we found two 120 mm and two 140 mm fan mounts. SilverStone claims that this allows the case to support a pair of fans in either size, though the second pair of 140 mm holes simply relocates a single fan by around one inch. Dual 120 mm fans really are supported, and extra offset towards the left side for these mounting holes eases the installation of dual 120 mm-fan radiators.