Antec 900

The Antec piece is by far the most radical in outward appearance. The angles and lines of the design give it an almost spacey look and feel when standing back. Up close, however, you start to spot at least some function in the design. Just about every surface has a vent, fan, or some combination of the two. Indeed, even the hard drive bays play an active role in providing airflow.

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This particular case makes good use of fans and ventilation. Every section seems to be designed with maximum airflow in mind, including the hard drive cages, which double as air ducts for the front intake fans. With four fans installed out of the box and room for three more, Antec manages to avoid all the noise that normally accompanies such a fan-laden box. Even the large 200 mm exhaust fan on top operates almost silently while pulling a sufficient amount of air out of the case. Overclockers will likely have some fun seeing what they can get out of a rig like this.

Another design feature is the apparent adherence to a newer trend that involves placing the power supply at the bottom of the case, rather than at the top. This allows better, unrestricted access to your motherboard, and makes it a little easier to organize wiring inside your case.

The only noticeable drawback really affects the die-hard fans of floppy drives more than anything. While most uses for floppy disks have been taken over by CDs or DVDs, one can see why Antec might opt to remove the traditional slot that's set aside for this. Individual users will be the ultimate judge on this point as not everyone requires or desires access to an internal floppy drive.