Holiday Buyer's Guide 2006, Part 3: Components & Peripherals

Cases

Antec Nine Hundred : Optimized For Ventilation

We took a look at the Antec Nine Hundred in our last gaming case roundup two weeks ago. Its design is extraordinary, since it uses a huge 200 mm fan on top of the case and three 120 mm fans in the front section to get rid of the hot air inside your system. Thanks to their large diameters, these fans can operate at low rotation speeds and thus not make your system sound like a jet engine. The disadvantage is that you will only have three front-accessible 5.25" drive bays, though this should be sufficient these days.

The Nine Hundred accommodates the power supply at the very bottom of the case, right below the motherboard and all drive bays, but it won’t accept BTX motherboards yet. Apart from that, the inside is very much cleaned up. The left case cover contains an acrylic part, so you can look inside the system and enjoy your mods.

This product is still pretty new, but should be available at the common etailers well in time for the shopping season, at an acceptable price tag of approximately $120.