A Positive Look at the Antec Nine Hundred (900) Case

[Hughyhunter]

Alright... Finally finished. If anyone needs the info on how I did the paint job I'll have posted over at painting 101 thread. Also you can just ask me here. The paint is still hazzy as it still has a cure time of 6 months for clear coat. Also the polishing compounds got into some places where I need to work at it.

[pustbunker]

Awesome looking case Hunter!!

[nsidious]

keep up the good work

[DaIceMan]

Man, I so wanna tear mine down and go to modding it. The only thing that is killing me is, with my schedule, it's going to take a week or so to finish it, and I can't not run Folding@Home for that long. Maybe I could run the system naked (without case) while I have it torn down.

[Hughyhunter]

Oh dude... It took me two weeks. And yes, I was naked!

No... I had mine sitting on my desk so I could keep on on gaming. Just told the wife not to touch it or she would get shocked!

[DaIceMan]

It's not my wife that worries me. It's my 9 and 7 year old boys that can't seem to leave things alone. Might have to change the door knob for a locking one. hehe

[Fredthered]

Thought you'd have found that out, DaIceMan, before they got to 9 & 7 !

Vaseline -- Prevents Unwanted Children. (You smear it on the bedroom doorknob) !

Nice paint-job hunter.

(No... I had mine sitting on my desk so I could keep on on gaming. Just told the wife not to touch it or she would get shocked!)
We are still talking pc's here, aren't we ? LOL

Cheers
Fredthered

[DaIceMan]

Thought you'd have found that out, DaIceMan, before they got to 9 & 7 !

Vaseline -- Prevents Unwanted Children. (You smear it on the bedroom doorknob) !
Cheers
Fredthered

Sadly, I decided to teach my children common sense.

[DaIceMan]

well, here are a couple of before pictures of my rig. It was time for the weekly shut down and clean, so I thought I would post up a couple of pics for reference.

Edit: test sig for system specs?

[outbreak42]

Alright... Finally finished. If anyone needs the info on how I did the paint job I'll have posted over at painting 101 thread. Also you can just ask me here. The paint is still hazzy as it still has a cure time of 6 months for clear coat. Also the polishing compounds got into some places where I need to work at it.

Nice paint job Hughyhunter, but... is it me, or I see you missed some spots on the triangular spaces at the front of the case faceplate? It might be the flash of the camera. ^^'

[Hughyhunter]

Nice paint job Hughyhunter, but... is it me, or I see you missed some spots on the triangular spaces at the front of the case faceplate? It might be the flash of the camera. ^^'

Actually I think it residue left over from the clear. I tried sanding it but couldnt really get in there. I had a real hard time with the plastic overall. I primed it but couldnt sand the primer I used... consequently there was a spyder web effect and I had to sand the paint too. Some crevasses were really hard to get too.

[Hughyhunter]

Must add. This was my second attempt at a paint job. The first one was a big failure. But this time around I have to say that I got a ton better. I really absorbed a lot from the auto guys at my local auto paint store. They told me how to do it, sold me the materials and said "good luck"... Next time should be even better.

[Hyacco]

Hi people... problems here
I keep havin troubles with bigboy, i cant take it off.

I have found 4 of the black... mmmm... dont know how to say it but look at the photos:




...those, to keep the top of the case attached to it.
I also found the 2 screws and took them off. But... i CANT reach the other two black things... Look at this:

[Bertross]

i've been really inspired by this thread and did abit of my own modding. Nothing extreme but enough to make the cables neater.

here are some pics. More to come of the final results.

These are preparation photo's.

before:







This is the type of sata cables i needed to make the HDD neater. The standard ones that point forward are hard to manage. These ones help by sitting flush to the HDD's and the cable it's self are very fexible.



More shoot to come tomorrow. The are some with me drilling the hole for PSU cables so i can run the wires along the back of the case.

[outbreak42]

Well, after messing around with the thin fan filter idea, I came up with this:

Materials:
1 Clear Copoly Sheet of Plexiglass - .040"/1.0mm thinkness.
1 Metal ruler with cork backing.
1 Plastic scriber (I used an Olfa P-Cutter 800).
1 Utility knife.
1 Art knife/X-acto knife.
1 Rotary Tool (Dremel or whatever you like) with Grit Sanding Band.
1 Hot glue gun.
Fine grit sandpaper.
and last but most important... a pantyhose (preferably unused )

Directions:
Making it is pretty simple, but patience is required. Just draw the layout you want onto the plexiglass' protective film. Then start scraping the plastic with the scriber. Finish the corners with the utility knife and X-acto knife. Sand the plexiglass and clean with water. Attach a piece of the pantyhose with the hot glue gun, and stretch the it to adjust how thick you want the filter to be.

Conclusion:
After a lot of testing, I figured that by stretching the pantyhose some, helps reducing air drag. I was able to reduce air resistance this way in an average of 20%. Also, I modified the initial linear design of the frame by including curves in some of the orifices. Also reduced the distance between the border of the frame and the perpendicular orifices. Since the fan produces most of the airflow at the edges of its fins, the curves helped to reduce air drag even further. With those modifications, the filter is able to effectively stop dust with minimum air flow resistance. Among other things, the airflow can be regulated, it's not noticeable at all, it's washable and it's damn thin.

Pics:

[deees]

Hi people... problems here
I keep havin troubles with bigboy, i cant take it off.

...those, to keep the top of the case attached to it.
I also found the 2 screws and took them off. But... i CANT reach the other two black things... Look at this:

Remove the front bezel.

Remove the screws and release the split-pins in the back, then use a long screw driver to reach above the hard drive bays to get to the two pins in front. It helps to gently pry up the back of the fan housing while to loosen the front pins. After the top is removed, you should drive holes below the pins, so you can get to them from inside the drive bays.

[outbreak42]

I'm thinking of somehow incorporating one of these into the air ducts to control air direction better since I noticed the drive cages have some metal slots/cuts that deviate air to the sides. Any suggestions? ^^''




Hyacco: The last 2 plastic retainers are all the way at the front of the top bezel. To release it, you will have to lift up the back of the top bezel and then push it towards the back of the case. I have taken my bezel twice and they didn't break, but they do look fragile, so be careful. Buena Suerte!

[Bertross]

ok here is the rest.

So here i cut the hole to feed the PSU cables through.


I used plastic tubing with half decent memory so it pushes towards the outer circle edge. This is to protect the wires from being cut.




Ok here is me putting the dust covers on the back of the fans. The Antec case does suck a fair bit of dust into the case so this really help maintenance without disturbing the airflow to much.


Always work with beer, it gives you steady hands....you can blame error on the beer and start again.


Ok here is almost the finish shot of the wiring. I didn't go to extremes like putting holes at the top for the CPU power, might do later but need a cable extension for that.



Here is one with the components in



I had trouble putting the side fan on because of the 120 Noctua CPU cooler. so i had to cut the edge off to fit. Like a glove.


Some finals. Not the best pics but their ok.

[outbreak42]

cool, where did you get the stickers?

[Bertross]

cool, where did you get the stickers?

they came with each component i bought. If you buy an intel CPU you get the sticker.

[outbreak42]

Damn it! I bought my CPU EOM, not retail

[Bertross]

Damn it! I bought my CPU EOM, not retail

LOL the search for the forbidden stickers continue.

[DaIceMan]

Very nice Bertross. What size hole saw is that?

Off topic, but have you tried to run your E66 at 400x8 for a nice round 3.2GHz? That's what I have mine running at (can't remember vcore) but it was still within reason temp wise (around 47-50 deg C under full load Folding@Home)

[eternaljammer]

Lol, greaat job. I will start modding my 900 very soon with all the ideas I have gotten from this thread!A+++++ Work guys thank you and bravo! Just need to get some more molding for the holes to keep them from cutting the wires!

[Hughyhunter]

Damn it! I bought my CPU EOM, not retail

Are you seriously worrying about stickers?

Nice job Bertross... Good job on the hole!