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

[Hughyhunter]

The best place to find black (high gloss or flat black) is at an auto parts shop. I went to Autozone specifically... if you do decide to paint the inside make sure you do some wet sanding. I'll explain here:

1. Wet sand with 400 grit wet/dry, use a bit of dish soap when you do and always go in one direction.
2. Spray 2 light, even coats of self etching primer (same brand preferably as paint) and wet sand with 600 grit after you let it dry for at least 2 hours. This step is imperative... if you want your paint to stay on you must use self etching primer.
3. For inside of the case (since not many people see it) you can get away with skipping high build primer and just go straight to the paint after self etching primer. So make sure you do nice, light and even coats with the paint. No more than three coats and make sure you hold that can 6 inches away.

If you want a gloss finish use high gloss but if you want it flat much like the outside of the Antec 900 already is flat black will do just fine.

There you have a nice easy guide to painting the inside of the case.

If anyone wants details on how I specifically painted the outside I'll re-post.

[Hi_Clocks]

There you have a nice easy guide to painting the inside of the case.

If anyone wants details on how I specifically painted the outside I'll re-post.

Thanks alot, I will follow that method and see how it turns out.

If you could repost the procedure on painting the outside id really appreciate it, also how do you reverse the drives in the bays?

[jwood314]

Started work on the wife’s machine last night, here are some pics of what it looked like before I touched it. She is getting a new Giga X38 mother board and a Q6600 processor. The old AMD wasn’t cutting it anymore. She does a lot of video work, and was complaining about the slow machine she had.

Attempting to insert photos via a hosting site, wish me luck, I have never done this before!









Woohoo, 17 years on the internet and I now can do something most 7 year olds can!

Cheers,
James

[jwood314]

So those were of the old machine, with some of the old hardware, the following are some of the work in progress photos I have taken. I hope you like.







Cheers,
James

[Got_Vtec?]

cable management looks good....you reversed the HD's??.....im not a big fan of the front bezel but thats just me

[GripS]

Just got this case a couple days ago. Seems they've updated things a bit. The space around the water cooling holes is no longer meshed. There is a small square cutout where the PSU sits(not bit enough for 24pin connector) as well as a couple of larger holes along the middle hard drive bays so routing some cables behind the motherboard is an option 'out of the box' now. I'm going going to have a to cut a couple more holes to get a descent look like those have already posted.

Something that annoyed me is the 200mm fan appears to be damaged. Clicks like crazy. Hoping Antec sends me a replacement with proof of purchase.

I have to say it was a bit of a pain in the ass to work with but this is my first 'mid tower' case and i'm used to full towers with plenty of room to hide cables.

Even without the top fan working. Temps have gone down considerably for CPU, PWM, and NB. As far as air cooling goes.... I don't think you can beat this one.

[Bubbaxm2]

Pics?

[Goreg]

im not a big fan of the front bezel but thats just me

Agreed, look v odd...

[jwood314]

The tape is going away, but in order to get air filters on there, other than a swiffer, and actually make it easy to clean them, the front grill thingies had to come off. If it is awful when completed, read remove the tape, hopefully it will look ok.

Cheers,
James

[Hughyhunter]

Looks good Jwood!!!

Small guide to painting outside:

1. Remove the top fan mount, drive cages (disassemble them so you can paint metals) and remove the side window plastic and intake mount.
2. Wet sand all metals on the case with 180 grit (a bit of soap). This will take the paint off very quickly. Only use 180 on painted surface. Once it's down to metal immediately go to 400 grit and start working on smoothing the surface. Use 400 grit for the rest of the non-painted surfaces.
3. For the plastic use scotch brite pad to scuff the surface up.
4. Time to use self etching primer. This will give a super chemical adhesion to the rest of the paints/primers. SEM makes a good one.
5. Plastic don't use self etching. Just use plastic adhesion promoter.
6. Onto the high build primer. Use 2-3 coats. Spray lightly but evenly. I haven't tried to use it on the plastic but next project I'm going to make the gamble.
7. Once the High build is dry wet sand with lot's of mildly soapy water in one direction with 600 grit. Do this until surface is smooth. Try to use a sanding block.
8. Onto the base coat...
9. Whatever you decide to do whether it be a Candy, pearl or other job you should use some sort of top coat... found here for FYI: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...%3Den%26sa%3DN
10. Read the instructions on the can for this one. It's tricky. It didn't go so well for me but I did learn a lot. They say you can do some wet sanding with 1000/1500/2000 grit but it really take a lot of time and know how. In 6 months after the cure you can also do some regular car buffing to it to get the shine really out. However it should shine right away. It didn't really shine for me how I wanted it but like I said it was a learning experience.

I have pics posted pages back but here are a refresher to new Antec posters.
[IMG][/IMG]
[IMG][/IMG]

[Chase023]

Where can I get those clear rubber bumper stoppers that lay below for the power supply?? I seen a few at the stores, ones but they are too high and etc.

[Got_Vtec?]

nice write up hughy the case looks nice

Chase- i have not really heard of where to get them but as you said i have seen them in a few stores, did you try wal mart where they keep all the 3m crafting stuff im pretty sure they should have some type of rubber with a adhesive backing if im not mistaken....or cut the ones you saw down to size maybe??

[R1C0CH3T]

man i wish i never had sold my 900

[dartuil]

nice pics

[Bubbaxm2]

Nice job Jwood!

[jwood314]

Well I am finished with my second Antec 900. I went with the basic front, no aluminium deallies, the wife vetoed them. I ended up with 2 holes I didn't need, and I drilled a couple of holes larger than required. So, more planning required when I start work on my Lian Li A17. I hope people like that mod, I am taking a bunch of different ideas and sort of mashing them together into that case. The best cable managment I can, I plan on mounting a slim DVD drive on the side of the front bezel, I plan on disassembling a Zalman 6 fan controller and also installing it on the side of the front bezel. It has already been disaasembled, need to start drilling holes for it though. A few other items that I will show when they aer installed. AS much as I like the bondo and fiberglass work, I just don't think I want to go that crazy on a case. I might have to build some fan holders through acrylic, but that is better than all of the crazy bondo/paint work I have seen. Here are some photos of the finished 900.





Cheers,
James

[Hor$eman]

Very clean. Great work!

[jwood314]

Some great examples to follow!

[Hughyhunter]

Well done Jwood! Can't wait to see what else you come up with!

[Got_Vtec?]

wow jwood the cable management looks amazing

[=>WiLL<=]

Anything new over the weekend? C'mon guys.

[Got_Vtec?]

I would have had pics of 2 3870's in crossfire but i found out my mobo doesnt support crossfire it supports SLi.... for me because i did not do my research, now im stuck with 1 3870 i took the other one back but i still have one here unless i can sell it and go with a nvidia card ill be able to get two and run SLi

I am working on reversing the HDD's right now and trying to find a way to make the extra fan bracket fit with the video card

[RockfordFosgate]

Well I am finished with my second Antec 900. I went with the basic front, no aluminium deallies, the wife vetoed them. I ended up with 2 holes I didn't need, and I drilled a couple of holes larger than required. So, more planning required when I start work on my Lian Li A17. I hope people like that mod, I am taking a bunch of different ideas and sort of mashing them together into that case. The best cable managment I can, I plan on mounting a slim DVD drive on the side of the front bezel, I plan on disassembling a Zalman 6 fan controller and also installing it on the side of the front bezel. It has already been disaasembled, need to start drilling holes for it though. A few other items that I will show when they aer installed. AS much as I like the bondo and fiberglass work, I just don't think I want to go that crazy on a case. I might have to build some fan holders through acrylic, but that is better than all of the crazy bondo/paint work I have seen. Here are some photos of the finished 900.





Cheers,
James

Perfect cable manegement

[Deviyl]

I looked at this thread for weeks watching all the cool things you could do with an Antec 900 and then I finally decided to do it to mine.. and I think it looks fairly decent. I took it completely apart and painted everything black with the 30 cent paint from wally world. My dad works in an electric shop.. so I borrowed one of those big beastly hole punches.. so the holes came out beautifully smooth.. I added some felt to the back side though just in case. The holes I added were: the one just in front of the PSU.. I have one almost directly behind the CPU for the little power wire that connects next to the CPU.. and I got a file and filed out a small hole up towards the top-front for the case wires to go around the back.

These are pics from a long time ago.. If I remember when I get home I'll take some better ones xD

I've added another hard drive since then and gotten some shorter silver sata cables and routed them a little nicer than the orange ones. I also may end up reversing the hard drives.. depending on how ambitious I feel lol

And.. it's in a slide show cuz I was bored.. I don't have any individual pics at the moment.. it only lasts about a minute and thirty seconds. This was basically the steps as I went through.. I may try to take some nicer single shots later =)

http://img144.imageshack.us/slidesho...218263h5t.smil

[CLUBER]

Hi guys, wanted to make my first post here, I have read every page of this thread and really loved it what you guys have done. I was originally gonna buy a hp, gateway, ect. as a matter of fact i did buy a gateway that i ended up returning. Thought to myself, "why not just build one?"

So I spent all last week doing the holes and painting the case little by little during my breaks at work. And all of this weekend putting this all together. This is my first ever build and mod. I will post pics a bit later, the wife has my camera and the pics are in there. plus i need to figure out how to post them first LOL