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Wow. It is heavy but durable. This case is a beautiful case and pictures do not do it justice. It is a great case that I recommend for anyone looking to upgrade.P.S. It comes stock with 5 120mm Blue LED fans but you can purchase up to 2 more for the Side and HDD bay for a total of 7 120mm fans. On top of that is a "Big boy" 200mm fan on top for an eighth fan. This is a FULL tower not a mid tower as Amazon describes it as. So be aware of that.
Everything inside is neat and tidy.-Nice fans. Mounting the additional fan into the bracket next to hard drive cages was a pain. This was only my second computer I built myself, but with this case the wiring job looks IMMENSELY better than my last one. -Great cable management. Great case. -This is nitpicking, but one of the three case fans on the front must be using different LEDs than the others because it's not exactly the same blue color. Just means there were two more things I had to buy. My GTX 285 video card fit in the case, but if I had a hard drive sitting next to it, it would be a different story.-The fact that it doesn't come with the 2 fans that it already has mounts for.
only 2. The 120mm fans move a lot of air. No regrets about purchasing.The Pros:-LOTS of room inside, room for even the longest video cards. Also, I did not have 4 screws for it. They all have 3-way switches so you can control how loud they are. And the 200mm fan on top moves even more and is a great exhaust for all the hot air your computer creates.-Lots of drive bays-SATA port on the front so you can connect an external Hard Drive and run it even faster than USB 2.0-2 USB ports and Audio ports on front.-Power supply mounts on bottom of case which is better for cooling.-Mounts included for 2 additional 120mm fans.The Cons (None of these were big enough to warrant me knocking down the rating):-The case is plenty tall, but it could be deeper. So part of me is worried about that. All-in-all a great case that I would recommend to anyone building a new gaming computer.
The air flow keeps the unit running cool and is great for overclocking. The 1200 has all the extras. All the fans run very quiet and easy to adjust. The design allows you to keep the cabling out of the main compartment and allows greater ventilation. If your building an extream machine, the 1200 is the case you'd want to put it in.
It required me to open the top (took some research and time) and flip the fan so that the air went into the case. This case is for us extreme users, as such, this case is NOT huge enough, not by a long shot.I have 5 hard drives (one being the Velociraptor) and 2 260 core 216 graphic cards. If anyone else has this combination, then you know this case is not big enough. It took a lot of modification. But it is amazing what 2 inches will do.I am no ordinary user and have nothing but high end stuff with the CPU and both GPU's heavily overclocked. I had to modify some screws so that it would be secure. This is not good for the graphics card, the cables, the hard drive or airflow. Running the fan into the case and through the radiator results in a nice steady flow of cool air into the case cooling my upper graphics card (but not the bottom one as noted below)Back to the depth issue.
Despite the fact that I can place the reservoir from the top all the way to the bottom (a very nice plus of this case) I couldn't get one location where the hose plugs were not rubbing against something. So what was my solution. With summer coming, I had to invest 120 bucks on a waterblock to cool my Evga 260 graphics card.This case is wonderful don't get me wrong, but it has massive limitations for the general public who want to spend this much money on a "HUGE" case. The graphics cards run straight to the hard drive.
It works, but once again, barely. I have to massively bend the power and sata cords to get it in. I doubt anyone buying this is spending 99 bucks or less on a graphics card, 1 hard drive and use on board sound. Once again, had they made this case 2 inches longer, I would be golden. This is the full tower large case. From the power supply on the bottom, to the graphics cards in the middle to even the darn memory sticks at the top. Had they pushed the depth by 2 lousy inches, life would be grand.2nd, anyone try watercooling with this.
The fan blows right into it and then into the case and out the side. Sure you can make the argument that coolermasters aquamax water cooling kit is too big, but if I buy THE big case, I should have room to spare installing anything on the open market. Okay, this is not your standard case. I had to unscrew the reservoir from the case and push it out the front 2 inches. It sticks out like a fat man with a beer belly. Antec has their own water solution, but why should I have to buy another watercooling kit since Antec's case depth is subpar.
To achieve the needed airflow, I had to remove the window. At 85 pounds, this case is a beast. Maybe tall enough, but the depth is terrible. The 2nd graphic card (on the bottom near the 1000watt Antec power supply) runs 10c hotter than the top one. This is where the radiator is. There is no metal mesh there, so it just open (not happy).
With all this in there, the case is full. Add in 8 gigs of overclocking ram and 4.3 terabytes of hard drives will cause heat issues (especially living in the desert of Southern California).The positives has been listed in previous reviews, but it is important to note, that there are limitation for higher end users.
Yes you can put them in right behind the fan, and those are extra bays, but, guess what, if you have a fairly standard gaming set up, two DVD drives, a card reader drive, 3 HD's, you dont need this thing, its just TALL, heavy, and has a genuine flaw in space design.I installed my ASUS Maximus II MB, and HOLY CRAP, the connectors from the Power Supply DONT REACH. Ok, as I already owned the Antec 900, I figured more is better, and got the 1200. Is the case roomy. no, not really, only more fans upfront, you dont gain any extra external bays without removing a fan. the air flow in this tower is fantastic. Yes, but no more so than the 900 really.
I would NOT buy this one again, I would get another 900. Well, more isnt really better always. I have to order extensions for the CPU connector, I am short about 3", no small amount. Does it have more fans. Yes, 1 more extra in the front.Does it have any other really outstanding features making its size a huge bargain over the 900. My AMD X2 cpu runs about 20c,, yes,, 20c, I have a good CPU cooler, but not water cooled.
Simply a bigger one wont be any improvement, or needed, unless you need 8 HD's in your case.
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