INTRODUCTION
It's no secret that enthusiasts, overclockers and professionals mostly choose full towers to house their systems in order to take advantage of their massive interior space and much better potential airflow levels. I also happen to believe that the larger the tower the easier it is to fit the largest possible hardware components inside, swap them and to build an very efficient and complete cooling system. Unfortunately nowadays the trend is to shrink everything and so most manufacturers focus in releasing mini ATX/ITX cases in an effort to cover the largest percentage of the consumer base. Luckily however exceptions do happen from time to time by some of the leading manufacturers in the market and so today we will be taking a look at the largest Full Tower ever released by our friends over at Antec the quite remarkable Nineteen Hundred (1900) Ultimate Gaming Case.
Antec, Inc., is the leading global brand of high-performance computer components and accessories for the gaming, PC upgrade and Do-It-Yourself (DIY) markets. Founded in 1986, Antec is recognized as a pioneer in these industries and has maintained its position as a worldwide market leader and international provider of efficient, quiet, and reliable products. Antec has also achieved great success in the distribution channel, meeting the demands of quality-conscious system builders, VARs and integrators. Antec is headquartered in Fremont, California, with additional offices in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, as well as in Germany, China and Taiwan. The company’s products are sold in more than 40 countries throughout the world. Please visit www.antec.com for more information.
The brand new Nineteen Hundred is unlike any other full tower (or any tower for that matter) introduced by Antec in the past not only because of its very high build quality and massive size giving it a very spacious interior for even the longest graphics cards in 3-Way SLI/CF but also because of the many features it packs. These features include two seperate chambers, 6 pre-installed fans complete with dust filters and speed controllers (plus two available mounts), completely tool-free design, twelve 2.5"/3.5" drive trays, two PSU bays, 9 expansion slots, compatibility with XL-ATX mainboards, top 240mm radiator mount, 4 USB 3.0 ports at the front and much more. Bottom line it really seems that with the Nineteen Hundred Antec aims to take on several colossal PC cases like the Obsidian 900D by Corsair and the Cosmos II by Cooler Master and we're amongst the very first in the world to check and see if they've succeeded.
SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES
PACKAGING AND CONTENTS
The box of the Nineteen Hundred is very big and although we've seen bigger that doesn't mean it was easy moving around (the box did get damaged during shipping, fortunately the case was ok). At the front as usual we see a very large product image and the Antec logo.
On the left side we see yet another product picture pointing to the 4 front USB 3.0 ports.
The spacious interior is showcased on the right side.
All product features are listed at the rear in the form of small pictures.
Antec has used a plastic bag and two very thick Styrofoam spacers to keep the massive Nineteen Hundred safe during transport.
Inside a small bag placed inside the tower you will find 3 Molex to 2pin fan adapters, 4 cable ties, product overview paper, warranty information paper and a second bag with all the necessary bits and pieces.
THE NINETEEN HUNDRED EXTERIOR
With measurements of 696mm in height, 555mm in depth and 223.6mm in width the Nineteen Hundred is nothing short of massive. The design of the case is quite simple yet thanks to the side window, many corners and front painted dual layer mesh it looks quite unique.
The left side panel is quite large but for some reason (perhaps lower noise levels) it doesn’t extend over the drive area.
Right beneath both panels we see two smaller panels that fall down (much like the ones we saw with the 900D).
The dual layer mesh provides air to the three 120mm intake fans placed beneath the fascia (we will talk about them later on).
Above the three 5.25" bays we see the front I/O which consists by the power and reset buttons, two USB 2.0 ports, four USB 3.0 ports and the standard microphone and headphones plugs.
A large Antec logo is placed on the lower end.
Part of the top is perforated to allow air to exit from the two 120mm exhaust fans placed beneath it (you can remove the top cover after removing two thumbscrews at the rear).
The rear comes with an 120mm exhaust fan, a 3-way fan controller for the top and rear fans (the fans are connected to it and in turn it gets powered by a molex power connector), 9 expansion slots with red covers, two rubber grommets and two PSU bays.
Beneath the bottom PSU bay we see a removable dust-filter.
Antec has used rubber coated thumbscrews to secure both side panels in place.
THE NINETEEN HUNDRED INTERIOR
The spacious interior should easily dwarf any hardware component you throw in it.
All three 5.25" bays feature tool-free locking mechanisms.
Right beneath the 5.25" bays we see the first 6 drive trays and a space for two 2.5" drives right above them.
6 more drive trays are placed lower right next to the primary PSU bay.
The drive trays are not very thick but they are quite sturdy.
You can mount two more 120mm fans right next to the main drive cage.
The mainboard tray has 4 rubber grommets for cable management and a very large opening right beneath the CPU area.
Rubber coated thumbscrews are also used with all 9 PCI expansion slots.
Antec has placed two PSU bays in the Nineteen hundred and although most people will certainly use the bottom one some will have little choice but to use the one above.
On the interior of the right side panel Antec has used a thin sheet of noise dampening material.
There are 5 cable holders right beneath the mainboard tray which should come really handy especially since there's plenty of space for cable routing.
Remember the three front 120mm fans? All 3 feature their very own speed controllers (Low/High).
To remove the front fascia and gain access to the fans you will need to remove 4 screws on each side of the case as seen above.
Once you remove the fascia you will see the three 120mm fans along with their dust filters.
Here we see the two top 120mm exhaust fans which can be replaced with an 240mm radiator.
BUILDING THE SYSTEM
As always the purpose of this section is not to build a fully working system but rather to showcase what you can expect from the case at hand in terms of interior space.
The Nineteen Hundred dwarfs our standard ATX mainboard as it would any other mainboard for that matter.
You shouldn't come across any clearance issues even with the largest possible CPU Cooler.
Antec has made certain that you can mount even 330mm long graphics cards in the Nineteen Hundred (as long as you don't mount extra 120mm fans next to the drives).
Now here's the catch. Although the bottom PSU area is big enough to install even the longest models the top one is far more ideal (HCP1300 Review Coming Soon).
NOISE LEVEL TEST
After giving it much thought we decided on performing noise tests with each PC Case we receive by placing our ExTech HD600 vertically ontop of each case to measure the noise levels emanating from the pre-installed fans at both 50% and 100% with the help of a fan controller.
CONCLUSION
One of my all-time favorite movies happens to be called the Legend of 1900 so when i heard that Antec was going to release the nineteen hundred PC Case i immediately thought of that movie and as expected i hoped for the best. Well i don't know if that's a lucky number but the new nineteen hundred tower left all of us with the best possible impressions. It's very spacious, has a large number of features, the quality is equally great, it comes ready with amazing airflow levels (without sacrificing quietness) and you can fit pretty much every hardware component out there inside. Of course much like most things that doesn't mean that the Nineteen Hundred is perfect cause it's really not. You see Antec has only given it space for a single 240mm radiator at the top (for its size it should have two) and although most people will be satisfied with just one i still can't figure out why they didn't choose to make space for an 360mm one instead (there's plenty of free space up there). The primary PSU bay is also strange since you can't really fit a large PSU there, well you can but the cables will not be at all easy to route (if at all) so in the end for people who will choose such models that bay will remain empty and since it's all the way to the bottom rear i don't think it can be used for another purpose. I also would like to see a speed controller for the 3 front fans since their own ones are too small and not very easy to get to so unless you have an fan controller which you can use this may annoy you (although to be fair i don't think that their noise levels will bug anyone even at high).
Towers like the Nineteen Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case have a very small target audience which consists from enthusiasts, professionals and hardcore gamers meaning generally people who don't mind spending quite a bit to get something unique. Fortunately although the recommended retail price was set somewhat high you can now find the Nineteen Hundred for USD192.94 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 260Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk). Overall although once again EU consumers have to pay a lot more than our USA friends (who knows if that will ever change) the Nineteen Hundred is quite reasonably priced especially when for example the somewhat similar Obsidian 900D retails for USD328/330Euros and the Cosmos II retails for USD299/340Euros. Still the Nineteen Hundred is not as complete as those two towers and although I’m certain it can cover the needs of pretty much the 90% of its target audience it will still fall short for that special 10% and that's why it ends up getting our Golden Award.
PROS
- Build Quality
- Design
- Interior Space (HPTX Compatible)
- Room For Up To 8 Fans
- Single 240mm Radiator Space
- Room For Up To 12x3.5"/14x2.5"/3x5.25" Drives
- Dual PSU Area
- Two Separate Chambers
- 9 PCI Expansion Slots
- Tool-Less Design
- Air-Filters For All Fans
- Fan Speed Controllers
- 6 Pre-Installed Fans
- Low Noise Levels
- Cable Management Space
- Price (Compared To Similar Solutions)
CONS
- Supports Only 1 Radiator
- 240mm Radiator Area
- Bottom PSU Area
- Front Fan Controllers Hard To Reach