Antec Twelve Hundred

Looks

Antec make some great, sturdy cases. They're pretty good looking on the outside but have often been let down by bland grey interiors. The Twelve Hundred certainly looks great on the outside with a smooth black finish, side window and bog boy 200mm fan in the roof. Inside it's stunning, with annodized black steel that looks very sexy indeed. But what struck me about the case is its build quality and features.

Features
...be positioned anywhere in the front of the vast case. Each can hold up to three DVD drive sized devices or three hard drive sized devices with the use of adapters. The top three bays are separate with one housing an external 3.5 inch device like a floppy drive and the other has a mount for watercooling devices like pumps or reservoirs. These items can be removed and as I mentioned earlier you can fit one the drive modules at the top should you so ... more

Looks

Antec make some great, sturdy cases. They're pretty good looking on the outside but have often been let down by bland grey interiors. The Twelve Hundred certainly looks great on the outside with a smooth black finish, side window and bog boy 200mm fan in the roof. Inside it's stunning, with annodized black steel that looks very sexy indeed. But what struck me about the case is its build quality and features.

Features

It has three drive modules that can be positioned anywhere in the front of the vast case. Each can hold up to three DVD drive sized devices or three hard drive sized devices with the use of adapters. The top three bays are separate with one housing an external 3.5 inch device like a floppy drive and the other has a mount for watercooling devices like pumps or reservoirs. These items can be removed and as I mentioned earlier you can fit one the drive modules at the top should you so wish. The control panel is located above the top drive bay and includes power, reset, USB. eSATA, stereo and microphone sockets.

Features + cooling

The build quality of the modules is top notch. They feel extremely well built and slide in very positively indeed with a minimum of fuss. The same goes for the side panels that slide into place first time without getting caught on anything. Each of the drive modules has a 120mm fan mounted in the front for cooling and each can be adjusted by a little dial on the front of each module - great for getting a balance between cooling and noise depending on your needs although even at full speed they are extremely quiet.

Cooling continued

The three 120mm fans are in additon to two 120mm fans at the back of the case mounted vertically and a huge 200mm fan in the roof that works to prevent the build up of heat. The rear and top fans can also be adjusted via a back panel control switch so essentially you have control over all of the 6 fans included with the case.

Installation

When it comes to installing hardware, there is oodles of room and what's more, there are pre-drilled holes in the motherboard tray to route cables so you can build a great looking system as cable tidying is really easy. There are two grometted holes to route tubing for watercooling out the back of the case too and two additional 120mm fan mounts. One of these is in the side panel, the second can be fitted to the back of a drive module, improving the flow of air to either the PSU, graphics card ot motherboard depending on which drive module you attach it to.

Installation continued

Speaking of the PSU, it's mounted in the bottom of the case and there are four large rubber feet for it to sit on preventing vibration. Some might prefer to mount it in the roof but in this particular case the design goes against this.

Conclusion

To use, the Twelve Hundred is a brilliant case. Quiet, sleak and well built - you can't really ask for more. Well except good value, but it already had this in abundance - it retails at just over £100 which is a steal for a case of this standard. 

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