Computers Have Taken Over: Antec's Nine Hundred and Trio Self-Aware!
This week, Truly Obscure will be featuring computer stuff- much of it the latest and greatest, most of it aimed at “enthusiasts” or “gamers” and other people who care way too much about their hardware specs. We realize this is a departure from our normal fare, and hope you enjoy this feature, as we take a look at everything from RAM to TV tuner and dual graphics devices to cases, cooling systems, and uninterruptible power supplies.
Today’s topics of choice are computer cases and power supplies- and not just from any old manufacturer, but from Antec. They make some of the better-regarded products in these niches, and we decided to test their latest PC case and a recent PSU to see if their reputation would stand up.
We’ll start off with the Antec Nine Hundred- so powerful that they don’t even use digits! Aimed at gamers, this is a case that works very hard to suit its audience, and follows the lineage of a widely-revered case (the P180) that is a tough precedent to beat. Like the P180, there is space to spare in this well-made case- enough to fit your liquid cooling system, up to 6 hard drives, your ATX motherboard and dual video cards (well, a bug in the case made certain configurations difficult but should be fixed now). And there’s plenty of room left over for your mess of DVD burners, with either 3 or 6 bays available. The case is heavy, but quiet, large but adaptable, and features the translucent side panel that makes installing fancy lighting systems almost necessary to properly showoff your machine.
We weren’t positive that the cooling performance beat the P180, but they are very similar (quad-fan) designs, with a fifth fan on the side panel that is thankfully optional, as it can get in the way of other cooling solutions.. The Nine Hundred does feature top mounted I/O ports for your USB devices and the like, which is convenient… if you put the computer on the floor. On the desk, these ports become harder to reach. Overall, the Antec Nine Hundred is a great case for $150, and it’s a worthy successor to the P180- it’s simply a question of whether you like the silver accents of the P180 or the dark mystery of the Nine Hundred.
There’s not much to say about the looks of a power supply, on the other hand. They usually aren’t pretty, and they live only to serve our needs. When you need power- and who doesn’t?- you need to look at a better power supply. We got our hands on a high-end model (not the 1000-jiggajoulemonster that we’ve seen) but a very acceptable 650W model that is SLI certified. It’s the Antec TruePower Trio 650, and it’s efficiency can reach up to 85%, pretty good by any standards. For those not in the PSU know, a higher-end power supply not only supplies more power if you need- it actually is more efficient than lower-end units. This means that a better power supply can pay for itself in decreased energy costs… over quite a bit of time.
Anyway, with power supplies, you mainly want to know whether it stays stable at varying power levels and whether it can stay cool- and our model tested pretty well. We couldn’t quite stress it to 650W, but we managed to pull down 550W or more without issues.
The final question is one of noise, and this one is whisper quiet. Overall, the Antec TruePower Trio 650 should handle pretty much anything you throw at it, with plenty of extra cables for SATA and other devices, and it’s priced at around $120.
