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Review: World Exclusive! - Antec 1200 (Twelve Hundred)

by Matt Davey on 11 April 2008, 08:49

Tags: Antec Twelve Hundred, Antec, PC

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The Antec 1200 has been a long time coming. That could have been a problem, as it's given the competition time to produce cases to challenge it in the middle-money market of around £120. However, that sector has been surprisingly quiet.

There's no doubt that the Antec 1200 is a capable performer and one that offers a lot of potential. The supplied cooling - which can be extended further - could reasonably be described as overkill (verging on the insane?).

However, we found the case easy to live with for day-to-day tasks if the fans were all turned to their lowest settings. Things were very different with all fans set on high - the experience was painfully noisy. And, run like that, it was one of the loudest chassis we've had through the labs.

But there are a good many positives. We were impressed by the Antec 1200's potential for 9TiB of HDD storage. And, as well as nine hard disks - all actively cooled - it has three 5.25in bays spare, giving space for a pair of optical drives and a floppy disk.

Importantly, there was a good 50mm (2in) of clearance between our test 2900XT card and the nearest HDD caddy, so the Antec 1200 is well able to accommodate the latest giants of the GPU world.

Overall, the Antec 1200 is a very likeable chassis. We think it's got a great colour scheme throughout (but we do like black!) and, when it finally makes production, we'd presume it will be built to the high standards we have come to expect from Antec.

But we do have a bit of an issue with the official price of US$209, which we translate to £120. That's a little too high for our liking.

Fortunately, though, with the usual margin-trimming that e-tailers manage, we'd reckon that the Antec 1200 will be available for a little over £110 all up. And, to us, that's about right for what is a well-built and capable chassis that showed itself in our testing to be a great performer.

Yes, you guessed right. We like the Antec 1200. Indeed, enough to give it a prestigious HEXUS Extreme award.

Gaming Recommended
Antec 1200

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HEXUS Forums :: 113 Comments

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Would like to know what sort of price point they are looking at?

Is that many fans necessarry do you think?

And are there any after market solutions for the large 200mm fan at the moment?
The price point is around £120 as per the review (based on the 209$ USD price point)

As for replacement 200mm they are available although taking a while to come to market - there really isn't anything wrong with the one that is currently fitted, especially as there is three possible fan settings.

Matt.
Great review guys. :)


One thing bugs me though is that it isnt very deep for a case of its size.
Been waiting for this one to come out.

I have the 900 case and Antec appear to have listened to the customers and corrected some of the niggles with the 900 case.

1. Dust filters fited to the fans ( had to cut up a pair of tights to make some for my 900)

2. The ability to change the fan speed without opening the case or fitting a seperate fan controller)

3. Cable managment holes and water cooling holes predone.

Love my 900 have the fans set of medium and my overclocked Opteron 185 and 8800GTS run very cool

So this is going on my wish list for that watercooled multiterrabyte gaming monster rig …….:)
does this mean the price of 900s will drop?