MaximumPC 2007 04

A SPOTLIGHT ON

CASES

ANTEC NINE HUNDRED

This case rocked us like

a hurricane

Antec’s Nine Hundred is solidly con-

structed and surrounded by enough air

cooling to bring Dorothy back home

to Kansas. Shoot, we were effectively

“blown away” by the Nine Hundred,

hereafter dubbed “the 900,” which is

a fi ne example of case craftsmanship,

despite a few minor fl aws.

The case’s internals are pleasant-

ly predictable. Three 5.25-inch bays

and six 3.5-inch bays reside behind

the case’s stylish front panel, and the

full grill not only looks sharp but also

improves the 900’s ability to generate

ample airfl ow. Two 12cm blue LED

fans suck air across your hard drives

and into the eye of the storm, and a

20cm fan churns on the 900’s ceiling.

And that’s not all! Another fan

at the rear of the case helps make

the 900 an ideal solution for those

who prefer air cooling to water cool-

ing. Heck, you can even install an

additional fan on the case’s side win-

dow grill—a pleasant bit of overkill.

“Hurricane” is an apt term to describe

the force produced by the 900’s fans

at full tilt, but if going deaf isn’t your

thing, Antec has wisely given users

the ability to customize speeds via a

little switch on each fan.

The 900’s few fl aws—a hard-to-

remove side panel, a ton of drive-bay

thumbscrews, and no eSATA port—

are hardly enough to dump rain on

this case’s parade.

COOLER MASTER

CM MEDIA 280

It lives, it lives! One part

media PC, one part desktop

Mash Henry Jekyll and

Edward Hyde into a case

design and you’ve got

Cooler Master’s CM Media

280. It’s the fi rst hybrid
     media center/desktop
     enclosure to hit our Lab—
     fl ip it horizontally for a low
     and wide silhouette that will
     slide into an entertainment
     console or stand it up verti-
     cally for traditional use.
     Cooler Master could
     have made the case trans-
     formation a bit easier, but
     by the same token, this
     case isn’t designed to be
     reoriented on a whim. To
     go from a desktop to a
     media center, you have to
     pop panels, reorient hard
     drives, adjust drive bays...
     it’s a process.
     At least Cooler Master
     eases the pain by including
     a handy Windows-themed
     remote with the
     case, as well
     as a four-inch

fl uorescent display for

the case’s front panel that

shows you the typical

media center stuff—album

titles, song listings, etc.

The little extras are enough

to put the CM Media 280

on the side of good rather

than evil, but barely so.

$200, http://www.coolermaster.com

7

COOLERMASTER CM MEDIA 280

$150, http://www.antec.com

9

ANTEC NINE HUNDRED

ENERMAX ECA

3092 PHOENIX

Meet the Ron Jeremy of

enclosures

Enermax’s Phoenix isn’t

much to look at, nor does it

boast the special features or

advantages of its peers. What

makes the Phoenix stand out,

however, is its monstrous

unit... cooling unit, that is:

a 25cm fan built directly

into the side panel.

And that’s it. You can

toggle the fan to spin in

one direction or the other,

but other than that, the

Phoenix is fairly ho-hum.

Worse, we could never

get the fan to actually spin

up without fi rst removing

the side panel and giving

it a li’l nudge.

Performance anxi-

ety, perhaps? $150, http://www.enermax.com^4

ENERMAX ECA3092 PHOENIX

44 MAXIMUMPC APRIL 2007

8”

17”

7”

17”

8”

18.75”