Choosing a case: ANTEC, Cooler Master, or Thermaltake?

[[Dr. V]]

yep. gotta pick one of these up.

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Antec Nine Hundred

Antec P180

Cooler Master Mystique 632

Thermaltake VC3000BWS Armor Jr.

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looking for the best in terms of overall performance including sound, "coolness", everything.

in terms of the look, i like how they all look which is why its down to performance. the winner now is the one to buy since i wouldnt mind having any one of those on my desk! reviews on all cases at different sites have only given back good results. thats why im so confused.

thanks!

[screwballl]

I have heard good things about all of them so I am not much help.

[polobunny]

I know the Armor Jr, the 900 and the P180.
The 900 keep the stuff extremely cool. The P180 isn't bad because of the 2 chambers. The Armor Jr can't really compete with the 2 Antec in term of cooling.
I don't know about the Mystique so I can't tell for this one.

[Tyreal]

Either the 900 or the P180.

Put together correctly, the P180's noise level will be superior to the 900. The 900 has better cooling but will need more maintenance because it has more fans and no filters but will be inherently louder.

Either way you are giving your money to Antec. :)

[JazzyJake]

i've built a rig in all of these, but never a mystique.

the 2 antecs are both top-notch cases, and as a builder, i really appreciate the bottom-mounted PSU.
the Armor Jr. is also a nice case, but compared to the other 2 antecs, i'd take one of those.
Although the full-sized armor is a definite competetor
*EDIT: i forgot to mention the bezel on the p180 isn't as solid as (i feel) it should be.
if a company wants to put a bezel on, you should be able to kick it shut and not notice a difference, (this is my opinion)

[Dread]

I like the looks of the Antec P180 and the Nine Hundred. But for me the P180 internals have the edge. Very similar to the Nine Hundred, but I like the HDD cage/pull-out and more importantly the separate chamber for the PSU. In my opinion, if your going to place the PSU in the lower portion of the case, it needs to be physically separated from the rest.

The Nine Hundred looks unfinished in the interior, and the front mesh covers will do nothing but collect dust. It'll look horrible if you're anything like me, and not too prompt about cleaning them...

The PSU mounting rails may be a little over-kill on the P180, and if you end up with an over-sized PSU it may not fit. I don't know this for a fact, but worth considering the dimensions of it and your PSU before purchasing.

With a lot of things being equal, my money would go for the P180.

The Thermaltake Armor Jr. is a nice case, but there are a couple of things that bother me about it. The side panel with the window is flimsier than it should be. I'm not sure if it's the shape or size of the cutout, or the thickness of the panel/glass itself. More likely a combination of the three conspiring to be a less-than-ideal design. (as an aside, the Thermaltake Tsunami cases suffer the same malady)

On a positive note, the side panel latches are positive and well made but having only one of them lockable seems more of an afterthought than a real security design, since this mixed with a 'flimsy' panel someone can easily pop the bottom latch and twist the top locked one off it's latch.

The panel intake fan doesn't really do a lot for cooling in my experience.
It would need to be placed in accordance with the position of the individual motherboard to make an impact. On mine, the intake fan doesn't really line up with any hot components, and to be honest, think it causes air eddy's (dead air doing nothing) in the case. Moving the fan any more than an inch in any direction would be problematic at best and going to a larger size would be a must in any event.

I like the look of the front bezel 1/4 doors, but to be honest, they really don't serve a legitimate purpose. I mean, they don't really cover or protect anything, and they're a pain in the ass to fully open and closed when you need to access an optical drive. Would rather have either no front bezel cover door or one full one.

The depth of the case is another issue when installing a full-sized ATX motherboard. The front edge is crammed right up next to the cages, and on some motherboards this will prevent you from installing full length optical drives in all but the top 1-2 external drive bays. Then watch out for those PSU's that are getting longer and more powerful.

The only real positive thing I can see with the Armor Jr. is it's side mounted HDD cage, without it you would run into the same problem as the optical drive mounting; it would crowd out the motherboard.

My recommendation is to stay away from this case unless you're going to go mid-range or m-ATX components only.


On the Mystique… I don’t own one but had the opportunity to play with
a display model at our local MicroCenter just a short while ago.

A very unique front door. I like the idea behind it’s design but am not a fan of how it looks or how it would hold up to extended use. A minor consideration in the grand scheme of things though. On a more performance oriented opinion, the doors don’t feel like they would last very long before giving up the ghost, and they stick out too far for me. I place my cases on the desk/table rather than underneath, so front-to-rear space is at a premium. The doors stick out like a manikin’s leg glued to the front; serves no real purpose and would get in the way.

The top mounted accessory ports are not in a user-friendly spot either, unless you place the case to your left. The should be mounted on the top center, or front center to be convenient for most users. Same with the power, reset, and activity LED’s.

Side panel window looks horrible. It isn’t showing enough towards the rear, and shows too much of the front and top portions of the inside. Who wants a window showing a cross member brace and half the drive cages? I don’t.

The motherboard area suffers the same fate as the Armor Jr. in that it is way to crowded for anything but an m-ATX motherboard. The only saving grace is the side mounted HDD cage.

Be sure that if you get this one to mount the PSU before you mount the motherboard. Angling it over the easily broken protrusions of the motherboard and under that cross brace is asking for trouble. This reminds me of the Thermaltake Tsunami’s again. Same cross brace, same pain with the PSU…

The drive rails are actually pretty well designed, and function as they should.
My only beef with them is they don’t stay on the drives very well until placed in the cages. Pull the drive out, rails fall off more often than not. If you’re an enthusiast that is always tweaking, installing or swapping components, this is not the case for you.

The internal aluminum cages etc are very thin aluminum. The only thing that keeps them stiff is the edge rolling, and even then, they flex a little too much for me. The only billet part is the front doors, and they’re not all that because of the swivel design.

[Tyreal]

I should mention that cable management in the P180 is a PITA. You have to be a Black Belt in Wire-Fu.

[Capper]

I'd personally choose the Nine Hundred over the P-180, and the Thermaltake Armor Jr over both

[One4yu2c]

Originally Posted by Capper

I'd personally choose the nine Hundred over the P-180, and the Thermaltake Armor Jr over both

Same here, and Tyreal's dead on about the P180's cable management scheme. This coming from someone who owns both the P180 and Armor Jr., and saw Rich's Antec 900 in person.

[Dread]

I've yet to find a case that was anywhere north of being a good cable management contender. All the ones I've ever owned, used or seen in person had similiar flaws. I agree with the P180 having issues, but not enough for me to not recommend it to someone. It's flaws are there, just not at a level some other cases have flaws.

If only I had the skill, workshop and materials to design and build my own..

Of the four listed by the OP, I'd go with the P180 (I'm not as big of a cable management person as I should be).

If I had my way, would mount the PSU top-front of a case while still exhausting the hot air out of the back or top of the case. Power etc would still feed in through the back (no marring the front appearance of the case) Placing it directly above all of the drives (both optical and hard) would alleviate a lot of the problems with cable management and airflow.