Antec’s Twelve Hundred (1200)

On the outside…

The case is completely black in colour and features a large window on the left side-panel allowing you to show-off all your tech porn. The paint job on the case doesn’t look as high quality to other cases from Antec i.e. the Antec Sonata 550 Plus. The paint job on the Twelve Hundred seems to have more of an ‘orange peel’ effect compared with the Sonata which is a glossy flat finish.

The whole case is constructed from a mixture of both Steel and Plastic. This seems to be the obvious choice for materials in this category as Aluminium seems to be more targeted to higher end cases – which often come with higher prices. None-the-less, steel is still the most popular choice of material for computer cases due to its obvious characteristics i.e. Price.

The left side-panel of the case features a large acrylic window which sits flush into the panel. Altogether there are 13 screws securing the window to the side-panel, so it’s nice and rigid. Windows on cases seem to have faded out in the computer industry in recent years, but at heart, we all still love to show-off the flashy lights which inhabit our tech porn. To the left of the window, part of the side panel is perforated and a 120mm fan rests in the middle. Oddly though, this perforated part is backed with acrylic. Therefore, it adds no performance gain in cooling from the perforation – simply aesthetics only.

Moving towards the front of the case we can see twelve visible 5.25” drive bays which again, are perforated in a ‘honey comb’ style. Oddly enough, the second and third drive bays from the top seem to have some sort of sound dampening backing. This indicates that these bays could be for silencing a hard drive, perhaps? On three of the drive bays, there seems to be dials, a good prediction would be that these dials are perhaps fan controllers – a nice feature for anyone wanting ultimate control of their fans. Surrounding the drive bays, is thick matt-black plastic. This seems to represent a ‘pillar’ kind of style at the front – giving it that ultimate gamer look.

As far as switches and ports go, unlike most cases where they’d be located at the middle of the case; the Twelve Hundred’s are all located at the top – sitting beside each other. From left to right we have:

• Reset Switch
• Two USB 2.0 Ports
• eSATA port (for blazingly fast transfer speeds with external hard drives)
• Microphone Jack
• Headphone Jack
• Power Switch

This is all the ports we could ask for. Providing an eSATA port is a great bonus, as external eSATA drives are becoming increasingly popular.

Beneath all these switches and ports is the Antec logo – engraved in a metal badge.

Rearing to the other side panel, it’s fairly boring. It’s just a solid matt black colour which shows Antec haven’t even had an attempt at making it aesthetically pleasing. A lot of cases are now beginning to style both side panels and as people nowadays tend to position their PC’s differently, it would’ve been nice for even a logo – that would’ve finished it off.

At the back panel of the case – where everything gets plugged in – it’s a little unique to other cases we’ve tested. Firstly, the back panel is black; this indicates that the chassis is also going to be black, which personally, is a much nicer look than the retro dull grey we tend to see on chassis’s. Furthermore, there are dual 120mm fans situated in the top-right of the case; most cases come with just one 120mm fan – so the extraction of hot air from this case should be good. This reinforces my point on this case being designed towards the Overclocker or Gamer, as cooling for them is a very important factor of their case decision. To the left of the top 120mm fan are three 3-way switches and a single on/of switch. These are for controlling the speeds of yet more fans inside the chassis and turning on/off the led’s on the top fan. Jeezus…how many fans? Below this is the norm: IO shield and PCI slots. However, to the side of the PCI blanking plates are two rubber circular ‘plugs’. For water cooling enthusiasts this is a great advantage as they allow you to easily route water cooling tubes through. Sitting right at the bottom of the case is a placement for a PSU, again, this is a slightly odd placement, but is becoming more common in newer case due to the increased cooling ability and cable management.

Going birds-eye, the top of the case features a large 200m fan edging to the rear of the case and a large storage space at the front which can be used for storing pen drives, mp3 players… you get the idea. Just like the front panel, the top is made from thick plastic- although the perforated fan grill which stops fingers from being sliced is steel. To add strength and rigidness, it seems the plastic top of the case is screwed to a metal base. Overall, I’m surprised Antec have managed to fit a 200mm fan on the top as it seems like a very close fit. This will of course, give a lot of airflow to the case, but could impact dramatically on noise with such a large fan which isn’t concealed very well.

On the bottom of the case, there are four rubber feet. Unlike el-cheapo cases where the feet are solid plastic, these rubber ones should help to reduce noise. However, the rubber seems to be quite hard, so the case needs some good serious weight added to it before the feet start working properly in sound dampening. Aside from sound dampening, with the gridded pattern on the feet, the feet provide plenty of friction, hence grip.