Antec Twelve Hundred replacement parts?

[Dorkenstein]

Would Antec or somewhere else have a replacement hard drive cage/fan bay for sale? I looked over Antec's site and didn't see anything. Thanks for any help.

 

[zagood]

You'd normally find it here, but I don't see any.
http://www.antec.com/StoreFront.bok

Contact Antec directly and they may just send you one.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Thanks, I'll do that.

 

[Dorkenstein]

By the way, is there a good way to keep the 1200 from getting so dusty? Maybe by using non-stock fans?

 

[smackababy]

Just contact their support about spare parts. I needed some more screws and emailed them about purchasing some a while back. They just sent me a bag of about 10 of every type they had.

As far as dust, not really much you can do as far as I know.

 

[Anubis]

The only thing you can do about dust is install filters in front of your intake fans, you then have to clean them but it keep the dust out of your comp for the most part

 

[smackababy]

It helps, but it doesn't prevent all dust by a long shot.

 

[zagood]

Two best things you can do to cut down on dust are a) move the computer off the floor and b) put an air filter in the room. Preferably one with actual filters, not the ionizer ones.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Yeah, I might just take it off the floor and put it on a table.

 

[zagood]

Oh, and...uh...cleaning. My wife gets pissed that I forget that part.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Anyone know of a case that has serious cooling like the 1200 but doesn't get so dirty? I was thinking of getting a Lian Li PC-A70F.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Silverstone FT02. From my experiences, it has unparalleled air cooling and decent dust mitigation. If you consider it, be sure to check the dimensions first; the case is about the height and width of an average midtower chassis, but it's VERY deep. Essentially, it's like taking your Antec 1200 and putting the front panel down on the floor instead.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Hmm. How would that case do cooling a video card with a non-reference cooler? I've heard less positive things about that aspect since the case has bottom fans that aim straight up across the card which is in turn trying to blow the air forward. Also, I would'nt be able to put the top cover on because my vga cable with DVI adapter would stick up too high, so that might mean more dust.

 

[CurseTheSky]

The top cover does little to keep dust out - it's a very open honeycomb mesh design. The principle behind it is the fact that the fans in the bottom are blowing so much air up, dust won't fall in from the top (of course, if you leave it sleeping / off most of the time, this isn't the case). Leaving the cover is primarily an aesthetics problem. It's too bad you're stuck using a DVI adapter.

I cannot say for sure, but I would actually expect non-reference coolers to do better with this case. Reference designs generally draw in air from the top of the card and exhaust it out the back, meaning that they're somewhat fighting with the upwards flow of air in order to "breathe" - in practice it works quite well, for me anyway (search for my post about P182 SE temps vs. FT02). Non-reference designs generally draw air from the surrounding area and exhaust them from the top of the card. This exhausted air would be quickly whooshed away by the bottom fans. Of course, that all depends on how close your graphics card(s) are to other components; if you're running SLI / Crossfire cards directly next to each other, it could be a problem.

Think of it this way - if you were a passenger in a car driving down the highway and stuck your head out the window perpendicular to the car (not facing the front nor the back), would it be easier to inhale the turbulent air, or exhale into it? Either way, I wouldn't expect it to make a huge difference in graphics card temps, maybe 1-5C tops.

Finally, keep in mind that any case that isn't completely sealed, even with filtered intakes, is going to collect dust. Some cases are less dusty that others (and man oh man is this FT02 less of a dust magnet than my P182), but you're going to have to clean them at some point regardless.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Would the Lian Li be anywhere near as good? I guess I kind of prefer the traditional tower layout.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Good as in quality? Probably better. Good as in air flow and dust management? Not likely, though still sufficient.

The A70F was going to be my choice before I bought the FT02.

 

[Dorkenstein]

How many hard drives do you have in your FT02? I have 3 and if I add one more, which I need to do, I don't know how I'd connect power and sata cables to it. The only three spare power connectors that were close by are taken up. I also used the Silverstone CP05 backplanes on the drives. How is yours set up? Thanks.

 

[Mday]

How many hard drives do you have in your FT02? I have 3 and if I add one more, which I need to do, I don't know how I'd connect power and sata cables to it. The only three spare power connectors that were close by are taken up. I also used the Silverstone CP05 backplanes on the drives. How is yours set up? Thanks.

I have 12 HDDs in my antec 1200 ... room for 4 more

 

[Dorkenstein]

Yeah, that's why I prefer the traditional case layout. I currently have my stuff in a Silverstone FT02. It is a good case, but I don't think I want to keep using it.

I don't know what to think about its video cooling abilities. Some people say it's okay and others say to avoid it if you have a non-reference video cooler. Nothing conclusive. All I know is that in the FT02, my video card goes from 30's to mid 40's celcius by just starting a game and sitting at the menu.

 

[CurseTheSky]

How many hard drives do you have in your FT02? I have 3 and if I add one more, which I need to do, I don't know how I'd connect power and sata cables to it. The only three spare power connectors that were close by are taken up. I also used the Silverstone CP05 backplanes on the drives. How is yours set up? Thanks.

I have three drives, but one is a SSD. The two in the normal HDD chamber are setup with CP05's connected to molex connectors. I didn't put much thought into fitting additional drives, but I didn't think it would be a problem (since you can daisy-chain the molex connectors). IIRC, there are also 5.25" to 3.5" adapters that would let you mount additional drives in those bays.

All I know is that in the FT02, my video card goes from 30's to mid 40's celcius by just starting a game and sitting at the menu.

I don't think that's any reason to be alarmed. More importantly, what does your graphics card hit under load? Perhaps run Furmark, and compare it to others with a similar card but different case. I know for me, my temperatures dropped drastically going from a P182 to the FT02. I am using a reference cooler card, though, and the P182 is not known for its cooling abilities (though it is far from horrible).

 

[Dorkenstein]

I knew I could daisy-chain them, I just didn't know if it was a good idea. Do you use the stock fans in your FT02?

 

[Dorkenstein]

Is there a site that does case temp comparisons? I'd like to see which case gets lower temps, the FT02 or the 1200.

I was going to modify my old 1200 by putting better fans in it. For the three front fans I was going to use three Ultra-High Gentle Typhoons @ 7v and for the two exhaust fans I was going to put 2 of the same fan but @ 12v. Hopefully more air will go for exhaust than intake. I might have to put the three intake fans on 5 volts instead of 7.