interesting review, i liked the air filtration on the front, and the big fan on top... the optional fan on the side didn't help much, tho?

for the high cost of this case, it's tempting to compare it to the p193 and the p183.

the 12 hundred costs more than the p183, while the latter can fit ten hdds, if you put a bay converter up top(lian li)... but with the p183, all of the hdds would be suspended in rubber mounts.

i'm guessing that if you did a positive air pressure config test on the p183, i.e., all 5 upper fans blowing in, you'd probably see nearly comparable case thermal properties.

antec must have engineered the 12 hundred to fill a hole in their lineup, but i'm not seeing it... maybe you want this if you are an led gamer?

Thanks for the review. I've always wondered about this case..thought it would be louder than you measured. Still, as a non-sli gamer, I'll probably be going with something more like the p183 for my next build.

Someone on here showed a picture of a home server he built with over 10 hdds. This would undoubtedly be a nice case for that I would imagine...

Now that they have the ridiculously large gaming cases covered, can we hope for a Mini ITX(DTX really) to compete with the Silverstone Sugo series? There just aren't enough choices in that sector...

that case is like a relapse, but with a modern manic making drug addiction.


Wrong direction. That is not engineering.
Speakingofother direction..anyone remeber the pavilion 6735? little tank of a case. It is going to get a 90w prescott..becuase it is STRONG enough. This tiny case empty is as heavy as a 2600amb by antec.

how tinny sounding is this antec empty? I am still perturbed about the 2600amb, short, stalky and still stronger than most...and still not strong enough. This gamer case makes me cringe. Very pro review, I did read most of it. Thanks.

I'd like to see a comparison of the noise levels and cooling abilitiy of this vs the P193.

Thanks Lawrence. The big unknown to me, when comparing these cases, is what the noise level could be if the GPU weren't the overwhelming component...what happens when you take a GPU with a similar TDP but a quieter cooling solution?

Thanks for the review, always a pleasure to see noise measurements in which I can actually believe in

I also reviewed the case a while ago and it's just SO DAMN BIG. What's the point? Show me a gamer with actual need for 12 5,25" bays and I'll sing you all a heart-touching ballad I just don't get it.... Slap normal gaming rig in there and there will be cubic meters of wasted space.

That's what the Baseline SPL measurements are all about, we've been doing them for the last handful of case reviews. http://www.silentpcreview.com/article993-page4.html Assuming a very quiet PSU, 18 dBA w/ only back fans s on low; 20 dBA w/ back and top fans on low. Any front fan on low by itself is 23 dBA, so putting it on will up the total system to maybe 24~25 dBA.

I guess I was looking to be spoon fed results with components in place rather than assuming fan speeds for a given setup

The baseline certainly is a great a-b comparison to get a feeling for it.

Thanks very much Mike for another comprehensive article.

I too would love to see a comparison with the P193, as these two cases are natural choices for those of us planning a dual-GPU build.

Thoughts: the P193 with its more enclosed structure might do a slightly better job of masking the fan noise of the GPUs (the only real issue here), but on the other hand it's possible that the case would retain more heat than the more open 1200, forcing the fan speeds on the video cards up and negating this advantage.

Also, for those planning a quiet(ish) build or an oc'ed CPU, the P193 is limited to a cooler+fan height of no more than about 150 mm, eliminating the use of the TRUE 120 and the other masters of the cooler universe. Presumably the 1200 does not have this limitation as there is no side fan.

The Raven v2, the other case option in this class, won't take a video card longer than 12" - the new 5970 dual-gpu card out next week is expected to be a bit longer than that. That too should not be an issue with the 1200, although you might have to sacrifice one drive bay.

A corsair H50 liquid cooler would fit perfectly.