Antec Eleven Hundred Mid Tower Chassis Review

Using our standard test system along with a micro ATX motherboard we installed the components into the tower very easily. The clean no frills interior made it easy to mount the components onto the board with plenty of breathing room to spare. Even through the mid-chassis size of this case we found that there was ample room around the components for cable management applications.

Once the motherboard, power supply and cooling systems were installed we looked at the Drive bays to see if the tool-less design would stand up to its promises. In practice we were extremely impressed with the ease of installation when mounting the HDD’s into the cage. The quick installation accessories clicked into the screw mounts of the HDD before sliding into the runner slots on the chassis. This tool-less operation made the HDD drive installation straight forward. Unfortunately the same could not be said about the SSD installation which still required a good old-fashioned screw driver to fit.  Some cases offer drive bays that can hold both 2.5” and 3.5” drives in the same tray mount. Antec have approached this matter slightly differently and introduced a narrow cage above the main HDD Drive bays to hold the smaller 2.5” SSD drives.

Above the cage sits three 5.25” optical drive bay slots. In our test system we installed a single optical drive to test the tool-less clip design found on the Eleven Hundred. Once popping the front panel from the chassis it was possible to remove the relevant blanking slots and expose the 5.25” cage. We were impressed with the ease of installation when using the Tool-less clip design. The drive bay locked into place when the locating pin finds the screw terminal on the side of the bay holding the drive in place securely. Once installed, the case front can be replaced so that the drive then sits flush with the face plate.

Antec have listened to the gaming community who have always said that there is not enough space to the rear of the motherboard tray for additional fans and effective cable management. With the Eleven Hundred, Antec have made sure a wider rear bay is included to allow gamers to get the most out of this space. The additional depth allows plenty of room to lose all of the unwanted cables to the rear of the board and install optional extras to the case.  This extra space also makes access to drive bays and SATA connections easier although we did find that the SSD location made it a little trickier to connect the SATA due to the overhanging 5.25” optical drive bays. Never the less with some clever finger squeezing action we were able to connect these into the drives and once installed the distribution looked tidy. We would recommend that when installing the SSD into the chassis to connect and feed the SATA through the drive bay cage prior to screwing the bay into the rack.

The internal 200mm top fan has a sleek design. In addition to its functional applications as an exhaust fan the unit offers a cool LED lighting effect. The blades are bathed in cool blue light from slim LEDS mounted into the body of the fan. This gives the case a dynamic look when on and it enhances the already sleek design of the tower by projecting light through the spinning blades.