Cooling You CAN fit an H100 in Antec 900/902 without cutting - PICS ADDED

My mate came to me this afternoon with an Antec 902 and a Corsair H100 and said "Make it fit please!" After googling, everyone had said it won't fit without cutting steel or losing the roof fan.

Well, I can tell you that it does fit, and properly too. No zip ties, no bodge. It's actually screwed in place - but there is a compromise...

...the loss of the lower 6 HDD bays. It's not a problem though. You can still fit a DVD, a HDD and a SSD in the three bays above, but you won't be able to fit a fan controller if you use one, although there's no need with the 902 anyway, especially with the H100 on board speed controller.

The big plus point: The two drive bay Antec fans are still in situ with the factory grilles and speed controllers and you actually have an H100 in a quad fan push/pull (setup as intake) which has dropped the temps lower than expected without dumping heat into the case because we've retained the 200mm roof fan and rear 120mm exhaust.

If anyone is interested, I'll post up some pics and details on how to mount the rad to the Antec fans whilst retaining the stock look at the front.

Sentinel.

 

I'd like to see pics just to see it! If you wouldn't mind.

I want an H100 - But I have an Antec300 (too small I know) and an Antec 1200.
Might use one or the other for my build in March/April. But would still love to see the 902
with it in.

 

Yeh pics or it didn't happen!

 

Oh, it happenned alright! Cheeky bugger...

Pics incoming tonight, although as I'm currently deployed in Italy, I only have my iPhone camera but should be good enough to see whats going on.

The pics won't show 'how' it's done though, so I'll try and explain as best I can when I put the photos on. It's actually very easy when you know how but took me a while to find the best solution.

Obviously, the same solution applies to the 1200 chassis although you have 12 HDD bays so you would retain the uppermost 3 and the bottom 3, losing the middle 6 to the 240mm rad. The only potential hurdle that might stop you fitting into a 1200 is the distance from the CPU socket to the front of the chassis. The pipes from the pump to the rad may not be long enough.

It was close enough on the 902, but obviously dependant on other factors such as CPU socket placement etc.

 

I recently fixed a build and ran cables through a 1200. It doesn't seem too difficult to fit a H100 in it. Although it would be potentially awkward.

Mind you both the 900, 902 and 1200 are louder than a hurricane. Still, props.

 

It really isn't difficult to be honest Elton. Just required a bit of 'out of the box' thought and care.

You're right with regards to noise though, although having said that, I really don't think it's any noisier than having a standard cooler in there. The loudest part of Antec cases are the stock fans, and as we've retained ALL of them, the H100 is the quietest part of the setup.

 

I would imagine. I wouldn't mind the 1200 if the design made a bit more sense. It shouldn't be any noisier though, seeing as it's the rear 120s (or is it 140s?) that make most of the noise.

 

I think the noisiest fans on the 900 and 1200 are the front intake 120s. It's because they're sucking air through the mesh dust filters, which seems to make more noise than the roof and rear exhaust fans. Still, rather have a dust filter than not!

I'm not a huge fan of the Antec cases truth be told. I think there's better out there for the same money. Having said that, there are far worse cases and for air cooling, they're up there in the top 10% so I can't be too critical of my buddies choice of chassis.

 

To the non-believers....

OK, here's the pics. Please excuse the poor quality but there's no way I'm bringing an expensive camera out here. The Neapolitans are, well.. a light fingered bunch!!

Pic 1: Shows case still appearing stock at front with working Antec intake and roof fans



Pic 2: Shows case open with H100 pump control unit. Excuse the awful PSU wiring. It's coming out next week to be replaced with an Antec so no point tidying.



Pic 3: Shows the pump, hoses and rad in situ along with the HDD and DVD above.



Pic 4: Close up of the double rad as you can't really see it very well in Pic 3.




There are a couple of simple things you need to do to bolt the rad to the Antec fans, and also since you've lost the steel cages, you have to use small screws to attach the Antec fan units to the chassis via the small screw holes in the sides of the factory mesh - in the same manner you'd fix fan controllers to a chassis.

Other than that, it was plain sailing. No drilling, cutting or bodging required. It can be put back to stock in 30 minutes.

Sentinel.

 

cool thats good just the cables need tidying aaaarrrrrggggghhhh such a mess

 

Yeah, i mentioned that in the narrative to Pic 2 if you... --

 

I know it kind of defeats the object of the pre-setup water-cool solution of the H100(h80 etc), but
are you not able to extend the tubes from rad to block? Or is that impossible/pointless?

Just to be able to fit them in larger cases having the rad out of the way and still not having to go full
W/C set up.

I don't even have an intention to do that, just wondered if it were possible.

Whether I get an H100 or equiv i'll be deciding in April-time probably. :0

 

Well, I'm sure you could but in doing so, you'd break the seal and also any warranty. Furthermore, you're introducing air into a sealed system without any way to bleed it out again unless you add a mini reservoir into the loop, in which case you might as well just build a custom loop in the first place.

These factory sealed units offer temperatures better than the best air coolers without the risk/hassle of a custom loop - however, who dares wins as temps are nowhere near as good as a custom loop done properly.

 

Ahh, ofcourse. Damn hands type before the brain engages there. Seems to be happening with me
a lot lately.

Still, neat to see it somewhere else in a case and doing 2 jobs xD

 

Cheers buddy I always like a challenge and so many people on different forums said it couldn't be done without cutting steel. Improvise, adapt and overcome - every time.

 

whoops i didnt read what you wrote just looked at the pictures!!!

 

Awesome alternative thinking! I have the Antec 1200 and bought an H100 and have been trying to mount it in the front.

I have seperated the fans from the HDD cages and refitted the front fans. The only question I have is how does the H100 actually mount to the Antec fans and are the screws used to mount the H100 part of the case?

 

Have had the case apart again, still cant figure out how Sentinal has mounted the rad to the front antec fan mounts.

Sentinel - You must be the only person to front mount an H100 in this way. Every other H100 mounted in Antec 900/1200 has been dremel'd or rear mounted! Cannot find any pics on google/youtube/forums or anywhere where I have seen front mount in one of these cases.

I really dont know what I am missing. Can anyone else shed some light here?

 

I am stuck with the same problem too...
The front mount fans sits inside a plastic holder, which screws to the grill at front.
If you take fan out of plastic holder and mount onto H100, there is no way to put it back to the holder.
Step by step guide would be god sent......

 

Just wanted to thank the original poster for the idea. Apologies for the necropost, but since other folks had my same difficulty I wanted to post my imperfect solution here, on the off chance someone else with the same case gets the idea.

I managed to put a Seidon 240m into the Antec 902 v3. As others have noted, the most difficult part was actually figuring out how to securely mount both sets of fans and the radiator to the thin plastic fan bracket. Here's a few pics of my imperfect solution:

Upgrade/mod Gallery

As you'll see, I ultimately found some 4 inch 6-32 rounded head machine screws, which were long enough to go through everything with a little room to spare. (3" screws, much easier to find, were just a hair short to get the job done. The holes in the fan bracket are actually drilled for #4-40 screws, but widening them slightly wasn't a huge problem. And it can easily be turned back into "stock" with easily available 1 inch 6-32 screws. in about 5 minutes.

(side note- if you really want to stick with the proper 4-40 screw, I did find ONE place on line that sold them, but they were outrageously priced at $10 a screw!)

The downside of this solution is that the removable fan filter can't be easily slid in/out over the rounded machine screw heads, so you have to actually take off the upper and lower fan grills (via the two side screws) to clean it. A bit of a pain, but this solution seemed much more secure than trying to mount everything the proper direction, without adding a tap nut (aka a t-nut) into the equation. Cosmetically, from the front the grill/filter hides everything nicely.

You'll see that one of the screws was properly aligned (and it's actually trimmed about 3/4" on the other end). I made this concession because the fan control knob wouldn't easily have let me put it through from the front. But one screw in this configuration and three attached with wingnuts is VERY secure. This baby is going nowhere.

Do note in the other images that only the top fan is mounted all the way through, the bottom fan attaches to the radiator normally, and simply hangs behind the lower fan/bracket. This is because the spacing of the two fan brackets messes up the alignment of the lower fan.

While it seems like a bit of effort, I will say the results were very impressive. Compared to the stock air fan, the closed liquid cooling loop was so much quieter! I hear no appreciable difference between rest and full load now. Also, my temps at rest have dropped a degree or two, and my temps at full load have dropped a whopping 15 degrees! If you can find a good deal on an H100 or a Seidon 240 m I highly recommend the investment. I ultimately went with the Seidon because the noise was better, and aesthetically I liked the hoses better. (plus the blue LED on the cooling block is the exact LED color of the Antec case fans.)

Thanks again for the inspiration!