Introducing the Antec Eleven Hundred

Towards the end of last year, I took a visit out to Antec's campus in Fremont to see two new cases: the headlining P280, and the shortly-to-follow Eleven Hundred. The P280 we've already reviewed; it's as much a complement to the existing P180 series as it is a refresh, but our review of the Eleven Hundred has been conspicuously absent since its launch. That's due to a combination of bad timing and the fact that, superficially, the Eleven Hundred has an awful lot in common with the P280, pushing other cases to the front of the line.

With the refreshed case testbed I decided it was time to take a look at the Eleven Hundred, if for no other reason than to at least get a comparison point that was similar to the P280 in our results. As it turns out, though the Eleven Hundred shares the same fundamental framework and chassis as the P280, the differences between the two are far more notable than they seem.

The chassis used as the foundation of the Eleven Hundred is identical to the one the P280 enjoys (including the fan power hub in the back), but the side, top, and front panels are all different, as is the stock cooling configuration. The result is an enclosure that looks similar in many ways, but has a few different strengths and weaknesses, and most definitely performs differently.

Antec Eleven Hundred Specifications
Motherboard Form Factor ATX, Micro ATX
Drive Bays External 3x 5.25”
Internal 2x 2.5"/6x 3.5"
Cooling Front 4x 120mm intake (two in front of the drive cage and two internal)
Rear 1x 120mm exhaust
Top 1x 200mm blue LED exhaust
Side 3x 120mm fan mounts (one behind the motherboard tray)
Bottom -
Expansion Slots 9
Front I/O Port 2x USB 3.0 (via motherboard header), 2x USB 2.0, 1x Headphone, 1x Mic
Power Supply Size Standard ATX
Clearances HSF 180mm
PSU 300mm
GPU 13" / 330mm
Weight 15.3 lbs.
6.9 kg
Dimensions 20.7" x 9.3" x 21.5"
527mm x 237mm x 546mm
Special Features Silicone grommets for side fans
USB 3.0 via motherboard header
Internal fan mounts
Toolless SSD installation
Fan mount behind motherboard tray
Molex-powered internal fan hub
Price $100

If you go back and pore through our Antec P280 review, a lot of what you'll see with the Eleven Hundred will look very familiar. Specs are almost identical, but what's interesting is that the Eleven Hundred removes the option to mount a 240mm radiator to the top of the enclosure that the P280 has, instead replacing it with a massive 200mm exhaust fan. The fan control switches in the back are gone, too; the opening is still there since the Eleven Hundred uses the same basic chassis as the P280, but instead there's just a single switch to toggle the blue LED for the fan. The conclusion these elements (and more) lead up to is that though they share a chassis, the P280 was engineered for acoustics while the Eleven Hundred was engineered for performance.

In and Around the Antec Eleven Hundred
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  • jgutz20 - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link

    Everyone has the best additions/tests for you to run, yet they arent making their own articles, just criticizing others!

    Good job on the review, Ohh and you missed a period after that one sentence, please fix it so i can understand what i'm reading
  • bhima - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link

    Would it help to take one of these cases that have been tested in the newer config to be tested in the older test set up as well so we have a baseline difference between the two testing methods? Would that help us get a reasonable idea of how the older cases would perform with the new testing methodologies?
  • Arbie - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link

    A big top exhaust is great, but it should have been done as 2x120mm as in the Coolermaster CM690. There is far too little choice of 200mm fans, and then you have to rule out all the sleeve bearing models because it's a horizontal mount. Yes, a single big fan is 'better' than two smaller ones in theory, but the market is far from supporting that approach.
  • cyberguyz - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link

    I absolutely hate reviews like this. Anand, fire this guy!

    Why do jokers like this guy review fill size cases with mATX motherboards? If you review an mATX case, then fine, use an mATX motherboard.

    Guys, these are full size cases, designed to hold full sized ATX motherboards. Any jackass can assemble a 'clean' and uncluttered system using any case like this size and an mATX motherboard. Try it using real full ATX motherboards and then tell us how much room you have in there to assemble your rig.

    Don't slap in an mATX board, then say "Oh lookie how roomy this case is!!". To do anything else is to do a half-assed case review that is not worth the few minutes of wasted life it takes to read it.

    At least he didn't attempt to pass off uber this case is by mounting a mini ITX board in it.
  • JarredWalton - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link

    Reading comprehension fail, I suppose? We linked our testing methodology article, but the simple reason for using mATX is that mATX can support just as much performance as most ATX. Now we can compare ATX and mATX cases against each other, rather than having to use two different motherboards. And amazingly enough, you CAN tell how spacious a case is without installing a large motherboard -- though I don't seem to recall "roominess" being mentioned as a selling point here.
  • Twoboxer - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link

    Reviewers need to pay more attention to comparisons between negative- and positive-pressure cases. The major benefit to a positive-pressure case does NOT show up in even the most thorough (short-term) review.

    A negative-pressure case draws air in from every crack and crevice. These openings cannot be filtered and so inevitably your optical drives, card readers, usb ports, fan blade edges, and cooling coils become clogged with dust.

    In a positive-pressure case, each of the intakes can easily be filtered leaving the interior dust free.

    I'm not aware of any compelling thermodynamic advantage to a negative-pressure case, either theoretical or practical. There are at least some anecdotal reasons to believe-positive pressure cases have a theoretical advantage in sound dampening.

    If that's correct, Reviewers should be helping us all get more positive-pressure case designs by factoring this consideration into their reviews of price/performance. OTOH, if negative-pressure cases do have a thermodynamic advantage, it would be interesting to quantify it in some way.

    Because AFAIC, even if a positive-pressure case ran a couple of degrees warmer and cost a few dollars more, that case is by far preferable to a negative-pressure case for almost all users.
  • quanta - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link

    Am I the only one who noticed many of the so-called high-end case have been steadily losing external drive bays? There used to be 6 to 7 bays even on medium cases, but lately you'll be lucky to find 4 bays. With the use of optical drive, memory card reader and fan controller, the spare front panels are pretty much gone. The side-loading drive bays are arguably less versatile than front-loading variety, because there are no aftermarket hot swap bay fitting 3.5-inch drive bays. However, front hot swap bay requires no manual disconnection of cables or removing front panel once it is installed, saving time for hardware testing. Besides, the 5.25-in external bays are perfect for cooling bay for hard drives, and handy for converting them into intake fan slots.
  • ShieTar - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link

    There is always the Lian Li PC-V343B if you just can not get enough external bays. 18x5.25" should seriously be enough for everybody. But testing it with an mATX board an no watercooling by be somewhat insulting to the case.

    But in general you are correct. If you go on any price-comparison site, you should still find that about 10% of all cases have at least six 5.25" bays, but on closer inspection you will see that most of those are somewhat older designs.

    I assume the main reason for this is the fact that more and more people get sepparate storage systems and use their main systems with one (or two) SSDs as Game/Work Systems only. And Anandtech, as much as I personally enjoy their tests, are really just picking a small sample of all cases available with their 20 or so tests per year, so it is understandable if they concentrate on the one or two cases per manufacturer which can be expected to be of interest for the majority of customers/readers.
  • olafgarten - Saturday, November 30, 2013 - link

    the case actually supports an XL-ATX
  • SeanJ76 - Thursday, January 28, 2016 - link

    Antec Eleven hundred v2 is one of the best cases you can own.....

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