A Closer Look - Inside

To gain access to the interior, simply remove the pair of thumb screws holding each side panel in place. As mentioned before, the entire interior of the Eleven Hundred is black as well. In terms of layout, the chassis is actually quite simple but certainly effective. A very large opening in the mainboard tray ensures easy access to the underside of the CPU area, no matter where the socket is placed, while there is 30 mm of space to route cables through the various openings around three sides of the mainboard tray.


In the front, there are the six 3.5 inch drive bays. Antec has not included any fans here to cool at least three drives actively, which would have been a nice touch, considering the Eleven Hundred clocks in at well above 100 Euro at the moment. Above that are two slots dedicated to 2.5 inch hard drives or SSDs and three 5.25 inch, external drive bays - each with a screw-less locking mechanism.


In the rear, the bottom PSU bay does not have any rubber pads or other anti-vibration measures. As you can see, the dust filter has not been placed in the underside of the chassis, but sandwiched nicely between the floor panel and PSU itself. Above that are the nine expansion slots, each protected by separate covers held in place with individual thumb screws. The 120 mm exhaust fan does not seem like anything out of the ordinary, but has an Antec label on the side facing the metal air vent of the chassis.


The 200 mm fan in the ceiling of the chassis pushes hot air out the top of the case and has semi transparent blades to maximize the LED effect when turned on. Last but not least, it should be mentioned, that you may remove the simple but effective dust filter in the front of the chassis for easy cleaning.


Before we dive into the assembly process, let us take a quick look at the cables. All of these are black except for the color coded ones. This goes well with the rest of the chassis. You will not find anything out of the ordinary in terms of connectivity and Antec utilizes a 20-pin, internal USB 3.0 plug to connect the I/O to the mainboard. While this is great, the addition of a combo-cable or adapter would have been a great extra.