Antec NX800 Review

Finally, Antec is back in the local market with new products after some time. In this content, we shall be taking a look at their gaming chassis Antec NX800 Review. The NX800 is a mid-tower chassis with a spacious layout and optimal provision of cooling gear and storage capacity. Antec also manufacture CPU Coolers and Power Supplies.

Antec NX800 Gaming Chassis Review

The chassis features two 200mm ARGB fans on the front and a 140mm ARGB fan on the rear. They have done it right! We have a tempered glass side panel and a fully vented front panel. Antec has installed a lighting controller on the backside of the chassis.

• Product:            NX800
• Manufacturer:    Antec
• Price:                Check Price on Amazon

NX800 Specifications

Related: XPG Invader Chassis Review

NX800 Packaging and Unboxing

The chassis comes in a standard brown color cardboard box.

There is a diagram of the chassis on the front with a 1-year warranty in a stamped style.

The specifications are printed here. The chassis has support for E-ATX size motherboard as well. The user can install up to a 360mm radiator on the front.The removable parts of the chassis are highlighted. The chassis is somewhat expendable.

The NX800 is wrapped inside a transparent cover and placed inside the white color Styrofoam pads.

Antec NX800 Accessories

There is a white color accessory box in the chassis with Antec branding.

Following are provided:

• User guide for RGB lighting
• Antec Quality Warranty
• Various screws and standoffs
• Zip Ties
• Velcro Strips
• ARGB Motherboard sync cable
• 4x PCIe slot covers

The motherboard sync cable is a 3-pin ARGB one. The other end has a 6-pin proprietary connector which is to be to the lighting controller on the backside of the chassis.

I really appreciate the provision of 6x Velcro strips in addition to the zip ties. They make cable management easier and they are reusable as well.

Antec nx800 Closer Look

It is time to take a look at the chassis. Before that, let’s see what Antec is saying about their chassis. “The Antec NX800 Review,  mid-tower gaming case effortlessly combines a bevy of in-demand features: USB 3.0 connectivity, ample storage drive bays, room for expansion, and includes 2 x 200mm ARGB fans in front & 1x 140mm ARGB fan in rear. With support for up to a 360 mm liquid cooling radiator in front & 280 radiator on top, NX800 is easy to build with, and easy to cool.”

The Antec NX800 is made up of SPCC, Plastic, and Tempered glass materials. It has a dimension of 470x230x500mm (DxWxH). The weight of the chassis is 7.87Kg. The Antec NX800 has a graphics card clearance of up to 350mm, a CPU Cooler’s height clearance of up to 180mm, and a PSU length clearance of up to 200mm.

NX 800 Exterior

The front side has a totally vented or meshed panel without any obstruction to the air intake. We have an aggressive, bold, and beautiful look on the overall front panel’s design which looks good in person. There is an Antec branding on the lower side. We can see two 200mm fans behind the panel.

The design on the sides is what is adding to the overall looks of the chassis. The front panel is made of plastic. Place your hand on the bottom side of the panel and pull it to take it off.

The above picture shows the inner side of the front panel.

A closer look is telling us that there is no filtration on the mesh. This raises a question regarding the dust filtration on the front side of the chassis. We will address it shortly.

We have a 4mm thick tempered glass which is dark black-tinted. Looking closely, you can notice the gap between the panel and the frame of the chassis on the top. On the front, the panel flushes fully. There is a white color sticker on the panel cautioning to handle with care. The glass panel has a dark black color borderline on all sides.

Looking at the rear of the chassis we can see there is ample space on the top side of the chassis. We have a cutout for the motherboard’s Io shield followed by a vented portion for 120/140mm fan mount. We can’t adjust the height of the rear fan. Antec has a pre-installed 140mm ARGB fan on the rear.

We have 7x horizontal PCIe slot covers. They are not reusable. But Antec has wisely provided 4x reusable PCIe slot covers in the accessory box. So, I have no complaint in this regard. There are 3x reusable PCIe slot covers in the vertical layout. The Antec NX800 Review supports a vertical mount for the graphics card. Please note that there is no additional bracket provided for this purpose and the graphics card will hang with all the weight support coming from this vertical mounting. No riser cable is provided either.

We have a standard ATX PSU mounting provision on the bottom.

There is a magnetic dust filter on the top of the chassis. Taking it off will show the totally vented layout on the top with mounting rails for the 120 and 140mm mounting. The user can install up to 2x 120mm or 2x 140mm fans on the top. Similarly, the user can install a 120mm/140mm/240mm/280mm radiator on the top. The IO panel is also located on the top.

Following connectivity options are provided:

• Power Button
• Reset Button
• RGB Button
• LED Indicator
• 2x USB 2.0 ports
• 1x USB 3.0 port
• Headphone Jack
• Mike Jack

Looking at the bottom of the chassis, we have two plastic made large size feet which give sufficient lift to the chassis from the resting surface. There is a removable (non-magnetic) dust filter on the PSU mount. The feet handles have a rubber pad on each corner. Given then the certain portion of the dust filter is under the feet bracket, taking it off would be inconvenient.

There are 5x screws for the HDD cage. The user can remove the HDD cage by removing these screws. The HDD cage’s position is fixed and can’t be adjusted.

There is a gap between the lower end of the front panel and the chassis frame. The user has to place the hand there to pull the front panel out and this is also an air intake.

The left side of the chassis has a solid panel. Each panel is secured using two thumbscrews which are not captive.

Antec NX800 Interior

Let’s take a look at the interior of the chassis starting from the front.

Removing the front panel will show the two 200mm ARGB fans. The user can’t control the speed of these fans due to a proprietary connector being used (6-pin). Each fan has 11 blades in white translucent color for some vivid and lucid lighting effect. The ARGB lighting can be controlled using a dedicated RGB button on the IO panel.

These fans are installed with the M3 screws on the backside of the mounting area. In other words, you would have to remove the side panel to access those screws. Now, this would have been highly inconvenient if the bottom screws for the lower fan were done on the inside. Antec was really paying attention to the details as they have used 2x long screws on the bottom mount. Kudos to their design team!

I was hoping to see some data on the backside of the fans but there is only Antec branding on the sticker.

We can spot a vented portion running on the entire height of the chassis except for the cutout on the top. There is a magnetic dust filter on the backside of this vented portion. As can be seen, this is the dust filtration on the front. The only area left unfiltered is the top cutout. There are 3x small size cutouts on the right for cables routing.

The above picture was taken after taking the magnetic dust filter off.

Let’s take a look at the main side of the action where the majority of the components will be housed. We have a spacious layout here. There is a PSU cover as well which runs on the full length of the chassis. We have a roughly 387x361mm dimension of the motherboard tray area. The Antec NX800 Review has support for up to E-ATX size motherboards.

There are two cutouts on the top and a total of 4 on the right in a group of 2. If you are wondering why there is a need for a second group of two cutouts at the rightmost then they are there to provide a cable routing option in case an E-ATX size motherboard is installed. This is a smart move by Antec.

The legend is printed on the motherboard tray. Each standoff position is printed with the corresponding letter.

Only 6x standoffs are pre-installed. The user has to install the other 3 standoffs for microATX and above size motherboards. There is no socket wrench provided in the accessory box for this purpose and this is my complaint. If the user does not have the right tool, it would be difficult installing the 3x standoffs. We have a large size cutout for the CPU cooler. There is no flex in the motherboard tray and the overall build quality is good.

There are mounting holes on the rightmost side with SSD written on them. The user can install up to 2x 2.5” drives on the backside of the tray on these mounts. I would say, space is well utilized!

There is roughly 55mm of spacing available from the top of the chassis frame to the top of the motherboard. The same gap is available from the mounting point of the top fan/radiator to the side of the frame. We have ample room here for the installation of AIO on the top without hindering the tall RAM.

We have a solid design PSU cover. It has two cutouts towards the motherboard tray side. There is a bit of a gap between the sides of the chassis frame to the PSU cover.

There are screws on the above-mentioned gap. The user would need to remove these and the ones on the other side to take off the feet.

There is a 30mm gap on the front side of the PSU cover. This has consideration with respect to the E-ATX size motherboard and the radiator as installing a radiator on the front with an E-ATX board will leave much less room for the cables connected to the side ports of the motherboards.

Installing a 360mm radiator would mean that the fans can only be installed on the front side and push/pull is not possible or partial possible. No such consideration for a 240/280mm radiator. Also, the 360mm radiator can’t be more than

The above picture shows the full-length magnetic dust filter on the front side. NX 800 filter has a dense mesh to it and it restricts the airflow. We will address this in our testing section.

The above picture shows the vented layout on the front with a dust filter removed.

We have a total of 10 PCIe slot covers (7+3). The 7x covers are not reusable and need to be snapped off. Antec has provided 4x reusable PCIe covers in the accessory box.

Antec has provided a 140mm ARGB fan on the rear. I must admire the approach by Antec as we see less of front and rear ARGB/RGB fans. The majority of the time the manufacturers provide ARGB/RGB fans on the front and non-RGB fan on the rear. Antec nx800 fan has a 6-pin proprietary connector hence we can’t control the speed.

Let’s take a look at the backside of the chassis.

We have cables managed on one side. Let’s make some room for clarity.

Now that we have moved the cables to one side, we can spot the entirety of the chassis backside here. There are 2x 2.5” drive brackets under the CPU cutout. There is an HDD cage in the lower chamber on the front side. It has a white color accessory box. There is a pre-installed lighting controller on the top. We have roughly 18mm or so cable management space. There are 10x cable tie points at various locations.

We have a 6-port light controller on the Antec NX800. Three ports are already in use as the pre-installed fans are already connected to it.

The above picture shows the cable options for the controller. The two-pin connector on the right is already connected to the dedicated button on the IO panel. This is another design element that I really appreciate. The majority of the other chassis compromise the Reset button’s functionality by optionally using it to control the lighting.

The controller is SATA powered. We have more than 13 on-board lighting modes that can be accessed using the dedicated RGB button on the IO panel. Long pressing the RGB button for 3-6 seconds will turn the lighting control to the motherboard.

The white light will blink twice confirming the control switch. Pressing the RGB button once will have the control return to the on-board controller. The lights can be turned off by long-pressing the RGB button for more than 6 seconds. The white light will blink for 4 times before powering off.

The above picture shows the 2.5” drive bracket. It does not have a captive thumbscrew.

We have a vented portion for the PSU mounting. There are two anti-vibration rubber pads on the left and right side rail where the PSU will be rested. There is roughly 242mm of space for the PSU and the cables with an HDD cage installed. Removing the HDD cage will have roughly 385mm of spacing available for the PSU and the cables.

There is no caddy in the cage and the way it looks, the user would need to take out the cage for the installation of 3.5” drives. It is not tool-less. In terms of total storage capacity, the Antec NX800 provides:

• Up to 4x 2.5” drives
• 3x 3.5”/1x 2.5” (convertible) drives in the HDD cage

There are 4x mounting holes on the top of the HDD cage. These are for the 2.5″ drive mounting.

We have roughly 385mm of space after removing the HDD cage in the lower chamber.

We have screws here. Take these out for removal of the feet. The same screws are on the other side.

We have cables from the IO panel which include:

• USB 3.0 connector cable
• USB 2.0 connector cable
• HD Audio Cable
• System Panel Connector Cables

We have a motherboard sync cable to control the lighting from the motherboard.

Asus ROG Strix Test Build and Experience

The following configuration is used for the test build:

• Asus ROG Strix Z390E Gaming
• Intel i9 9900k [Stock, Auto]
• Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black
• Noctua NT-H1
• GSkill Aegis 16GB @ 2800MHz
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
• Lexar 250GB NVMe SSD
• Cooler Master MWE 650W Gold PSU

I started by installing 3x standoffs. Then the motherboard was installed. The ASUS motherboard has a bit thicker IO shroud and it was not sliding in under the pre-installed 140mm ARGB fan on the rear. I had to remove the fan to install the motherboard. The cooler and the RAM were installed outside of the chassis. The cooler can be installed inside the chassis conveniently.

PSU was installed. Since it is a modular one, only the desired cables were used. Then the graphics card and the SSD were installed.

The above picture shows the cables passed through the cutouts on the PSU cover. The cables routing is convenient and should not pose any challenge.

EPS cable was easy to route as well. There is enough space above the CPU cooler. Keep in mind that this is a bulky cooler there.

There is enough space to properly route your cables. I did not do any proper cable management as I wanted to check if the side panel can be closed easily with cables just tucked inside. The panel did indeed close easily. Don’t forget to connect the SATA power cable of the controller to the PSU and you are all set.

RGB Lighting

The Antec NX800 has two 200mm ARGB fans on the front and a 140mm ARGB fan on the rear. These produce some good AURA of lighting. Here are some pictures:

NX800 Thermal Testing

We have used Far Cry 5 at Ultra preset on 1080p and AIDA64 Extreme (CPU+FPU+Cache+GPU) for the thermal testing. Following configurations have been tested:

• Gaming and Synthetic Stress test on stock settings
• Synthetic Stress test with the front dust filter removed

We did not remove the front panel as it has no dust filtering and is fully meshed from all sides so it should not restrict the air intake.

NX 800 Result

The thermals during gaming are good particularly when our Intel i9 9900k runs way hot on stock and auto settings.

We have tested the thermals with and without the front dust filter. There is a difference of up to 3°C for the graphics card and up to 2°C for the CPU. Though this is within an acceptable margin the point here is the dust filter on the front (particularly its placement) is restricting the airflow a bit.

Conclusion

The NX800 is the highest offering in the NX series of Gaming cases from Antec. Antec nx800 review is a mid-tower gaming chassis with a plethora of what I would say optimally balanced feature set. The chassis is made of SPCC, plastic, and glass. The dimension of the Antec NX800 is 470x230x500mm (DxWxH). The weight of the chassis is 7.87Kg. Clearing information is:

• Up to 350mm for the graphics card
• Up to 180mm for the CPU Cooler Height
• Up to 200mm for the PSU

Speaking of the storage capacity, the Antec NX800 has:

• Up to 4x 2.5” drives
• 3x 3.5”/1x 2.5” (convertible) drives in the HDD cage

The cooling gear provision is:

• Up to 3x 120mm or 3x 140mm or 2x 200mm fans on the front
• Up to 2x 120mm or 2x 140mm fans on the top
• Up to 1x 120mm or 1x 140mm fan on the rear
• 120mm/140mm/240mm/280mm/360mm radiator on the front
• 120mm/140mm/240mm/280mm radiator on the top
• 120mm/140mm radiator on the rear

The chassis comes with 2x 200mm ARGB fans on the front and 1x 140mm ARGB fan on the rear. Antec has pre-installed a controller on the back of the chassis for speed and lighting. These fans are using 6-pin proprietary connectors and as such are fully dependent on the bundled controller. In case the controller becomes faulty, there would be no control over the fans.

The chassis has support for up to E-ATX size motherboard and Antec has wisely provided cutouts for cables routing accordingly. There is a PSU cover that runs to the entire length of the chassis and has cutouts for cables routing. There is a 30mm gap on the front as well for the radiator mounting. They should have provided a socket wrench in the accessory box to conveniently install the standoffs as only 6x are pre-installed.

The Antec NX800 has a high airflow design as the front panel is fully vented and meshed. The magnetic dust filter is installed on the backside of the front rail. The top also has a magnetic dust filter. The PSU mount has a non-magnetic removable dust filter.

The chassis has 7+3 PCIe slot covers. The 7x are in horizontal layout and they are not reusable. Antec has covered that up as they have provided 4x reusable PCIe covers in the accessory box. They have also provided Velcro strips and zip ties. 3x PCIe slots are vertical. There is no GPU riser cable provided in the chassis. Also, there is no additional support bracket for vertical mount.

Thanks to the currency devaluation and high inflation, the PKR 16000 is now the new budget range which otherwise was a mid-range segment. The Antec NX800 is listed at Rs.16199/- at the time of the review. Assembling a PC build inside the NX800 is very convenient.

The thermals are fine as well though the front dust filter is restricting the airflow which is within an acceptable margin. Antec NX800 is too good a price to beat with the set of features and level of build quality!

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