X3 chips are never massive movers but will have a word with Fatboy.
A Phenom II X3 is a totally different price point to an Athlon II X3 . . . . The AIIX3 will sell . . . lots!!!!!! . . . . but your gonna have to use your economy of scales buying power to make any profit!
Elite 335 is our case of choice for shipping systems in, it actually survives being handled by a courrier better than any other case we sell or have ever sold!
I see . . . .
If you are looking after your system it becomes a mute point, but for us shipping the Elite is a brilliant little box.
Ahhhhh you have called something I said a moot point!
Right, roll your sleeves up son . . . lets be having ya!
Coolermaster Elite 335 vs Antec 300 Three Hundred
A mini analysis by Big.Wayne, Overclocker, System Builder 15 years, Anal Retentive Obsessive Compulsive, Logical Debater and Shaman of the Bang-for-buck tribe!
Hello to anyone that is reading, this is a totally spontaneous post generated on the fly to discuss the differences between the two budget cases both of which I have used and offer this personal insight to help anyone looking to put together a nice value gaming/overclocked system . . .
The good news is that these days a little money can go a long way, back when I started system building in 1995 all you had were rubbish beige boxes, mostly horizontal desktop slabs with an approximate price tag of £60!
Fast forward 15 years to the present day and
Nu-School system builders have never had it so good, plenty of good options and you get a choice of colour too!
Since the Credit Crunch slowly but surely started driving down peoples disposable incomes the Bang-For-Buck ethos has slowly started to resurface. My own small business started taking a dive about two years ago as the steady stream of customers I had with £1500 for a bespoke hand built system started drying up so I was forced to compete on price along with everyone else.
One of the things I was always able to save money on was the Chassis and PSU by choosing one of several combos from ANTEC and got a taste early on for their simple, no nonsense cases that incorporated a number of builder-friendly features that really stuck out to me as I had used a number of really inferior cases in the past (and I've got the scars to prove it).
So here we are today, your a system builder wanting to construct a nice value gaming machine and you have come down to the choice between these two cases
- Coolermaster Elite 335 @ £31.67
- Antec 300 Three Hundred @ £42.99
Straight away the Coolermaster case comes out fighting with a 35% cheaper selling price, very nice although 35% at this price-point equates to a £11.32 saving! . . . not a fortune by any means but if your counting the pennies then every little helps! . . . . Having said that as much as I relish slashing budgets and choosing great
bang-for-buck kit sometimes paying less is a false economy as the design and quality can suffer too much . . .
Things that are good about the Coolmaster
- It doesn't cost much
- It's looks may appeal (subjective & YMMV)
- It has a 120mm Blue LED fan included as standard
- Nothing else
Things that are bad about the Coolmaster
- It is constructed from thin/flimsy metal
- It is not Thermally Advantaged
- It still houses the PSU at the top of the system
- It offers only a single 120mm intake (which is mostly obstructed)
- It offers no easy clean intake Fan Filter
- It offers no Roof fan
- It offers an 80mm side fan instead of a 120mm side fan
- The quick-fit drive holders are flimsy and can break
Having the PSU situated at the top of the case is a very old and bad design, the PSU sits a few inches away from the CPU heatsink and all the heat from the system rises and gets sucked into it, this is a problem because:
- The Hotter a PSU runs the faster its internal fan has to run and the noisey it becomes
- The Hotter a PSU runs the quicker it will die, yes thats right its lifespan will be reduced if it lives at the top of the hot stuffy case
I've marked the trouble spots with this case with Red Crosses in the image below . . .
Now please don't get me wrong, for a very basic and simple web-surfing machine I'm sure there is a place for the Coolermaster but from personal experience with it I can hand-on-heart say if your someone who cares about giving your precious hardware a long life and you want a powerful but quiet system then avoid the Coolermaster Elite 335, especially if your gonna be overclocking and running a powerful graphics card!
For just an extra £11.32 you have the option of building your new gaming machine in the Antec 300
Things that are good about the Antec 300
- It doesn't cost much
- It's looks may appeal (subjective & YMMV)
- It is a Thermally Advantage chassis
- It offers two 120mm intakes
- It offers a quick release and easy to clean front fan filter
- It houses the PSU at the bottom of the system
- It comes with a 140mm Roof fan to suck away system heat
- It offers a 120mm side fan for those using a Crossfire setup
- It is constructed from fairly robust metal which doesn't bend
- It offers a ton of Thumbscrews for quick fixing your hard drives and expansion cards
Things that are bad about the Antec 300
- It's a little more expensive than the Coolermaster
- Not much else!
The Antec 300 really is a great piece of kit, I've used it for dozens of builds and never had a single complaint, it's even happy keeping an overclocked Intel Core i7 nice and cool. The Modern Thermally Advantaged design really makes a lot of sense, firstly moving the PSU to the lower portion of the case achieves Three things
- The PSU will run cooler and last longer
- The PSU will run quieter
- The CPU/Heatsink has improved airflow
The airflow provided by the Thermally advantaged design is so good that I have been able to build and run a number of overclocked system with no fan at all on the heatsink, basically just running *passive* which is neat. The airflow is waaaay superior especially if your running two front 120mm intakes for a *Positive* pressure set-up! . . . .The beauty of Postive Air-pressure vs Negative Air-pressure is you get to choose how the air enters your system rather than it just being sucked in from anywhere. As the Antec 300's front intakes are filtered any dust gets trapped right there and doesn't end up getting clogged up in the heatsink of your CPU or graphics card, this is great for someone like me because it cuts down on the amount of servicing I have to do on clients PC's, I've even cheekily shown them how to remove the filter for cleaning. Dust is not the friend of a modern computer, it will slowly but surely becomes a solid substance that will clog fans and any moving parts and eventually can damage your PC . . . take note!
There is plenty of space inside to work, there is an area to store excessive cables, there really is nothing bad to say about this case? . . . If I was too dig deep I would say one or two people mistake the power button with the CD eject button as they are situated close together, not a biggy but that's about all I can think of!
Conclusion:
If you totally strapped for cash and are only building a really, really simple system and you love the way the Coolermaster Elite 335 looks then buy it, compared to the old beige boxes from the 90's its night and day better . . . . however if you building a more powerful system, particularly one that is going to be overclocked and teamed up with a powerful graphics card then the Antec 300 is waiting . . . for an extra £11.32 price premium it offers waaay superior system cooling and will without a doubt increase the lifespan of your precious hardware and do so in relative silence if teamed up with one or two extra quiet 120mm fans.
I have written this mini review for you, my fellow community members as I want the best for you, everything I've learned I've had to learn the hard way from experience . . . A computer chassis is one of those things that tends not to get changed that often (along with PSU) so it makes sense to really make sure you get it right first time . . .
At this time of writing the Antec 300 is easily one of the best bang-for-buck cases on Planet Earth, it offers almost every feature one could want and does so without breaking the bank . .
Thanks for reading!
Antec 300 Official Product
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Coolermaster Elite 335 Official Product
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