Antec 300 rebuild

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18 Feb 2009
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PorthEmmet, Cornwall
Hi All, had to rebuild my rig due to a failed mobo flash and arrival of a new BeQuiet! PSU so I thought I'd try and tidy up the cabling.
It wasn't too bad to start with but before the mobo incident I'd added 3 x 30Gb Vertex SSD's so it was starting to get a bit 'spaghetti' like. (And due to that I didn't have the cash - or the space - for a better case)

p4010036.jpg


The yellow SATA cables are all for the new SSD's - not too bad I guess but I certainly didn't like the 8pin power cable heading around the back of the HSF like that!
Add to that all the fan cables around and it was quite tricky to do anything in there.

After reading other forum members tales of good cable mgmt in cases such as the Antec 902 I decided to get the good ol dremel out and see if I could do something with this cramped little case.

p4020037.jpg


So as you can see I cut a large section out of the bottom of the mobo tray just in front of where I guessed the new PSU would sit and a smaller section out at the top left. All edges filed down then lined with duck tape (I would have preferred blow-hole trim but as a first effort on my case I don't think it's too bad).

Re-fitted everything and boy is it tight in there... a few skinned knuckles later and here's the end result.

p4030040.jpg


I think it's looking much better now and certainly the case temps seem to have dropped a few degrees with the less cluttered air-flow.

It was very close getting the 8pin connector into the mobo (it's only a couple of mm below the top case exhaust fan).
Because of my number of drives I needed to use all 6 SATA ports and boy is that ever difficult with this mobo and a full-sized graphics card - needed to use a right angled cable to get the upward facing SATA under the back of the 4870. I certainly couldn't change that out without removing the card first. I've turned the SSD's around too so the cabling is at the front.
All the little black & white cables at the front of the PSU are for the fans directly connected to the PSU (a feature of the BeQuiet! that I really like), which could be tidied up a bit further but I didn't want to tie them away too securely till I was sure everything was working as it should.

Anyway, I'm dead chuffed with the result, I think it's achieved just about what I wanted and with only a little graft I've given this case a new lease of life. Just till the next upgrade that is...!
 
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15 Mar 2009
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North East
Was that an OCZ StealthXStream you had in the before picture? I just got that same case and PSU and I was very disappointed with the cable length. Got everything else tidy apart from the 4pin 12v rail.

I'm tempted to have a go at trimming the mobo tray but I've only had it a week and I don't actually think the cable will stretch :(
 
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OP
Joined
18 Feb 2009
Posts
1,253
Location
PorthEmmet, Cornwall
Yes it was that exact PSU and I doubt if the cable would fit around the back as I have it now. There are extensions available tho...

The 8pin extension is here

The 24pin extension is here (out of stock at the mo tho...)

Hope that helps!


PS: The new PSU is sooooo much quieter than the OCZ one, it was the loudest thing in my case.
 
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