Review: Antec 300 "gamers case" ( lots of pics! )

[AtreuS]

(hello all.. this is my first review so sorry for any mistakes. )

Although my main rig is happily sleeping in a Yeong Yang "borg cube" my old 939 system was getting rather toasty stuffed into its nasty generic case!

After a lot of reading and looking at other posts i decided to go for the Antec 300 case. I was however unsure of exactly what i would get in such a cheap case. The reviews i found didnt exactly show everything and im sure some other readers here might be a bit hesitant to get one, afterall you get what you pay for these days as we all know, and £35 for a case isnt what you would call expensive.

So what exactly do you get and is it worth getting instead of a more expensive case!! read on and i will reveal all....

Part one: The box as it comes

The antec 300 comes in a very smart and well presented box. The foam inserts cover the top and bottom of the case and there is a good few cm's of air between the case itself and the sides of the box. The case itself comes in the usual crinkly bag and also has a little baggy of silica gel to collect up any moisture to stop rusting!

The other contents are as expected, a manual and a warranty info sheet, and of course a small box containing the usual assortment of screws and standoffs as well as a bag of thumbscrews for installing drives.

 

[AtreuS]

Part two: The case from the outside

Below are some shots showing the outside of the case. The finnish of the metal work and paint is of a high standard, a bit dull but for the price you arent going to get a shiny finnish!

As you can see the Antec 300 has a bottom mounted space for the power supply.

There is also a precut grill on the side panel for a 120mm fan ( not included ). On most systems this fan will be blowing almost directly over the graphics card.

On the top is the real shiner of this case! the included 140mm exhaust fan.

The bottom of the case was a bit of a suprise. Usually on low end cases the bottom is not painted, but the antec is painted the same as the rest of the panels. Also a suprise was the pre fitted rubber feet. I was expecting to find the usual cheap plastic feet that you attach yourself but was greeted by four good quality solid rubber ones already there!

 

[AtreuS]

Part three: The insides

Taking the side panels off was an easy task due to the nice thumb screws. Each panel has two screws holding it in place and the panels open to the side like opening a door. The panels have no tricky top and bottom guide rails to mess with, the only guide for the panel is at the front of the case and is very easy to slip on or off.

The inside of the case is very spacious considering the height of the enlosure. The Antec 300 is marketed as a mini tower, but has more space than you would expect from the word "mini". There are three 5 1/4" bays for cd/dvd drives or other gadgets. For hard drives you will find no less than six 3 1/2" bays!!

The hard drive section is very clean and the optional dual 120mm fans can blow totally unrestricted over your drives, assuming you route your cables correctly. The separate slots for each drive allows enough room for thick hard drives such as maxtors to be fitted and still allow some room in-between for good airflow.

The case also has a small cable routing area behind the hard drive cage.

This area comes with two rubber reusable clips to hold your cables in place. There is also enough holes in the metal to attach your own tie wraps for cable management.

There are also some holes cut to allow cables to be run from the front of the case, such as from the two optional 120mm fans.

At the top of the case is the 140mm exhaust fan. Also seen here is the rear 120mm exhaust fan to take the warm air away from your cpu and graphics card. Both of these supplied fans have a 3 stage controlable switch on them. They are powered by the usual 4 pin molex connectors.

The front panel has the usual cables for power, reset, hd led and power led. Also found are the front panel connectors for the audio and usb. The front audio connector has 2 separate plugs, one for ac97 and one for HDA.

The front panel that houses the power button and reset also holds the front usb and front audio jacks. The picture below shows this panel ( front grille removed ) and shows how the cables are routed down over the 5 /14" bays and into the case.

 

[AtreuS]

Part four: The all important front grille and front fans!

The best part of this case, apart from the 140mm top exhaust, is the ability to have two 120mm fans blowing across your hard drives.

The front grille is simple to open and remove. The grille is held in place by three plastic tabs and when pushed in the tabs allow the front to swing open and pull off. Because the front power switch and headers are not attached to this grille the ease of removal is amazing.

Each fan holder can be removed so changing and cleaning your front fans is effortless! Two thumbscrews hold each one in place and they are very secure and wont rattle when tightened.

The two 120mm fan holders can be totally removed if required. I would imagine that you may be able to fit a radiator on this space but i have no experiance in water cooling so im not sure of the thickness of radiators

The front grille itself is all plastic but has a metal mesh on the front. The bottom section is removable on its own and the top 5 1/4" bays come out separately as you would expect. The bottom section has a foam filter to collect all that nasty dust that loves to clog up your system.

The one thing i noticed is that this whole piece was rather dirty/dusty inside as can be seen on the above photo. I can only assume that this was due to the plastic parts being in a warehouse for some time before being assembled with the rest of the case.

And finally this picture shows up close the power and reset buttons. The reset button is very slim and quite hard to knock by accident, a good thing of course!.

So thats about all for now. I will post up some more shots when i get round to building up the pc. The machine is only my old socket 939 rig with a 7800GTX so i wont be showing off the shiny bits much, there wont be much to see.

I hope this photo review has been of some use to prospective Antec 300 buyers who may have wanted to see a bit more of the insides before getting one.

My over all impression of this case is very positive, i cant really find any faults that i would mention. The only thing to remember is that due to the power supply being at the bottom of the case make sure your cables are long enough to easily get to the mainboard sockets.

Thanks for reading!

 

[AtreuS]

Ok the beast is built!

I was going to wait until the weekend but the mrs decided to stay out late so i had the time to waste.

Ive taken a few shots to show how the hard drive and psu arrangement is organised. Ive not fitted any front intake fans yet as i dont have any to hand.

The cable managment is the best i could do considering the HUGE amount of cables that come on the tagan power supply ( non modular ).

I also use two ide cd/dvd drives so the cables round there get a bit messy. If you only had sata and sata power connectors and a modular psu then you can easily get the cables much tidier than mine.

Side view

Close up interior

Plenty of space between a standard size psu and the hard drives.

A view from the front ( fan cages removed ) showing the clear airflow to your psu.

Another interior shot to show general space inside. the mainboard is a DFI Lanparty SLI-DR.

The finnished article next to his big brother!

And finally my war torn desk with its new addition tucked nicely below the desk. Im stuck in the back room downstairs for now so not exactly the cleanest room ever. I look with jealousy at you guys with sparkling clean glass desks and no junk strewn around the place

Now i can get back to leveling my witch elf on warhammer online, cleaning up and clearing all the junk off my desk can wait until tomorrow

 

[AtreuS]

They seem to be back now.

 

[AtreuS]

Hmmm yes ive changed ISP's and the pics were hosted there. Forgot all about this review i did.

When i get time at the weekend ill rehost all the pics.