I’ve been meaning to get a new case, well a new build for a while now. And while being bored at work, like I am every day, I mistakenly bought something I shouldn’t have, something very expensive. This has now basically set the wheels in motion for my build which I have so far been reluctant to start.
I have a wish list of computer parts the size of my leg, but a pay packet that doesn’t quite match. One such thing on my wish list was a Fractal Design Arc Midi R2, however I’ve owned an Antec 300 for nearly 7 years now! The two cases are not that dissimilar apart from a few key features, and I do quite like my old Antec 300. This has encouraged me to rework and modify my current case, I’ve watched and envied those brave enough to take hammer and saw, and for years I’ve been wishing to do it, so now I am.
Updates will be weekly at most (Friday, Saturday and Sunday); I am still waiting for certain pieces and parts to arrive, some of which I have yet to order. Plus I will only be able to work on it during weekends because of work commitments, and I don’t want to rush it either!
I came home pretty determined to get on this right away, here is my system before the destruction started… and yes, it is pretty old haha!
Cable management wasn’t the Three Hundreds strongest feature. The PSU is a Corsair TX650w, pretty much the only thing apart from the case I shall be keeping, I decided to pull the stickers off has I want it all black.
I use to clean it once a week… 2 years ago. I seemed to have got a bit lazy since then.
Emptied all the components, you can see the dust still lying around, and this is after I gave it a good few blows. I nearly had a seizure with the amount of dust coming out of this thing too!
Pretty embarrassed how I let everything get so dusty!
Gave it a good dust down and a few wet wipes (thanks to the girlfriend) to get rid of the majority of the dust, everything was looking much better.
Was about 30 minutes in at this point, things started getting serious now, point of no return pretty much! Power drill, chisel and hammer for the rivets which were annoying has hell in certain places.
I missed a few photos here due to being on a roll, but you get the general idea what happened.
Realised I didn’t have a PC by this point. Quickly running around to get it working around before withdrawal symptoms start to kick in!
Having now turned my case into corrugated iron has it will be much easy to get sanded down ready for a spray. I can now turn my attention to what I am actually going to do with the damn thing!
My general idea is to improve the cable management, space and cooling plus various other titbits within the case. Previous owners will agree when I say there is next to no cable management what so ever apart from stuffing all the wires behind the HDD bays.
To achieve this I will be doing the following:
I have yet to decide whether I am painting just the inside of the case matte black, or the whole case entirely? I quite like the idea of black chrome, but I might just keep it simple or risk it being tacky. Suggestions are really welcome.
I will leave this open for suggestions and input until Friday evening / Saturday morning, I will be cutting this bad boy regardless. This is my first major (major for me) mod, any help is appricated!
I have a wish list of computer parts the size of my leg, but a pay packet that doesn’t quite match. One such thing on my wish list was a Fractal Design Arc Midi R2, however I’ve owned an Antec 300 for nearly 7 years now! The two cases are not that dissimilar apart from a few key features, and I do quite like my old Antec 300. This has encouraged me to rework and modify my current case, I’ve watched and envied those brave enough to take hammer and saw, and for years I’ve been wishing to do it, so now I am.
Updates will be weekly at most (Friday, Saturday and Sunday); I am still waiting for certain pieces and parts to arrive, some of which I have yet to order. Plus I will only be able to work on it during weekends because of work commitments, and I don’t want to rush it either!
I came home pretty determined to get on this right away, here is my system before the destruction started… and yes, it is pretty old haha!
Cable management wasn’t the Three Hundreds strongest feature. The PSU is a Corsair TX650w, pretty much the only thing apart from the case I shall be keeping, I decided to pull the stickers off has I want it all black.
I use to clean it once a week… 2 years ago. I seemed to have got a bit lazy since then.
Emptied all the components, you can see the dust still lying around, and this is after I gave it a good few blows. I nearly had a seizure with the amount of dust coming out of this thing too!
Pretty embarrassed how I let everything get so dusty!
Gave it a good dust down and a few wet wipes (thanks to the girlfriend) to get rid of the majority of the dust, everything was looking much better.
Was about 30 minutes in at this point, things started getting serious now, point of no return pretty much! Power drill, chisel and hammer for the rivets which were annoying has hell in certain places.
I missed a few photos here due to being on a roll, but you get the general idea what happened.
Realised I didn’t have a PC by this point. Quickly running around to get it working around before withdrawal symptoms start to kick in!
Having now turned my case into corrugated iron has it will be much easy to get sanded down ready for a spray. I can now turn my attention to what I am actually going to do with the damn thing!
My general idea is to improve the cable management, space and cooling plus various other titbits within the case. Previous owners will agree when I say there is next to no cable management what so ever apart from stuffing all the wires behind the HDD bays.
To achieve this I will be doing the following:
- Removing and replacing of grill, also providing space for the placement of another 140mm fan to increase the outtake of hot air within my case.
- Removing of hard drive bays for improved airflow and graphics card placement.
- Cable management holes. These are not a final idea of where the holes will be, but more a general indication of where I want them to be.
- Also removing and replacing rear grill. I have yet to agree upon a final heat skin. I have an idea of either an AIO (h80i) or a big air cooler that fits inside the case, I am leaning more towards air at the moment.
- My 300 is an older version, and didn’t come with a back plate opening thus I will create one.
- My front fans currently only take 120mm has a maximum size. I’d like to be able to make them fit 140mm fans to increase airflow. However I don’t think I will be able to do this, horizontally its fine, vertically the bezel is restrictive.
- I’ve also been thinking do I really need a CD Drive? The last time I used a CD was to install BF3, but even then I have it downloaded on origin and haven’t used a CD since (2 years ago), so I will consider removing this has well. The only issue with this is I don’t know where I put the front cover that I removed for the CD Drive!
- Depending on whether I remove the CD Drive has stated above, I will mount a 250GB SSD to either the far side of the CD Drive bays, or behind the motherboard. I have a 500GB SATA hard drive spare, so will give this further thought, but considering I already have a 1TB external this isn’t high on my priorities list.
- Window? Still not decided on this…
I have yet to decide whether I am painting just the inside of the case matte black, or the whole case entirely? I quite like the idea of black chrome, but I might just keep it simple or risk it being tacky. Suggestions are really welcome.
I will leave this open for suggestions and input until Friday evening / Saturday morning, I will be cutting this bad boy regardless. This is my first major (major for me) mod, any help is appricated!
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