Antec Three Hundred

Author: Andrew
Published: Jul 15th, 2008
Category: Cases, Reviews

Introduction

PC gaming is a fast growing market with a high demand for products which can deliver solid performance - an always-growing requirement. There have been many attempts in recent times to create the ultimate gaming enclosure many of which have been total failures and others which have produced astonishing results. The Antec Three Hundred is a versatile midi tower case that has been designed purely with gaming in mind in - another one of the hopefuls that could be added to the ever-growing list of great gaming cases.

The Antec 300 is targeted at budget conscious gamers; in this regard, the Antec Three Hundred offers an exceptional ratio of quality to cost.

But will it really live up to these high standards that we have come to expect from Antec well it’s our job here at Tech-Reviews to find out…

About Antec

Antec, Inc. is the leading global brand of high-performance computer components and accessories for the gaming, PC upgrade and Do-It-Yourself (DIY) markets. Founded in 1986, Antec is recognized as a pioneer in these industries and has maintained its position as a worldwide market leader and international provider of efficient, quiet, and reliable products.

Specifications

9 Drive Bays:
- External 3 x 5.25″
- Internal 6 x 3.5″ for HDD
Cooling System:
- 1 rear 120 x 25 mm TriCool™ Fan with 3-speed switch control.
- 1 top special 140 x 25 mm TriCool™ Fan with 3-speed switch control
- 2 front (optional) 120 mm fans to cool the hard drives
- 1 side (Optional) 120 x 25 mm Fan to cool graphic cards
Washable air filters reduces dust build up in your system, which helps keep your system cooler
Perforated front bezel for maximum air intake
7 expansion slots
Top mounted I/O ports for easy access
- 2x USB 2.0
- HDA & AC’97 Audio In and Out
Unit dimensions:
- 18″ (H) x 18.3″ (D) x 8.1″ (W)
- 45.8 (H) x 46.5 (D) x 20.5 cm (W)
Weight:
- Net: 15.9lbs / 7.2kg
- Gross: 18.7lbs / 8.5kg

The Package

The Three Hundred arrived in a rather small cardboard box with an imposing image of the case on the front. This has become the standard setup for Antec products and looks pretty impressive.

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The rear of the packaging has 3 photos of different sections of the Antec; each of the photos has details of the case in 3 languages, English, French and German.

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All over the packaging there is plenty of information about the case, Antec and the 3-year warranty which comes with the case. This is good as potential buyers would like to know they are protected by a warranty from a well-known and respected manufacturer.

Along with the case there are all of the usual extras that you would expect to come with a case: users’ manual, screws and fittings, and the warranty. Unusually Antec have supplied lots of thumbscrews, which are intended to replace the need for tools and is Antec’s own kind of tool-less kit. They believe that conventional tooless designs are useless as they facilitate more noise and break more regularly. Thus Antec have used traditional mounting systems to enable strength, noise reduction and ease of use.

The thumbscrews supplied were so numerous they burst the bag in which they were supplied. I quite like the idea of thumb screws instead of true tool-less design as they feel a lot sturdier and safer to attach components with.

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Once the case was out of the box its was possible to see that once again Antec have opted for Styrofoam as a pose to polystyrene, this is good as anybody that has read the review on the Twelve Hundred.

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The Antec Three Hundred

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On the outside…

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The case is quite a stylish size, shape and colour. The first time I felt the case it felt very high quality and sturdy.

The side panels are both made of thick metal, no tacky plastic here - as is the rest of the case. However, the front panel surround is plastic but this is very thick higher quality plastic.

The metal appears to be sprayed with a black paint, as the finish is rough and bumpy – an orange peel effect. This seems to be the norm for cheaper gaming cases.

The main access side panel features a vent behind the panel where a 120mm fan can be installed, unfortunately this isn’t supplied. However there are 2 fans installed 1×140mm top exhaust and 1×120mm rear exhaust. Both of the installed fans are speed controllable via a 3-speed selector switch.

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The front panel of the case has space for 2×120mm fans, these not included but this is a budget case and most users will likely replace them with silent fans if they were included.

At the top of the front panel there is the usual power switch, reset switch, HD audio ports and two USB ports. It would have been nice for Antec to add an E-Sata port for faster data transfer speeds with external hard drives. Oddly, the plastic on the front panel isn’t the same colour as the rest of the case as it’s more of a dark silvery grey than black.

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The rear of the case features a bottom mounted placement for a PSU, this placement is becoming increasingly popular as they put less strain on the case.

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The case is not predrilled for water-cooling unlike many cases nowadays, so any gamers and overclockers alike who’d like to use water cooling had better steer clear unless they want to drill holes in this case.

The rear of the case also has some low-profile screws to attach the side panels; I quite like these as it means I can push my case right back up against the wall.

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The rear also features a metal loophole, you can add a lock here to stop nasty thieves from stealing parts from your system at large LAN events.

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Going In

Once the side panel is removed it is possible to see that there is quite a lot of room within the case; yet if you have a lot of large coolers and PCI cards I can see that size will become an issue with this case.

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There are lots of cables dangling inside this case primarily the audio and usb motherboard connectors and the molex power cables for the fans.

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Along with the cables there are two fan speed controllers - these each have 3 speed settings, high medium and low.

The 3.5” and 5.25” mounting bays are nothing special and simply use screw attachments.

There is very little space within the case for cable management, which maybe a major downfall to this case for many.

Another problem with the case is that it only facilitates the use of molex power connections for all of the pre-installed fans. This is a bit of a pain, as I for one; prefer using the 3-pin motherboard connections for better cable management.

Installation and Testing

I installed my trusty AMD rig into the 300.

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Motherboard	MSI K9N6GM
Processor	Athlon 64×2+ 4200+ @ Stock
RAM	OCZ Spec OPS 2GB (2×1GB)
Hard Disk Drive	80GB Hitachi SATA & 40GB Samsung Spinpoint
Graphics Card	ATI HD 2400pro OC
Power Supply	Tuniq Miniplant
Optical Drive	LG DVD-RW
CPU Cooler	Sunbeam Tech Core Contact Freezer

I found the installation very easy until it came to installing the thumbscrew behind the CPU cooler as the top mounted fan filled most of what little space was available. I found the thumbscrews a great help and that they made the overall installation a lot quicker.

As you can see there isn’t much cable management going on partly due to the PSU’s non-modular design and the fact that there isn’t any room within the case for cable management.

Testing

At Tech-Reviews we test cases for a number of different factors: Strength, Noise and Temperatures.

The way in which we test strength is fairly simple. We stand on the top of the case and jump up and down on it – this is quite a fun test and can really show the effectiveness of the construction. A case which is strong should not be damaged from this test at all; whereas a weak case would bend and buckle.

Testing noise is quite difficult as expensive sound equipment is needed which unfortunately, we don’t have access to. Instead, we use out own God given human ears to give you an ‘as accurate as we can get’ explanation on the case’s noise with a comparative conclusion of its noise.

To measure CPU temperature, we take 3 temperature readings at 10 second intervals and then record an average temperature. This test is done with the CPU at both idle and load state. Load State is achieved by running two processes of CPU Burn-In. Recordings are measured using the CPU’s own diode and SpeedFan.

Results

The case was able to take all of my weight on all parts of the case without creaking or showing any signs of strain. This is a great plus as it shows that the case can withstand

Anything a LAN goer could throw at it. I give it 10/10 on the stand test.

Temperature wise the case produced results that didn’t surprise me as the fans are both exhaust and the case needs some intake fans attached to bring in cool air.

Ambient temperature was 19 degrees C

CPU Idle	37 degrees C
CPU Load	49 degrees C

These temperatures aren’t exactly impressive as when I had a Zalman GS-1000 and an NZXT Tempest I was able to cool my CPU passively with lower temps than these.

Noise Levels

It has to be the single loudest case I have ever encountered but only when the fans are on the high or medium settings. When lowered to the slowest fan setting, the case is quite quiet however.

Cost

The three hundred is available at an estimated street price of £30 so it’s hardly going to break the bank. This is a nice price for a rather small chassis.

Conclusion

The 300 has very few good points about it other than it being invincible and fairly quiet at low fan speeds. I can think of no other real benefit to the user of this case.

However with a rock-bottom price, if you’re after a small but fairly spacious gaming enclosure then the three hundred is anyone’s ideal.

Pros

Sturdy
Easy installation
Good Price

Cons

Doesn’t look like a gamer case
Poor Cooling
Loud
Front fans not included

3Star Award

Value Award

One comment
Leave a comment »

Laurence August 16th, 2008 3:09 pm :
There is a cable tidy area behind the HDD chassis which you haven’t mentioned, and which might have improved a lot of things for you.