Antec Three Hundred + BP430 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 430W Power Supply

Pros: This is one of the BEST budget priced cases that I have purchased. Case includes PS and has a great design with plenty of space for expansion and cooling. Very low noise fans with two small blue LED's for power and HDD activity.

Cons: Would like it to come with a little higher wattage PS. Even if the price was a little more. (but for this price I can’t complain).

Other Thoughts: It has a very handsome look that would be especially nice for larger media PC's

Pros: Good and Quiet, Good Air Flow, Reason purchase antec power supply included and rebate.

Cons: No Show Rebate this is the reason for the 2 eggs. Rebate stiffs are a real issue with me. IF YOU OFFER PAY UP.

Manufacturer Response:

Hi I3igmoon,

I'm sorry for the issue and we'll look into your case. Please email us at rebates@antec.com and provide the following: Full name (as it appears on your rebate form); mailing address; product name; purchase location; and ate of purchase. Thank you.

Chris
Antec Customer Support

Pros: -Sturdy
-Good power supply
-Great air flow

Cons: -Drive bay inserts are a tad cheesy, and hard to remove, but overall look good.

-Bottom mounted power supply, with top case vent. I'd prefer a closed top, with a top mounted power supply, but nevertheless it's a great case.

Other Thoughts: At the price I paid for this case, $70 including shipping, if on sale again I will probably buy 2 or 3 more. At $110 with shipping (off-sale price) it's not worth it. Case prices in general are out of control these days, and as a result I recycle cases with new internal hardware for the rest of my machines.

Pros: Came with a power supply

Cons: Overpriced, Cheap and Flimsy feel to it.

Other Thoughts: For the price, even with a cheap throw-in PSU, I wish I would have went for one of the cheaper cases, since it was for my kid's machine. I actually ended up buying a case a 3rd the price of this one and the build quality felt similar, but the cheaper case seemed to have more features. I've bought Antec cases for a long time and this one disappointed me.

Pros: The Antec Three Hundred is a great case. I've used about 30 of them over the last year or so for higher end gaming builds and my customers love them. They're very well built and have plenty of room for just about any sized video card, plenty of drives and great cooling.

Cons: This is the first time I've purchased the three hundred with this 430W PS. It's certainly not a gaming PS. It's got a 6 pin PCI-e connector for video cards but I probably wouldn't push it.

Other Thoughts: I've removed the PSU to use in lighter weight standard desktop systems and added better PSU's for gaming rigs. The PSU in these have worked fine for all the standard systems I've put together. I haven't wanted to use them in any higher power applications though they would likely be fine in any situations where your video card indicated to use a 400W PSU or less.

Pros: Nice form factor

Sleek

Fairly roomy interior for an ATX Mid tower

5 fan locations, the included 140 and 120, and 3 more 120mm locations.

Cons: For me, there are a lot of cons..

Metal to Metal mounting for the drives means you can hear the HDD vibrating.

The SSD mounting position seems to be an after thought (it's on the bottom of the case), would much prefer it to be anywhere else.

The 3.5mm jacks on the front are very tight, almost feels like you could break a cable trying to pull out your headset.

No bottom vent, I did not use the PSU that came with it, and the lack of a bottom vent means my PSU's exhaust is blowing right on my video card.
The included fans can not be controlled by the motherboard.

They didn't go out of their way to make cable management work well, it's ok, not great.

The drive bays are not sideways, after the past several years of using cases with sideways bays, I didn't realize how much I preferred it.

Other Thoughts: I got this case on sale for $60, and even at that price point I feel I could have gotten better. If I had paid $100 for it, as it is priced now, I would be very annoyed.

It is a serviceable case, but I feel those who are rating it highly simply have never experienced a really nice case.

I feel that the CM 690 at a similar price point is a far better case, and I'm sure there are several others.

Manufacturer Response:

Hi Gunn,

I'm sorry that the Three Hundred case did not meet your expectations. For the various issues you mentioned, please contact our support team for assistance for any design or technical questions and we'll look more into your configuration.

www.antec.com/support/

Chris
Antec Customer Support

Pros: I absolutely love this case. Usually I go through somewhat of a "buyers remorse" phase where I wonder if I should have saved my money. When I got this case I experienced none of that, I was just impressed. However, I upgraded from a stock HP case from 2006 so anything probably could have impressed me.

-Fans are very reasonable audibly on their lowest setting. On high they're not too bad either but they seem to move a good deal of air on low. The front of the case can almost hold a piece of printer paper from the suction.

-I noticed on the pics that there is no CPU cutout under the MB so you can access the backplate. I was disappointed by this because I bought it before seeing that. But when I received the case there actually was a cutout, so they must have changed the design slightly or something.

-My HDD doesn't seem to be too loud like some of the other reviewers say. Perhaps if the case was on top of your desk it would be loud since the drives have a direct path to your ear

Cons: -Honestly I have no idea what I would use the side cable management pocket for. It doesn't seem like that would be an effective place to route cables.

-The headphone jack is a little tight like some other reviewers have mentioned. But I guess a little tight is better than too loose, like many other things in life.

-They should have designed the front fans a little closer together to match the screw spacing on a 240mm radiator so a water cooling system could just pop right in there after you removed the 2.5" drive rails. The fans could screw into the cages and the radiator could screw right on the the fans.

-The light from the HDD indicator "bleeds over" into the surrounding area such as the top of the front fan cage. I can probably just paint or cover the side of the LED somehow but it's annoying in the meantime.

Other Thoughts: Screws!!!! Excellent Antec.

Good Airflow. My system temps were affected at idle as follows (According to Speedfan):

HDD: From 32*C down to 26*C
Core: 23*C down to 19*C
System Temp: 32*C down to 26*C
CPU: Remained similar but I am able to slow the fan

I really like the design. There aren't any rainbow LED's to accentuate your glitter covered motherboard, just a sensible, sleek, and understated theme that is somewhat industrial.

The power/reset/status indicator area is designed very well. There is a certain quality to the overall construction that you may not find with a lesser brand.

Also I have not used the power supply because I reused the one I had that has the side fan design, but I'm sure it works ok. It certainly looks well built.

Good stuff.

Pros: Its a nice case everything fits like the 2.5 ssd bay.

Cons: Nothing

Other Thoughts: It came with a huge bag of thumbscrews, I love thumbscrews.

Pros: Lots of room inside, adequate cable management space, lots of ventilation (top fan is 140mm), 6 internal HD bays. Good price for case/power supply combo (~$90). Solid construction. Front bezel has metal mesh (not plastic). Easy access from both sides (L/R) of case. Full ATX case has room for 7 slots. Fans at lowest rpm are quiet.

Cons: HD mounting is directly to the frame (no grommets or suspension system), which transfers HD noise directly to the frame.. Front pannel only has USB (no 1394 or SD/card slots). Fans are not system-contolled (fixed rpm from 3-way switch). Power/Reset buttons not lit up (you have to feel for it to find it)

Other Thoughts: This case is nicely designed with clean lines and a black-mesh front pannel. The extra drive bays mean I can put all my extra drives in one case. The 430W power supply is adequate for my needs, and is rated 80+ (would cost ~$40 separately). My only issue is that they could have used rubber grommets to mount the HDs to make it quiter. All-in-all a good value!

Pros: The case has a solid construction and there is ample room for extra fans and drives. It also came with a small bag full of thumbscrews (16 or more).

Cons: None