Cxizent
New member
Introduction
The market for small sized, budget cases is crowded to say the least, and it takes a fair bit to get noticed in amongst all of the samey black boxes being pumped out left right and center. Having never been particularly concerned with traditional numbering conventions, Antec's Three Hundred is a mid-tower case that purports to being able to hold quite a lot for its small stature. Touting impressive amounts of space, and eminent portability, the Three Hundred is aiming clearly at the market of people who want it all, but with a small form factor.
Squeezing a fair few fans in to boot, there's not an inch on the Three Hundred that's gone to waste, and every effort has been made to what is included usable. Bearing in mind that this is a budget case, there is no side window, nor tool-less mounts for drives, but there are some workarounds that may not be particularly clever, but are certainly efficient. For now at least, let's look at the technical specifications.
Technical Specification
Colours (Int/Ext): Black/grey
Dimensions: 458 x 465 x 205 mm (H/D/W)
Net Weight: 7.2 kg
Motherboard Support: ATX, Mini ATX, MicroATX
5.25" Drive bays: 3
3.5" Drive bays: 6
Cooling Front: 2 x 120mm fans (optional, filtered)
Cooling Top: 1 x 140mm Tricool Fan
Cooling Rear: 1 x 120mm Tricool Fan
Cooling Side: 1 x 120mm fan (optional)
PCI slots: 7
I/O: 2 x USB2.0, Mic & Audio out
Max GPU length: 279mm
Up Close: Exterior
At a shapely 458 x 465 x 205 mm (HxDxW), the front of the Three Hundred is understatement itself. The right hand side of the case is entirely featureless, while the left hand side sports a stylish mount for a 120mm intake fan, if so you desire. This fan intake is unfiltered.
The three 5.25" drive bays are lovingly hidden behind the same black mesh design that covers the two optional intake fans and the 3.5" bays. Interestingly, the rest of the front mesh panel has vaguely visible support bars at the same spacing as the 5.25" bays, and while it's easy to tell them apart, it keeps the front of the case nice and cohesive. This intake has a nice dust filter, and the front panel swings off neatly, as we'll see later.
On top of the case we find the 140mm exhaust fan in the roof, with its trademarked Tricool technology allowing you to choose between three speed settings (in theory as the load dictates, but in practice you'll do this once and then ignore it for reasons we'll get into a bit). The I/O panel is small and simple, two USB 2.0, audio, and the power and reset buttons to the side.
Towards the rear is the 120mm exhaust fan, again Tricool. Worth noting is the small raised crease to the right of the PCI slots that is not vented at all, so if you're running a graphics card on air and it throws hot air out the rear side as some do, it has nowhere to go. Also included is a provision for attaching a small padlock, which is a nice touch.
Up Close: Interior, drive bays, roof and floor
The Three Hundred can house the trifecta of ATX, mATX and mini ATX, with quite a spacious cut-out for such a small case. What is of immediate concern, however, is the complete and utter lack of cable management holes. There's a crease in the backplate, but the intention behind that must surely be structural rigidity, because you'd have to be mad as a hatter to try and keep all those fiddly I/O cables in there while bolting on a motherboard.
Neither the 5.25" drive bays, nor the 3.5" below have tool-less mountings. However, Antec have supplied a more than generous offering of small thumbscrews to mount the drives, which is certainly a cost-efficient way of doing things. The 5.25" drive bays blanking plates are all the same piece as the side plates, meaning that once you remove one, it's gone forever.
Both the top and rear fan have these annoying little dongles, thanks to their Tricool nature. This is a nice touch in theory, but also creates more problems in that there's nowhere for these little cables to go. They're not quite long enough to reach anywhere that they'd be accessible from outside, and they're not short enough that they won't flop about and bump into the CPU cooler.
The floor isn't vented at all, so your power supply has to be mounted with the fan facing up. There are some braces to hold a standard sized PSU in place, and four mounting screws on the rear as per normal.
Up Close: Rear and Strip Down
Moving to the right hand side of the case, specifically nestled behind the 3.5" drive bays, we happen upon the promised cable management compartment. Basically the idea being you cram everything in here to keep it out of the airflow. Again, not technologically brilliant by any means, but cost effective, allowing them to keep the price down.
It's clear that you're not supposed to put any cabling behind the motherboard tray, with a paltry 18mm of room at the most, but the cable management compartment has a luxurious 48mm to unceremoniously cram all your spare cables.
There are three tabs down the left hand front of the case for removing the front panel. So just press down on the with your three hands, and then spring the front off with another one. The front is nicely hinged, though, meaning that there's a lot less brute force required and thus less wear and tear on the plastic clips holding it on.
Once the Three Hundred is stripped down, two fan cages are clearly visible. These are secured with thumb screws and an unenclosed hinge, allowing them to be removed completely for fan installation. Also included are some holes to thread the fan cables back to the main enclosure without disturbing the 3.5" drive bays, which is a nice touch. This also leads into the cable compartment, so if your fans are running off of molex adaptors, you're all set to keep all the mess compartmentalized.
The Build and Cooling Options
Included handily with the Three Hundred are a standard assortment of motherboard stands and bolts, along with the aforementioned generous portion of thumbscrews. Mounting the front fans in the cages and routing their cables was also a snap.
Even with a completely non-modular power supply, the cable compartment gobbled up a great deal of mess. It's by no means elegant, but hey, it means having a half-decent airflow. Lack of cable routing options also means that the 8-pin CPU cable goes right over the top of everything, which is a bit of a shame, but also gives something to tie the Tricool cables onto.
Though there is technically just shy of 190mm worth of room for a big CPU cooler, the fact that the 8-pin cable doesn't really have a home means that routing might have to get imaginative. There is the option of attaching two 120mm fans to the fully-filtered front, so if you're crazy (in the most endearing way) enough to want to watercool this bad boy, and handy enough with a dremel, the cable compartment could theoretically be cut down to make a 240mm radiator fit in the front, but at the cost of being able to stuff your cables out of sight and out of mind. If watercooling is a must, then a H80i or suchlike could be affixed to the rear or top fan.
Conclusion
With an understated, minimalist design that's only slightly marred by a side intake fan, the Three Hundred is no frills and few thrills.
However, taking price point into consideration sheds a light on the reasoning behind some of these frill-hating decisions. At $59 Antec are targeting the beating heart of the low-range market, and that means coming up with ways of cutting manufacturing costs without skimping on features. Case in point is the neat packet of thumbscrews provided for mounting HDDs and Optical Bay devices: still technically tool-less, and much cheaper than engineering and producing a tool-less mechanism. The thumbscrews flow on to the nicely hinged side panels, and also the front fan cages.
Providing 6 3.5" bays, there's ample room for mechanical drive storage, even though it is in perforated racks, rather than a cage or drawers, which again is cheaper. Unfortunately the cost cutting extended to a 2.5" adaptor, so if you're planning on mounting a Solid State Drive, you're doing to need to purchase a 5.25" bay converter or drill your own holes. The three 5.25" bays are more than ample for an optical drive (if you must) and a fan controller, so it's likely that you'll have one spare to put your SSDs in. Still, it's a bit of an embuggerance.
If you do intend to utilise all six of the 3.5" bays, then you'll need to be careful about selecting a graphics card, too. With only 279mm of space, it's adequate for a smallish case, but by no means cavernous, and even at that length you might find some interference issues with the 3.5" bays. A small consolation is that if you put two intake fans in the front, your graphics card will have tons of fresh air blowing on it, filtered to boot.
Speaking of filtering, the distinct lack of on the side panel intake is somewhat disheartening. Especially taking into consideration how humungous the mesh holes are, you are going to have dust flowing through there by the truckload if you're not careful. To that end, even including a blanking plate would have been a nice touch.
Cable management is another area that is definitely lacking, even with the hidey-hole to cram your spaghetti factory into. The couple of provisions for cable ties beside the motherboard tray just aren't enough to keep things looking remotely presentable, although to be fair there is no window on this. Leaving no room for cable management has, however, allowed Antec to move the motherboard tray over to the right of the case by a good margin, leaving oodles of room for a stonking great CPU cooler, which is kind of nice.
The Three Hundred is certainly up against stiff competition at this form factor and this price point, and rather than going all out with crazy plastic fascias and weird flippy panels to get to the I/O ports, Antec have decided to keep the design understated and smooth, with simple, clean lines. Of course, aesthetics is always going to be marred by personal taste, so if you're particularly drawn to the Three Hundred or not is going to be entirely subjective.
At the end of the day, the Three Hundred is a small case that can fit some comparatively generously sized components inside it, unfortunately to the detriment of nearly everything else, most pressingly tidiness. If you want something you can throw under one arm to take to a LAN, aren't too bothered about SSDs or cable tidiness, don't mind thumbscrews, and can afford to spring for a dust filter for the side panel, you'll find that the Three Hundred is fairly reasonably priced. However, if you value having a neat and tidy case, with unobstructed airflow and a side window to check out all your OCD wiring and tool-less mounts, probably give the Three Hundred a miss.
Performance: 6/10
Price: 8/10
Presentation: 4/10
The market for small sized, budget cases is crowded to say the least, and it takes a fair bit to get noticed in amongst all of the samey black boxes being pumped out left right and center. Having never been particularly concerned with traditional numbering conventions, Antec's Three Hundred is a mid-tower case that purports to being able to hold quite a lot for its small stature. Touting impressive amounts of space, and eminent portability, the Three Hundred is aiming clearly at the market of people who want it all, but with a small form factor.
Squeezing a fair few fans in to boot, there's not an inch on the Three Hundred that's gone to waste, and every effort has been made to what is included usable. Bearing in mind that this is a budget case, there is no side window, nor tool-less mounts for drives, but there are some workarounds that may not be particularly clever, but are certainly efficient. For now at least, let's look at the technical specifications.
Technical Specification
Colours (Int/Ext): Black/grey
Dimensions: 458 x 465 x 205 mm (H/D/W)
Net Weight: 7.2 kg
Motherboard Support: ATX, Mini ATX, MicroATX
5.25" Drive bays: 3
3.5" Drive bays: 6
Cooling Front: 2 x 120mm fans (optional, filtered)
Cooling Top: 1 x 140mm Tricool Fan
Cooling Rear: 1 x 120mm Tricool Fan
Cooling Side: 1 x 120mm fan (optional)
PCI slots: 7
I/O: 2 x USB2.0, Mic & Audio out
Max GPU length: 279mm
Up Close: Exterior
At a shapely 458 x 465 x 205 mm (HxDxW), the front of the Three Hundred is understatement itself. The right hand side of the case is entirely featureless, while the left hand side sports a stylish mount for a 120mm intake fan, if so you desire. This fan intake is unfiltered.
The three 5.25" drive bays are lovingly hidden behind the same black mesh design that covers the two optional intake fans and the 3.5" bays. Interestingly, the rest of the front mesh panel has vaguely visible support bars at the same spacing as the 5.25" bays, and while it's easy to tell them apart, it keeps the front of the case nice and cohesive. This intake has a nice dust filter, and the front panel swings off neatly, as we'll see later.
On top of the case we find the 140mm exhaust fan in the roof, with its trademarked Tricool technology allowing you to choose between three speed settings (in theory as the load dictates, but in practice you'll do this once and then ignore it for reasons we'll get into a bit). The I/O panel is small and simple, two USB 2.0, audio, and the power and reset buttons to the side.
Towards the rear is the 120mm exhaust fan, again Tricool. Worth noting is the small raised crease to the right of the PCI slots that is not vented at all, so if you're running a graphics card on air and it throws hot air out the rear side as some do, it has nowhere to go. Also included is a provision for attaching a small padlock, which is a nice touch.
Up Close: Interior, drive bays, roof and floor
The Three Hundred can house the trifecta of ATX, mATX and mini ATX, with quite a spacious cut-out for such a small case. What is of immediate concern, however, is the complete and utter lack of cable management holes. There's a crease in the backplate, but the intention behind that must surely be structural rigidity, because you'd have to be mad as a hatter to try and keep all those fiddly I/O cables in there while bolting on a motherboard.
Neither the 5.25" drive bays, nor the 3.5" below have tool-less mountings. However, Antec have supplied a more than generous offering of small thumbscrews to mount the drives, which is certainly a cost-efficient way of doing things. The 5.25" drive bays blanking plates are all the same piece as the side plates, meaning that once you remove one, it's gone forever.
Both the top and rear fan have these annoying little dongles, thanks to their Tricool nature. This is a nice touch in theory, but also creates more problems in that there's nowhere for these little cables to go. They're not quite long enough to reach anywhere that they'd be accessible from outside, and they're not short enough that they won't flop about and bump into the CPU cooler.
The floor isn't vented at all, so your power supply has to be mounted with the fan facing up. There are some braces to hold a standard sized PSU in place, and four mounting screws on the rear as per normal.
Up Close: Rear and Strip Down
Moving to the right hand side of the case, specifically nestled behind the 3.5" drive bays, we happen upon the promised cable management compartment. Basically the idea being you cram everything in here to keep it out of the airflow. Again, not technologically brilliant by any means, but cost effective, allowing them to keep the price down.
It's clear that you're not supposed to put any cabling behind the motherboard tray, with a paltry 18mm of room at the most, but the cable management compartment has a luxurious 48mm to unceremoniously cram all your spare cables.
There are three tabs down the left hand front of the case for removing the front panel. So just press down on the with your three hands, and then spring the front off with another one. The front is nicely hinged, though, meaning that there's a lot less brute force required and thus less wear and tear on the plastic clips holding it on.
Once the Three Hundred is stripped down, two fan cages are clearly visible. These are secured with thumb screws and an unenclosed hinge, allowing them to be removed completely for fan installation. Also included are some holes to thread the fan cables back to the main enclosure without disturbing the 3.5" drive bays, which is a nice touch. This also leads into the cable compartment, so if your fans are running off of molex adaptors, you're all set to keep all the mess compartmentalized.
The Build and Cooling Options
Included handily with the Three Hundred are a standard assortment of motherboard stands and bolts, along with the aforementioned generous portion of thumbscrews. Mounting the front fans in the cages and routing their cables was also a snap.
Even with a completely non-modular power supply, the cable compartment gobbled up a great deal of mess. It's by no means elegant, but hey, it means having a half-decent airflow. Lack of cable routing options also means that the 8-pin CPU cable goes right over the top of everything, which is a bit of a shame, but also gives something to tie the Tricool cables onto.
Though there is technically just shy of 190mm worth of room for a big CPU cooler, the fact that the 8-pin cable doesn't really have a home means that routing might have to get imaginative. There is the option of attaching two 120mm fans to the fully-filtered front, so if you're crazy (in the most endearing way) enough to want to watercool this bad boy, and handy enough with a dremel, the cable compartment could theoretically be cut down to make a 240mm radiator fit in the front, but at the cost of being able to stuff your cables out of sight and out of mind. If watercooling is a must, then a H80i or suchlike could be affixed to the rear or top fan.
Conclusion
With an understated, minimalist design that's only slightly marred by a side intake fan, the Three Hundred is no frills and few thrills.
However, taking price point into consideration sheds a light on the reasoning behind some of these frill-hating decisions. At $59 Antec are targeting the beating heart of the low-range market, and that means coming up with ways of cutting manufacturing costs without skimping on features. Case in point is the neat packet of thumbscrews provided for mounting HDDs and Optical Bay devices: still technically tool-less, and much cheaper than engineering and producing a tool-less mechanism. The thumbscrews flow on to the nicely hinged side panels, and also the front fan cages.
Providing 6 3.5" bays, there's ample room for mechanical drive storage, even though it is in perforated racks, rather than a cage or drawers, which again is cheaper. Unfortunately the cost cutting extended to a 2.5" adaptor, so if you're planning on mounting a Solid State Drive, you're doing to need to purchase a 5.25" bay converter or drill your own holes. The three 5.25" bays are more than ample for an optical drive (if you must) and a fan controller, so it's likely that you'll have one spare to put your SSDs in. Still, it's a bit of an embuggerance.
If you do intend to utilise all six of the 3.5" bays, then you'll need to be careful about selecting a graphics card, too. With only 279mm of space, it's adequate for a smallish case, but by no means cavernous, and even at that length you might find some interference issues with the 3.5" bays. A small consolation is that if you put two intake fans in the front, your graphics card will have tons of fresh air blowing on it, filtered to boot.
Speaking of filtering, the distinct lack of on the side panel intake is somewhat disheartening. Especially taking into consideration how humungous the mesh holes are, you are going to have dust flowing through there by the truckload if you're not careful. To that end, even including a blanking plate would have been a nice touch.
Cable management is another area that is definitely lacking, even with the hidey-hole to cram your spaghetti factory into. The couple of provisions for cable ties beside the motherboard tray just aren't enough to keep things looking remotely presentable, although to be fair there is no window on this. Leaving no room for cable management has, however, allowed Antec to move the motherboard tray over to the right of the case by a good margin, leaving oodles of room for a stonking great CPU cooler, which is kind of nice.
The Three Hundred is certainly up against stiff competition at this form factor and this price point, and rather than going all out with crazy plastic fascias and weird flippy panels to get to the I/O ports, Antec have decided to keep the design understated and smooth, with simple, clean lines. Of course, aesthetics is always going to be marred by personal taste, so if you're particularly drawn to the Three Hundred or not is going to be entirely subjective.
At the end of the day, the Three Hundred is a small case that can fit some comparatively generously sized components inside it, unfortunately to the detriment of nearly everything else, most pressingly tidiness. If you want something you can throw under one arm to take to a LAN, aren't too bothered about SSDs or cable tidiness, don't mind thumbscrews, and can afford to spring for a dust filter for the side panel, you'll find that the Three Hundred is fairly reasonably priced. However, if you value having a neat and tidy case, with unobstructed airflow and a side window to check out all your OCD wiring and tool-less mounts, probably give the Three Hundred a miss.
Performance: 6/10
Price: 8/10
Presentation: 4/10
but a good tradesman should never blame his tools! It was an absolute shitfight trying to get all those cables hidden off to the side, but anyway. I'll take all that on board, thanks 
