Antec Three Hundred

We find ourselves wondering how a company like NZXT can do a better job of creating a budget version of Antec’s gamer line than Antec itself. That’s not to say the Three Hundred is a bad case; it just has little that’s special.

Case in point: You get no fancy lighting effects, no side panel window, and no screwless way to mount six hard drives or three 5.25-inch devices. The case barely fits an 8800 GTX card as is—a problem we also encountered with its greater sibling, Antec’s Nine Hundred chassis.

The case comes with a 12cm and a 14cm fan around the motherboard area, and both use Antec’s familiar switch for setting the fans to high, medium, or low speeds. We’re curious why the normally fan-crazy Antec opted out of including fans for the case’s six hard drive bays—there’s space for two 12cm fans, you just have to bring your own.

The case’s cables wrapped around to our motherboard inputs quite nicely, although there’s not much to connect: Front-panel support on the Three Hundred consists of a mere two USB slots and standard audio jacks. That’s pretty spartan, given the Tempest’s eSATA and FireWire options.

But it fits the murky profile of this nondescript case. Where other chassis in this feature have tried and fallen short, Antec quit at the starting line by offering little more in the Three Hundred than what you can find in a $20 enclosure.

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Antec Three Hundred

300

Serviceable no-frills case; plenty of fan space.

3DO

No-frills means no frills; a bit cramped; minimal front-panel inputs; front fans are strictly BYO; no lights, no windows.

www.antec.com