Case Mod - In Progress Antec 300 improvements

Here is my short log of some Antec 300 improvements. It is not a “mod” as such, it is a functional improvement to a great value case. Many people have this case and many have “improved”them, others with varying degrees of success.

Thanks go to some great bit-tech forum regulars:

Fendahl/BJoSM (dremel & other tools with which to injure myself on, beer & cheering/abuse from behind the camera)
Ph4lanx (case & Gentle Typhoon fans)
Kovoet (E8600 CPU)
Bumsrush (EP43-DS3L motherboard)
Fishlock (Corsair PSU)
Phinix (Scythe fan controller)
AlexB (OCZ RAM)
​

My original rig is an Antec Sonata II running an Asus P5N-E SLI, an E8600 @ stock (cheers Kovoet), 4GB RAM, 650w TruePower New PSU and a Sapphire 4870 1GB Vapor-X. Cooling on this case is secondary to silence with a single rear 120mm and the provision to put another 120mm behind the drive cages (but not with a 4870) meaning that maximum airflow is not really achievable without hacking the case. Plans to overclock the E8600 had to wait.

After patiently and thoughtfully carrying out research into/dithering over many a Coolermaster ATCS840, a Lian Li PC-P50WB, a Lian Li PC-8FI, a Silverstone FT-02 etc, etc, I ended up sourcing a mint condition Antec 300 (cheers Ph4lanx). I couldn’t decide on a long term case (I’ve had the Sonata II for 3 ½ years), so I may as well go cheap and cheerful – especially as I have been researching many a forum for info on Antec 300 “adjustments”.

The purchase went through just as I was on my way to visit a friend who happened to own a Dremel.

Bugger it I thought, time to put the homework to use...

All the good photo’s below were taken by my dremel supplier/willing accomplice Fendahl/BJoSM and all the crap ones were taken by me.

The mint Antec 300 in all its’ glory.



Measuring up.



We knew that COD2 would be useful again one day.



The weapon of 92mm destruction, err, hang on...is that right?



The result – see, told you it wasn’t right, the hole is not in the centre of the case...



The Corsair HX520w PSU (thanks Fishlock) has its’ fan in the same place as the Antec TruePower New 650w. I wanted the PSU to draw in cool air, rather than sucking in hot air from the Vapor-X card. This card does not exhaust all its’ air externally.

Note the cutout in the middle of the standard case feet.



Now for some cable routing.



The result. Note the large cutout behind the CPU – this is a newer revision of the case.



Now for another.



The holesaw size is 20mm.



Having the nibbler was a bonus.



After a bit of filing, the Dremel had to come out, even though we could have completed this without it; we mainly used it as a drill.



The all important test fitting, this is the P43 board (cheers Bumsrush) and the HX520 (cheers Fishlock) in place. The HX520 will be replaced with the Antec TruePower New 650w from the Sonata II but they have identical key dimensions.



We didn’t have any beading/piping/u-channel so we had to make do.



The 92mm grill in the floor is reversed so the rings protrude up into the case, flush with the floor.



92mm aluminium mesh filter and silicone gasket. Note the PSU standoff.


Don’t buy cheap dust filters. I opened this one to look at the filter and it all fell apart.



The small feet are from a Sharkoon silencer kit, they fit perfectly into the cutout on the standard Antec 300 standard case feet. The combined feet raise the bottom of the case 14mm from the desk. The rivets beside the top right fan mount are for the PSU standoff.



First cabling attempt, I have a front USB extension somewhere and will fit it once found. The original Antec cable USB front panel cable is too short to reach behind the motherboard tray but the power, reset & HD cable was just long enough.

The SATA cables wouldn’t fit when trying to reverse the hard drives (I had already read that they wouldn’t but had to see for myself), I would have to cut some steel in the front of the case. As at this time I was dremel-less, it had to remain an option for later although I am considering a Lian Li bay adapter, fit 3 x 3.5” HD’s into 2 x 5.25” optical bays with a fan, instead.

The GPU is the Sapphire 4870 1GB Vapor-X (great card), the cooler is the venerable Titan Fenrir and the HD’s are Samsung 500GB F3’s. The two cable tie loops on the motherboard tray normally protrude into the case – a bit of gentle persuasion and they were protruding out the back, ready to tie the motherboard cables to.



The rear.



I put two 120mm Gentle Typhoon 1450’s (cheers Ph4lanx) in the front but I didn’t like the whine they produced – remember this is on the desk beside my head. I replaced them with 2 Silent Eagle 1000’s, exactly like the rear fan.


The rear is a Silent Eagle 1000rpm, the top fan is a Fractal Design 140mm Silent Series and the fan controller is a Scythe Kaze Q (cheers phinix). No side fan installed at the moment.



The coins, in order left to right, are a British pound, NZ dollar, Australian dollar and a Euro. Used to illustrate the height from the desk. On the far right you can just make out the glint of the chrome fan grill.





That’s it, no more than a few hours work. I don’t know if the fan controller will stay or not, the noise of all fans on full is not offensive, more a rush of air. Turning them all down to half speed is really, really quiet.

I now have some proper rubber beading/u-channel but I am not sure if I want to strip it all down and replace it. I can’t see it but I know it is functional. If doing it again, I wouldn’t bother with rubber grommets, just pay the pennies for proper beading, it will look much tidier.

The cable routing could be tidier, I’ll do that as and when I get the chance. The fan controller might yet go and I’ll install the USB header extension, put a cable tie on the GPU power cables and tidy the SATA cables a bit then it will be done.

In retrospect, I would drill out the rivets on the PSU standoff and move it, allowing for a better positioned intake vent. This would probably not line up with the centre of any PSU fan but a larger vent might be possible making it better overall. The only problem then to overcome would be how to block off the front of the PSU from sucking air in from the front of the case – maybe this is a good thing?

Initial tests are showing the temperatures are very good. Overall I am pleased with the result, it is much tidier than it would normally be but I can still get good access to all components inside. Airflow is a vast improvement over the Sonata II.

A Prime95 run after 45mins with the E8600 @ stock settings, all fans on full.



Prime95 after about 30 mins with the E8600 @ 3.8GHz, all fans on full.



And lastly, as soon as Prime95 is stopped, the idle temps drop straight away.



Now all I need to do now is stress the GPU and monitor the temps.

Thanks for reading.

 

Here are the results of the GPU stress testing.

First up, after half an hour of Prime95 & Furmark, here are the load temps.



Then, four minutes after stopping the stress tests, you can see how quickly it drops to acceptable idle temps.



After another few minutes, the GPU is back down to 60C @ idle.



The I decided to see what would happen if I put a side fan on. I addedd a Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1450rpm side fan and kicked off a stress test.



I didn't think this could be right - it made no difference - so I decided to re-run the load test without the side fan again.



So to summarise, CPU & GPU load test results are great. The surprising thing was that adding a 120mm fan to the side of the case made absolutely no discernable difference to the temperatures - all tests were within +/-1C of each other. I tried running the side fan at both 800rpm and at 1450rpm but no change. It looks like I will be taping closed the side fan grill to stop dust ingress.

Thanks for reading.

 

Nice tidy little job ,especially the wiring.

 

Nice one. I might need to have a go at ripping some holes in the 300 myself once I change my case over. The case is good as it is, but I can see that those extra routing holes make a huge difference the the cleanliness of the cabling - particularly down the bottom between the PSU and the lower HDD. Looks like a fun project

 

Fingers.. you use my method of marking up... what ever is to hand !!! haha.. Choice

 

I have the same case and I think I will do similar to what you've done here - thanks for the inspiration!

 

Great job. I love the COD case. Is that a ruler mod?

 

Thanks for that guys, yes it was very simple and I am pleased with the results.

I have done a run with Prime95 and Furmark at the same time and the temperature results are great - I'll post the pics later tonight.

 

Great, effective modding, I will have to incorporate some into my Antec 300

Where did you get the hole saws from?

Does the case come with the rectangular hole for helping with changing the CPU cooler as standard?

As I have this case & noted that mine looks like this on the inside


Was this a mod or a newer revision??

 

My case is a newer revision of the Antec 300 and comes with a large hole behind the motherboard as standard, allowing you to mount a cooler without removing the m/b. I believe that these have only just started coming out in the last few months.

Another change (apparently) is that the new revision can mount an SSD on the floor of the case, below the hard drive rack. There are four holes drilled through the floor.

The hole saws are from any DIY store, such as B&Q, Homebase or Wickes over here in the UK. The saw used for the cable routing holes was 20mm, the saw for the PSU intake vent was either 90mm or 92mm. The nibbler saved a lot of filing time but it wouldn't have taken long by hand.

You don't actually need a dremel to do this stuff, a drill, some holesaws and a few files is all you need.

 

What a shame they did not add cable management holes at the same time as the revision to motherboard back plate

I like the idea of the ssd mounting area too!

Not enough to make me want to buy a new one though

 

I've just posted the results of the CPU & GPU stress tests in an edit above (second post) - surprising about the side fan.

 

Nice work that. I have just bought a 300 to mod/paint, and I'll swap everything into it. (Currently using a 300 already, so I have a good idea where everything will go.)
Couple of thoughts:
1/ you mention reversing the hdd's? I assume you mean so the cables are at the front of the case? Could you not drill new holes further from the front to move the hdd into the case more, creating space at the front?
2/ I would move the upper hdd down a bay, so the upper front fan was blowing cool air straight onto the gfx card.

I agree about the Silent Eagle fans, they move plenty of air but are very quiet.
All in all, a neat job, and I shall be using your ideas in my case..

 

Cheers,

1: Yes, I meant the cable at the front of the case. There are two ways to do it. One way is to drill new HDD screw holes and move the drives back a little like you suggest, the other is to Dremel away some metal out of the front side of the HDD cage like this (this photo isn't of my case btw):



Your suggestion is the better way because with the second method you would still need SATA cables with smaller connectors on them. It is the connectors that clash with the fans, not the cables.

2: I put the upper HDD there because it seemed to my un-scientific hand that more air was getting past the HDD than when mounted up or down a bay. The Silent Eagle fans (and the Tyhoons for that matter) pushed more air from the outside of the fan than the centre. Tbh it is something you can play with yourself to see what I mean.

As an aside, here is a link to the beading I bought after using the rubber grommets for the cable routing holes: http://www.overclock.co.uk/product/1m-Bowthorpe-PVC-Beading_1882.html.



Use this instead of the ghetto mod rubber grommet method I used, it will be a lot neater. Don't use too much glue or it will get everywhere.

Make sure you post pics of your project!

 

Nice one mate. Nice and neat.

 

Very nice, Mite do this myself.

 

Impressive work, must have taken you a while. Am considering the Antec as my case in a build, diy is always fun but so time consuming!

 

Thanks for all the positive comments.

Actually it didn't take long at all. The case was empty when I got it so there was no stipping down to do. The longest part was all the research I have done over the last few months during my indecision as to whether to buy a Lian Li, Coolermaster or Silverstone aluminium case or simply to go cheap and cheerful with an Antec 300.

In the end I got the Antec second hand from the marketplace here (cheers again Ph4lanx). It was in absolutely mint condition until I scratched the top rear corner in the car after collecting it - d'oh . I got it for a very good price so I thought, bugger it, why not.

I had seen the Mod Brothers Antec 300 and the PSU vent mod, and wanted to do that. In addition, virtually everyone agrees that the lack of cable routing options is about the biggest pain with the case.

I collected the case on my way to stay the weekend with a mate who has a Dremel so over a few beers the night before, we hatched a plan .

In the end whilst the Dremel was handy as a drill, we could of done it all without it. My mate also had the two holesaws needed and the bonus was the nibbler. Without the nibbler it would of taken longer as I would of had to file the cable routing holes out to get the straight edges.

It took about a maximum of two hours tops to measure, drill, nibble and file the holes. It took another hour and a half to cut and glue the ghetto beading/piping (grommets) to protect the sharp edges of the holes and we left the glue to dry overnight (then had more beer!).

When I got the case home, I had to wait a few days as I ordered the filter and silicone grommet for the PSU vent but these were installed in minutes. The stess testing of the CPU & GPU to measure the temperatures with different fan combinations took much, much longer.

So all in all, if I had actually planned it properly with all the bits available before starting, it would of only taken about four hours tops excluding glue drying time. I suppose the key is to plan it thoroughly so that you know exactly what you are going to do before starting.

Cheers .

 

Nice looks real cool. i never heard of nibblers before. except from futurerama lol .
just my 2 cents i think it would look cool if u got ur cd-bay blanker drilled some holes in it for the knobs of your fan controler and mounted it over the top. might make it fit in better. but again GOOD JOB!

 

Nice, Looks good need to do something like this to my case