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Antec are a company who are continually adapting and improving their product range. Today we are looking at the Three Hundred Two, an update to the popular Three Hundred released way back in 2008.
The original case sold well at around the £40 mark, although in today's market it is looking rather dated.
There are several key improvements that the company have made over the original Three Hundred version; firstly adding dedicated 2.5″ bays, watercooling support in the form of two grommets on top, improved cooling options, and upgraded USB 3.0 ports.
We know the competition in this sector is tough, so is this update enough to keep the Antec classic selling well?
Specifications:
- 11 drive bays:
- – 3 x 5,25″ tool-less drive bays
- – 2 x 2,5″ drive bays (dedicated)
- – 6 x 3,5″ tool-less drive bays
- Motherboards: Standard ATX, microATX, Mini-ITX
- 8 expansion slots
- Maximum graphics card size: 318 mm (12,5″)
- Maximum CPU cooler height: 170 mm (6,7″)
- Cooling System:
- – 1 x 120 mm rear TwoCool™ fan
- – 1 x 140 mm top TwoCool™ fan
- – 2 x 120 mm front intake fans (optional)
- – 1 x 120 mm side intake fan (optional)
- – 1 x 120 mm side exhaust fan behind motherboard (optional)
- Perforated front bezel for maximum air intake
- Water cooling support: top water cooling grommets
- Enlarged CPU cutout
- Front I/O ports:
- – 2 x USB 3.0 with internal motherboard connector
- – Audio In/Out
- Unit Dimensions:
- – 513 mm (H) x 229 mm (W) x 471 mm (D)
- Net Weight: 6,9 kg (15,3 lbs)
Antec have packaged the Three Hundred Two in their typical fashion, with the yellow stripe on the one side of the box. We like the artistic angled view of the case pictured on the front of the box.
The back of the box details several of the key features of this case, including; maximum expandability, maximum cooling and ease of use.
Antec have protected their case with two Styrofoam blocks on the top and bottom, and not, as is more typical, on the sides.
The Antec Three Hundred Two may look familiar, but there are a few subtle changes from the original Three Hundred Chassis.
We noticed that on top of the chassis, there were now two watercooling holes with rubber grommets, as well as the original 140mm fan.
The left-hand side of the case hasn't changed at all, and can still fit a 120mm fan. We are surprised they haven't made this grill larger to cater for at least a 140mm fan.
On the right-hand side we see another of the additions Antec have added to their new update; a 120mm fan can now be fitted behind the motherboard tray.
The chassis features a perforated front bezel, to allow for maximum air intake, but this is something that nearly all new high-performance towers feature. They have also updated the USB ports to USB 3.0, while keeping the Headphone/Microphone sockets and the on/off buttons the same.
The back of the chassis now also features an extra PCI expansion slot, taking the total up to 8, as well as a PCI retention bracket.
The bottom of the chassis features 4 large feet, but only has mesh to allow air into the power supply and not the rest of the chassis.
The Antec Three Hundred Two comes with a product overview, a collection of screws and 12 x 3.5″ HDD slides.
The company have not included an installation guide which may cause a few problems as there are many screws to choose from, all stored in a single bag.
We removed the left-hand side of the case, which pivots smoothly at the front. As this is a budget case, the company have not painted the inside black. Not a huge issue at this price.
The Antec Three Hundred Two features a very large CPU cut-out, which complements the added 120mm fan behind the motherboard tray.
The PSU has its own dust filter, which slides out from the bottom of the case – you don't even have to take the side of the case off.
Removing the front panel shows that two more 120mm fans can be fitted, which will aid cooling, especially for the hard disk drives.
The 5.25″ bays feature a tool-less mechanism which is very simple in design, and extremely easy to use.
Removing the other side panel we can see that there is plenty of space behind the motherboard tray. Not only does this allow you to fit a fan behind the motherboard tray, but it allows you to route power supply cables without worrying that the side panel will not fit.
This makes cable management that little bit easier.
Firstly we installed the power supply, the Akasa Venom Power 750W. No problems installing the power supply into the bottom of the case.
We then installed the motherboard and CPU cooler in one go. We found that there was quite limited room at the top of the chassis, but this is more than made up for the room behind the motherboard tray.
One 2.5″ SSD can be installed at the bottom of the chassis, and another can be installed behind the motherboard tray, something we haven't seen before.
Installing 3.5″ drives is as easy as ever, all you have to do is push the two slides into place and slide into the bay.
We then installed our XFX Radeon 5450HD passively-cooled graphics card. This case can fit graphics cards with a length of up to 318mm.
Finally we connected all the cables. This was one of the easiest mid-tower chassis' we have ever worked on, mainly thanks to the space around the HDD bays and behind the motherboard tray. Our only complaint being the lack of space at the top of the chassis, especially with the 140mm fan fitted here.
Overall, the installation was very straight forward and no installation guides are really necessary.
Today’s test system will give us a good idea of how well this case works in terms of thermal and acoustic performance.
Processor: AMD Phenom X4 965 Black Edition @ 3.9 GHz
Motherboard: ASUS M4A785TD- M Evo
Cooler: Akasa Venom Voodoo CPU Cooler
Memory: 4GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 1800MHz
Graphics Card: XFX Radeon 5450 HD (GPU @ 700 MHZ, Memory Clock @ 650 MHz)
Power Supply: Akasa Venom Power 750W
Boot Drive: Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB
OS: Windows 7 Home Edition 64bit
Pyle Digital Sound Level Meter PSPL03
As the two included fans feature a fan-speed switch, we will be testing the performance with both fans on the low speed setting and then both on the higher speed.
The difference in performance is quite noticeable. On the high fan speed setting, the processor temperature didn't rise above 51 degrees, and the motherboard temperature only increased by 2 degrees. This certainly highlights a significant amount of airflow through the case.
When the fans are both on their low speed setting, the performance was considerably worse, a whole 8 degrees higher for the processor temperature. That said, this is still respectable performance for a mid-tower chassis.
Today, to test this chassis we have set our Sound Level Meter exactly one meter away from the case.
We then temporarily turned the two Akasa Venom Voodoo fans off, which leaves us with only the included case fan and very little noise from the power supply fan as we have a silent passively-cooled graphics card installed.
As this can be a little confusing for people, here are various dBa ratings in with real world situations to help describe the various levels.
KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refrigerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum
Antec have produced a case that delivers great thermal performance, but can also be extremely quiet. Admittedly, it is a shame it can't be both at the same time, but at a quick flick of the switches you can have the best of both worlds.
On the high setting, the noise levels are loud, and noticeable. We would certainly be tempted to replace the 120mm fan with a Be Quiet! 120mm unit which can deliver a similar airflow but with a much lower noise threshold.
The Antec Three Hundred Two hasn't altered dramatically from the original Three Hundred design. The company have added support for watercooling, with the two grommets on top. They have also upgraded the USB ports to the latest standard and have also managed to squeeze in an extra 120mm fan, an extra PCI slot, and space for two 2.5 inch drives.
In terms of thermal performance, we were very impressed with the results when both fans were set to ‘high'. The air flow is substantial, and the overclocked processor was held steady at 51c under load. With only two fans installed out of the box, this is a very impressive result.
The addition of the two fan speed switches make this case ideal for all scenarios, whether gaming or using the computer for everyday browsing. Even with the fans switched down to low, the thermal performance was still decent, thanks to the perforated front bezel and the negative pressure approach Antec have implemented.
The thermal performance could easily be improved however. The case does for instance lack any intake fans. We do wonder why Antec haven't installed at least a single 120mm fan as this would improve the performance significantly without increasing the cost by much. On top of this you can still install a further three 120mm fans. There is plenty of room for improvement, if you spend a little money and add some quality fans to the chassis.
The acoustical performance is excellent when configured to the low fan setting. It is whisper quiet and is very difficult to know that the case is actually powered on.
Noise increases significantly with the higher of the two fan settings, however you could always switch one fan to high and the other to low, giving ‘a middle ground'.
The case is built to a high standard and offers a wealth of great features. Performance is also commendable. Antec have kept the price of this case down, it is currently available at £47.94 from ARIA. For such a low asking price, it is hard to find fault.
Pros
- Great value for money.
- Good thermal performance out of the box.
- Fans have two speed settings.
- Can be whisper quiet.
- Lots of great features.
- Well designed – easy to install system.
Cons
- Can only fit 2 x 2.5″ drives.
- Fans are loud when switched to high.
KitGuru says: If you are looking for a Mid-Tower Gaming Chassis with great performance and without breaking the bank, this is it.
