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Antec Three Hundred Two Mid-Tower Case Review

Cases & PSU/Cases by leeghoofd @ 2012-05-01

Antec, one of the biggest case manufacturers on our humble blue planet, has recently upgraded their cheap entry level gamers case, the Antec Three Hundred. The new version is simply baptised as the Three Hundred Two. The predecessor was one of Antec's best selling chassis, but Antec had to bring their little 300 up to 2012 standards. No quickly removable HDD bays, no tool-less optical drive bays and cable management was close to non existent. Logic design flaws as the original Three Hundred enclosure already dates back from 2009. Let's open the box and see what the Antec engineers came up with.

Conclusion

Antec has done a terrific job with it's Three Hundred Two series. The complete makeover on the inside, brings Antec's best selling Three Hundred series up to 2012 standards. Current users urge for USB3.0 connectivity. Easy and fast access to the HDD's and optical drives. Cable management, even in dirt cheap cases has to be present. GPU compatibility with most modern cards ( at least 305mm of clearance ) and multi GPU support. Antec has listened to it's end users and corrected the original 2009 design.

The cooling, even though the case is lacking a front cooler ( optional ), is among normal standards. The two TwoCool fans are adjustable via two switches at the back of the case. At Low speed setting they are audible, though at High setting the noise drastically goes up. Up to four optional fans can be installed to maximise the air flow, two 120mm in the front, one 120mm in each sidepanel. Especially the top fan is usefull for our X79 test setup. As the PWM cooling is amongst the best we have tested.

Storage wise this Three Hundred Two is ready to house up to six HDD's and 3 optical drives. On of the flaws of this Antec 300 Two case is the absence of a quick removable SSD tray. However Antec has foreseen a spot on the backside of the mobo tray or on the bottom of the chassis to securely mount your SSD.

The numerous cutouts have enhanced the cable management big time. Plus the space between the mobo tray and the sidepanel has more than enough clearance to hide all them superfluous cables.

Due to all these new features the price of this Antec Three Hundred Two is around 65 Euros. The predecessor is retailing around 15 euros less, but I see no point at all to buy the old design. The new Two version is far more refined. It's far easier to tuck all of your modern hardware in. And most of all it can house large modern videocards and if needed even up to three GPU's. Improved cable management, better anti dust protection and the ease of installation make this a great case bang for the buck wise !

PROS:

GPU compatibility up to 318mm
3-Way GPU support
Cable management
New tool-less storage design
USB3.0 supported
Affordable +/- 65 euros

CONS:

Fans at low speed setting still audible
No USB3.0 - 2.0 adaptor
Reset button hard to reach

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