Antec's GX300, Feature-Rich Mid Tower Chassis On A Budget

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Meh, I do not like windows, do not spend money on flashy components worth attempting to show off and my computer is stuff under my desk where I do not see it anyway. I would be far more interested in easily accessible front intake filters.
 
It's more preferable to put your chassis on a higher up platform that is at least 3 feet off of the ground. That way less dust enters as it tends to move around closer to the floor rather than higher up in the air.

But despite that, I would say that it's time for me to clean out my intakes and filters. Dust always seems to find a way inside.
 

Same, I'm not a big fan of windows. I don't need to show off anything. Full panels tend to baffle more noise, making the case quieter, especially if the panel is lined. I'll take that over a window every time.

Definitely looks like a nice budget case. The fan controller and hot-swap are hardly ever encountered in the lower price ranges. I'll forgive the lack of a 2.5" bay since budget builders probably won't have them very often, though it would have been nice.
 
Why oh why do they all insist on THREE optical drive bays, 1 is generally enough, 2 maximum...
1 for optical drive, 1 for expansion bay or hot swap bay (and to be honest I've seen hot swap bays with expansion ports inbuilt too..)
 
For me, 3 optical bays is the minimum. On my system I have two taken by optical drives (blu-ray reader and DVD writer) and the third is occupied by a memory card reader with extra front USB ports (2x USB3 and 4x USB2) and a front eSATA. And that means I don't have space for a front SoundBlaster panel so my wife got that instead. This case certainly delivers on that so I find it acceptable.

Speaking of the internal bays, each 3.5" bay can house two 2.5" drives via an adapter so that provides for a maximum of 12x 2.5" drives.
 
Yep, he nailed it. While the user who needs three or more bays may be rare, the manufacturers will err on that side because they don't want to lose sales because their case was lacking just one bay. They'd rather tool in that one extra bay, and I don't blame them.

I also have to ask, what reader is that? I've been looking for a good front bay card reader that connects over USB3.
 
Have to say this looks like a pretty solid budget case. Ofcourse I don't regret my Carbide 300r for my build about a month ago but were this case around at the time I might have gone with this, seems like a very solid case and at about £42 as well.

Will just have to see how performance is in regards to temps and noise, this looks like a really solid budget option though.
 
I agree that it'd be nice to see more cases ditch optical bays, or at least limit themselves to slimline drives. There's no reason for cases to be as deep as they are these days except that they're sticking stubbornly to optical drives next to the motherboard and a ton of drive space that no-one really uses. If you're making a budget case then chances are they customer doesn't need room for 6 3.5" drives, plus 2.5" drives are now very affordable and give you all you really need anyway if you're looking for a gaming machine.

IMO this is still a pretty boring case; there's no reason that budget cases should be awkward or have little effort put into them, after all it's only design and for the internals that's just a case of shuffling things around which isn't exactly hard; harder to do just right maybe, but so many companies aren't even trying, and we just end up with bulky tower after bulky tower, which is silly when you can fit full-sized graphics and CPU coolers into a smaller chassis.
 

Not sure I look at it that way. This is a budget case, so extensive CPU OCing and cooling likely isn't that big a deal for them. Someone that wants a 212 is likely building a more premium rig and would likely want a nicer case.

There are of course those people looking to min/max a'la the SBM and want max computing power with minimum case cost that will be turned off by the limited cooler clearance.
 
The Hyper 212 Evo is a budget cooler, exactly like this GX300 is a budget case. People making premium builds would go for more premium coolers, like Noctua or Be Quiet! air coolers, or liquid cooling.
 

In a really low-budget build though, there is a high probability people might not even bother with aftermarket cooling in the first place.
 
I guess I look at it that the stock cooler is the budget one, $30 - $40 coolers like the 212 are the mid-range line and massive sinks like Noctua and Phanteks are the premium models. But, po-tay-to / po-tah-to.
 


Actually I do see your point that each external bay can be adapted for more drives. I didn't mean anything by it sorry. I just figured for a MID tower, 2 bays would be enough and if 3 was needed then a full tower would be more appropriate - sorry for the confusion in the way I wrote that.
I personally use 2 and find it sufficient and still meeting all the needs you mentioned but your needs must be greater than i realised.
I use this in 1 bay - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817986006&Tpk=Vantec%20MRK-525CRU2&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10440897&PID=3891137&SID=rewrite
And a standard BluRay/DVD Writer in the other bay.
 
140mm cpu cooler height??

Is this a typo?

I ask because I have the Antec One Hundred which is a fairly basic case and I have a 160mm cooler installed (NH-D14).

This case also seems to bulge out the side panel which should increase height a bit.

If it's not a typo, it seems very odd to eliminate so many CPU coolers just to reduce the width less than 1cm.
 


True. But many of those people would go for cheaper cases than this one.
 
I have a GX700 which I bought after reading an entry-level case comparo here on Tom's. This is a much nicer looking case though, and probably perfect for what you pay.
 
I have not built my computer yet, but I have the GX500 case. They have some video on newegg and youtube newegg channel on my case. It was interesting because the top fan grill and the front fan grill both can slide off with just moving an access switch and sliding them off and then you can remove the fan filters and clean them. Then there was another fan filter on the bottom under the power supply location. It had lots of 120 Fan Mounts or maybe you can mount a radiator in there also.
 
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