Antec 302-S Project
Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2010 5:29 pm
My recent summer project I tried to see how much I could silence a good case like the Antec 300 by doing a few small mods to it.
Mods
Weight dampened panels
Front noise muffle
Painted interior and front panel flat black
Flipped PSU w/ bottom intake & lifted case feet
Undervolt and softmount 140mm fan
Widened hard drive bays for horizontal HD suspension
Stealthed DVD drive
Cut cable management holes w/u-rubber
Cut rear fan grill
Everyone knows what a stock 300 looked like, so here goes my build log;
Stripped down case
Cut bottom vent for PSU
Holes marked for MB tray wire cutouts
MB tray holes cut out
Hard drive bay widening: The right wall was removed and shifted toward the right allowing enough space to suspend all drives with elastic.
Front muffle: A piece of MDF wood offset from the front intake grill stops direct sound escaping from the front, while letting air around its sides.
Weight dampened side and top panels with peel and stick tiles; the panels are now 3-4 times heavier, and make a "thud" rather than a "clang" when knocked on from outside. Probably the most effective and cheapest mods in silencing this case.
I wonder if this would work: Put the HD upward at the bottom of the case and have air entering the case from the bottom, blocking the direct noise path from the user. The mid-intake fan would blow directly on a passive video card above.
Case ready to be painted, rear fan grill cut out with shears and grinded smooth.
Note the PSU fan hole on the bottom of the case,
Masked for pinstriping, didn't turn out good so I painted over in black anyways.
Painting...
Paint complete: about 3.5 coats of satin Krylon black.
Custom 120mm fan bracket: made with sheet metal and riveted on (later scrapped due to video card clearance issue).
Thumbscrews: I liked how the chrome screws on black looks.
Painted case: I bet even without a front grill it looks better than an Antec DF-85.
Rear fan hole U-Channeled
Bottom PSU vent: The acrylic frame awaits some filter material, making for a sliding removable filter.
Case is lifted off the ground using bottle caps (a bit high because it sits on soft carpet)
Top fan soft mounted using elastic: this fan aids so much with CPU cooling as heat rises
Like my under-hood pinstripe? The fan is completely decoupled from the case.
I Even used grommets to make the holes "softer" and smaller,
Final case shot
The build
Hard drive suspension, ever thought it could be done in a 300? Well it can in a 302!
PSU Installed, see how the cable management holes help
Motherboard installed, wires in place,
Wired up: The 120mm mid-mount fan aligns nicely with the passive video card, though its clearance is too tight against the PCI-E power wire and too tight to soft mount .
So I opted for a suspended 92mm instead,
Stealthed DVD drive
Now you see it,
Now you don't!
Interior shot: The cable routing really helps with the wiring.
The Crappy Side.
Yet to do
Install Fan controller & fan settings
PSU fan intake filter
Add rear fan wire guard
Redesign front muffle
Install top spoiler to muffle noise from top blow hole
Experiment with different fan setups
Take better pics
Put away my modded SOLO (for now)
Sorry guys, no motherboard flip-de-do this time
Mods
Weight dampened panels
Front noise muffle
Painted interior and front panel flat black
Flipped PSU w/ bottom intake & lifted case feet
Undervolt and softmount 140mm fan
Widened hard drive bays for horizontal HD suspension
Stealthed DVD drive
Cut cable management holes w/u-rubber
Cut rear fan grill
Everyone knows what a stock 300 looked like, so here goes my build log;
Stripped down case
Cut bottom vent for PSU
Holes marked for MB tray wire cutouts
MB tray holes cut out
Hard drive bay widening: The right wall was removed and shifted toward the right allowing enough space to suspend all drives with elastic.
Front muffle: A piece of MDF wood offset from the front intake grill stops direct sound escaping from the front, while letting air around its sides.
Weight dampened side and top panels with peel and stick tiles; the panels are now 3-4 times heavier, and make a "thud" rather than a "clang" when knocked on from outside. Probably the most effective and cheapest mods in silencing this case.
I wonder if this would work: Put the HD upward at the bottom of the case and have air entering the case from the bottom, blocking the direct noise path from the user. The mid-intake fan would blow directly on a passive video card above.
Case ready to be painted, rear fan grill cut out with shears and grinded smooth.
Note the PSU fan hole on the bottom of the case,
Masked for pinstriping, didn't turn out good so I painted over in black anyways.
Painting...
Paint complete: about 3.5 coats of satin Krylon black.
Custom 120mm fan bracket: made with sheet metal and riveted on (later scrapped due to video card clearance issue).
Thumbscrews: I liked how the chrome screws on black looks.
Painted case: I bet even without a front grill it looks better than an Antec DF-85.
Rear fan hole U-Channeled
Bottom PSU vent: The acrylic frame awaits some filter material, making for a sliding removable filter.
Case is lifted off the ground using bottle caps (a bit high because it sits on soft carpet)
Top fan soft mounted using elastic: this fan aids so much with CPU cooling as heat rises
Like my under-hood pinstripe? The fan is completely decoupled from the case.
I Even used grommets to make the holes "softer" and smaller,
Final case shot
The build
Hard drive suspension, ever thought it could be done in a 300? Well it can in a 302!
PSU Installed, see how the cable management holes help
Motherboard installed, wires in place,
Wired up: The 120mm mid-mount fan aligns nicely with the passive video card, though its clearance is too tight against the PCI-E power wire and too tight to soft mount .
So I opted for a suspended 92mm instead,
Stealthed DVD drive
Now you see it,
Now you don't!
Interior shot: The cable routing really helps with the wiring.
The Crappy Side.
Yet to do
Install Fan controller & fan settings
PSU fan intake filter
Add rear fan wire guard
Redesign front muffle
Install top spoiler to muffle noise from top blow hole
Experiment with different fan setups
Take better pics
Put away my modded SOLO (for now)
Sorry guys, no motherboard flip-de-do this time