Antec 302-S Project

Show off your quiet rig.

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speedkar9
Posts: 307
Joined: Fri Sep 19, 2008 1:39 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Antec 302-S Project

Post by speedkar9 » 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
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Cut bottom vent for PSU
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Holes marked for MB tray wire cutouts
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MB tray holes cut out
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Hard drive bay widening: The right wall was removed and shifted toward the right allowing enough space to suspend all drives with elastic.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Case ready to be painted, rear fan grill cut out with shears and grinded smooth.
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Note the PSU fan hole on the bottom of the case,
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Masked for pinstriping, didn't turn out good so I painted over in black anyways.
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Painting...
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Paint complete: about 3.5 coats of satin Krylon black.
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Custom 120mm fan bracket: made with sheet metal and riveted on (later scrapped due to video card clearance issue).
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Thumbscrews: I liked how the chrome screws on black looks.
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Painted case: I bet even without a front grill it looks better than an Antec DF-85.
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Rear fan hole U-Channeled
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Bottom PSU vent: The acrylic frame awaits some filter material, making for a sliding removable filter.
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Case is lifted off the ground using bottle caps (a bit high because it sits on soft carpet)
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Top fan soft mounted using elastic: this fan aids so much with CPU cooling as heat rises
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Like my under-hood pinstripe? The fan is completely decoupled from the case.
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I Even used grommets to make the holes "softer" and smaller,
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Final case shot
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The build
Hard drive suspension, ever thought it could be done in a 300? Well it can in a 302! :D
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PSU Installed, see how the cable management holes help
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Motherboard installed, wires in place,
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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 :(.
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So I opted for a suspended 92mm instead,
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Stealthed DVD drive
Now you see it,
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Now you don't!
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Interior shot: The cable routing really helps with the wiring.
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The Crappy Side.
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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 :oops:
Put away my modded SOLO (for now) :(

Sorry guys, no motherboard flip-de-do this time :lol:

kater
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Post by kater » Sun Sep 12, 2010 12:08 am

Squeaky clean build, excellent spaghetti management, cool stealthed drive - 9/10
-1 for pants rubber ;)

HammerSandwich
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Post by HammerSandwich » Sun Sep 12, 2010 6:58 am

Excellent work!

Jstar
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Location: TX

Questions about the case modifications

Post by Jstar » Sun Sep 12, 2010 10:46 am

I have the following questions on what you did.

How did you attach the MDF to the front panel? It looks like rivets. Did you glue them with epoxy glue to the front panel? How did you offset the MDF?

What did you use for rubber gasket material for the opening of the back case fan edge?

The holes you cut for cable routing. What did you do to the edges of the holes so that sharp edges would not cut into your cables when you routed the cables?

You did a great job!

speedkar9
Posts: 307
Joined: Fri Sep 19, 2008 1:39 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Questions about the case modifications

Post by speedkar9 » Mon Sep 13, 2010 6:40 am

The MDF is attached using long screws that screw into the holes that originally held the grill to the bezel. It is offset along the screw's length, I didn't screw it all the way down.

The U channel lining is door edge trim (I got at Canadian Tire), used on the edge of car doors. I used it to line the fan and the motherboard cutouts. Its very thick and not easy to maneuver, I'd recommend looking for something thinner.

MikeC
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Post by MikeC » Mon Sep 13, 2010 9:04 am

Very nicely done & documented. So just how quiet is it?

bozar
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Post by bozar » Mon Sep 13, 2010 11:20 am

Excellent work as always! I've grown very fond of your modding, wish I had more time myself.

speedkar9
Posts: 307
Joined: Fri Sep 19, 2008 1:39 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Post by speedkar9 » Mon Sep 13, 2010 3:39 pm

bozar wrote: I've grown very fond of your modding, wish I had more time myself.
Same here, now that schools back on, time is very limited.
MikeC wrote:So just how quiet is it?
I can't say just yet, I've still to install my fan controller (running loud atm on Gigabyte's smart fan control), whenever I get the time that is....
All components being same I don't see why it would be nearly as quiet as the Solo.

Thanks

speedkar9
Posts: 307
Joined: Fri Sep 19, 2008 1:39 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Antec 302-S Project

Post by speedkar9 » Thu Dec 30, 2010 8:01 am

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I installed my fan controller and now its all nice and quiet. :)

Big SturL
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Re: Antec 302-S Project

Post by Big SturL » Sat Jan 01, 2011 4:08 am

This mod really inspired me to something similar to the 300 I have laying around. I bought it from a kid who didn't properly underline the botched paint job he had done on the case, so it is aesthetically unusable for me.

Would you mind telling me how you prepped the case before painting it? Sanding, priming and so on.

thejamppa
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Re: Antec 302-S Project

Post by thejamppa » Sat Jan 01, 2011 6:10 am

One sweet mdofication! I really envy you as you have work space where you can make such things true. I have first generation 300 without hole cut for motherboard tray for back plate installation. Now I like how you have done work paying attention all the little steps and details... only thing bother's me: Blue legs on gorgeous black case?! I know its just me :D First rate job!

speedkar9
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Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Antec 302-S Project

Post by speedkar9 » Sat Jan 01, 2011 6:57 am

Would you mind telling me how you prepped the case before painting it? Sanding, priming and so on.
I prepped the case by giving the bare metal a light sand with a 120 grit sanding sponge. I de-riveted all the panels to ensure proper paint distribution. I used Krylon black (non-gloss) paint to paint the interior, about 3 coats, no primer.
only thing bother's me: Blue legs on gorgeous black case?! I know its just me
I know it looks odd, I forgot to paint those with the rest of the case. It sits on the carpet beside my desk so I don't see it anyways.

It would be nice to see others' ideas in silencing Antec's hundred series.

jhhoffma
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Re: Antec 302-S Project

Post by jhhoffma » Sat Jan 01, 2011 9:41 am

I love the all black paint job you've done. Simply beautiful.

I love my 300 as well, but it took a little bit of work to make it quiet. Mainly adding dampening to the chassis (Peel & Seal or bitumen mat), panels and fan housing (for the 140mm top fan). I also suspended my 150gb Velociraptor and used some thin foam wedged between the 5.25" cage and the DVD-ROM.

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I've done a little more cable management since then, but I'm not ambitious enough to cut any holes or derivet and paint.

forester joe
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Location: IL

Re: Antec 302-S Project

Post by forester joe » Sun Jan 02, 2011 1:40 am

very nice.
you really improved on most of the weak points of the 300.

speedkar9
Posts: 307
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Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Antec 302-S Project

Post by speedkar9 » Wed Jul 13, 2011 7:20 am

Build log video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aYsZzI1aMQ

Some new shots:

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:D

mkk
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Re: Antec 302-S Project

Post by mkk » Wed Jul 13, 2011 8:56 am

Rear vent came out looking really nice I think. :)
After all that work, Antec should reward you for the attention to their, ehm.., limited product.

speedkar9
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Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Antec 302-S Project

Post by speedkar9 » Fri Dec 28, 2012 7:36 am

Its been a while since I've been on here. I've been hanging out on automotive forums more since I got my car... and well I forgot about my PC :roll: .

I treated myself to a cheap upgrade this boxing day, a Asus M5A97 R2.0 mobo, an AMD FX 6100 X6 CPU, Kingston HyperX Black 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM, and an Intel 520 series 120GB SSD which came up to ~$300.

I love Asus mobo's for their QFan fan control, so much better than the Gigabyte board I had - (now I can do away with that clumsy custom fan- controller I made :) )

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The ugly side:
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