Antec Three Hundred mini-review and dampening mods

jhhoffma · Joined: 25 Apr 2005 Posts: 2004 Location: Grand Rapids, MI

For Christmas, I was lucky enough to receive an Antec Three Hundred from my brother (he knows he gets all my old stuff). So I set upon the task of moving my gaming machine from my old and trusty SLK3000B to the new 300. My Windows Home Server system will get the honor of going in the SLK3000B, but that’s a straight-forward build with nothing worth mentioning (other than the dampening, but I use the same method here).
Upon looking at the case in person, there are a few obvious impressions I made:

1. This case is VERY light. Definitely will cause problems to be addressed later.

2. Hard drive mounting is bad. I understand it’s a budget case, but my SLK3000B was cheaper and it came with a removable HDD cage and grommets. If one were so inclined, it wouldn’t be too hard to drill out the rivets for the inside HDD cage rail and move it away a little to allow some horizontal HDD suspension.

3. This case is VERY, VERY light. The metal on the sides, top and bottom panels is very thin and there no crimps in it to make it very stiff.

4. Love the airflow possibilities, but hate the 120mm fan opening in the side.

Anyway, I’ll just go through the changes I made to the standard layout.

First of all, here is my “miracle ingredient”:

This is headliner foam. One side is a soft twill-like woven (probably polyester) and the other side is an open cell foam. This has a lot of uses. The most obvious might be to use like most would use “acoustic foam” or “egg-crate” foam, by lining the inside of the case and case panels with it.

However, a better use is like this:

Here’s a aiece of headliner foam used as gasket between 140mm Tri-Cool and case top. Eliminates the rattling, but unfortunately doesn't stop the case panel oscillations (very low frequency vibrations).

Here’s some headliner material wedged in between optical drive and drive rails. This significantly reduces the amount of noise from vibration during spin up.

These are the PSU "feet", which in this picture, have been covered in vinyl electrical tape. This didn't help with rattling (made by tapping with my finger, not vibration from the PSU) as much as I thought, so I have since placed headliner foam on top of them.

Front panel connectors (right-side bottom) and USB header (bottom right-side) are routed underneath motherboard (from top right) along with 140mm Tri-Cool molex wire (bottom middle). The front-panel audio connector does not reach to the motherboard connector (far bottom-left), so was left tucked away at the top-front of the case.

Here’s the cable storage area. Just the ATX and one set of SATA power connector are tied up here now. Rest of the excess cables from the Earthwatts 430 end up here as well. At the top, you can see the first link of the HDD suspension (blue cable).

Hard drive suspension is done by two bungee cords tied up end-to-end with zip ties.

Two older Maxtor HDDs suspended by the bungee cords. The cords run through cable clips (with screw holes) secured into HDD screw holes. The clips are kept from sliding on the bungees by zipties.

Almost finished. 8800GT with Slipstream 800rpm ziptied added; it touches the SATA connectors a little, but I used some foam to further isolate it. At the top of the case, you can see some of the "Peel & Seal" asphalt-based dampening material applied to the case. This material was placed in many layers on the top to help stop the oscillations in the top panel from the 140mm Tri-Cool. More of this material was applied to the rest of the case (rear, bottom, drive cage, etc.)

As for the rest of the case, there are self-adhesive vinyl floor tiles on the side panels with headliner foam over them. The side intake is blocked off with double layered foam kept in place by screwing in a 120mm fan frame. In the end, the headliner material doesn’t really do much that can be measured, but it does keep the internals looking clean and smoothes out the airflow. The “Peel & Seal” is an excellent tool to use in lightweight cases and can be applied just about anywhere.

Overall, the 300 is a very good case from an airflow standpoint and its value is very high. However, the 140mm Tri-Cool at the top is a very poor fan: the bearing is awful, the fan is out of balance, and the frame is excessively light and flexible. All of which, allow the fan to vibrate an extreme amount, making the case quite loud. Even at the Low setting the fan spins too fast causing too much wind noise (whooshing).
Unfortunately, finding a suitable replacement isn’t very easy. If the system is low-powered, blocking off this vent and removing the fan would be the best solution. Right now, though I’m enjoying the 23C temps on my CPU and sub-50C GPU temps at idle.
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HTPC: OrigenAE X11|Gigabyte GA-MA785GPMT-UD2H|2GB DDR3-1333|Athlon II 240 w/Minja pass.|WD3200BEVT|Corsair VX450
Main: Antec 300 (SlipStream @ 800rpm/stock 140mm @ 5v)|MSI P35-Neo2FR|2GB PC6400|E6550 (Mugen2 pass.)|Asus 8800GT (Slipstream 800rpm)|Samsung HD160JJ|Antec EA500
WHS: SLK3000B|GA-MA78GM-S2H|Athlon 4850e|Seasonic S12-330|WD5000KS, 2xWD5000AACS, WD15EADS, Maxtor 320GB

antivenom · Joined: 05 Jan 2009 Posts: 86 Location: UK

Very nice set up! I've got the 300 case as well, and I decided to block the top vent because I hated that fan. Mine was exactly the same, it shook my entire computer.

I like your suspension method and I can't believe your CPU temps. 23°C?! What's that heatsink your using? I've seen it around a lot and I'm looking for a new heatsink for my Q6600.
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Antec 300 w/ 3x Arctic Fan 12025 | EZ Cool 700W Tornado w/ 120mm coolermaster | Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L | Intel Q6600 @ 2.4GHz w/ Xigmatek HDT-S1283 | Corsair 800MHz 2GB CL4 | XFX 9800GT @ 660/1650/990 w/ Accelero Twin Turbo | WD5000AAKS (XP) | Hitachi 80GB (Windows7) | LG GSA-H55LBL DVDRW | LG W2252TQ 22" Monitor | Creative Inspire T3100 Speakers

jhhoffma · Joined: 25 Apr 2005 Posts: 2004 Location: Grand Rapids, MI

All my specs are in my sig, but it's a Ninja Mini. For a quad, I'd probably want to go with something a little bigger (Ninja 2?).

As for the temps, it's also the dead of winter here (Michigan). This morning it was -20C outside and my apartment was less than 16C <brrr>. The room this machine stays in is pretty cold, but the temps were never that low in my SLK3000B. That 140mm Tricool is not a good fan, but it move a heck of a lot of air. I can feel the "sucking" at the front of the case, even with that thing on low.
_________________
HTPC: OrigenAE X11|Gigabyte GA-MA785GPMT-UD2H|2GB DDR3-1333|Athlon II 240 w/Minja pass.|WD3200BEVT|Corsair VX450
Main: Antec 300 (SlipStream @ 800rpm/stock 140mm @ 5v)|MSI P35-Neo2FR|2GB PC6400|E6550 (Mugen2 pass.)|Asus 8800GT (Slipstream 800rpm)|Samsung HD160JJ|Antec EA500
WHS: SLK3000B|GA-MA78GM-S2H|Athlon 4850e|Seasonic S12-330|WD5000KS, 2xWD5000AACS, WD15EADS, Maxtor 320GB

antivenom · Joined: 05 Jan 2009 Posts: 86 Location: UK

Oh yeah sorry, your sig didn't show when typing my reply.

Oof! Shocked

you could run a quad passively in them conditions! Laughing

yeah, when I first removed the top fan my CPU went up by about 5°C and my GPU went up by about 10°C, both still nowhere near dangerous temps though and it's so much quieter Smile

thejamppa · Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 2:04 pm Post subject:

I have three hundred now and I am finished my own modding.

I removed front fan grills and back fan grills used u-rubber to clean remenants of tinsnip. I do hate that 140mm Tri-Cool, off it goes and instead Scythe Kazu-Maru 140mm 1200 rpm fan. With slight ghetto modding for re-usable silicone fan attachments I used to attach Kaze-Maru thru top fan grill's holes. Works very well and with motherboard control, 1200 rpm Kaze-maru spinns around 770 rpm's and is virtually inaudiable. On Horizontally it emmets slight ticking noise and very slight vibrations, unlike vertical position.

On side I applied one layer of self-adhassive bitumen matt from Biltema ( heavy rubber mat ) to add mass on case, which is very light as stated. On top, that was major cause of vibration earlier, I applied 2 layers of bitumen.

Top of side panels I added Akasa PaxMate II light foam.

Results: Case is now significantly heavier. Side panels are heavier than P182's I have and everywhere instead ding sound I got before is very faint thud.

Air flow is great in case and cable magement made routing a lot easier than in Antec Nine Hundred.

Unfortunately silencing did revealed a naughty problem in my game system, that bloody Seagate 160 GB sata. It has high pitch squaling. System was pretty much inaudiable when HDD was off. With HDD it started to squeal.

In gaming I haven't heard squaling from system but in Aquamark 3 when it gives result I get squal. but not during menu's or test itself.

But considering the case: Massive airflow cheaply. Antec quality, even metal was thin. Needs some care, loving and modding and you can get SPCR quiet system in there. Just like SLK3000b, even I'd preferred to have removable 3,5" tray in Three Hundred like in SLK3000B.

Aesthetics: Three Hundred reeks the Utilitarian simplicity. You either hate it or love it. I love it. Its much better looking than old Antec Nine Hundred I had.
_________________
Machines of Tortuga | These days when arrogance is abundance, humility is priceless. It is unfortunate that people confuse humility into cowardness while its the opposite.

jhhoffma · Joined: 25 Apr 2005 Posts: 2004 Location: Grand Rapids, MI

I should have mentioned it, though it's probably obvious from the pics, that I also removed the front fan cages as they are not necessary.

Are you happy with the noise from the Kaze-Maru? I'm thinking of either going with a 500rpm version or a Yate-Loon D14SL-12 (1000rpm) and undervolting.
_________________
HTPC: OrigenAE X11|Gigabyte GA-MA785GPMT-UD2H|2GB DDR3-1333|Athlon II 240 w/Minja pass.|WD3200BEVT|Corsair VX450
Main: Antec 300 (SlipStream @ 800rpm/stock 140mm @ 5v)|MSI P35-Neo2FR|2GB PC6400|E6550 (Mugen2 pass.)|Asus 8800GT (Slipstream 800rpm)|Samsung HD160JJ|Antec EA500
WHS: SLK3000B|GA-MA78GM-S2H|Athlon 4850e|Seasonic S12-330|WD5000KS, 2xWD5000AACS, WD15EADS, Maxtor 320GB

thejamppa · Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 2:25 am Post subject:

jhhoffma · Joined: 25 Apr 2005 Posts: 2004 Location: Grand Rapids, MI

I would think that you could use zipties and some dampening material in-between to mount the Kaze-Maru, avoiding a real "ghetto mod".

Otherwise, I'd be inclined to get a thick piece of sheet steel, cut out the size to fit 140mm fan-frame on the outside and mounting points for a 120mm on the inside, paint it black and mount the kaze-maru on that with some dampening.
_________________
HTPC: OrigenAE X11|Gigabyte GA-MA785GPMT-UD2H|2GB DDR3-1333|Athlon II 240 w/Minja pass.|WD3200BEVT|Corsair VX450
Main: Antec 300 (SlipStream @ 800rpm/stock 140mm @ 5v)|MSI P35-Neo2FR|2GB PC6400|E6550 (Mugen2 pass.)|Asus 8800GT (Slipstream 800rpm)|Samsung HD160JJ|Antec EA500
WHS: SLK3000B|GA-MA78GM-S2H|Athlon 4850e|Seasonic S12-330|WD5000KS, 2xWD5000AACS, WD15EADS, Maxtor 320GB

thejamppa · Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 2:29 am Post subject:

well, I had to slightly modify attachment of silicone fan + plastic pin attachnment but that's still hardly a ghettomod but some sort of DIY mod so the plastic pins won't fall thru grills.
_________________
Machines of Tortuga | These days when arrogance is abundance, humility is priceless. It is unfortunate that people confuse humility into cowardness while its the opposite.

jhhoffma · Joined: 25 Apr 2005 Posts: 2004 Location: Grand Rapids, MI

thejamppa · Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 10:32 am Post subject:

kaange

jhhoffma · Joined: 25 Apr 2005 Posts: 2004 Location: Grand Rapids, MI

You can also use actual suspension (heavy duty) methods to isolate the entire cage. I used the cage itself in another case (my previous WHS build) and just rested it on a couple pads of sorbothane.

However, in my previous SLK3000B builds, the HDD cage was removed entirely and the HDDs suspended directly. Lots more room and better airflow that way.
_________________
HTPC: OrigenAE X11|Gigabyte GA-MA785GPMT-UD2H|2GB DDR3-1333|Athlon II 240 w/Minja pass.|WD3200BEVT|Corsair VX450
Main: Antec 300 (SlipStream @ 800rpm/stock 140mm @ 5v)|MSI P35-Neo2FR|2GB PC6400|E6550 (Mugen2 pass.)|Asus 8800GT (Slipstream 800rpm)|Samsung HD160JJ|Antec EA500
WHS: SLK3000B|GA-MA78GM-S2H|Athlon 4850e|Seasonic S12-330|WD5000KS, 2xWD5000AACS, WD15EADS, Maxtor 320GB

combat goofwing · Joined: 17 Mar 2009 Posts: 1 Location: england

hi

first time on the forum

i have the same case running a I7 920 cpu with 6gig ram and a xfxHD4870 1 gig,and AK-967 Nero Direct Contact Heatpipe CPU Cooler

the case fans are way too loud and some advice would be great

i plan to remove the top and back fans and replace them with much quieter ones look for any suggestions on this

then thought about fitting one of the original case fans on the side running at low speed to draw air in to the gpu(its OC to 780/1090MHz)

and maybe fit one to the front doing the same

any suggestions on the best way forward would be great

thanks for any help

jhhoffma · Joined: 25 Apr 2005 Posts: 2004 Location: Grand Rapids, MI

Well, the 140mm Tricool on top tends to be the biggest problem, due to the vibrations it causes and the thin metal of the case. I explained what I did to solve the problem. Yate-Loon makes a low-speed 140mm as does Scythe (Kaze-Maru), but the Y/L will still have to be undervolted to be quiet.

Beyond that, I have a 1200rpm Slipstream running @ 770rpm in the rear of my case, which is dead quiet. You may want to consider an aftermarket cooler for your GPU as it's unlikely you'll ever get that quiet. Then you'll have a better handle on airflow.

I've also blocked off the side vent and opened up two PCI slot covers below the GPU to allow a little cool air to come up from underneath the GPU and up to the fans at the top.
_________________
HTPC: OrigenAE X11|Gigabyte GA-MA785GPMT-UD2H|2GB DDR3-1333|Athlon II 240 w/Minja pass.|WD3200BEVT|Corsair VX450
Main: Antec 300 (SlipStream @ 800rpm/stock 140mm @ 5v)|MSI P35-Neo2FR|2GB PC6400|E6550 (Mugen2 pass.)|Asus 8800GT (Slipstream 800rpm)|Samsung HD160JJ|Antec EA500
WHS: SLK3000B|GA-MA78GM-S2H|Athlon 4850e|Seasonic S12-330|WD5000KS, 2xWD5000AACS, WD15EADS, Maxtor 320GB

casebuyer · Joined: 29 Jan 2007 Posts: 110

nice mod