Slightly revamped Antec 300

[bowmanm3]

When I built my own machine for the first time back in April of 2010, I got a sweet deal on the 300 and bought one for me and one for my wife's computer. Right after I built my computer I decided to add a window mod, UV lighting, and some neon green cable sleeving. I didnt have the money for the good stuff, I just used a sleeving kit I got at my local Microcenter. Thats worked fairly well for a while. However, its always bugged my that the 300 doesnt really have a good way to manage cables, so last night I decided to do a little more cable sleeving and create some cable management for my case.

Here's what it looked like before I went to work:

I pulled everything out and marked some spots where I wanted to cut holes

First hole done!

and the other two:

After I got that done I decided to cut the grating off of the front and rear fans to cut down on some of the fan noise when they are running at full speed:

All my components really needed a good dusting. with a dog, two cats, and two children running around the whose I end up cleaning my fan filters at least once a week if not more.

my poor vapor-x had a crapload of dust built up in the heatsink. its temps dropped by 3 degrees C after I cleaned it out.

I also decided to have sleeved wires for the motherboard power cable, video card power cable, and all my fan controller extensions.

Fan controller with sleeved extensions:

Since I had everything out, I reseated the heatsink, sleeved the fan cable, and reoriented it to blow upward toward the 140mm top exhaust fan, which is now the only exhaust fan. I turned the rear 120mm fan around and added a filter to the back so I have air coming in from both sides and shooting up out of the top. I plan on getting an H70 in the near future and I think this setup is ideal for when I make the switch.

Now it's time to put everything back in and manage those cables!

The top hole was hard to do being so close to the top, so i had to feed all the cables through and then fasten down the motherboard. Makes for a much cleaner look now i think:

As always the back looks like a big mess with all the extension cables through the holes:

Power supply is in!

A much cleaner video card back in:

And finally, the last of the cables connected:

Powered on and lit up!

There ya go! This is my second mod using any kind of power tools so I think it turned out pretty well. I am already planning on doing another mod sometime in the near. I'm going to put in a window mod on the top with 2 120mm exhaust fans built in. Until next time, thanks for looking!

 

[bbs lm-r]

Hey. that doesn't look too shabby there

I think i might just have to go pick up a sleeving kit myself from MC when I go back home soon. Some people might think it looks cheezy or whatever, but I like the look of the UV.

I have a question not regarding your cabling though, where did you get your molding for your side window cutout?

 

[Mister E]

Nice job!!

 

[bowmanm3]

Its actually a window kit I ordered from crazypc.com. it came with the window and the molding.

 

[bowmanm3]

So I finally had some time to install the H50 I got last week, so I thought I would post some pictures. I don't have much of the actual install itself though. I have one of the Antec 300's that does NOT have a backplate hole on the motherboard tray. I didn't feel like getting the dremel out tonight, so I just disconnected everything and took out the motherboard to do get the new bracket installed. anyway, here are some of the finished pics:

The 300 is definitely not made for watercooling without some major mods, but this will do until I make the plunge(no pun intented) into full blown watercooling.

Right now I have the fan installed exhausting out the back. With the large amount of dust my house accumulates on a daily basis, I felt it was best to have the 2 front fans with filters continue to intake air and have the rear fan exhaust. My plan is to add another fan to the radiator once I get another set of screws, and to remove the top fan and seal it off. that way I get air moving from the front of the case right through to the back, hopefully keeping it quite cool and as dust-free as possible.

I have 2 12" cold cathode UV tubes in the case and it never seemed very bright in the case. As I was taking pictures with everything on I found out why: one of the cathodes is almost completely dark. Looks like I'll be ordering some more! in the mean time I moved the brighter one to a better location to get a good light show goin:

I did a little rewiring on my home server as well, so I thought I would post a couple pics of that too. specs in the sig.

And a shot of the desktop. I would take a picture right after I cleaned the whole thing, but we all know that most of the time we operate in a slightly messy environment. I am no exception. there are times when my desk is spotless, but most of the time I have things scattered about.

And finally, for those wondering what the big white box on the wall is:

A modem/router box I got at IKEA. from left to right: Cable Modem, Phone Modem, Netgear ProSafe 5 port switch, behind everything is a plug strip to power them all, and on top is the wireless router. even with the door closed, it doesn't get terribly hot inside. However, since I am paranoid I'm going to fry something, I plan to install an 80mm fan inside on each end to draw air from one side and out the other. I'll post pictures of that too whenever I get around to it.

That's everything for now, thanks for looking!

 

[CMadki4]

Take one of your 5.25" bay covers and do this with your fan controller. It added a nice clean look to my old Antec 300.

 

[ballistic]

I love taking unused parts and doing stuff like you did with that bay cover.

 

[CMadki4]

I love taking unused parts and doing stuff like you did with that bay cover.

Thanks, yeah me too. I have the most fun building and modding (shameless worklog plug) with things I already have and misc. pieces people may not normally use. The way I see it, anyone can go out and buy something, but it takes a little creativity to use what you've got and put a little effort/craftsmanship into to. But everybody rolls differently. Not dogging on anyone.