After a hectic few months, I’ve finally made the time to sit down and get post prepared. In October, after growing tired of the shear size of my gaming PC and the dangerous urge for a change, I ended up making an unexpected decision. I’ve loved my Antec 1200 case to bits, I’d still like it to go to a good home where it’ll hopefully get a proper kitting out & make someone very happy, but after having it since July 2008, I seriously felt the need for a change. Granted a huge part of this urge for change is feeling the beating call of a new-build on the horizon, but I don’t want to give in to this too soon.
My gaming PC is over 4 years old, it’d hardware’s dated and needing an upgrade, but when I do cave in and upgrade, I want to do it right and have the budget for it. A part of me is just so satisfied squishing every last bit of power out of a dated system and Starfury still meets all of my needs without struggling noticeably. After taking all of this into consideration, I decided to swap out my Antec 1200 case … for an Antec 300!
The Antec 300 Ultimate Gaming Case has earned the reputation for being exactly that amongst the PC building community. It probably packs the biggest bang for buck in budget cases beaten only (at least in my eyes) by the Shinobi from Bitfenix. While it lacks in proper cable management, it’s packed with everything you need in a gaming case. The only thing I’d personally have liked to see on it would be a proper window on the main side panel. Having said that, I’ve always wanted to build in one & this gave me the perfect, budget-friendly excuse to do so.
Now, when it comes to Antec cases and blue LEDs, they’re gorgeous, but waaay overdone! Sorry, but they are! Purple might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I didn’t want gawdy green or black n red glaring back at me. To that end, I picked up a Xigmatek Crystal fan in purple, and finally nabbed the Lamptron FC6 fan controller. I already had a Xigmatek purple from February this year when I experimented at swapping out the blue fans on my Antec 1200 gaming PC. It was pretty, but thanks to it being far more difficult than would prove to be fun to remove the 2 rear or bigboy 200mm top fan, I ditched the project.
The Lamptron FC6 is an uber gorgeous fan controller that not only lets me quiet down the unnecessary whine of full-pelt fans, but it has the added bonus of letting me change the colour of the display. All in, I have a snazzy black and purple new gaming PC. Note, the temps read 0*C as I hadn’t attached the temperature sensors at that point! I’d say way more about each bit, but I guess there’s not really that much to say rather than including some pics to show you the case swap itself.
I’m very pleased with how everything turned out. My case now fits under my desk with bags of room to spare! Combining this with a complete overhaul of my desk setup which I’ll blog about in future, I’ve got a far more ‘me’ setup which I love to bits. My next post should hopefully be fairly soon since I can’t wait to take you through the spec & shinyness of Pakkun. 🙂
Nice swap out, but what did you do with your old 1200 when you were finished? I’m trying to find one under 100 quid as they still run expensive these days. The 300’s a quality case, nice choice.
Ah, I’m afraid I sold it in January…or v early Feb I think. (Yep, it’s been that long since your comment, I apologise!) The Antec Three Hundred’s definitely a nice little case. Hopefully it’ll do me a while longer yet, I don’t quite have the budget to blow on a new build!