Customer Reviews

Antec Three Hundred Two Gaming Case, Black

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Likes:
*Sturdy, with nicely rolled edges throughout that won't cut you.
* 3 external 5.25 drive bays is just right.
*No external 3.5" drive bays. Use an external card reader or adapter dongle.
*Side and front panels are hinged, easy to remove.
*Roomy enough for 9"x12" boards with SATA ports mounted sideways.
*"Sideways" HDD bays make drive swapping easier.
*2 of the 3 fan intakes are filtered.
*Quiet fans, more than adequate for stock usage and even mild overclocking.
*"Tool-Less" bays work nicely.
*Cutout behind the CPU area makes installing giant coolers very easy.
*Fan behind the CPU. Case makers ignored that excellent cooling opportunity for years.
*Looks great, very sleek and simple.
*No cheesy, bulbous "convenience panels" which cause a real birds nest of wires.
*My Hyper212+ cooler and Ripjaws RAM all fit just fine!
*Cable management is awesome! Never had such a clean and easy build!

Dislikes:
*Has too many (6)internal 3.5 bays. If you need more than 4 HDD's, get a full tower!
*Side doors should have captive thumb screws. Even Dell uses them.
* No 3.5" to 2.5 HDD bay adapters were included, the "mounting holes" are useless.
*Rear 120mm exhaust fan is too weak for overclocking, though perfect for stock usage.
*Fans should have come with 4 pin connectors for automatic fan control.
*2 of the120mm fan intake grills are unfiltered, rendering the other filters useless.
*The front headphone jack is too tight, and almost ruined my expensive ear buds. (fixt).
*Fan grills are stamped honeycomb, far less efficient than concentric wire grills.
*Need a cable management access hole for the EATX power cable.

I wish Antec would have designed in a separate ~7" wide by ~16" tall door for quick access to the internal drive bays. I also wish the sideways drive bays were handy USB3 and SATA hot docks. A push button latch to open the front door would have been nice. Instead, you have to remove the left side panel in order to remove the front panel. Huh? What was Antec thinking?

This is a great case. It's designed for the mid level enthusiast, and did not disappoint me on the important features. Some of my complaints were easily fixed. I moved the rear fan to beneath the CPU, added a stronger fan in its place, and also made all the fans system speed controlled. I am ordering a pair of 2.5" HDD mounting adapters for my SSD's. I am also contemplating cutting out the honeycomb grilles and replacing them with proper chromed wire grilles.

I know there seems to be a lot of negatives in my review, but most are very minor annoyances. In fact, many people may prefer what I perceive as annoyances. Buy this case, you won't regret it either way!

The Antec 302 mid tower case is a great case in a little package. I purchased this for a full ATX Asus board which fits with out any problems what so ever. The 302 is a revamping of the gamers favorite case , the 300. With new design features such as tooless drive bays and cable management holes in the back plane, the 302 is improved over it's brother , the 300. The 6 HHD bays are accessed from the side and the 3 x 5.25" bays on the front are easy to use and are accessed via a swing out front panel that unlatch from the side. I would have liked a 3.5" adapter for the front drive bays, but is not a deal buster. It also has two places for SSD/ 2.5" drive units on the chassis floor and back plane, but I prefer to mount them in the HHD drive slots using an aftermarket adapter for 3.5" to 2.5" drive.
The case will fit ATX, Micro ATX, and Mini-ITX motherboards and has 8 expansion slots for PCI cards. The chassis is wide enough for a 12.5" graphics card and is deep enough to fit most any air or water cooling system. It does have two grommeted holes in the top of the case for external water cooling or cables. I managed to install an Antec Kuhler 920 water cooler without any problems what so ever. The bottom of the case is vented and has a dust screen on it for a bottom mounted power supply. The dust screen removes from the side for ease of cleaning. It also has a dust screen on the front of the case that can be removed for cleaning.
While the case comes with a top mounted 140mm exhaust fan and 120mm rear exhaust fan, the case can also be fitted with 2 x 120mm fans in the front, as well as, a 120mm fan on the side to cool the graphics card and a 120mm fan on the back side behind the motherboard to cool the CPU from the back. As for the front header, there are 2 USB 3.0 connectors that plug into the motherboard and the headphone and mic jack with the power and reset button and the HHD activity led and power led.
This is a great little case and is about the size of the old Antec 900 series and is slightly larger than the 300 for added cable management and has 4 holes to route the cables through and the back plane. It is solid and well build as with most Antec procucts...I have used them for years for their value, quality and design.
Even though the price is somewhat higher than the 300, the added features are worth it. It is still a great value for the money and is worth it for the tooless drive bays and the space for cable management. The only case I would have considered over this one is the Antec 1100, but I wanted a small footprint for my case.

This thing performs as well as I thought it would. Very sturdy and LARGE for a mid tower.

One gripe though.. I has to buy a fan power extension cord to plug into my motherboard. But this might be my MOBO's issue. I do not know.

Also, the front panel mic and headphone jacks are so tight that I have never fit anything in them. A small issue, since my MOBO has jacks on the back. You might want to make sure if this before you buy this unit. I know other people have had the same issue.

A very nice case if you don't need the flashy lights. Has a mobo cutout (for easy installation of a backplate for an air cooler such as the CM Hyper 212 EVO), great cable management and great fan placement (with 2 fans included - a 140mm exhaust on top, and a 120mm intake fan on the back). It has great air flow. Everything fits great, and I am very happy with this case. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone except someone that NEED a full tower case!

I bought this case because it was one of the few inexpensive cases that had a USB 3.0 connector on the front panel. I had separately purchased a new power supply from Best Buy to put into the case, and I ended up having to return the power supply because it wouldn't work in this case. This case has the power supply located at the bottom of the case rather than the top, and one of the cords on the power supply wouldn't reach to the CPU power connector on the motherboard. I'm not sure if this was a fault of the case, the power supply, or both. But in case they didn't work together. I went out & bought a more expensive power supply with longer cables on it, and this solved the problem. I also didn't like that the case had a large fan on the top. I need to put my router, modem, USB hub and other stuff on top of my case and don't want a fan there. You also notice the noise a lot more when you have a fan on the top of the case blowing upward, so I just disabled the fan. Cooling seems good, even without the ceiling fan running. Overall, it's a pretty good case for the price. And it has the USB 3.0 front panel connector that I wanted.