Antec GX700 Case Review: Just What You Can Get For $59.99
by Dustin Sklavos on January 17, 2013 10:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Antec
- ATX
Introducing the Antec GX700
Most manufacturers are quicker and happier to show us their medium-to-high end cases, but for a lot of users the case is admittedly a steel box they put their computer into. While I personally advocate spending up a bit and getting a quality case, the enthusiast looking to maximize the distance their dollar can go may not be willing to shell out for something big and fancy. For those users, there are cases like the Antec GX700.
When I saw it on display at CES, I was surprised at the incredibly low $59.99 price tag. Now that I've had it in house for testing and review, I see more of how they got there. This isn't necessarily a good or bad thing, but simply a fact of life when you're buying budget. Still, a case at this price point featuring a pair of 140mm fans, a single 120mm fan, a fan controller, and support for increasingly common 240mm radiators? There has to be a catch, right? As it turns out there are a couple of small ones, but not the ones you'd think.
.jpg)
That's what a review and in depth analysis is for, but the Antec GX700 is interesting if for no other reason than to just see the approach Antec took towards serving this market segment. The GX700 was one of the cases that impressed me at CES this year because of the integrated fan controller, and that's something I think we're going to see more and more of at these low price points in the future. That's a good thing, too, because it simply and cheaply allows end users to decide if they want to skew more towards acoustics or performance instead of having to find some nebulous halfway point to satisfy both.
| Antec GX700 Specifications | ||
| Motherboard Form Factor | Mini-ITX, Micro-ATX, ATX | |
| Drive Bays | External | 3x 5.25" |
| Internal | 5x 2.5"/3.5" | |
| Cooling | Front | 2x 120mm fan mount |
| Rear | 1x 120mm exhaust fan | |
| Top | 2x 140mm exhaust fan (supports 2x120mm) | |
| Side | 1x 120mm fan mount | |
| Bottom | - | |
| Expansion Slots | 7 | |
| I/O Port | 2x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0, 1x Headphone, 1x Mic | |
| Power Supply Size | ATX | |
| Clearances | HSF | 160mm |
| PSU | 200mm | |
| GPU | 290mm | |
| Dimensions |
19.7" x 7.9" x 17.7" 500mm x 200mm x 450mm |
|
| Weight | 13.8 lbs. (6.26 kg) | |
| Special Features |
USB 3.0 via internal header Two-speed, four channel fan controller Support for 240mm radiators |
|
| Price | $59 | |
As you can see, the GX700 has a pretty healthy amount of cooling capacity. Antec continues to lean on negative air pressure cooling designs, but to be fair, that hasn't really set them back. Positive pressure is generally better in terms of keeping dust out of the enclosure, but the Eleven Hundred's stellar performance proves negative pressure can work just as well.
What's mostly impressive is just eyeballing the spec sheet and then seeing the price. The GX700 isn't readily available yet, but if Antec really does hit $59, the other vendors may wind up having to at least take notice.
35 Comments
View All Comments
chrome_slinky - Thursday, January 24, 2013 - link
I really do wish that people [especially reviewers] would quit assuming that they know what it is the public wants -To wit - " We don't need four 5.25" bays anymore anyhow (we really only need two at most these days)."
This is not true for many, and especially the "high performance" crowd to which this is supposedly addressed.
I love the build quality of the older Antec cases, and what has kept me from buying again, but instead buying Cooler Master, is exactly that there are not more open bays in the case.
I still use a floppy on occasion, have 250MB internal Zip drives, and do my copying of optical stuff directly from one drive to another - that accounts for four, and does not make much room for a fan controller or a display of some sort.
I fully realize I am not the norm, but, after taking a quick survey of about 20 friends, I am not in a SMALL minority either. Most people I speak to [and come in contact with daily, as part of my job - selling, repairing, and maintaining computers] think that 6, my favorite, is excessive, also think that 3 is too few. Reply
D1RTYD1Z619 - Sunday, January 27, 2013 - link
And I bet you could find an 1100 at about this price on sale, after rebate or both. Now if only they made a decent mitx case that takes a standard psu and a gtx 680 sized card. ReplyBelard - Tuesday, January 29, 2013 - link
I've seen better.... worked with better. This thing is ugly and cheap. Replyfluffyhead - Monday, February 25, 2013 - link
You have a problem with the top slot: "and the fact that the top one is basically blocked by the internal cables for the I/O cluster means the front of the case gets broken up needlessly"Why not mount the optical drive in the bottom slot? Esthetic issue solved. The other thought here is that there are many 5.25 kits for SD cards and such that would actually fit in that slot because they do not have a full case to interfere. That's what I'm going to do. This isn't the prettiest case, but it is incredible value for the dollar. Reply
Mike89 - Thursday, March 14, 2013 - link
I wish you would have shown and talked about using this case with a 240mm radiator hooked up at the top. Would have been really good info for someone who is looking for a case that would accommodate a 240 mm radiator like Corsair's. Reply