Antec ISK 300-65 ITX Case Review

Antec have sent us the very compact ISK 300-65 ITX case for review. We take a look at this case and see if we can fit all the necessary components inside.

Product on Review: Antec ISK 300-65 ITX case
Manufacturer: Antec
MSRP: £60.94

Antec have sent us their ISK 300-65 ITX case for review. They are well known in the silent enclosure business but have tended to concentrate on standard ATX specifications from the small Micro ATX form factor all the way up to the Full ATX standard. Hopefully this product will reflect the quality they’ve displayed with their other high performance cases.

Before we take a look at this new case here’s a little about the company.

Antec, Inc. is the global leader in high-performance computer components and accessories for the gaming, PC upgrade and Do-It-Yourself markets. Founded in 1986, Antec is recognized as a pioneer in the industry and has maintained its position as a worldwide market leader and international provider of quiet, efficient and innovative products. Antec has also achieved great success in the distribution channel, meeting the demands of quality-conscious system builders, VARs and integrators.

Antec’s offering of enclosures includes a wide range of cases, such as its advanced Performance One Series, economical New Solution Series and VERIS family of media components designed for the home theater PC market. Antec’s products also include front line power supplies, such as its premium Signature Series, powerful TruePower Quattro Series and EarthWatts, one of the most environmentally friendly power supplies available. PC gamers are an increasingly significant consumer of performance components, and many Antec products are designed for the gaming demographic, like the premier gamer enclosure: the Nine Hundred. Antec also offers a line of computer accessories comprising many original products, including its patented LED fans and notebook cooling solutions.

Antec is headquartered in Fremont, California, with additional offices in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, as well as in the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, China and Taiwan. The company’s products are sold in more than 40 countries throughout the world. Please visit www.antec.com for more information.

Specification

Certification:

– ROHS compliant
– Antec Quality 3 Year Warranty

Features:

– 65-watt adapter + DC to ATX board
– External 1 x slim optical 5.25″ bay
– Internal 2 x 2.5″ HDD bays
– 1 side 80mm TriCool™ 3-speed exhaust fan
– 1 half-height expansion slot
– Convenient front ports: 2 x USB 2.0 and 1 x eSATA
– 0.8mm cold rolled steel frame for durability

Case dimensions:

– 96mm (H) X 222mm (W) X 328mm (D)
– 3.8″ (H) x 8.7″ (W) x 12.9″ (D)

Exterior

The ISK 300-65 arrived well packaged in a layer of bubble wrap surrounding a sturdy cardboard box. As i’m sure you’ll agree it’s not the most attractive design – the parcel comes with a simple line drawing of the case and some basic specification information. Of course it’s ‘only’ a box so as long as the ISK 300-65 within is well protected it’s done its job!

A simple box design.

Upon opening we see the documentation supplied with the case. This comprises an instruction sheet in a selection of languages, a wiring schematic and also a copy of the Antec Quality 3 Year Warranty certificate.

Manuals and documentation greet you on opening the box.

Additional foam packaging protects the case itself and also an extra box containing various items. These include a variety of cabling, the 65w power pack needed for the onboard PSU, cable and zip ties, a selection of screws and an upright stand too.

Cables, screws, PSU, stand and other goodies.

The case itself is an incredibly tidy unit presenting clean lines in what is a very compact form factor.

The ISK 300-65 itself.

Up front you see a tidy uncluttered space.

A tidy front panel.

By pressing the glossy plate where the Antec name is you reveal the bay cover for an optical drive.

Optical drive bay is is just a ‘press’ away!

Below the optical bay facia we find the standard Power and reset switches and also the power and HDD access lights too. Also present are the standard audio ports, a couple of USB sockets and even an eSATA.

Around the side we get our first glimpse of the ISK 300-65’s trump card. Most ITX cases have to compromise on cooling a little due to their small size but not this Antec. The designers have managed to squeeze an 80mm tri-cool fan into the ISK300-65. Indeed there’s actually space for a second fan as well meaning the cooling potential of the case should be quite impressive.

The 80mm tri-cool fan intake.

The rear of the case offers a fairly standard layout with I/O plate, power socket and a half height PCI expansion plate. The only unusual addition is the speed selection switch for the 80mm tri-cool fan.

Rear panel.

Interior

Opening the ISK 300-65 shows a tidy layout. There seems to be a decent amount of space for components with everything neatly compartmentalised.

Case looks tidy.

Removal of the optical and hdd bay and dual 80mm fan mount you can see the open space available for the ITX mainboards installation.

Plenty of space for the motherboard.

The remaining space is taken up by the onboard 65w PSU’s PCB and all the wiring required for a standard installation.

The ISK 300-65’s onboard 65w PSU.

Cabling from the front panel and PSU.

The optical and hdd bay can be simply separated through the removal of a single thumbscrew which further improves install ease.

Optical and HDD bay.

Here’s a close up of the dual 80mm fan mount. Antec supply a single three speed tri-cool fan and a blanking plate for the unused fan bay. If a second fan were added in the future the ISK 300-65 should offer very effective cooling for such a compact enclosure.

The dual 80mm fan mount.

Installation

Being an ITX build with all the components already fitted to the board the whole process was fairly short and sweet.

Motherboard in place with power and front panel connectors fitted. Even with the dual 80mm fan module in place the installation of the mainboard was very simple. The only issue i found was that the 4-pin 12v connector was only just long enough to reach the socket next to the CPU cooler. It meant that the cable had to trail across the whole board. A little inconvenient but it worked none the less.

Motherboard in place.

Next i installed the optical drive. Unfortunately i did not have a SATA drive so i made do with a standard IDE model instead… just to see how it all fitted!

Optical drive install is smooth.

At this point i tried installing it into the case to see if the bay would clear the large Akasa heatsink. It went on like a charm with space to spare. Very impressed!

It fits into the case nicely.

I then installed the HDD into the caddy that piggy backs onto the optical drive. As you can see there’s space for a second drive which would provide added capacity if it was to be used as a music or video storage and playback device.

HDD before install.

HDD in place.

This final open case image shows all components installed and ready to go. It is tight compared to a normal case but for an ITX rig it’s surprisingly tidy!

All complete and ready to go.

With the case closed and up and running it looks good.

Case completely built.

The optical drive is easy to get to and free of any obstructions.

Optical drive ejects without any issues.

For those wishing to place it upright next to a monitor or to match the orientation of their consoles i also put it on its supplied stand.

The ISK 300-65 on its vertical stand.

Testing

CPU: e2160 @ 1.8ghz
Mobo: Zotac 9300 WiFi ITX
GPU: ION @ 450mhz/1200mhz
RAM: 2gb Geil ULL PC6400 DDR2
HDD: 80gb WD 5400rpm laptop HDD
Optical drive: NEC slimline laptop DVDRW
CPU cooler: Akasa AK-956SF heatsink

I used OCCT to monitor temperatures and generate full load stress during testing.

Low fan speed results.

Medium fan speed results.

High fan speed results.

At stock speed the Antec returned nice results across the board. The fan was virtually silent at the low setting and i’d only advise medium or high fan speeds if temperatures really becomes an issue since the noise was a little more intrusive.

I did try to run overclocked settings with the CPU @ 3ghz but the system restarted under load. It seemed the power draw at this overvolted high clock was pushing beyond the 65w capability of the supplied PSU.

Conclusion

In conclusion i can only say that i’ve been very impressed with the ISK 300-65. It’s similar in size to many ITX cases i’ve used in the past but it provides the cooling performance of a much larger design.

It’s only weaknesses seem to be the 65w PSU (which may limit some system component choices) and the 4-pin 12v power connector that could probably do with being a couple of inches longer to allow for easier cable routing.

ISK 300-65.

Despite this i feel that it’s positives far outweigh these minor issues. It’s compact, cools well, looks great, is built to a very high standard and is priced very competitively indeed.

Pros

+ Compact form factor
+ Very well constructed
+ Incredibly affordable
+ Great cooling for a small case
+ PSU included

Cons

– PSU may be too underpowered for certain setups
– 12v power lead could be longer