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PROfessional Reviews
Antec Minuet 300 MicroATX case

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Absolute-Zero
Dan Wright

Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 12:06 pm

PROfessional Member

Joined: 26 Jun 2004
Posts: 7632
Location: E13 9AZ

Antec Minuet 300 MicroATX case

Antec's Minuet cases, from the Lifestyle series of enclosures, are designed for the small desktop and media center PC markets. Designed to incorporate everything a modern PC needs into the smallest possible form factor, the Minuet stands less than 4 inches tall and weighs almost 13 pounds. A single side-mounted fan with internal 3-speed controller allows the user to balance cooling performance with noise levels.

From Antec's website:

Slim. Sleek. Stylish. And sized to fit your life.
Our elegant mini-desktop case has been upgraded to support the latest Intel and AMD CPUs, with improved cooling to protect your components. Minuet 300's slender footprint and mounting bracket allow it to fit vertically or horizontally into the tightest spaces. Designed to accommodate the wide range of full-performance micro ATX components available today, Minuet 300 delivers the perfect blend of performance and convenience.

Exterior Inspection

The cardboard box the case comes in was a high gloss cardboard, foreshadowing what lies beneath. The "piano black" finish of the case is very well done. With a highly reflective finish on an all steel chassis, the case itself is marvellously constructed. The reflective finish was not marred by normally handling, although prolonged touching with greasy substances would require periodic polishing. It should be noted that if this case is used as a Media center PC and stuffed into an entertainment center or other component rack, it will hide the black finish: this case's best feature. The front panel of the case is bordered with chromed plastic. Unlike the reflective black finish of the sides of the case, fingerprints will show rather easily on this. Oddly, Antec has also decided to make the power button of the same chromed plastic as the trim. There is no reset on the case, nor is there a switch on the power supply. Hard kills will be limited to 4-second power off or unplugging the PC.

As visible in the picture the 3.5” external bay cover was not mounted flush.

On original inspection it was attributed to rattling during shipping. Later it was determined that the slightest bump causes it to become unpinned. Also interesting to note is that it is a plain grey color and really stands out on the case. The front panel itself is unusual. The plastic panel seems to be an egg white/grey powder finish. Do not rub the front panel at all as even gentle rubbing removes the powdery finish and leaves a white mark in the colouring. It's not obvious from a distance, but upon inspection it becomes apparent.
Adequate venting can be seen throughout the case with a stamped grill above the CPU and chipset areas, as well as a long slotted pattern above the PCI area. Whether this last feature helps cool expansion devices is unknown. The side (or top when mounted in vertical position) contains a slightly raised fan grille with recessed mount points for the Antec 3 speed fan. The rear panel reveals a very open mesh above the I/O shield. It has some unusual looking tabs as if it is meant to mount something. Next to that is another mesh area with two holes for mounting another small fan (not included).

Interior Inspection

Opening the case via the only removable panel on the case (top or side depending on configuration) is done via a single thumbscrew. The drive cage slides out very easily and is very sturdy. Installing your IDE devices and/or floppy disk drive is a little more challenging, however. Optical and floppy drives must be installed first. They mount from the bottom and not the side as is normally the case. After they are installed, the hard disk can be installed with only 2 screws. Small pins support one side of the hard drive. Reading the instruction manual is recommended, as installation of drives was not immediately obvious.
The case has built in risers (often called punch-ups) for mounting the motherboard. All screws are included with the case, including 2 long screws to mount a 40mm fan in the back of the case (not included). There is also a reduced size power supply with 20+4 pin main power connector. While this dual rail 300W power supply will not provide power for over clocked clawhammer systems and SLI configuration, it is adequate for the type of mini desktop system this case was designed for. This case is so quiet, you'll have to double check that it's running.

The fan is a standard black 80mm fan that is mounted in the right side. The honeycombed style punch-out grille allows more airflow then the standard punch-out grilles found in most cases, but blends better with the case than a chrome fan grille would. The speed of the fan is controlled via a 3-position switch on a dongle. Although the case ships with the fan on the default medium setting which offers a decent amount of cooling while remaining near silent, the switch being internal makes changing the setting a chore, requiring moving the case, opening, changing the setting, and resealing the case. The location of the fan also was not thought out properly. Half of its airflow in the case is blocked by the wires coming out of the PSU but by adding a wire-tie to bundle the cables tightly together and positioning them properly one can alleviate this problem.

The four low profile expansion slots are sturdy and secured by screws. While builders will not have access to the entire gamut of expansion cards available due to size constraints, there are enough low profile cards out there that finding a fitting device should not be a major problem.

Installation

Installing a MicroATX system is no different than installing into a standard ATX tower, but there is less room to work with. Motherboard mounting is straightforward. The included MicroATX I/O shield fit the review systems motherboard, so changing it was not necessary. This might not be the case for newer motherboards. Peripherals on the other hand were a different story.

Floppy disk drive and your optical drives must be installed first. They are secured into the drive cage with 2 screws (each) into the bottom of the drives. After they are installed, you can mount the hard disk drive. Placement of the hard drive depends on your system layout.

WARNING: IF you mount the hard disk drive as shown in the picture you must use the power line that is the longer. Using the shorter single connector power line will bend the black plastic framework on your hard drive. NOT recommended. Using the longer of the two lines will prevent you from getting power to the floppy disk drive. However, mounting the hard drive in the other direction is not an option either as the wires protruding from the PSU already block the fan. The first attempt also led to one wire being forced into the preventing it from spinning. Be very careful when installing the hard drive.

Installing the floppy drive requires removing the entire front panel to remove the plate in it. The optical drive plate was simple to remove. Alternatively, (and recommended if you are only installing one hard disk drive) the hard drive is mountable in the external 3.5" bay that is reserved for the floppy disk drive. Doing this will open up the area under the drive cage to hide wires and improve circulation in the system. Using smaller optical drives will also help assist in hiding wires, as even the 1/2" to 3/4" length difference between small and large optical drives are huge in a micro ATX case.

Conclusion

Antec's Product Brochure announces this product as "the ideal choice for media center systems." Although the beauty of the black enamel is not in doubt and the sheer silence of the system components is undisputed, this case is not a display piece. The front panel is lacking in almost every way. There is the easily damaged plastic finish that you will not find an optical drive to match. The complete absence of stealthed or enclosed devices is a major negative. If one leaves the case free standing, you can only position it one end up. The exposed firewire, USB and audio jacks will now be located 2 inches from the carpet. Adding a cover to these ports would be the absolute minimum recommended. The other alternative is to tuck the case into a cabinet of some type. This is a waste of the two best features of the case: the perfect mirrored piano black finish on four sides of the case, and the near silent operation.

As a desktop PC one encounters similar drawbacks in presentation. As a "tower system" it will be hidden away and the open ports will be located too close to the floor. As a desktop unit the case is sturdy enough to support a 19"CRT monitor. (Use a doily though; you would not want to mar that finish). Unfortunately the depth of the case is too long to use as a desktop PC. A wider case would be better than deeper. Also as a desktop PC you are still going to be faced with mismatched optical and/or floppy drives to the front panel color. One would think Antec would have realized this was an issue when the external drive bay covers, do not even match the front panel.

In both scenarios the internals are another drawback. A unique style power supply unit allowed them to make the case smaller, but you will have to wait until Antec puts more powerful ones on the market if you want to upgrade the standard one. The poor drive cage design is another serious flaw. Over/under 3.5" bays would allow the installer to mount two hard disk drives easily, while saving open space underneath for wire management or passive airflow cooling.

Although there are some issues with this enclosure, the benefits of using it are great in a properly designed system. If a system designer takes the time to choose his items carefully, an almost completely silent system could be built with this case. Serial ATA hard drives with NCQ are highly recommended, both for their near silent operation and then thinner cabling which allows for more flexibility and airflow. Finding a very quiet heat sink and fan to fit in the case and stand less then 3 ¼” tall might prove difficult, however. Installing a quiet DVD-ROM drive would also be essential.
With just a few changes this case could easily have scored a 9 of 10. The cheapest possible way to fix this would be to move the fan to the opposite side of the case and the internal 3.5” drive bay directly under the external. This would also allow Antec to build the power supplies slightly longer if they need more space to install a 400 or 450-Watt power supply. Lastly, rather than replacing the front panel, it would be nice if they could just add a flip down cover that is of the same highly reflective piano black finish as the rest of the case. Even better would be to make the front panel out metal and give it the same finish. Until then..

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