Choosing between Antec 902 and 300 illusion... your pick?

How about some other options ??
LIAN LI Lancool PC-K62
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

COOLER MASTER HAF 922 BLUE
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

If you dont mind not having side-panel, then certainly the 300 Illusion is a better buy...

I have a 1200 personally but I use the 300 Illusion for all my friends and family. It is a nice balance of size, cooling and price and for people who do not overclock or only do lite overclocking it is plenty.
The 902 will have better cooling and more room. I suggest the 902 if you are going with multiple hard drives and multiple GPUs. It also allows for better cable management but the 300 Illusion is pretty good as far as that goes.

Haha, trying to get the best of the best in your budget?

I don't like the 300 because it has the PSU on the bottom but it sucks air (and dust) from inside. That's why I went CM Centurion 590 instead.

The 902 is fine but it looks like a Christmas tree but that's just me.

I say Lian-Li/Lancool for my taste. Or more funky cases:

CM HAF 922, CM Storm Scout, CM Storm Sniper.

So many people are clueless about bottom mounted power supplies. Here is the manual straight from the Antec site. Tell me how exactly does this suck more dust or air?? from inside?

"Note: Power supplies with fans on the bottom of the power
supply will need to be mounted so that the fan is facing the top
of the case."

http://www.antec.com/pdf/manuals/300_EN%20manual.pdf

I have a bottom mounted power supply, I said I have the CM 590. It takes the air from a grill on the bottom of the case like it's supposed to do (no interference with the air in the case whatsoever).

If I get a case with the PSU taking air from inside the case I would make sure it's top mounted (the dust is heavier than the air and it's sucked in the PSU if it's bottom mounted).

Also the bottom mounted PSUs that take air from the case interfere with the airflow if you have an expansion card on the PCI slots on the bottom - that's very close to the PSU fan.

Also they suck downwards the air from the front case fan - never reaches the video card, etc. The Antec 300 was good but it's outdated. I'd rather get the NZXT or Rosewill (check the current article on Tom's about budget cases).

Well you started making it sound like the illusion would be suficient for my needs... But I do plan on going SLI eventually - sounds like I might need the 902 for the extra room... This is the rest of my build BTW: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/294987-31-analyze-res...

The Illusion will work fine for your planned build.

^^ Did you check out the HAF 922 Blue and the Lian-Li??
Though the Illusion is a good one, but if willing, I would spend little more and get a better feature case...

I really like the Lancool. However, breaking combos, etc. the Lancool would end up costing me about $50 more than the Illusion build. I don't really care about the viewing window... Is there Anything else the Lancool has that might merit the extra money??

^ Easy HDD access, full black interiors, CPU cutout, better cable management...
And what PSU are you going with and which graphic card ?
If GTX 460, then this PSU would suffice for GTX 460 SLI too...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite...

I think I'm actually gonna spring for the 470 now! SLI eventually. Which means I'll need that xfx 750 after all... But that also drives up the price which makes the budget case all the more appealing. As long as the illusion will suit the build it'll work

Welllll it looks nice but would break my RAM combo w/ the illusion and end up costing me more than it might be worth

cooling - is it better? i dunno, it lacks a top fan the illusion has

space- i dont really care as long as it all fits.

^ Well then the Antec 300 Illusion it is...
The Antec 300 vanilla itself score very well when it comes to cooling, so the Illusion would definitely be better in that department...

And if you can, could you list the combos and the build you have come up with ?

here: it's in this thread

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/295147-31-vetted-offi...

let's continue there i'm now on the 470 as my card

Best answer selected by muckle.