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Placing the Antec 300 Illusion horizontally

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I'm building a new Gaming Rig but since I'm at a little loss of space within my home and also because I dont plan to use a separate display for the gaming rig, I need to place this baby close to my HDTV.

The case I'm gonna use is: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... - Antec Three Hundred Illusion Mid Tower ATX

Yes I'll be placing this near my TiVo :D 

I have a TV stand with compartments huge enough to place this Antec 300 case when placed horizontally and I'd be having sufficient space on the two sides - at least 2 inches for enough air flow. The rear of my TV stand is fully open as well just as the front.

So these are the concerns I have:
1. Will this cause an issue with heating especially pulling out the rising hot air ?
2. I plan to use the WD Caviar Black 1.5TB hard drives and the WD Green 1TB hard drive - and all of these would eventually get placed vertically - I hope this is not an issue - is it ?

The other components in my system would be:
core i7-2600
12 GB RAM
ASUS ENGTX460 1GB Gfx card

I would be using this system roughly 4 to 6 hrs each day for gaming, running few VMs, watching movies directly from this connected to my TV and may be a little bit of CPU intensive code compilation jobs.

Thanks. :) 

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Gaming Expert

There should be no issues with laying the case on its side

But maybe a case like a silverstone Grandia 04 or Grandia 05 is a better option , esp if you are only using one graphics card and dont mind an m-ATX motherboard

I saw the silverstone ones but they wont fit my 3 + 1 hard drives :(  Not only that - I doubt it would fit my ASUS ENGTX460 either....

I was initially planning to go with a nmediapc 5000B. I bought my ENGTX460 when there was an offer at newegg recently for $120, but later realized that there are heat pipes coming out the top protruding half an inch or so from the top of the card - which rules out all the regular HTPC cases which do not usually have room above the expansion card slots :( 

BTW - would you think it would be a good idea to get few rubberized discs or something that I could stick on the bottom side when placed horizontally to avoid vibrations as well as any scratches ? If so anything that you could recommend ?
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Gaming Expert

Yes I think you are right the Grandia only has space for 2 hard drives . It does take 11 inch long gfx cards though so yours will definitely fit

There is an old trick for adding more hard drives . Adhesive velcro . One side on the back of the drive and the other on the case . Two strips about 3 inches long hold a hard drive anywhere and absorb vibrations too

For the Antec 300
Probably a sheet of some soft foam rubber under the case ?
Only a guess ,but I think the more surface area the better and if it was a quarter of an inch thick and a fraction smaller than the case you'd never see it .

Best solution

I have a 300 illusion and I need to warn you -- the blue LEDs do not turn off. This could become distracting while watching TV. It really needs to be behind a cabinet door or something.

Other than that the case is great--good quality for the money and is strong enough to hold up a monitor/TV. The case has tons of airflow and the fans are pretty quiet on low settings.

If I were you I would spend a little more time checking out horizontal cases though -- there are definitely ones large enough to hold everything and this would make your DVD drive and etc work better.

EDIT: and no you should not have problems with hot air. The case has plenty of room for all the hard drives too with no issue, including a 2.5in mount on the bottom of the case.

@deadlockedworld - yeah I was thinking about those as well - in the worst I think I'll just cut the wires which go to the LED may be after a month or so :D 

Other option I was considering was to get the Antec 300 (the standard one without the 2 front fans) and get 2 x 120mm non-LED fans and install it myself - the price would almost come the same in both the cases....

I like your last suggestion about getting your own fans. While the three-speed Antec fans are good quality, the switch controllers for them are only about 3' long and don't really reach outside the case. If you bought your own fans you could get them with some type of fan controller to adjust all at once from outside the case.

p.s. the dust filter on the front of the 300 is really nice--I vacuum mine from the outside every month or so.

Hmm kinda tough choice to make between the two - I might mostly go with 300 illusion unless they have the Antec 300 at an extremely low price or something when I purchase it next week :) 

you can easily disable the LED fans by snipping one of the two wires that connects to each LED. its quite simple and effective. black electrical tape over the LEDs will do pretty much the same thing, and doesnt require solder if you change your mind.
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