Antec GX700 Mid Tower Chassis Review

Antec have made a great product here, for the price range it certainly packs a good amount of features that offer great value for money to the end user, but it’s not without its shortfalls. While the issues I have with it aren’t drastic, they’re also things that are quite common in this price range, most commonly introduced to keep the price fair and within a certain budget range.

The first issue, while not really an issue as such, is the style choices which Antec has taken with this chassis. Of course, looks are a subjective quality, and where one person may love it another may not, yet I feel Antec may be cornering them selves to a much smaller part of the market with the military theme of the case as many people may not want the green paintwork, heavy duty clips and industrial looking front panel. Personally I’m not that keen on it, I just don’t think it would look right sat next to my desk, but there is no doubt that it is targeted at a gaming orientated part of the market, and I’m sure there are plenty of people who will enjoy the hardcore styling of the GX700.

Next we have the fans, I have a lot of respect for Antec for including three high quality fans, but I can’t help but wonder why they haven’t installed at least one intake fan in the front of the chassis given how vital a component the intake fans can be. A quick search shows you can get some great 120mm Antec 120mm fans for under £8 each, but that would bring the total price up to nearly £80, getting awfully close to more exclusive Antec chassis designs such as the Antec 1100 (which I must add, also only includes top and rear fans).

The last few issues are that the 5.25″ drive bays feature quick release clips and most modern cases feature these only on the left side to allow for quick drive changes, with the Antec GX700 you need to remove both side panels to install / remove your drives although this would at least offer you more stability for your optical drives so its a 50/50 trade off for me. Also the top I/O panel cables conflict with the top 5.25″ drive bay, making drive installation in this bay complex. Overall these are in fact minor issues, and as I’ve already stated these are generally issues which are common among this price range so I’m not going to hold that against Antec too much, they’re mostly minor inconveniences and subjective qualities.

The big thing that stands out for me however is build quality, and its something Antec are well renowned for. The GX700 is superbly well put together, all panels are strong and durable, well fitting and there are no squeaks or rattles from any of the fittings, making this a robust chassis that would work well for those who take their system to BYOC LAN gaming events. Its paint work, detailing and styling are all well implemented too, and while you may or may not like the style, I can’t fault it for overall quality.

Cable management appeared limited yet still did a fantastic job of keeping the final build looking clean, installation was quick and easy and overall it’s a very competitive chassis for this price range. It just falls short of winning one of our eTeknix awards, but that’s more from my personal taste than its performance. If you like the looks and overall styling of this chassis and you have a budget of around £60 then I see no reason why this wouldn’t make a great starting point for your system build. It’s a big upgrade from the budget friendly (and fantastic) Antec Three Hundred Two chassis but just falls short of the stunning Antec 1100, but since its priced right in the middle of the two, that’s no bad thing.