Whether it be for home theater, LAN parties, or simple space economics, a small PC case can fit your needs. Even though components are hotter than ever, today’s small form factor PC cases provide enough features to keep your components cool.
Antec’s Lifestyle series of cases aims to efficiently cool your computer components while being blissfully quiet and look good. Antec feels confident that these cases are quiet enough for the living room, bedroom, or any place where you should hear anything but the computer. The Minuet 300 has the smallest footprint in the Lifestyle series, and can fit into the tightest spaces. It is designed to accommodate a wide range of full-performance micro ATX components.
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External views
The case comes with a few extra parts, such as screws, rubber feet, a power cord, and manual. The rubber feet should be inserted before doing anything else, as it protects the underside from scratches and does a good job of holding the unit in place.
Vents have been punched in the top of the case, to allow heat to naturally escape through convection.
The main body of the Antec Minuet has a glossy, piano black finish. The front panel plastic, and is adorned with chrome accents and also features front audio jacks, two USB ports and one FireWire port. There is no flip panel or retractable cover, and thus the ports are directly exposed.
A single plastic power button and two LEDs are fitted on the right side of the front panel. The LEDs are intended to indicate system power and hard drive activity, and are green and red, respectively. There is no reset button on the case, but more and more manufacturers are omitting this feature from their cases.
Most of the weight is distributed to the right side of the case (where the power supply is). Because of this, if you intend on standing the Minuet upright, the power button should be at the bottom, and DVD drive should be positioned on top… just make sure your DVD drive catches the disks when mounted vertically.
Like most cases today, the frame and body are made of CE steel.
The interior of the case is accessed from a top panel that is secured in place with a single screw. Once removed, the top cover slides back with a tug and can be lifted up to reveal the Minuet’s interior.
The interior of the case features rubber grommets to absorb hard drive vibration, which makes for a quieter system.
The drive cage flips up to allow for easy installation and maintenance. Instead of screws, the cage is fastened by the side panel via two rubber spacers. A rubber stopper also sits under the bottom of the drive cage to cushion it and reduce vibration. The cage flips up by simply pulling on the back end of the cage, and can be completely removed by pulling the cage away from the front. One 5.25” drive and one 3.5” drive can be accessed from the front panel, but the cage allows for two additional hard drives.
The Minuet comes with Antec’s SmartPower 220 power supply, which is a proprietary size. A thin 40mm fan draws air from inside the case and blows it out the back of the power supply. The PSU is rated for 220 watts, which should be enough for a DVD drive, hard drive, and moderate processor.
While it technically is 220 watts, only 12 amps are available on the 12V line (which is what most components use). 20 amps are available on the +5v line, and 17 amps are available on the 3.3v line. There really is no reason to supply this many amps on the 3.3v line – only motherboards use this rail. So, it appears that 56 watts are wasted on the 3.3v line, 100 watts are available on the 5.5V line, and 144 watts are reserved for the 12V line.
Power supplies run most efficiently when kept under 70% load, so I wouldn’t recommend the latest power-hungry processor or video card (today’s CPUs average around 50-70 watts under full load, as do the latest video cards). The heat produced from next-gen hardware might be too much for this little case, anyway.
The case is so small that only a micro ATX or ITX motherboard will fit inside. A VIA EPIA motherboard would be perfect, as they are very quiet, do not require large heatsinks and produce very little heat, but may not be powerful enough for desktop or home theater applications.
Space is tight, but a micro ATX motherboard fits snugly. It is recommended to install drives with the drive cage removed, as space is very cramped with the system completely assembled. Serial-ATA (SATA) drives should be considered to maximize airflow. If you have to use traditional ATA (i.e. for the DVD drive), use rounded cables with no slave plug (there is no room in the case to even use a slave device, and the extra plug just cramps space even further).
If you have no need for a floppy, it is easier to install a hard drive in the top 3.5” drive bay. Not only is it easier, but you increase thermal efficiency by providing the hard drive (a significant heat source) with more air flow. If you install a hard drive underneath the DVD drive, the two drives will be touching each other, directly building up heat with little dissipation effect.
The case’s front hookup cables are of decent quality, and bend easily for snaking the cables to their destination connection (or tucked away if not needed). They are over a foot long, which mean they can easily reach the back of the case if necessary (which is where most motherboard’s audio leads are from my experience).
The Antec Minuet 300 Slimline case is a good fit for a moderate desktop system, or light-weight home theater. The power supply is the main limiting factor of how powerful the system’s innards can be, but is adequate for moderate use. The piano black finish is stunning, but is offset by the cheap faux chrome frontThe price is adequate for a case of this quality, and will definitely let you reclaim some desktop space.
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