Antec GX700 Case Review: Just What You Can Get For $59.99

Conclusion: May Be Worth the Sacrifices

One sentence needs to really be repeated over and over again (just as it has been in the preceding review): the Antec GX700 is $59.99. Without that, it's tough to put this case into perspective.

The core of the GX700 is pretty much all good news. This is a case that offers excellent thermal performance with middling acoustics, or excellent acoustics with middling thermal performance, and the integrated fan control leaves that up to you. If you're willing to run the fans whole hog it's difficult to find cases that run too much cooler than the GX700 does. On top of the thermals and noise, end users get to enjoy a largely toolless assembly and competitive I/O functionality. At $59.99, that's a pretty easy sell.

Where I think Antec gets hung up, and why I'm not rushing out to give it an Editor's Choice award, is because the construction is in some places just too chintzy. The design, despite how excellent a lot of it is, also needs some work. We simply don't need four 5.25" bays anymore, and the fact that the top one is basically blocked by the internal cables for the I/O cluster means the front of the case gets broken up needlessly. I think they could've just covered up that bay and called it a day, personally. Maybe put the I/O there or alternatively, put the Antec badge there. Something. There's also the confusingly short HD audio cable, the lack of expansion bay slot covers, and the aesthetic is bound to put off at least a few users.

I think Antec did an interesting job of cutting corners to hit their price point, but I feel like they may have invested in the wrong places in some instances. The fan controller is an unqualified win at $59.99, but the metal drive bay shields feel excessive and unnecessary.

A lot of this is pretty subjective, though. At $59.99, you may not care too much about how the case looks or how well it's built, and you're probably going to be willing to overlook some of the GX700's shortcomings. I probably would too. It's very difficult to find a better deal in this price range, so users interested and only interested in pure performance or being able to balance acoustics and performance on their own terms, users who just want bang for the buck, they're the ones that need to be carefully eyeballing the GX700. If you know what you're getting into and you need something good and cheap, Antec's GX700 is the way to go.