Antec Minuet 350 review

Gallery

Verdict:

Review Date: 24 Feb 2009

Price when reviewed: £69

Buy it now for: £83
(see more store prices)

Supplier: http://www.kikatek.com

Reviewed By: Alan Lu & Kat Orphanides

Our Rating 4 stars out of 5

Review
Specs

Antec's Minuet 350 is a sleek and attractive micro-ATX case that will look good in an office or living room.

It's compact, measuring just 100x325x430mm when laid flat, and comes with a stand so you can prop it on its side to save space. We found no sharp, unfinished edges anywhere in the case.

Unlike most cases, the Minuet 350 comes without any brass standoffs for raising the motherboard off the back panel. While the manual instructs you to use standoffs, the case has several raised metal domes to which you can screw your microATX board directly. This makes positioning the board remarkably simple.

The drive cages can be hinged upwards or lifted out, making it easy to install a motherboard. As the case is small, you have to install low-profile expansion cards. It has one internal and one external 3?in bay and a 5?in external bay for an optical drive, as well as two USB and one eSATA port.

The Minuet 350 is one of just two cases here to come with a built-in power supply. The Antec 350W supply should be enough for most mini-PC configurations. It has three Molex and two SATA connectors but no PCI-E connector, so you can only use mid-range graphics cards. That said, there's no room inside for a powerful graphics card.

Considering it comes with a power supply, the Minuet 350 is excellent value whether you want to build a small office PC or a media centre for the living room.

Prev Next

Get more reviews, tutorials and in-depth advice, every month with Computer Shopper.
Click here to try 3 issues for £1