Antec ISK 310-150 Mini-ITX Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

The Antec ISK310-150 is available from Overclockers UK for a very reasonable £64.99, which is incredible value for money given the design, the built-in PSU and the fact that the MSRP is very close to £100! Readers in the US can find the ISK310-150 at Newegg for just $74.99.

Overview

I really liked the Antec ISK-110, so much so that I decided to get one for myself for use in my spare office. The ISK 310-150 offers many of the same features of the smaller model, but also offers room for those that needs a little more from their system. Compared to the 110 model, the 310 features an optical drive bay, a lush aluminium front panel, a more powerful PSU, room for a 3.5″ drive (110 only supports 2 x 2.5″). That’s a pretty huge improvement on features and while the chassis is a little bigger, and a fair bit heavier, it’s still small enough to sit comfortably on your desktop alongside your monitor, speakers and peripherals.

The ISK 310-150 is well suited to office spaces, plus the integrated PSU and competitive price makes it an attractive solution for those who need a system, but don’t need a dedicated GPU. Of course, work computers aside, the front panel is also rather sexy, giving this chassis great appeal for use as part of a home AV setup, and there’s certainly enough hard drive mounts to build a competent HTPC-style system within it.

There’s a lot of great chassis in this price range, but you’ll struggle to beat the price once you factor in a dedicated PSU. 150w may not sound like much, but you’ll struggle to find a CPU that will max that out anytime soon and even if you do, it’s likely to be overkill for the kind of build this chassis is designed for anyway. A mid-to-high power APU or a low powered Intel CPU such as the G3258 would be fantastic in this chassis.

Pros

• Gorgeous front panel
• ODD bay
• Room for three hard drives
• Built-in three-speed fan control
• Dual front-panel USB 3.0
• Built-in 150W PSU
• Vertical or horizontal mounting
• Amazing value for money

Cons

• Limited to stock or very low-profile cooler
• Cable routing is tricky
• Cables may limit expansion card size

Thank you Antec for providing us with this sample.