Our lovely audience have kindly let us know that Antec have released a new case with a wooden front panel. The recent trend of wooden cases keeps spreading, but we’re kinda here for it! Upon first glance the mesh waves on the front panel looks pretty aggressive, if it had alternating colours it would look like it belonged to a sports team. We’re going to have to think long and hard about how to build this to make the most of the wooden aspects of the case. We love a challenge, so let's get to it I suppose!
Case Overview
The main selling point of the Flux is the wooden framing on the front. We’re pleased to say it’s made from 4 well finished pieces of walnut, with the Antec logo adorning one side. On the side we have a tempered glass panel above a smaller mesh section. The other side is solid apart from a strip of mesh to allow airflow into the power supply, There is also a mesh top, under which we have support for radiators up to 360mm. We were a little confused when removing the top panel to find the usual clips replaced with raised screws to pop into the chassis. It’s an unusual thing to see, perhaps it’s down to cost saving?
Inside we found 3 x 120mm fans on the front, 1 x 120mm reverse blade fan on the bottom and 1 x 140mm fan on the rear. It’s nice to see fans included, but the 3 on the front of the case didn’t really look like they ‘fit’, the space around them was quite large. Of course the space is there to accommodate 3 x 140mm instead if needed. It was also odd to see the 120mm reverse blade fan in a grey/silver colour, opposed to the black of the others. The airflow configuration options are solid, we’re looking to put in some different fans to see how far we can push the case.
As it’s a mid-tower ATX case hardware support is good and includes:
Motherboards up to EATX.
Graphics cards up to 408mm.
Radiators up to 420mm on the side and 360mm on the top.
Air coolers up to 180mm
ATX power supplies up to 235mm
Parts List
As the case suffers a bit of a stylistic juxtaposition, with classy wooden accents but with an aggressive looking mesh we had to decide which to lean into. The answer seems obvious, we’re all about simple, effective aesthetics so we’re going classy. There are many good options to go with, but our favourite, mature aesthetic belongs to ProArt. As luck would have it the new X870-E Creator WiFi and LC360 have just launched. We didn’t need an excuse to build with them, but yet one landed in our laps! We’ll be adding in the ProArt RTC 4080 Super for good measure.
What Was It Like To Build In?
The Antec Flux is a standard ATX format as far as building goes. The sides front and top pop off in the usual ways. We decided to strip the case of its preinstalled fans, we’ve nothing against them, but we wanted to fill up the front of the cas as much as we could. We opted for 3 x 140mm Noctua NF-A14 Chromax.Black to do the job. We added some brown corners to compliment the walnut on the front. To make things match we used another NF-A14 on the rear.
When unboxing the AIO we found that ProArt have moved away from including Noctua fans and have instead opted for fans from Alpha Cool. At first we were a little disappointed, Noctua are known for their performance, but once we had the Alpha Cool units in hand things changed. They’re metal bodied with plastic fans. Density helps to balance out noise, so these seem promising!
Everything fits into the case as it should. When it came to cable management it was very easy. There is the expected vertical cable channel, with preinstalled velcro straps and plenty of anchor points to be used. The cable management took about 10 minutes. Though be aware if you’re planning to keep your cables in the bottom of the case they will show through the mesh sides!
Airflow
Other outlets have already questioned the ability of the Antec Flux when it comes to airflow. It seems the rest of the industry have tested the case and all outcomes have been favourable. So surely our airflow visualisation, aided by the upgraded fans would find similar results? Yeah, of course, all was as expected! Intake was unproblematic, it fed everything to the right places and was quickly and fully exhausted. One minor nitpick though, the fan on the bottom of the front did tend to push smoke straight out of the mesh on the bottom of the case.
Performance
We’ve decided this week to take our test bench up a notch. We’ve been typically testing with an ultra wide 2K display, which has served us well, but let’s push further. The monitor often used in the desk setup is a TUF Gaming 4K/144hhz display, it felt right to utilise it - we’ve got a RTX 4080 Super and an Ryzen 7 7800X 3D in this thing, so it’s called for right? It turns out, yes, it was definitely called for! The rig flew through the testing at 4K, results below:
Ambient temp 20.2°C
Spider-Man Remastered
3840x2160
Very High
138-140 fps
61°C CPU
55°C GPU
Forza Horizon 5
3840x2160
Extreme
111-138 fps
58°C CPU
65°C GPU
CPU-Z
Max Temp 66°C
Fan Speed ~1200 rpm
CPUPower Draw 80w
Furmark2
3840x2160
Avg fps 133
Max temp 67°C
Hotspot 79°C
Roundup
As it happens, our lovely audience were right, the Antec Flux was certainly worth a look. It’s a beautiful case, at a reasonable price. You can see cost cutting in places, like the screw heads in place of purpose made clips on the top panel, but that’s not a huge issue long term. I was impressed with the hardware support and space for cable management. The build really came together when we added in the ProArt hardware. It’s built for creative professionals, but yet it allowed us to build a mature, yet beautiful system with very minimal lighting! The AIO tubing on the ProArt LC 360 was unusual, it almost spiralled into position, we’re a fan of this look! Overall we’re very very happy with how it turns out, and we’d be happy to recommend both the case and the build, it’s simple and straightforward!
Check out the full video below:
Blog post written by Sam Thwaytes
Affiliate Links
If you are interested in any of the products used and wish to support the channel feel free to use the affiliate links below. We get a small kickback if you buy the product without it costing you anything!
US Links
Case (Flux Pro): https://amzn.to/3UADnEo
MOBO: https://amzn.to/4fcqKaQ
Cooler: https://amzn.to/4ekQKzv
Storage: https://amzn.to/4fxH8m4
Vertical GPU Mount: https://amzn.to/4faqpFO
Keyboard: https://amzn.to/3AuNxzF
Mouse: https://amzn.to/4fbfVpJ
Monitor: https://amzn.to/4e7IIu7
UK Links
Case: https://amzn.to/4fneXGy
MOBO: https://amzn.to/4huJsw7
Cooler: Coming Soon!
Storage: https://amzn.to/3As1PB0
Vertical GPU Mount: https://amzn.to/4fzLdq5
Keyboard: https://amzn.to/48xHdDY
Mouse: https://amzn.to/3YAuGLG
Monitor: https://amzn.to/4778eh2
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