Assembly

Installing the motherboard within the Antec GX500 bears no surprises. There is a good amount of space around the CPU cooler, so you should be able to reach all the connectors. The cable routing holes are in good locations since the full-width ATX board does not cover any up.


Installing a 3.5" drive within the GX500 does not require any screws, but you have to prepare the rails first. Antec included a few foam rings you have to apply yourself, which takes a bit of fiddling, and while the end result may be as intended, I can't see these work well as an anti-vibration measure. Once filled, simply place the drive into the appropriate location. The right rail is, interestingly enough, shorter than the one on the left.


Upon sliding the drive into place, it became obvious why. The hard-drive cage is close enough to the front to make any rail extending past the HDD inaccessible, which also means that the unit is only held in place by the left rail. You can luckily sink a single screw into either side of the HDD cage. Those who will never move the chassis can rest easy, but consider sinking two screws into the drive if you happen to move your chassis around.


Placing a 2.5" drive or SSD within the GX500 is quite easy, but I suggest you do so before installing any graphics cards, especially if you intend to install a dual-GPU configuration. Little screws will hold a drive in place on one side, and there are metal pins on the mounting possibility toward the front of the chassis, which is, all in all, quite sufficient in securing your drive.


Installing an optical drive requires no tools as you only have to remove the cover from within to slide the drive into place; secure it by lining it up with the white thumbscrews and twisting them into the drive. Since this is essentially like using traditional screws, the drive will now hold in place just as well.


I have been using this optical drive - it is a Blu-Ray & HD-DVD combo - with all of my case reviews over the past 4 years and have not run into many issues, but it nearly did not fit into the GX500 as the rear of the drive looms over the installed motherboard's edge. Those using longer drives may, as such, run into installed on-board components.


Installing the PSU is quite easy - just put it into place and use the included screws and a traditional screwdriver. There is plenty of space for even larger units.


With everything installed, you can still see a bit of the cable mess. This is simply due to the fact that I had to move a few cables to the hard-drive area to fit the side panel back onto the case after I finished installing everything. In hindsight, I could have used a zip tie to bunch the PSU cables right at the base up better, which would have helped a bit. You could also place the 3.5" hard drive into the bay at the very bottom to hide some cables underneath instead of behind it.

Finished Looks

With the panels back on the GX500 and the system turned on, the backlit strip in the front lights up in quite a bright blue. The basic fan controllers do work well, but I wonder how much power they can deliver before they are overpowered. Antec unfortunately does not mention anything on the matter anywhere.


My black ODD fits into the GX500 well, and peeking into the chassis shows that the PSU is situated right underneath the side panel's air vent, which should not be an issue as the vent actually cools the expansion slots and the lower half of the motherboard perfectly.