Antec Performance I P180 Mid Tower

I just wish I knew what that box on the motherboard side was, I still don't have a clue.
 
Was this review helpful?    

This is an exceptionally quiet, heavy duty case with lots of sound deadening features and quality construction. Almost downgraded it on usage of use because it takes a little extra time to do the initial installation of components and route the wires, but once that is done, it is marvelously easy swap or add components. And ref. the previous reviews about the wiring, I routed the motherboard power and wires for the upper peripherals via the back side of the motherboard mounting panel. Antec provides for this with openings and fixed wire ties. This really cleaned up the wiring. And in my opinion, the PSU tunnel is a brilliant idea! My 550 watt PSU is running quiet and cool. This computer is so quiet in fact that I have to look twice somtimes to see it this thing is still on. It is going to be a media PC in the living room, so the quietness and clean look are a big plus.
 
Was this review helpful?    

works well, very well planned out.
 
Was this review helpful?    

When Antec says this case was design to provide great air flow they weren't kidding. <p> An interesting design aspect is that Antec moved the PSU to the bottom of the case and put in a wall to separate the bottom compartment from the rest of the case. This is interesting, you might thing "heat rises so what's the point", but Antec thought of that by compartmentalizing and also included a fan in the bottom compartment that pulls air from the front of the case to the PSU and out the back of the case. Well thought out. This bottom compartment is also home to a verticle HDD mounting chasis with room for four HDD. The top compartment is home to your floppy, 4 5" drive bays, and another 2 HDD's. <p> Three fans are included in this beautiful case. One at the top, one at the back, and one in the middle of the bottom compartment. You have the option to install two more fans (not included). If you intall the optional fans then the 2 HDD bay in the upper compartment becomes unusable since one fan mounts in front of the bay at the front of the case and the other fan mounts onto the back of the bay to create a sort of wind tunnel effect. <p> Antec likes to use rails and screws which are pretty solid and silcon spacers are included for the verticle HDD bay to eliminate vibrations. <p> The biggest issue this case has is wiring... With the PSU at the bottom, the wires need to be a bit longer to reach everywhere or you'll need extensions. There's a small opening to route from the PSU to the upper compartment, but overall it gets pretty messy. Once you're done you're not gonna want to mess with it again. Antec does include ties to try and help with wire management, but its up to you to figure out how to place these. <p> Overall, sleek design, exceptionally quiet, great airflow, but wiring is a pain. I swapped the top fan the front optional fan with blue LED 120mm fans. Looks awesome.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Antec Quality you can expect First off, the design of this case is, for the most part, pretty brilliant. They use the same rail system all previous Antec cases use (except instead of 4 screw holes per rail, this one has 2 screws per rail) and as most Antec cases owners will tell you, they love the rail system. Other nice points are a sound dampening case design, not basic metal that is loud and noisy. Be sure to order a Phantom 500 power supply to keep it quiet. The case will house 6 hard drives with ease; 4 in the bottom and 2 in middle compartment. The bottom hard drive case uses rubber grommets to keep the vibration of your hard drives to a minimum; very nice touch. To sum it up. Good: 1) Very quiet 2) Lot of room fo many components. Four 5.25 bays to knock out. 3) Tricool fans with 3 speed settings. 4) Excellent case design allows for great cooling. Two 120mm fans up top allowing excellent air flow around your processor. 5) Antec provides air filters that you can easily remove and clean. Nice little extra. 6) rubber dampening seals through case (power supply cage, hard drive cage, etc.) Bad: Power supply is very cramped not leaving much room to run cabling. This is my opinion is a huge flaw! Cabling shouldn't be stressed this hard to make tight turns. When cabling is routed, it's extremely crowded over where you perform most of your work, (ie. setting motherboard pin outs & sata cables) Only one 3 1/2 floppy bay. This takes away from having an internal card reader and floppy. You must choose! You can always get an external card reader or floppy for that matter, but for the price of this case, it would have been nice to have the option to have both. If you want a nice case, I could recommend it
 
Was this review helpful?