I’ve always used Antec cases with my computers, since I started building them myself a few years ago. I’ve always been impressed, but until now, I had only seen the budget side of their lineup – I’d always pick the case that comes with a power supply and still only costs $100. I was fine with it. After reviewing the P182, that will never again happen. The P182 is the latest in Antec’s Performance One category. It’s very plain looking, sporting black “gunmetal” side and front panels with no curves, just flat. Before receiving the enclosure, I didn’t see why it cost so much – it was more plain looking than my existing case, and yet it cost significantly more. The reason, as simply as I can put it, is quality. My previous PC enclosure for my personal gaming PC was nice, but simple. Thin, flat metal casing, stationary inner components, and a cheap plastic door. The P182, on the other hand, feels like the Rolls Royce of PC cases. Instead of the thin, painted metal siding, it has a triple layer design – a layer of aluminum, a layer of plastic, then another layer of aluminum. This significantly lowers the volume of noise from the case, as well as giving the panels a more sturdy feel. The front panel does not have a snap or click-in mechanism to hold the door shut, but rather uses small magnets built into the door to hold it shut. This results in much smoother use of the door, and is totally silent. Even so, there is a locking mechanism below the front ports to keep it closed if it needs to be.
Inside the door is very plain – 4×5.25” bays and 2 slotted fan areas. The front door is designed with slits in the side, so that even with the front door closed, the fans behind it can still work by sucking air in through the side of the front door. It seems that Antec designed this case for minimal optical drive use, as those are the only things which require the door to be open to use. The front panel connectors are not covered by the door, so you could have the case locked and still have access to those ports. Whether that’s a good thing or not depends on why you’d lock your computer. If you’re afraid of people stealing your optical drives, yes, this will work – but if you’re afraid of people plugging in their USB devices (flash drives, etc), no luck. Even though (and somewhat because) it’s simplistic in design, the P182 looks gorgeous sitting next to my desk. The gunmetal side panels and other outer accents really make it stand out without being flashy.
As far as the inside goes, the P182 shines in this area as well. It’s a dual-chamber design, with the PSU and vertical hard drive slots in the lower chamber, and the motherboard, optical drives, and horizontal hard drive slots in the upper chamber. This didn’t make a huge difference in my case, because my PSU has cable management – so I only had 4 cables going from my lower to upper chamber, but if I had a traditional PSU with all of the cables physically attached to the PSU at all times, it would significantly reduce clutter around the motherboard. In a standard case, all of those extra cables are dangling there in your way, but in this type of case, you can keep all of those extra cables down below and out of the way. The only problem I ran into with this setup is that one of my motherboard power cables (For dual-core CPUs) just BARELY got to it’s plug on the board. Because of the dual-chamber design, the PSU is further from the top of the motherboard, where these plugs are commonly located.
Each expansion rack is removable with one screw, and each has a keyring to pull on, making removal of these racks a piece of cake, if you wanted to install a new hard drive, for example. The hard drive racks also feature the silicone grommets to reduce HDD noise. A first for Antec cases, the P182 features a pair of grommeted ports on the rear for a outer-mounted liquid cooling system. At first I sort of shrugged this feature off, because liquid cooling systems do come with their own means of getting the tubes out, usually an expansion slot card with holes in it. But the ports being in the case is really a bigger advantage than I had invisioned. First of all, it frees up that expansion port that you would have wasted on your liquid cooling system. Second of all, the placement of the ports on the case is IDEAL. An expansion slot is not ideal, because you then have to work around whatever expansion cards you have in there without breaking anything. With this case, you can go straight to your CPU and straight out, if you want. If you choose not to use liquid cooling, the P182 comes with 3 120mm tricool fans standard – one on the back, on one the top, and one in the lower chamber for the vertically mounted hard drives. I removed the lower one myself because I do not have any hard drives mounted down there, and because my PSU has an outward fan on its own. The two other fans (the top and rear ones) have hardware speed controllers at the top of the rear of the case.
The case comes with lots of cable ties, cable loops, and tons and tons of screws. Both sides come off, and the front door is double-hinged to allow the door to sit flat against the left side panel. There simply isn’t a better case out there as far as functionality and sound goes. Something to note, though, is that it’s rather tall for a mid ATX case, and was actually too tall to fit under my desk where my old Antec Lifestyle Sonata was. In addition to that, there is an optional wire-mesh-like scoop that you can mount on the top fan to move some of that exhaust air back in addition to up, for another 1” height. Overall, this was a surprisingly high-quality case with lots of added features to make a system builder or modder’s life easier – lots of airflow, lots of accessibility, and a badass gunmetal black finish. This case demands respect, and that’s just what it gets from me. The only downside I could find was the price tag. At over $150 without a power supply, a lot of people would pick up a cheaper alternative without thinking twice. As far as I’m concerned, it’s worth it.
