Antec P180b ATX Case
Installation of components
To test the thermal properties and quietness of this case I installed some parts I had lying around:
AMD 64 3200+ Venice skt 939
AMD Stock Heatpipe Cooler from an X2
Abit AT8 32x Motherboard
Sapphire X1600Pro
1gb OCZ Platinum Rev 2 TCCD
Hitachi Deskstar SATA II 160gb HDD
Pioneer DVD-RW
Silverstone Strider 560w PSU
There is a manual with the case and some additional paper that goes over some of the installation procedures. I did feel that this was slightly inadequate for installation as I could have done with perhaps a couple of pictures as pointers. Having said that: most case manuals are pretty poor and Antec’s provided manual was better than most.
Cable Tidying
Cable tidying was a slight issue with this case. I did my best but the results weren’t as good as I have managed with previous cases. However this was a quick tidy during a review so I am sure it could be improved.
The bottom section of the case was separated from the main part of the case by a plastic screen. The metal holes from each chamber can be closed off by a cleverly placed piece of plastic that does up using thumbscrews. The size of the holes can be adjusted to suit what wires you want to put through the hole.
I did not measure the thermal performance or sound with any measuring devices but thought that this was worth a mention at this stage. Once turned on the system is very quiet. Apart from the slightly noisy X1600 fan I could barely notice the PC was turned on. This is a testament to Antec’s three-layer design and included very quiet case fans. The system also stayed at a very reasonable temperature. I would definitely recommend this case to those wishing for silence in their enclosures.