Antec P183 Case Review

Posted by: David Mitchelson (Mishima) on: 04/24/2009 10:10 AM [ Print | 0 comment(s) ]

Exterior

The P183 comes dressed inside a pleasantly presented box, detailing all the relevant specifications with some cropped previews of the case itself. The box has a nice finish to it but unfortunately the box our sample was sent in was damaged during transit. So its looking like it needs a little bit of TLC.

Opening the box and removing polystyrene reveals the P183. When first removing the case from the box you will notice that the front and sides are protected with a sticky film to ensure that the panels remain untouched. Removing these layers expose the delicate gun-metal finish. The surface is very smooth, your fingers glide over the surface.

The front panel of the P183 offers typical functionality. We have USB, audio, and eSATA ports for quick and easy usability. Taking a closer look at the front panel we can see that it features a double hinged front door. The hinge allows the door to fully open (270 degrees) and has some adjustments made to improve airflow, there are larger openings to encourage intake air to circulate. The door is fairly solid and there are no issues at all with the design Antec have gone with. With the front door open, we can observe the drive bay, after a few moments it’s not long before you realise there have been some excellently implemented design ideas here. The materials used here are mesh and plastic. It looks good and on paper should offer some improved airflow. Each device installed to be accessed at the front of the case can be added easily by pushing in the two tabs either side and removing the cover. All that you have to do is apply the brackets to your DVD/Blueray/card reader and these drives just slide in and lock into place. (More on this in the installation section of the review).

The P183 boasts a redesigned 120mm exhaust outlet. Antec have pretty much integrated this cage directly into the top of the case rather than have it external as it was on the P180. The spoiler style design has gone and a much more practical design is now in place.

Around the rear side of the case there is little change from the P180, the only real difference from the typical conventional approach to cases is that the PSU is mounted at the bottom of the case inside its own chamber. We have the ability to host Antec's very own CP series PSU in the P183 which are larger in size, and although this is a new standard its nice to see that this case has the option of being able to handle a CP PSU, adding some future-proof to the case. There are two outlets for the option of having a watercooling kit installed inside the P183. At the very top we have some quick access fan control for both the top 120mm fan and the rear exhaust 120mm, there are three speed options to choose from.

One of the things which stood out to me as one of the well thought out design concepts on the P183 is the plastic around the very edge of the side panels. As a system builder the side panels are going to be on and off quite frequently and the usual metallic doors can be chipped very easily in the corners, you need something more robust, Antec have come up with a great idea here. Applying thumbscrews doesn't damage paintwork either. Brilliant if you're clumsy like me!