Hello again, I'm Rodney Reynolds and welcome to another video review. Today I'm looking at the Antec P180 case. This case comes in a silver black color. The silver parts are actually aluminum, but the body is steel. So it’s really sturdy and the remainder is plastic.
At the front is the power LED, FireWire port, two USB 2 ports, a microphone jack, headphone jack, and the front door can be lock.
The front door of this case is held in place by a magnetic force. And it’s doubled hinge so it can swing all the way back up to 270 degrees. There are four five and a quarter inch drive bays and one three and a half inch external drive bay. And these air filters can be very easily removed for cleaning.
Also note that there are ventilation holes around the front bezel on the left side and the right side as well as at the bottom. And this allows the fans to intake cool air when the front door is close.
At the top is a spoiler with lots of ventilation and it include a 120 millimeter exhaust fan. The left side and right side panels don’t have a window, fan, or ventilation. But, they have an innovative three layered design which has excellent noise dampening properties. This makes it one of the quietest mid tower cases in the market. So it’s a perfect case for a near silent build.
At the back of the case, at the very top is an external fan control. Both the top and rear fans can be set up to a low, medium, or high speed. They include an I/O shield plate as well as a 120 millimeter exhaust fan. Here are the seven expansion slots and there are two rubber grommeted ports for water cooling system tubes to pass through. At the bottom is where a standard ATX power supply gets installed. And there are extra ventilation holes all around the perimeter of the power supply. Two thumb screws are included, but only on the left side panel.
This case is compatible with standard ATX form factor motherboards. Notice how it has a compartmentalized design. The main computer components would get installed in the top chamber and the power supply as well as the hard drives will get installed in the bottom chamber. This compartmentalized design separates heat from the different components and therefore the fans can exhaust all these heat in each chamber ensuring that the inside of the case remains cool.
I mentioned earlier that there are four external five and a quarter inch drive bays and one external three and a half inch drive bay. Well, there are an additional six internal three and a half inch drive bays. Four hard drives can be installed vertically in the bottom hard drive cage and two hard drives can be installed horizontally in the top hard drive cage. Both of these hard drive cages are removable. First you’ll need to remove a single thumb screw on each hard drive cage. And then there's a little ring here and this is actually snap to the hard drive cage. Just unsnap that and pull the hard drive cages out.
The bottom hard drive cage has silicon grommets and the top hard drive cage also has silicon grommets which have excellent anti vibration properties. Also note that the top hard drive cage has a small compartment for storing things like screws or cable ties. Along this edge is padding. There is also padding on the right side of the case. This is to ensure that when the case side panels touch the case itself that they do not rattle.
The power supply cage has a silicon footing. This is to ensure that the power supply doesn’t cause any vibrations.
Thankfully, this case does not have any sharp edges. So you won't cut yourself or the cables. There are a couple of holes in the top of the lower chamber. This is to allow the data and power cables to pass through. But you really do not want to have this open because heat will radiate from the lower chamber to the top chamber. So you can use this piece of plastic to customize your particular power and cable set up.
An optional 120 millimeter fan can be installed at the front for added cooling. There's also an optional middle 120 millimeter fan that can be installed on the upper hard drive cage to cool the video card or video cards. To install a 120 millimeter fan, remove the drive trays. Attach the included wire brackets to the hard drive cage. And mount the fan. With the trays removed, the hard drive cage acts like a dock. So the 120 millimeter fan can intake cool air from outside the case. Please note though that a 120 millimeter fan can't be mounted if hard drives are installed in the upper hard drive cage.
There is another included 120 millimeter fan in the lower chamber for additional cooling power and this fan has its own switch. So the fan can be set to a low, medium or high setting.
On the right side of the case, behind the motherboard tray, is a cable management system. Cable ties are used so the cables can be neatly and securely attached. Organizing cables behind the motherboard tray means the inside of the case is free of cables. This results in better air circulation inside the case and it looks very neat and tidy.
At the bottom are four soft silicon feet that have excellent anti vibration properties and won't scratch the surface.
Now have a listen to the stock cooling. First at the low speed. Medium speed. And finally at the high speed.
This may not be the newest case from Antec, but it’s still a fantastic product and it’s a perfect case if you're thinking about building a near silent computer system. Overall, it’s a kickass product.
Until the next time, take care.