Antec P280 Review: When Enthusiasts Are Engineers
by Dustin Sklavos on November 15, 2011 10:20 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Antec
- P280
Noise and Thermal Testing, Overclocked
Here's where we separate the men from the boys. Our overclocked test bed has proven to be very stressful on "less prepared" enclosures, and this is hopefully going to produce some more decisive results. So far, Antec's P280 has put in a strong performance, offering decent thermals with low acoustics, but it's still competing pretty squarely with Fractal Design's Define R3, an enclosure that costs between $30 and $40 less. The R3 lost a lot of steam in our overclocked testing, though. Can the P280 pick up the slack?
Unfortunately, while most of the other components are running pretty frosty, the P280 has a hard time dealing with the substantially increased thermal load of the overclocked i7-875K. What we can glean from the results is that it's able to mostly manage overall ambient temperature, and the GeForce GTX 580 runs nice and cool compared to some of the other cases, but the processor may just not be getting enough cool air running through it. The P280 supports 240mm radiators, and getting one in there may not be a bad idea.
Once again it's hard to justify running the fans at their high setting. At their low setting the P280 is nice and quiet at idle, though load performance is dicier. Once again the P280 is in the same general ballpark as Fractal Design's up and comer.
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PCHPlayer - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
Not sure if it's worth upgrading from the P180. Perhaps in the next system build. The isolated PS chamber was interesting in the P180, but it did make the power cable routing a bit tricky.dacrazydude - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
The P series were never really big enough to require dual chambers imo.hescominsoon - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
Definitely an improvement from the mediocre cases I have seen from Antec Lately.Rakanishu - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
I'm using the P180 now and I dread having to install or un-install a piece of hardware from it. HDs especially, the new outward facing design is 100 times better imo.AntiNova - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
I won't deny that this is a nice looking case. I was just hoping that it would be more "adaptable" features... it just seems like a polished up redesign of previous casesrrohbeck - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
now that the new version is available. It seems that most of the wishes/concerns that the other posters have are answered by the Define XL. I love it (except that the finished system is back breakingly heavy.)Yes it looks like Fractal Design has shamelessly stolen ideas from Antec and others but that's a good thing IMHO.
stretchmonkey - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
Comment!camerone222 - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
Beautiful case. I hope I win, good luck to everyone.n3com3300 - Thursday, November 17, 2011 - link
Finally, an Antec chassis that can accommodate the H100 water cooler.tryb - Thursday, November 17, 2011 - link
Antec has always been my choice for cases and this is a step in the right direction. Losing the dual chamber is a plus in my opinion. After switching from the P180 case back to my aluminum P160 Antec case, the following features are just two reasons to make me finally upgrade my case."The enclosure is bigger and easier to work in, and has more room for expanding the system inside. There's plenty of space for mounting a good, thick 240mm radiator at the top, cable routing is slightly better, and the two internal fan mounts invite experimentation."
"Toolless locking mechanisms for the 5.25" drive bays are in place, as well as six drive trays that can support both 3.5" and 2.5" drives, with silicone grommets for the 3.5" drives to minimize vibration."
"There's now a massive cutout in the tray to maximize compatibility with aftermarket cooling, and rubber-lined holes surround the tray for routing cables to the back."