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
Testing Methodology
For testing ATX cases, we use the following standardized testbed in stock and overclocked configurations to get a feel for how well the case handles heat and noise.
| Full ATX Test Configuration | |
| CPU |
Intel Core i7-875K (95W TDP, tested at stock speed and overclocked to 3.8GHz @ 1.38V) |
| Motherboard | ASUS P7P55D-E Pro |
| Graphics Card | Zotac NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (244W TDP) |
| Memory | 2x2GB Crucial Ballistix Smart Tracer DDR3-1600 |
| Drives |
Kingston SSDNow V+ 100 64GB SSD Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gbps Samsung 5.25" BD-ROM/DVDRW Drive |
| CPU Cooler | Zalman CNPS9900 MAX with Cooler Master ThermalFusion 400 |
| Power Supply | SilverStone Strider Gold 750W 80 Plus Gold |
A refresher on how we test:
Acoustic testing is standardized on a foot from the front of the case, using the Extech SL10 with an ambient noise floor of ~32dB. For reference, that's what my silent apartment measures with nothing running, testing acoustics in the dead of night (usually between 1am and 3am). A lot of us sit about a foot away from our computers, so this should be a fairly accurate representation of the kind of noise the case generates, and it's close enough to get noise levels that should register above ambient.
Thermal testing is run with the computer having idled at the desktop for fifteen minutes, and again with the computer running both Furmark (where applicable) and Prime95 (less one thread when a GPU is being used) for fifteen minutes. I've found that leaving one thread open in Prime95 allows the processor to heat up enough while making sure Furmark isn't CPU-limited. We're using the thermal diodes included with the hardware to keep everything standardized, and ambient testing temperature is always between 71F and 74F. Processor temperatures reported are the average of the CPU cores.
For more details on how we arrived at this testbed, you can check out our introductory passage in the review for the IN-WIN BUC.
Last but not least, we'd also like to thank the vendors who made our testbed possible:
Thank You!
We have some thanks in order before we press on:
- Thank you to Crucial for providing us with the Ballistix Smart Tracer memory we used to add memory thermals to our testing.
- Thank you to Zalman for providing us with the CNPS9900 MAX heatsink and fan unit we used.
- Thank you to Kingston for providing us with the SSDNow V+ 100 SSD.
- Thank you to CyberPower for providing us with the Western Digital Caviar Black hard drive, Intel Core i7-875K processor, ASUS P7P55D-E Pro motherboard, and Samsung BD-ROM/DVD+/-RW drive.
- And thank you to SilverStone for providing us with the power supply and SATA power cable.
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TemjinGold - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
I really liked the concept of the P180 Mini because I hate big bulky cases. I will never have more than 2 HDs and 1 SSD and I will never use more than 1 gfx card. I also like uATX motherboards. Any idea if there are plans for a P280 Mini or sorts?danjw - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
I was looking at the product page for the P180 mini a couple weeks ago and that was up said "P183 mini", it has since been changed back. So that suggests they are getting close to a release of an update to it.danjw - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
Opps, just reread this I meant, "... the image that was up ..."albiglan - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
Wasn't there a problem on the P183 that the USB3 connections for the front panel were routed in a "flimsy/cheap" manner? I assume from the lack of coverage on the built in wiring that all is well and good now? Thx for the review! Glad to see Antec is on a better path with this case...haukionkannel - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
It would be nice to see how this new P280 compares to P183. The P280 is easier to assemble, but how about acoustic and temperatures. Are they better or worse in P280?I am happy owner of original P180. It is really a pain in tha ass to assemble, but otherwise very good and quiet case. So it would be nice to see some results of how taking the dual cahmber away has change the things.
tomek1984 - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
I got one of the first versions of P180, and it's still one of my favorite cases today. I never saw any real advantage of the dual chamber but it did help in cleaning big cable cluster. The only problem i had with this case, was trying to install long video card, basically you cant, unless you take out top hard drive cage. So this new design is quite an improvement.My only hope is to see a case which will equal Cooler Master Cosmos 1000 in exterior appearance. It was the first case i had to use a grinder during assembly and the case quality control is not existent ( most screws barely aligned and cable management was completely useless), but that case is second to none in exterior appearance ( together with P180 the only two options i will ever consider in my living room), handle bars also come in very handy when you have to move it around.
Metaluna - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
The main advantage of dual chamber is that you can cool the hard drives using the PSU exhaust fan only (the middle fan is pretty useless unless you've got four 15k rpm SAS drives down there). It also isolates the PSU from the GPU, though you probably get most of that benefit from just having the PSU at the bottom without the partition.That said, I've always hated the removable drive cage down in that chamber. Such a pain to work with.
bobbozzo - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
And mounting spinning drives vertically (in the P180) often is discouraged, forcing one to move the drives to the other bays. I also moved the lower bay fan to the front of the upper drive bay.bigboxes - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link
It makes no difference on a drive's orientation. Also, the P183 has removed the fan from the middle. However I added a 120mm in front of the hard drives... all mounted vertically (that's the C: drive and three download drives). The only drive that has died in this case was mounted horizontally in the upper hard drive chamber.http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh175/bigboxes/...
8steve8 - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
full size ATX is dead, (or should be)other than graphics, no one buys expansion cards... micro-atx should be the large board for people who want custom features/expansions, and mini-itx should be the mainstream size.
I wish chassis developers would put more effort into smaller sizes.