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.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
164 Comments
View All Comments
Toshio - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
Thanks Dustin for the great article! Of all the sites I read every day, Anandtech is the only one with consistent quality, thanks for the effort guys!Back on topic, I like most of the changes in the P280 (compared to my good and aging P182). I only find a couple things to improve: covers for unused ventilation holes (as previously mentioned) and I'm not sure if I like the HDD arrangement, you need to take off the right panel to replace a disk. P182's 3.5" lower cage is a pita to work with, but you only needed to take out the right panel.
Question: compared to P18x, does the construction feel solid enough? are the new acoustic panels on par with the old generation?
lvang - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
Nicely revised from it's predecessor, a little surprised at the overall temperatures though. Either way, it wouldn't hurt to sport one of these!Etern205 - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
A proper Antec case! It looks simple, sleek, and elegant.Did they canned that guy who design cases for 12 year olds?
Note that Antec 300 wasn't that bad, except wire management sux.
Zoomer - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
It's also $40. IMO it needs to be updated for usb3, ssds and a not so bright blue led and it'll be good for another 5 years. Seriously, the blue led is ridiculous. I took a back sharpie to it and it's still kinda bright.romany8806 - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
Hey Dustin, thanks for the review. Tempting case - I abandoned my P180 because it was horrible to work in and the door hinge eventually gave out because of the constant wear and tear to access power, ports etc.I'm running a Cooler Master 690-II Advanced at the moment and love it, but wish I had an 8th expansion slot. Curious to see how the two compare performance-wise. I don't suppose you've got access to one for testing?
Belard - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
I checked newegg....It looks very much like the case I need for a build.
GhostMagic - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
I've owned two antec cases, but for my next build I'd been looking at corsair just because it felt like Antec's cases were standing still. This one looks nice, maybe I'll win one?KDu - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
Nice case, glad they updated the Sonata seriescorvisrex - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
good, review, it is nice to see the reviews themselves giving actual numbers relating to sound dampening and noise. Major issues for me when case hunting, and too often merely observational, rather than real data.EliteOrion - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
Man this case looks slick!!!