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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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!!!