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.
164 Comments
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NGneer - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
I won an NVidia Quadro 4000 as a doorprize at a SolidWorks 2012 presentation a few weeks ago and now I need to build a workstation around it (for cheap). This would be a nice case to house everything in.jesh462 - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
I do appreciate the p280s aesthetics. The extra expansion bays are lost on my needs, I'd rather see more acoustic dampening. For the money, I'd still pick an R3 or modded Shinobi.MisterDonut - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
If only my Antec 900 wasn't alive....hatwell - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
I really like black cases. When you throw in all the other features - you've got a winner!Jettubby - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
Great reviews as always!yadir - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
I needed a case for a new build and I think the P280 would be a great 'brother' to the P182 I have.lowryd1000 - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
Nice case, sign me up.havoti97 - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
I have the P182 and love it. Might look into this in the future for a build.justben314 - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
Any chance on some of these case reviews to get more detailed information posted on the specs of the stock fans installed? Even if it were just information from the manufacturer, would be a welcome detail for enthusiasts.It would probably be a pain to setup testing for, but Anandtech's detailed reviews would be a welcome addition to the world of case fans and other fan systems outside of CPU cooling.
justben314 - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
Upon further review, it's nice that you have included the fan type (Antech TwoCool) in this review. Not normally in other reviews, so was unexpected, but as previous post states, very welcome. :)