Antec Performance One P182 ATX Mid-Tower Case

After a few years of cheap cases I decided to stop wasting my time with the super-thin ultra-garish cases that seem to be the norm: tons of LEDs, goofy fans, weird doors, etc. Cheap cases also tended to be noisy which drove me nuts. I snagged the P182 on sale from Fry's this past summer and I know that I will never get rid of it.

I was always drawn to the P180-series cases because of their extremely understated looks. The cases have no windows, no LEDs, no logos, nothing. They were monochromatic (silver, black, or even chrome). If anything, they reminded me of the Apple Mac Pro cases. I wanted black but it was out of stock and I settled for silver. The finish is very nice: smooth brushed aluminum with black outlines. The only real styling element is a small cutout on the front for a few ports. Otherwise it's pure simplicity all the way around. This is the kind of case that doesn't jump out from under your desk.

The P182 is quite heavy because of the metal construction and sound-deadening material. I think the shipping weight was in excess of 25 lbs. I don't really mind this as I'm not picking it up regularly. When I unboxed it I was very impressed with the solid feel. The panels and door didn't flex and bow as I moved it, nor did the internal components feel like they were just jammed in there. Everything felt precise and well put-together. There was a reassuring click and snap to everything. Holes lined up and things bolted together correctly. After years of cheap cases with mis-drilled holes and lousy plastic connectors, the P182 was a welcome change.

The internal layout of the case is unusual but I think the majority of users will see its value. The power supply is bottom-mounted on an anti-vibration bracket. My PSU was a tad too large so I didn't use the bracket. There's a fan directly in front of it that pulls cool air across the hard drive bays and onto the backside of the PSU. The hard drives screw into a vibration-damped cage that slides out for easy access. You can insert up to four 3.5" drives in this slot. My only gripe about this layout is that it's tricky to snap the power & data cables into them if you have more than one or two drives. I suggest using right-angle cables.

Above the PSU and drive bays is the main portion of the case. The optical/5.25" drive bays require mounting brackets to be installed on your drive, but then it's a piece of cake to just slide them right in. You get four of these bays and a single 3.5" bay for card readers or floppy drives. The easy install does have one problem, and that's that dust collects in there very easily (and is tricky to remove). Beneath that is another hard drive caddy but anyone with a large/modern graphics card will permanently remove it for clearance reasons. Fortunately there's a fan mounting bracket there to help bring in even more air.

The front also has two air intake doors with removable & washable filters. I clean mine weekly and they're always full of dust.

The motherboard mounting area is standard fare with small clearance behind for airflow and mounting special CPU fans. You'll screw in the little brass bolts and mount your motherboard. A rear case fan will pull hot air out near the top and has a switch for the 3 speeds. Another fan directly above it pulls hot air out the top of the case, also with 3 speeds. I was disappointed to see these fans use the antiquated IDE power connectors instead of the 3/4-pin motherboard connectors. The tiny switches on the back are very dumb and worthless. At their highest speeds they aren't silent but aren't deafening either. At low they're virtually silent.

The case also allows for water cooling with two grommets in back. A top fan shroud is decorative (I think) but I removed it for a slimmer profile. The side door slides off after releasing two large thumb screws.

The case performance is good, but not great. It is certainly a quiet ordeal thanks to the multi-layered sound deadening material. Even when the CPU fan kicks up to high speeds it isn't very noticeable. My PSU and GPU fans are barely audible as well. I've grown to appreciate this while just surfing the Internet or listening to music as I don't feel like I'm fighting with the fans or getting distracted. With the front door open it does get a tad louder but this is so rare I don't think it's even worth getting upset over.

Thermal management in the case is "acceptable". The PSU/hard drive fan is a curious item. It can only be controlled by the stupid switch (no motherboard connector). I eventually removed it since there was no clearance with my new modular PSU. The rear and top fans are fairly middle-of-the-road in terms of noise and performance and you're limited to IDE power connections and rear-mounted switches. There is a bracket for front-mounted fans and I feel like for this money they should've installed one. Placing the PSU at the bottom in a separate compartment earns them some points but I would have preferred it go up top. There's definitely a lot of hot air pushed out the back but the top fan feels somewhat worthless.