Review: Antec Performance One P183 Mid-Tower
Iain Laskey finds the Antec P183 a good solid upgrade of an already good enclosure.
| Product | Performance One P183 Mid-Tower |
|---|---|
| Company | Antec |
| Web | www.antec.com |
| Price | £115 |
| We like | Build quality, quiet, looks, spacious |
| We don't like | hard drive fan would be nice |
| Rating | 9/10 |
| Requirements |
The P183 is the latest version of Antec's highly rated P180 and P182 enclosures. When released, the P180 was revolutionary with many new features that hadn't been seen before in the PC case market but the competition has now caught up so we now have Antec's response, the P183, not so revolutionary, more evolutionary.
The P183 is actually quite large for a mid tower at around 20 inches high by 20 inches deep. However, the first thing you notice isn't the size but the weight. At 31 pounds (14kg) this is one solid lump of an enclosure.
It arrives in the usual attractive Antec box with lots of pictures and specs on the outside. On opening it up, we find the case with protective plastic film on the panels. Inside that is a box with all the screw and other fittings.
The finish is best described as gunmetal with a sort of semi-reflective brushed surface. In the flesh it looks gorgeous with the overall design being understated yet clearly upmarket. The hinged front panel is held closed by a magnet and has lots of vents around the sides to allow good airflow, particularly for any front mounted fans.
At the back, as well as the expected features there are prefitted holes for adding water cooling, if that's your thing. Round the front, there are the power and reset buttons (hidden behind the lockable door) plus a smattering of sockets:
- 1 x eSATA
- 2 x USB 2.0
- 1 x Microphone Jack
- 1 x Headphone Jack
Finally, the entire front panel, behind the door, is covered in a latticework of industrial looking plastic hatches and panels all with filters to keep the dust out. In fact, much of the changes for the P183 are around the area of improved venting and filters.
Noise Reduction
The side panels are formed of three layers of aluminium, plastic and aluminium to help deaden the noise of the fans and drives inside. Inside, there are two main areas, a bottom chamber for the PSU and hard drives and the main area for the motherboard and other drives. The hard drive bay features silicon mounts to help reduce vibration and noise. Finally, the built in 120mm fans, a top one and one at the rear have three speeds, selectable via small external switches so you can set them to be as quiet as possible.
Building the PC
The P183 proved very easy to build into. You can see Antec's own guide here. We put three hard drives in the bottom cage and a DVD drive in the top fixed cage. As noted, the hard drives have silicon mounts to reduce noise but because of this, the screws shouldn't be done up too tightly in case they damage the mounts. We opted to run as many of the power cables behind the motherboard tray to keep things neat but the main power cable had to go over the top as the position of the connector on the motherboard didn't match any of the various holes in the motherboard tray. The PSU we used was fairly short but we noted that there was plenty of room for longer ones if needed.
There are two removable cages for holding the different drives and these are easily removed to ease the business of fitting the relevent drives. They are mounted on smooth plastic rails and are held in tightly with thumbscrews.
For the top fixed cage, Antec provide a number of rails for attaching to DVD drives and the like. Once fitted, the drives are then slipped in and locked into place. We did find the rails didn't quite fit the way we expected though compared to other models and it took a bit of trial and error before got the first one right.
We only fitted a single video card but for those keen on twin card solutions or other hot cards, Antec thoughtfully provide a pair of clips to allow a fan to be attached at the back of the middle drive cage such that it blows directly over the slots of the motherboard to help keep things cool.
Our tests showed the case to be very good in the main at keeping the temperatures well under control although we did find the three hard drives got warmer than we'd have liked. It would have been good if Antec supplied a fan as standard in the bottom drive bay.
The various noise reduction features produced a noticable drop in sound levels. The PC in the P183 case was much quieter than it had been in its previous case which was commendable.
Conclusion
We were extremely impressed with the Antec P183. It's a good solid case with lots of attention to detail. It's easy to work with, looks great and has some nice noise reduction features. The price is more than fair given the quality of the construction but as it doesn't include a PSU, you'll need to factor that into the final equation.
Anyone who tends to move their PC around a lot might want to look elsewhere because of the weight. For everyone else though, the Antec Performance One P183 is an excellent choice and one we're sure would please anyone looking for a case that makes their PC look a cut above the rest.
