P183 Advanced Mid Tower Overview
If you are familiar with the Performance One series of cases then you will notice the P183 looks a lot like previous versions of the case. Antec has put a nice metal finish on both sides and the front of the case. While this case is large it is still a mid tower case. The front of the case is covered by a door that has 4 openings on the side that not only look cool, but allow air to flow into the case.
Also on the front of the case you have a lock that allows you to lock the front door. Below that is an eSATA connection, 2x USB connections, and front audio connections. Good to see Antec including eSATA on this case. I really like the door on this case it opens all the way up and can be folded back to sit flush against the side of the case. This allows it to not be in the way and not accidentally get broken off, believe me I’ve seen it happen!
Looking at the front of the case you have 4 5.25-inch drive bays and moving down there is a single 3.5-inch external drive bay. Also on the front of the case are 2 doors that open. These are right in front of the 2 fan placements. All of the drive bay covers and these doors have filters on them that allow air to come in but trap dust and other debris.
Moving around to the back of the case we can see that it is the basic setup we are used to on most cases. Like most new cases the power supply is located on the bottom, this case is one of the only cases that has the room for Antec’s CP-Series power supplies. This case also has 2 openings for water-cooling tubes. At the top of the case you have the fan controls for both the top and rear fans.
The top 120mm fan is covered by a honeycombed exhaust vent. So with the rear 120mm fan you only get 2 included fans with this case. As expected the side panel is held into place with thumbscrews.
Do the TriCool connect to the ASUS Board? I am looking at the ASUS P6X58D Premium. How noisy are they? Thanks
Do you have a better MidTower that is quiet, cool? I was looking at a very similar system as you reviewed. Along with a Sapphire 5850.
Each of the tricool fans have 4 pin molex connectors so you would have to get a 3pin adapter for you to connect them directly into your motherboard
I've had this case for about half a year now, and I'm pretty pleased with it.
The provided fans are not the most quiet around, but do pretty well on the slowest setting. It's also a good idea to test different fan configurations to find out what suits you best.
For me I left the rear fan in place, at low speed, moved the top fan to the front intake while connecting it to a separate fan controller and covering the top hole with a piece of clear acrylic.
To improve the dust filtering I added pollen filters squeezed in between the standard filters and the metal mesh behind them.
Thanks for this post!
hello. which antec range of case are better at blocking noise, the sonata or performance? and which mid tower would you recommend? also are there any non-antec that are better?
Of the Antec cases I think Sonata is slightly better at absorbing HDD vibrations, whereas Performa is the very best at dampening noise in general.
The key to quiet computing is to generate as little noise as possible in the first place though, so that dampening becomes pretty much a non issue.
If quiet computing is your interest, then I suggest you to visit
http://www.silentpcreview.com
There you can find lots of info and recommendations about it.
Of the Antec cases I think Sonata is slightly better at absorbing HDD vibrations, whereas Performa is the very best at dampening noise in general.
The key to quiet computing is to generate as little noise as possible in the first place though, so that dampening becomes pretty much a non issue.
If quiet computing is your interest, then I suggest you to visit
http://www.silentpcreview.com
There you can find lots of info and recommendations about it.
I can't see from the illustrations.
Are the Power & Reset buttons actually behind the door?
Do you have to open the door to operate them?
Where I have mine set, it would be difficult to have
to open the door just to power on/off or reset.
The Power and Reset buttons are behind the door. The door has to be open to operate them. The door can be locked to protect them. For me, opening the door was also a problem. Since I couldn't remove the door, the fix was to open the door 270 degrees, all the way around, so that it is flat against the left side of the case, and leave it there. It is now totally out of the way.