The Bottom Line
Pros
- Very High Construction Quality
- Low Noise Operation Thanks To Airflow Design and Soundproofing
Cons
- Routing Cables Behind Tray May Require Power Cable Extensions For Some PSUs
- Middle Internal 3.5" Drive Bay Rack May Cause Issue With Some Large Video Cards
Description
- Rolled Steel Frame
- Aluminum Layered Side and Front Panel To Help Reduce Noise
- Four External 5.25" Bays, One External 3.5" Bay and Six Internal 3.5" Bays
- Three Tri-Cool 120mm Cooling Fans With Exterior Fan Control
- Fits Up To Standard ATX Motherboards
- Double Hinged Door That Opens 270 Degrees
- Rubber Grommeted Ports For External Liquid Cooling Solution
- Two Front USB, One FireWire and Audio In/Out Ports
- Cable Organizers Behind Motherboard Tray
- 21.3" x 8.1" x 19.9"
Guide Review - Antec Performance One P182 Advanced Super Mid Tower Desktop PC Case
2/21/08 – The Antec P182 is referred to as a super mid-tower design as it is slightly large than a standard mid tower. This actually makes the P182 much easier to work with when installing components thanks to the extra space.
The P182 is designed for very low noise operation. This is accomplished by a number of different features. First, the size and front panels use a sandwich of aluminum and plastic to help reduce sound. Second, the drive mounts inside the system plus the space for the power supply use silicon material. This reduces the vibration noise from standard moving parts. Finally, the system is design with liquid cooling in mind. There is room inside of internal liquid cooling systems or if you want a more open design, there are grommeted holes for running cooling tubes to an external unit.
Cooling within the case is very well laid out. The case is designed with the power supply and hard drives to be installed in the lower portion of the case to keep it separate from the other internal components. This combined with a variety of fan locations helps create air flow zones to keep the system well ventilated. The front panel also has vents on either side to allow air to flow directly through, a definite improvement over other designs that close off the front panel entirely and rely on venting from above or below.
There are still a few minor issues with the case for some. If you want to route the power cables behind the motherboard tray, you may need an ATX power extension cable to fully reach the motherboard power connectors. Also, the middle removable hard drive tray sticks into the cabinet that might cause problems with some longer expansion cards such as video cards.
