Alternative to Antec P182?

Cyane

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 1, 2008
Messages
143
Hi,

I've been searching extensively (without success) for a case similar to the P182. I would've went with it, but after seeing the problems with space and such I need an alternative with the following:

-Sound dampening design
-Enough space to fit a high-end video card, such as the Radeon 4870 X2.with no issues.
-Black, non-fancy design like the P182.
-Cable routing/management features a plus (ie: routing behind the motherboard tray to reduce clutter).

I was looking at the Nexus Caterpillar, but I've been reading mixed reviews about it.

Anyone that has suggestions, please do share. Thanks in advance!
 
The 4870 x2 will fit fine in a P182, you just need to remove the upper HDD cage, which shouldn't be a problem unless you have more than 3 HDD's to put in the case, in which case you could always use a 3.25" to 5.25" bay converter for the others. The upper HDD cage just has 1 thumb screw, then it slides right out. You can even put a 120mm fan in there with the 4870 x2 with 2 sided adhesive tape. The case has plenty of room for just about anything you would want to put in it.

First pic is my case w/ a GTX 260
Second is another P182 w/ a 4870 x2

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Use the mini P180. After I removed the front cages and splitter, it fits anything I want it to.

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Everybody I work with that has built a nice system with a P182 had nothing but negative opinions/reviews about it, especially with the video card and spacing issues. These are all techs too, they all prefer the Coolermaster CM 690 over this one. I personally, am trying to find a reason for me to get the P182.
 
Everyone you have talked to are idiots. The only reason I switched from the P182 to the 1200, is because I am anal, and I will probably switch cases again in a few months lol.

But seriously, the first pic I posted is my P182 SE and the second one is a P182 Gunmetal, do you see any issues with the video card? It is a very well put together case, and the later revisions fixed a lot of issues with it, as far as cable management and what not go. I have limited experience with building pc's, when I built that P182 SE, that was my third ever build from the ground up, and I don't think I did that bad, nor did I have any problems with it at all. Just remove the middle HDD bay, and add another fan to get a wind tunnel effect from the front 120mm fan. I even put a 120mm x 120mm x 20mm low profile fan in the lower HDD chamber to cool the hard drives and the psu. It really is a nice case, you won't regret it.

On a side not, if you are looking for one, I am selling my P182 SE that I modified, I probably won't have it, as I have a buyer I am supposed to meet on Friday, but if that falls through I will gladly let you know. I sleeved the front IO panel wires, cut out the front and rear grills, and added a side window to the case. It has 1 x 120mm antec tri cool in the top front, a yate loon 120 x 20mm slim in the lower front, a 120mm antec tri cool blue led in the top, rear and middle spots for a total of 5 fans included with it. All of the fans are new and have never been used except for the yate loon.

Here is a pic of the window mod:

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Having recently bought one of these babies I can safely say it's the quietest coolest case I'e ever had.
I've built more than a few systems based on this case and anything will fit in there, once you remove the upper HD cage there is no limitation on the GPU length.
If you have more then 4 HD then you can use adapters to put them in the Optical drive place.
Seriously it's a great investment, I can't seem to think of a reason why I'd ever get another case....
 
So, how many hard drives (in total) can you have installed after having to remove the upper HD cage with a 4870 X2 or GTX 280? And is that the only issue?

I also want to add some acoustic modding of my own, is there enough clearance on the sides of the case to allow for that?

Thanks.
 
So, how many hard drives (in total) can you have installed after having to remove the upper HD cage with a 4870 X2 or GTX 280?
Depends on how many 5.25" devices you have. Couple opticals, card reader/fan controller panel etc and four 5.25" bays are full as soon as you start.

I also want to add some acoustic modding of my own, is there enough clearance on the sides of the case to allow for that?
With space available inside PC cases you can't do very much to absorpt noise. (preventing noise at first place is more effective)
Non vibrating construction (with soft mounting of HDDs) and lack of direct noise escape paths are biggest factor for "keeping noise inside case". And that's where P18x really shines and leaves other cases far behind.
As overall lot more spacious Lian Li A71 has quite similar silencing friendly feature set with clean front in back-out airflow without direct noise escape paths but because of aluminum construction (light for its big size) it isn't acoustically as good as its design could be. So in that case adding heavy damping mat/combination mats really helps.
 
Well, I'll have 2-3 optical drives - my old LiteOn CD Writer, my Blu-Ray writer and my DVD-Writer. Other than that, nothing else in the racks. Another question is about the PSU cage - I was looking to get an Enermax Revolution PSU that is larger than the standard PSU (similar to the Enermax Galaxy). Wil these larger PSUs fit?
 
The P182 is a great case, the only thing I didn't like was the space inside. Although it had a lot of nice things that made some parts easy, others were a pain (wiring the PSU). I think I was spoiled by my Antec Super LANboy
 
Well, I'll have 2-3 optical drives - my old LiteOn CD Writer, my Blu-Ray writer and my DVD-Writer. Other than that, nothing else in the racks. Another question is about the PSU cage - I was looking to get an Enermax Revolution PSU that is larger than the standard PSU (similar to the Enermax Galaxy). Wil these larger PSUs fit?

Because the power supply fits below, the only limitation for length is the fan mount in the middle lower section of the case... which I removed anyway. With the power fan removed, you could install a power supply up to 20cm/8" long. If you have a blu-ray AND a dvd writer, why d'you still have a cd-writer? Both your other drives will most likely write cds as well.
 
I still have my old CD-Writer because it burns the music CDs I make MUCH faster than the DVD writer does and is also good for backing up my protected PC games. So, with 3 optical drives and 4870 X2, that means I could only install 1 HDD? That's not good...

For the PSU, would I be able to fit a larger sized PSU than normal (after removing the fan mount or whatever)? Reading reviews saying this case has excellent features, but lacks space. Hesitant to spend $170 on it if that's the case.
 
I also have a larger PSU (Corsair 1000HX) and am waiting for the P183 to come out. From what I have read it should be out by the end of Jan. One of the revisions is that they moved the bottom fan to the front allowing more room for larger PSUs.
 
The P183? I had no idea there was going to be a revision of the 182. Do you have any links to previews or more info on the design and specs? I seen a few pics of the P183 and they neglected to look at the upper HDD cage and long video card issue, still has the same spacing as the 182....

Update: I found some pics and such about the design - a lot of people are complaining about changing the 182 classy and clean front door to an ugly one with a bunch of vents, among other things.
 
The P183 is still going to have the same dimensions as the P18x so there will be some similar limitations. However, most of the revisions (especially the bottom HDD/PSU bay) look to be good. As for the look of the door, I'm ok with it. Its not as classy as the original look, but its not all crazy and "pimped" out as some of the cases have been recently (i.e. pretty much every Thermaltake, NZXT, and even Lian Li went ugly with the Armor series).
 
I still have my old CD-Writer because it burns the music CDs I make MUCH faster than the DVD writer does and is also good for backing up my protected PC games. So, with 3 optical drives and 4870 X2, that means I could only install 1 HDD? That's not good...

For the PSU, would I be able to fit a larger sized PSU than normal (after removing the fan mount or whatever)? Reading reviews saying this case has excellent features, but lacks space. Hesitant to spend $170 on it if that's the case.

I recently built a system with a Corsair 1000W PSU and a P182 - it was fine I just removed the lower cage fan.
All in all, if you remove the upper drive cage you can install 4 HD in the lower cage and 3 in the optical drive slots (or in your case 1 more). I don't know many cases that afford you more HD room than that comfortably....
You can also not remove the top HD cage and just remove the first HD rail in the top cage and that should leave you room for one more HD (and a very long GPU).
The upper part of the case does feel kind of cozy with an HD4870 Xfire setup but I still find that's it's the best case I've had.
If you care for silence then this is as good as it gets, I have not found a quieter case.
It also looks great!
 
I have a antec 1000w psu and as stated above just remove the center fan. the major problem i came up with was routing the power wire to the mobo cause it had to almost make a 180 bend to fit in the pre notched slot for psu cables. but i did it and its nice. I love my case and how quiet it is but think after everything is said and done i might get rid of it. Its to much case for me as i basically just game and only have 1hd, 1 dvd writer, and a video card.
 
I still have my old CD-Writer because it burns the music CDs I make MUCH faster than the DVD writer does and is also good for backing up my protected PC games.
Quite possibly it also produces better burn quality... Some writer reviews have mentioned that in last years makers haven't been wasting anymore much time for optimizing burn quality to "old" medias.
So it's not at all unreasonable to cling to old stuff for certain needs.

I don't have three opticals (just two DVD writers both with disc quality scanning features) but still ended up with need for five 5.25" bays because of additional I/O panel of sound card and wanting to have enough fan controller channels and some extra I/O-ports/card reader. (the later requiring screws for attaching)

The P183? I had no idea there was going to be a revision of the 182. Do you have any links to previews or more info on the design and specs? I seen a few pics of the P183 and they neglected to look at the upper HDD cage and long video card issue, still has the same spacing as the 182...
P190 is bigger version of P180 with added support for E-ATX motherboard meaning also enough space for long graphics cards... IIRC only Antec case to have this feature.
Fashionably they also added extra holes for more efficient leaking of noise including side fan which easily conflicts with CPU heatsink and side pointing power cables of long graphic cards.
Also included expensive dual PSU configuration has very lousy implementation: main PSU powers all heavy power hogs while second PSU responsible for 46% of advertised power output is pretty much impossible to load higher than 100W even with case full because it powers only devices which draw very little power.
http://plaza.fi/muropaketti/artikkelit/kotelot/antecin-kotelot-testissa-fusion-black-430-p190,3


All in all, if you remove the upper drive cage you can install 4 HD in the lower cage and 3 in the optical drive slots (or in your case 1 more). I don't know many cases that afford you more HD room than that comfortably.
Then you haven't been paying enough attention to cases... Lian Li A70/71 takes directly 10 soft mounted HDDs which can be inserted/removed individually without blocking any device bays or access to other components and most Lian Li full towers achieve nearly same.

P18x is really excellent case but it just lacked wanted internal space and amount of bays turning me toward other cases. Also got f'ed up with HDD modules which need to be removed from case for installing/removing HDD when using CM Stacker. (whose open front design become just too noisy for my needs)
Nothing is perfect and especially cases are big collections of mutually exclusive design compromises so naturally A71 lacks some of the more elegant solutions like separate chambers or fully configurable all 5.25" front but in return it gives superb compromise of space and various features. Lower density aluminum alloy is acoustically sure minus but BeQuiet's combination mat took away that rattling of light panels when tapped by finger and weight is still ~5kg below similarly treated same size steel case which is really nice thing when you have hefty amount of 5.25" devices and HDDs.
 
Everybody I work with that has built a nice system with a P182 had nothing but negative opinions/reviews about it, especially with the video card and spacing issues. These are all techs too, they all prefer the Coolermaster CM 690 over this one. I personally, am trying to find a reason for me to get the P182.

Many people think it looks better :)
 
Well, yeah the 182 looks better than the CM 690, but looks aren't everything. I saw pictures of the upcoming P193 and there were only minor changes inside - the new front panel/door is quite ugly looking compared to the P182. Other things like cable routing too, people saying it's a tight fit, a negative feature for me since I want to install my own acoustic soundproofing mods that requires, at least. a few millimetres of space on the sides and whereever else I decide to install it.
 
Cable routing is fine in the P182...and I suck at it :)

And why do you need to add more sound dampening material? Both side panels are laced with it, and the case is quiet, sometimes I have to check to see if it is on.

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Are those system specs in your signature current? I've heard high end cards like the GTX 280 and 4870 X2, would take quite a bit to bring the noise down to the kind of levels you're talking about. Impressive though you have to check to see if the computer is on, if there's any truth to that =P.
 
Damping of the P182 is very good, not only because of the panels and the fact that noisy components (HDDs, PSU) are at the bottom. But seriously, if you expect a case to solve noise issues with a GTX280 or a 4870 X2, you are asking for too much.

I can hardly believe that someone has problems fitting anything in a P182. With the second HDD cage removed, there is so much space for everything and the good cable management adds even more space to that.
 
Ya that is the system in my specs, I recently moved to an Antec 1200, but if you look at one of the pictures I posted earlier, that is a 4870x2 in there w/ the middle cage removed. Also for noise, get rid of the stock cooling on a 280 or 4870x2 and get a good thermalright with a quality fan, and viola your noise is reduced. The hard drive cages come with silicone grommets to help dampen the noise of the drives too.

In that case I had:

Scythe 120mm x 25mm Front Intake
Yate Loon 120mm x 20mm Lower Front Intake
3 x AC Ryan BlackFire Chameleon 120mm x 20mm UV in Upper HDD cage (cage removed fan held w/ 2 sided tape) and top and rear exhaust
Ram cooler w/ 3 x 42mm fans
120mm fan on Hard Drive
Stock fan on GTX 260

I controlled all of the fans with a fan controller, set them to the lowest setting, and could barely hear my pc at all, at times my 1 TB drive was the loudest thing in my case.

It really is a nice case, good for cable routing, and silencing, and with the removal of the middle cage, you have plenty of room for any video card in single dual or triple configuration.
 
What about high end video cards and heat? I'm assuming with all that sound dampening, there has to be excess heat inside the caase, even with 5x 120mm fans inside. I plan to install my own fans inside the case, I found a company that sells "quietpc" product like case fans, HDD silencers, soundproofing, etc. Any other recommendations are good for me to take a look at as well.
 
You will need a 120 x 20mm Yate Loon fan to put in front of the lower HDD cage. I would assume that if you put aftermarket heat sinks and coolers on the video cards, that heat will not be an issue. It has 2 exhaust fans, and a front 120mm for intake, the lower part of the case is separated from the rest of it so the lower heat is not an issue.

If you are that concerned with heat you could also make a duct out of a thin piece of aluminum going from the front 120mm fan across and over the GPU's and then up to the rear 120mm exhaust fan creating another separate chamber, and then use the fans on the CPU heat sink in a north south configuration in conjunction with the top exhaust fan and you will have essentially a 3 chamber case that is almost completely silent, and well cooled. I saw this done on another mod forum and it looked incredibly clean, and he stated that his thermal management and cooling was really good for an over clocked sli air cooled system. If I can find the link I will post it for you.
 
I would assume that if you put aftermarket heat sinks and coolers on the video cards, that heat will not be an issue.
Actually those are more likely to make heat as issue.
I haven't seen any of them being exhausting so they leavy horrible amount of heat to stress other components and case cooling especially considering high end graphics cards generate more heat for showing static desktop than many CPUs under full load.

Exhausting dual slot coolers work rather well for reasonable cards at idle/light use when case itself doesn't leak every noise directly out.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article870-page5.html
 
Does the door hinge on the P182 allow it to open past 180 degrees and sit flush with the side of the case, or does it just hang straight out in line with the front of the case when opened all the way?

Edit: I found the answer at the antec site. It is in fact a double-hinge door and opens 270 degrees.
 
I'm about to pull the trigger on a Core i7/GTX260 build and have been agonizing over cases for a few weeks now. The P182 is indeed on my short list, but I'm also looking at the Lian Li V1010B and the Silverstone FT01B-W.

I think I've just about settled on the FT01B-W, after reading these two reviews:

FT01B-W review at hardwarecanucks.com
FT01B-W review at bencmarkreviews.com

It seems similar yet of higher quality than the P182 without a HUGE price difference. There's even one without a window that's a little cheaper. I myself can't decide if I want the window or not. It might be a shame to let that black interior go to waste.

I'm liking it over the V1010B because it seems to have more options for hiding cables behind the motherboard, and can support longer power supplies without hassle. It doesn't have a removable motherboard tray, but I can live with that.
 
I'm about to pull the trigger on a Core i7/GTX260 build and have been agonizing over cases for a few weeks now. The P182 is indeed on my short list, but I'm also looking at the Lian Li V1010B and the Silverstone FT01B-W.

I think I've just about settled on the FT01B-W, after reading these two reviews:

FT01B-W review at hardwarecanucks.com
FT01B-W review at bencmarkreviews.com

It seems similar yet of higher quality than the P182 without a HUGE price difference. There's even one without a window that's a little cheaper. I myself can't decide if I want the window or not. It might be a shame to let that black interior go to waste.

I'm liking it over the V1010B because it seems to have more options for hiding cables behind the motherboard, and can support longer power supplies without hassle. It doesn't have a removable motherboard tray, but I can live with that.



I just finished building a new i7 system with GTX260s in a P182. The cards (3) fit with the top hdd cage removed (or just remove the hdd brackets from the cage as it is the tabs that protrude that are the problem), but airflow is a huge issue with more than one card. There is a single 120mm intake for the top chamber, which means you will need to get a very high flow fan. The other major problem I ran into is the lower chamber just isn't as big as it needs to be anymore. A longer psu such as the HX1000 will render the middle lower chamber fan useless, and will require an additional slim 120mm fan to be installed in front of the lower hdd cage.


Does everything fit? Sure, you can jimmy rig and shoe horn everything in, but I just won't settle on something that is obviously sub par for this type of hardware. After my initial testing, tweaking, and burn in, I opted to purcahse a CM HAF 932 and be done with it. Temps and overall design just are not where they need to be in this case with the kind of technology that is currently hitting the market.

My mistake was getting caught up in the amazing looks of this case, and not thinking logically about the type of hardware that would be sitting inside. Don't make the same mistake I did.
 
Well that is the point, there is nothing wrong with the cooling of this case, or the design with the newer parts that are hitting the market. This case isn't designed to use 3 GTX 260's in SLI, and besides there is no real world gain in running a system such as this, except for e-penis value. You are correct for wanting to switch to a larger case, with better air flow, for the system you designed.

But for those that want an elegant look, with great design, and plenty of room, air flow, and silence, in a mid tower solution, then this case is fine. Removing the middle HDD cage is as easy as taking out a screw, and you can always add another 120mm fan in there w/ 2 sided adhesive to increase the air flow.

For those that want to run 3 cards in SLI or XFire, then a full tower would obviously be better, and would have increased air flow (thusly louder), although with a Tri card setup, a water cooling solution would probably be better anyway.
 
Do people really think the 182 looks good? It looks like fridge to me. I think it works great if your build isn't super aggressive. But thats why they make Antec 900 and 1200's.

Functionality wise I think the mini P180 is one of the best cases now if your running a system that can dump a few of those cages for intake fans.. But again ugly..

I think Silverstone and Lian Li make the best looking cases but with frustrating design issues sometimes..
 
Do people really think the 182 looks good? It looks like fridge to me. I think it works great if your build isn't super aggressive. But thats why they make Antec 900 and 1200's.

Functionality wise I think the mini P180 is one of the best cases now if your running a system that can dump a few of those cages for intake fans.. But again ugly..

I think Silverstone and Lian Li make the best looking cases but with frustrating design issues sometimes..


Its funny, I never really considered mine looking like a fridge, until I read a review on it just recently. And now I keep seeing people refer to it as such.

All things considered, I love my P180(not 182). I have replaced most of the stock fans with either Scythe or Noctua fans, and this thing is dead silent. As far as the looks go, I was never a fan of lights and garish colors to begin with. I wanted a case that didnt scream "LOOK AT ME". I wanted a case that sat on my desk and let my internal parts speak for themselves. I wanted a case that would be quiet and cool. And thats what I got.

For those that are looking to get one, it helps if you also consider you PSU. If your cables are not long enough, you may have problems. So ask around here to see if others with your PSU or the one your looking at buying is going to work well with this case. Also remember, that you can flip the PSU upside down to get cables out of the way of the lower fan mounting. I didnt have to do this, but may have to with a new Corsair PSU I am buying.

Also, HDDs can be mounted in the 5.25" drive bays, if you have to remove the upper HDD cage.

Remember, this case was designed for people that wanted a near silent, destinctive with out being overstated, classic looking, low heat retention PC case. You can mod it for having a window and some places will even mod your side panel or sell you a modded side panel, but that defeats the purpose of the case unless you dual pane the side panel.

All in all, I love my P180. I am in the market for a new case for a new system and I am looking at buying a P182. Its a love hate kinda thing. Either you love this case or you hate it. But the quality and finish of this case are job one.
 
If you are that concerned with heat you could also make a duct out of a thin piece of aluminum going from the front 120mm fan across and over the GPU's and then up to the rear 120mm exhaust fan creating another separate chamber, and then use the fans on the CPU heat sink in a north south configuration in conjunction with the top exhaust fan and you will have essentially a 3 chamber case that is almost completely silent, and well cooled. I saw this done on another mod forum and it looked incredibly clean, and he stated that his thermal management and cooling was really good for an over clocked sli air cooled system. If I can find the link I will post it for you.

Thats exactly what I did, but with some cardboard instead. Here are some pics of my case from a few years ago. Keep in mind, this is a P180B you cant run the PSU cables behind the motherboard, so the wiring isnt the greatest.

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I still have a few questions:

1) I noticed that some people's P182's are fully black on the interior as well. I'm assuming someone painted it themselves... or is it like that originally?

2) The Fan behind the PSU - can it be removed without damaging the case and to accomodate larger PSUs like the new Enermax Revolution series?

3) Are there any HDD Activity Lights? Upon looking at pictures of the front, I couldn't see them.

4) How many HDDs can you have installed if the upper cage is removed to accomodate a high-end video card?

5) On a side note, can anyone suggest a quiet and efficient cooler for an AM2 Socket (3800 X2)? The stock one is ridiculously loud (4600 RPM - 80mm fan).

Thanks in advance.
 
I still have a few questions:

1) I noticed that some people's P182's are fully black on the interior as well. I'm assuming someone painted it themselves... or is it like that originally?

2) The Fan behind the PSU - can it be removed without damaging the case and to accomodate larger PSUs like the new Enermax Revolution series?

3) Are there any HDD Activity Lights? Upon looking at pictures of the front, I couldn't see them.

4) How many HDDs can you have installed if the upper cage is removed to accomodate a high-end video card?

5) On a side note, can anyone suggest a quiet and efficient cooler for an AM2 Socket (3800 X2)? The stock one is ridiculously loud (4600 RPM - 80mm fan).

Thanks in advance.

1) The P182 SE has black internal and a usb light. It also has a silver mirror finish on the outside. Regular P182 is gun metal black.

2) You can take the fan frame out, flip the fan and mount it on the front side in the HDD section. This is what I did to fit HX1000's.

3) It actually comes with two. They only show up when you open the door. The power LED is a tiny bright dot that is visible when the door is closed. I used the 2nd HD LED instead for power so when I close the doors no light comes out.

4) Bottom chamber fits four. You can always fit more in the spare 5.25" slots.

5) Probably a scythe ninija which is designed to work passively.
 
So for my #2 question, you can totally remove the fan frame and the fan behind the PSU easily and without damaging the case in any way?

Also for the CPU Cooler, is that one of those ultra massive heatsinks? I would prefer a smaller sized heatsink with 120mm fan.
 
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