CES 2005 - Antec's New Lineup

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Kurtis Kronk
Brian

Jan. 11, 2005

Specifications

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Performance One P180

Finally, I present to you Antec's Performance One P180. The exterior of this case is silver, sleek, and wonderfully minimalist. The only thing you will see on the front of this case is the front I/O ports and door lock. If you look closely you will see how air makes its way into the case through fins on each side of the door. Along the top of the case you can see a plastic and mesh spoiler decorating the top 120mm TriCool exhaust fan. Initially they went with an all plastic version which actually routed air towards the rear of the case, but ended up deciding that mesh looks cooler. If you look at the rear of the case you will notice that the power supply is on the bottom, and there is a 120mm exhaust fan as well as an air duct next to the PCI slots. One small thing to note is that the method for fastening the side panels has not yet been finalized. We were told they will probably end up using some stay-in-place thumbscrews, which are pretty convenient because they are actually attached to the side panels, making them awfully hard to lose.

As with their other new doored cases, this one opens up to 270°. Behind the door you will find four 5.25" bays, power/reset buttons, two big fan-filter holder-things which open up when you push them, and a 3.5" bay between them. And now for the moment you have been waiting for... let's open this bad boy up!

After removing the left panel you will probably notice the big black fan duct before anything else. That duct will provide fresh air to your CPU, and you can optionally install a 92mm fan on the end of it for a little extra airflow. You can also remove part of the duct and install an 80mm fan over your graphics card if you so choose. This is very similar to the duct found in the Sonata II.

The next thing I noticed was that the case is split up into two separate cooling compartments, which I suspected after seeing the rear of the case. The bottom chamber is where the power supply and hard drives will rest. The chamber is cooled with a single 120mm TriCool fan which is thicker than usual (38mm thick!) to allow for more airflow and it draws all of its air in through the front of the case. The upper chamber is cooled with two standard 120mm TriCool fans (rear and upper exhausts) and you have the option of installing a 120mm intake fan in the front of the case.

The 3.5" drive cages are very well designed and they slide out with ease. The handle for pulling out these cages is actually a metal ring which is fastened to the side of the cage with a clip to keep noise down from vibrations. The bottom cage utilizes thick silicon grommets to dampen vibrations from up to four hard drives while the upper cage can hold two hard drives on rails which also have silicon grommets.

The quality of construction on this case is outstanding. The side panels are actually three layers (aluminum, plastic, aluminum), which helps to dampen system noise. Additionally, the case is very sturdy.

Conclusion

After we were shown all of these exciting new products we actually got the chance to sit down and chat with the brains behind Antec's product design. Han Liu has worked as a Product Development Manager at Antec since 1998, and was largely responsible for the ever-popular Sonata, as well as the rest of Antec's more recent products. We were only able to talk to him for about fifteen minutes, but it was really interesting hearing about what goes on behind the scenes. Han made it very clear that one of his top priorities in new designs is silence. There is no need for a case to have eight roaring 80mm fans when you can cool a case efficiently with 92 and 120mm fans at low speeds with near silent noise levels. I also found it interesting that the actual design process takes much longer than you might think. The Sonata, for example, was starting to be designed in 2000, and it didn't hit the market until late 2002.

From everything that we saw in our meeting with Antec, and from our conversations with them, it is very evident that Antec takes great pride in their products and goes to extreme lengths to make sure that each new product is the best that it can possibly be. If any of the cases we examined in this article interest you then keep your eyes peeled for some reviews on them in a couple of months, when they are ready to hit the market.

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Page 1: Introduction / Power Supplies / VCOOL
Page 2: Silent Rackmount / TITAN 500
Page 3: Performance TX Series / BK640 MicroBTX
Page 4: Sonata II
Page 5: Performance One P180 / Conclusion

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20 User Comments

1 - Posted by PennyManDeux on February 8, 2005 - 6:47 pm

Those are some sweet looking cases. Can't wait for them to come out.

Will you guys be reviewing them?

2 - Posted by Kurtis on February 8, 2005 - 7:47 pm

what do you think? :D

3 - Posted by J2T on February 9, 2005 - 7:59 am

Man, I like that P180..thats more my style. Can't wait for the review ;)

4 - Posted by PennyManDeux on February 9, 2005 - 10:38 am

Yeah the P180 looks aweeesome. It's got so many features although I'm sure it will weigh a ton. Oh well, I don't go to LAN parties.

Any idea when you will be reviewing them?

5 - Posted by Kurtis on February 9, 2005 - 10:40 am

As soon as I can get my hands on them they will get reviewed. I would imagine we'll be one of the first to review their new stuff. We'll see :) I need to start talking with them and find out what the release schedule is going to be and get something lined up

6 - Posted by Brian on February 9, 2005 - 10:44 am

Right. The cases they were displaying in Vegas were pre-production cases. When they have the final models we will definitely get our hands on them. Should be in the next few months if I remember correctly but I don't have my notes here.

7 - Posted by Kurtis on February 9, 2005 - 10:49 am

yeah they said late feb, maybe march for most of them if memory serves correctly

8 - Posted by SAMSAMHA on February 10, 2005 - 3:33 am

very nice, love antec's stuff.

9 - Posted by Thaw_Out on February 10, 2005 - 9:13 pm

I just think the top exhaust on that case looks ugly. And overall I don't think it looks as nice as the P-160. But I really admire the air flow of the new P-180. I wish my P-160 case, had as good air flow in it. It gets very hot inside of my case.

In other words, I envy the P-180's air flow, but not it looks.

10 - Posted by Kurtis on February 10, 2005 - 10:02 pm

Hm, I disagree. I think it looks great. The thing on the top of the case is removable too, I think...

11 - Posted by J2T on February 11, 2005 - 8:03 am

I disagree as well, the main turnoff for me about the P160 was the plastic looking front bezel and this seems to fix that issue tenfold.

12 - Posted by Brian on February 11, 2005 - 8:55 am

It's removable, but not for looks. It has holes and a large indentation which makes it look like something is missing, because it is.

13 - Posted by Kurtis on February 11, 2005 - 8:58 am

lol... nothin' a lil bondo couldn't fix :P

14 - Posted by Brian on February 11, 2005 - 8:59 am

Unless you're the one doing it ;-)

15 - Posted by Kurtis on February 11, 2005 - 9:00 am

i'm going to go sit in a corner and cry now... :(

16 - Posted by Thaw_Out on February 11, 2005 - 10:33 am

I prefer cases where the top of the case is designed to be flat. Where if there is an exhaust vent on top, then it is flat and level with the top of the case.

By the way, I think that I would also miss the temperature display on my P-160 if I upgraded to the P-180. I gotten use to looking at the display on my P-160 for my temperatures. I'm surprised they didn't add some sort of LCD or LED temperature display on the new P-180, if they truly wanted it to be a successor to the P-160.

17 - Posted by Brian on February 11, 2005 - 10:35 am

There is an indention in the shape of the vent along with several long holes used to secure the vent in place. Plus I think there is a weird hole for the fan in the middle of it all.

18 - Posted by Brian on February 11, 2005 - 10:36 am

Thaw_Out, I see you got your account up and running. Everything good?

19 - Posted by Thaw_Out on February 11, 2005 - 10:38 am

Yes, everything seemed fine. Thank you for taking the time to fix it for me.

It was appreciated.

20 - Posted by Guest on March 9, 2005 - 11:56 am

I built a Aria system, loaded -- with 3 large drives, ATI's AIW video, and HDTV card. Love the form factor, but not the noise and the occational(too hot?) restarts. I will add a Vcool which I hope will slow the power supply fan. If not, next will be dampeners, then big holes in the factory-finish case.

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