Hardware Antec P280 Review

1/2 height radiator mount? Glad I didn't buy one of these.

 

Oh i didn't know this, is it a mod ? Will the fan suck air from outside or just from around itself?

 

It always strikes me as ludicrous when a big company like Antec degrades an otherwise well designed product with something this simple. Any self-respecting PC enthusiast would look at this set-up and realize that it needs an intake fan to cool properly. So why can't Antec's technicians see this?

 

from one angle i see what you're saying, but not sure what they "degraded"...i dont recall my original p182b having an intake fan standard...and if it did i replaced it anyway...for the money, this case is pretty solid...going out and dropping $10-15 on a good fan won't bother me any...

 

I would argue that not fitting two fans in the front is a mistake, but with only one extra fan and the H70 mine is already running cooler than the old case with 2 x 200mm fans

dunx

P.S. Who do scream at for my "freebies" ?

 

And last night I added the 4 x 38mm 240V fans ( H70 intake push-pull plus 2 x top exhaust ), and saw a 10degree drop in CPU temp. to 58 degrees at 4 GHZ running 100% load 24/7...

dunx

P.S. Also seeing a 5 degree drop at both graphics cards, but it sounds like a server rack now ( cool ? )

 

While it's down towards the bottom of our graphs, the P280's cooling isn't in anyway dangerous or close to causing overheating hardware. I've removed some of the really poor performers from the graphs recently such as the Charkoon Rebel 9 and bit-fenix colossus as they weren't really valid choices. The P280 is also plenty quiet, which we also factor into cooling. Compared to other £100 cases, it's not great, but in comparison to the worst offenders, it's still pretty decent.

 

how quite is it compared to the fractal? what if i was hell bent on buying very quiet aftermarket fans? which would you choose then? keep in mind the fractal is running $125 against $130 for the p280

how I see it is:
feature / edge
size/antec - i like the dimensions on the p280 better
usb 3/antec - 2 x 3.0 vs 1
weight/antec
perceived quality/antec
cooling/fractal - again, if i were buying an aftermarket fan or two anyway, the price is a wash, and i think the antec shows more improvement then
quietness/antec?

 

My fear that Antec had cheapened this to the degree of becoming pointless has arrived. Such a disappointment.

They almost got the door right (I like the solid door, but this looks cheap), but how did they come to such bad decisions on everything so much? Silver screws, no header, half height radiator? W.T.F. How do you miss that? It's obvious that they realized it too since they offer the parts for free, but they should have been included. Same with the front fans. Did anyone do any internal testing on this?

As a follow up to a legendary case (even they acknowledge this), it seems like they let the bean counters go entirely overboard on this and ruined it. Yes, it's cheaper, but it's a poor replacement for the original.

 

lol...little dramatic...

 

I know it's trivial stuff, but they are things that should have been caught and fixed before it was shipped. Not after.

If those little things are an issue from the start, how many other little things will show up after 6 months of use? Sorry, it doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

 

Still no reason to leave my p180 If it had a motherboard cut-out it would still be perfect (the motherboard tray seems impossible to cut with a dremel as it really thick!).

I've only ever found 2 reviews directly comparing the Fractual R3 and p180, and both agreed that the p190 had far superior build quality and noise reduction...which has stopped me moving to the R3.

I'd love to see the 280, 180, R3 and similar 'silent' cases compared in a sound shootout!

 

To me the review is fair as in it reviews the product 'out the box' however, as other have stated here, adding two front fans of your own choice when purchasing this product seems to provide a cooling boost beyond most of it's competitors capabilities...... it's disappointing because of the lack of front fans, but should you add two intake fans then it changes the cooling performance dramatically and in my opinion, this case should be a consideration if the budget permits.

Dunx has provided some insight to this using single delta fans, but two slower and quieter fans would provide the are flow required at a more than suitable noise level.

For the 3rd 460 card, I'd just lean a 140mm fan against it to provide some air flow to the card - but I must admit, I got turned off of SLI and XFIRE systems a long time ago when driver support was aweful, exspecially for new games and especially when new architectures were released...... just a shame that 12years on, neither Nvidia, AMD or game developers, provide the multi GPU platform with enough support to be as awesome as we all expected it to be.

 

I need to find the source (Hexus or TH I think) but Antec have stated that future runs (after initial) of this case will use black screws instead of silver.

Obviously existing stock/purchases will require the buyer to contact Antec for the replacements but they are at least taking some action on an issue raised.

If this is true (I did see a video on YouTube with black screws, again need to find it when time permits) then we can at least give them credit for putting right something we consider wrong.

I am very tempted by this case - keen to hear from anyone who has one and has added some intake fans.

 

I melted the blades off of it !
It was running 24/7 @ 900 MHz... I run BOINC projects, it now has a Scythe Slipstream tie-wrap'd to it !
Oddly it was at the "bottom" of the Mo-Bo, where it got plenty of air to breathe...

I intend to upgrade through this year to an Asus Rampage IV Extreme and then some PCI-E 3.0 graphics too !

dunx

P.S. No sure it all would fit into a Fractal XL with four GPU's (?)

 

If the Fractal R3 was the same size as this I would consider it but the R3 is smaller internally so I would much rather this case. I am sure by adding 2 x 120mm fans in the front you would increase the cooling. I am definately going to buy a P280 and add a few fans to the front to help internal cooling. I would bet that its much better at cooling and noise dampening than my noisey hotbox 800D.

 

I've said before and i'll say it again, Bit-Tech, should review the cases ability to cool by creating a standard cooling layout. Pick 4 decent 120mm fans, have 2x intakes and 2x exhaust and review all cases (where permited) with this same cooling standard. then we could see which cases have which cooling performance!!

As it is, its complete 'pie in the sky'!! I mean anyone buying a case, will be building a PC...anyone building a PC will either purchase or use existing fans in a similar front to back or reverse way, thus judging a cases ability to cool with no intake, is a pointless exersise, irespect of whether the company provided the fans or not.

Im sure, potential case buyers are far more interested in buying the best case, that buying the best case with standard default cooling!!

 

They have stated in the past that that would dramatically increase testing time, since just sticking in the extra fans isn't always optimal. They did do it with the first Fractal because of so many requests though.

What they show is the stock case, you can pretty much expect it to only get better from there. So long as the case cools decent, you will probably be fine anyhow. If the difference between your overclock being stable and unstable is a degree or two, you probably need to dial it back anyhow.