You may have noticed from my recent forum posts that I've unsuccessfully been trying to build an i7-920 system in an Antec P193 case, so I thought I'd just round up and post my experiences and impressions of said enclosure. I chose the 193 because it had good reviews: it's quiet and (according to lab tests) it's cooling is more or less on a par with the class-leading Antec 1200, but isn't as aggressively styled or as loud as the 1200 or the Antec 902 which I'd also considered. First off, the 193 is big - it can take up to an E-ATX board so ATX mobos have plenty of room to work around on the right side of the board. It's also very heavy and well built and fairly easy to work with as far as cable routing and installing drives is concerned. My system build is based on an Asus P6T-SE with an OEM Intel i7 920 and a Scythe Mugen 2 cooler. I installed the CPU, cooler and RAM and fitted the board in the case, powered up and tested - the CPU temp monitor reports 33 degress celsius at idle which seemed okay to me, so after fitting the optical drive and hard drive, I refitted the side panels but found that the side-panel with the 200mm fan wouldn't fit - the fan assembly interferes with the Mugen's heatsink (57mm in height). After a lot of peering inside the case (on it's side) with a torch and the side-panel resting on top, I estimate that if the 200mm fan assembly protruded 7mm less than it does (12mm), then I'd be able to fit the side panel. I couldn't mod the side-panel in any way to compensate so I gave up on the Mugen and tried to find an alternative high-performance fan cooler. But no joy - any 120mm fan-based cooler is going to be between 155mm - 160mm tall and so won't fit inside the 193. I could use a low-profile or stock cooler but that wouldn't cool the CPU enough to provide the temperature headroom for overclocking (which is why I got a core i7-920), so I decided to try the Corsair H50 water cooler that was mentioned in this forum and recommended by the customer service person at Scan.co.uk who provided an RMA for the Mugen which I'll be sending back. The maximum air-cooler height that the P193 can easily accomodate is around 150-152mm which for a performance system is very limiting, so you can forget about building a quiet and cool system in this enclosure. I think Antec need review the design of this case so that the side-panel fan doesn't protrude into the case interior at all or by 5mm maximum. After doing some research on the H50, I reckoned that there shouldn't be any issues with it fitting into the P193. But I was wrong: the depth of the radiator interferes with the side panel but only slightly - I can still close the side panel but it does rub against the H50's radiator. Hopefully I can mod the side-panel to accomodate the radiator by cutting out a ~10mm x 130mm section from the fan assembly's internal casing at the edge nearest the radiator, but forget about configuring this cooling system with two fans in a push-pull configuration - the P193 just won't accomodate it and you can't mod the case to get around this limitation. Unfortunately I haven't been able to complete the installation of the H50 because of a few dodgy screws that comprise the fitting kit. Thankfully Scan are sending me a replacement LGA1366 fitting kit which'll hopefully arrive before the end of the year so I can hopefully complete the build in time for 2010. It'd be good if others could post their case/CPU cooling solutions in this forum for the benefit of others considering which case and CPU cooler to choose. I'd also be very interested to read other's experiences with this case. Just my ten bob's worth...
Really appreciate you posting this. The 193 has been on my shortlist for a while for the exact same reasons as you and I think this pretty much puts an end to that. Sorry you've had loads of issues. That sucks ass.
It does fit but you'll need to provide spacers in order to refit the external fan cover after removing the fan and it's internal assembly. And obviously you'll lose the cooling provided by the side panel fan.
Man what a killjoy, thank god I didn't get that as it was #3 behind the ATCS840 and the 800D. I ended up with the 932 though and it's spacious good lord.
No problem, I just just wish I saw more posts of a similar nature, though I think I should have done more research and have asked Antec about compatibility issues. Antec staff seem pretty active in the hexus.net forums - not sure how active they are in these forums... Despite my trials, I do really like the P193 and couldn't see myself building my system in another case - the Antec alternatives are bling gaming cases which don't really appeal to me aesthetically and are louder than the P193. Hopefully it won't all be bad - once I mod the internal fan assembly (a bit of careful Dremel-ling with my Chinese-clone powertool and bits) I should be able to use the Corsair H50 water cooler which'll hopefully work as well as the best air-cooler. Wish me luck!
Don't stone me for this but you should've opted for a Lian Li Full tower. Those things are beautiful, although lacking in the side fan.
the tomshardwares used Scythe Katana 3 cpu cooler to run the test, I assume this cooler will fit inside the P193, and try to find some similar sized cooler may help you.
The performance isn't good enough to OC my i7 920. I did come across the Zalman CNPS10X-Flex and at 74 x 151 x 133 mm (WxHxD) it'd fit my case, but I'm pretty much sold on the H50's water cooling performance and it's much lighter than a hulking great heatsink on the mobo.
It would seem the only alternative price wise for a large, quiet case on a similar footing to the 193 is the CM 840. £160 worth of aluminium goodness. Probably a little rich for me, but Lian-Li don't do enough things that I like the look of quietness wise. Still like the PC50 and it's only £110, but only 3HDD bays and only small fans.
The CM840 does look gorgeous and very practical too - definitely a case for life with all those useful installation options
The P193 case can fit a tall fan like the Zalman CNPS10X. Just take the side fan assembly apart (you will need an Allen key) and put it back together so that instead of filter housing - case - fan it is filter housing - fan - case. The only hitch is the case holes are larger than the bolt heads, so you will need to use four washers (1/8" x 1" do nicely). Remember to thread the power cable through into the case before you tighten everything up. I guess having the fan outside the case may make it slightly less quiet, but the fan control switch is now on the outside anyway
That's a very good idea (saves modding the case) - have you done that with yours? If so, is cooling performance affected and how snug a fit is the inner fan casing against the case exterior?
