Moving on from an Antec P180 Mini but to what?
Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 10:41 am
I actually bought a Fractal Design Define R4 but I was hearing a noise at times which I had never heard with the Antec so when it developed 2 faults within a week of purchase I returned it for a refund; shame as it had some good features.
Overall it made me realise that the Antec P series are really solidly built and also that I appreciate the internal size of an ATX case and modern features such as the tray cut-out for heat-sink installation, fan controller and USB 3.0.
So the obvious choice seems to be an Antec P183 V3 or P280 or even a P193 but I want to look at other options as well.
The must have features are these:
USB 3, preferably on the top, 2 of them and they must use an internal header.
Silent out of the box with regard to the case design, no after market silencing kits.
Removable drive bays or if not the space to install a single HDD on a piece of acoustic tile. That is my default safe install as it guarantees a silent HDD.
120mm rear fan support.
Optional features in order with most significant first:
Bottom located PSU.
Tray cut out for heatsink installation.
Top located buttons: power & reset
Fan controller
Ideally I would like to avoid these but appreciate that I will likely have to work around them:
Fans installed in the Case Top.
Fans larger than 120mm.
Bling.
Here is what I am investigating:
mATX
Silverstone Temjin Evolotion SST-TJ08B-E
ATX
Cooler Master Silencio RC-550
Cooler Master Silencio 650
NZXT Hush 2 White
Antec P183 V3
Antec P280
Antec P193
The components used are not that demanding:
Z77 mobo with up to an i5-K CPU at stock speed
SSD
2TB WD Green
8GB RAM 1.35V
nVidia 650 Ti – MSI with their custom cooler which is silent at idle and usually at load.
Seasonic X-400 Gold Fanless.
Any input greatly appreciated whilst I continue in Sherlock Holmes mode; cocaine swapped out for San Miguel which is silent until you hit the threshold where it gets really loud.
Overall it made me realise that the Antec P series are really solidly built and also that I appreciate the internal size of an ATX case and modern features such as the tray cut-out for heat-sink installation, fan controller and USB 3.0.
So the obvious choice seems to be an Antec P183 V3 or P280 or even a P193 but I want to look at other options as well.
The must have features are these:
USB 3, preferably on the top, 2 of them and they must use an internal header.
Silent out of the box with regard to the case design, no after market silencing kits.
Removable drive bays or if not the space to install a single HDD on a piece of acoustic tile. That is my default safe install as it guarantees a silent HDD.
120mm rear fan support.
Optional features in order with most significant first:
Bottom located PSU.
Tray cut out for heatsink installation.
Top located buttons: power & reset
Fan controller
Ideally I would like to avoid these but appreciate that I will likely have to work around them:
Fans installed in the Case Top.
Fans larger than 120mm.
Bling.
Here is what I am investigating:
mATX
Silverstone Temjin Evolotion SST-TJ08B-E
ATX
Cooler Master Silencio RC-550
Cooler Master Silencio 650
NZXT Hush 2 White
Antec P183 V3
Antec P280
Antec P193
The components used are not that demanding:
Z77 mobo with up to an i5-K CPU at stock speed
SSD
2TB WD Green
8GB RAM 1.35V
nVidia 650 Ti – MSI with their custom cooler which is silent at idle and usually at load.
Seasonic X-400 Gold Fanless.
Any input greatly appreciated whilst I continue in Sherlock Holmes mode; cocaine swapped out for San Miguel which is silent until you hit the threshold where it gets really loud.