Can't the VGA duct take over the CAGs role? Not that I think it will be necessary - with two unrestricted exhausts and such an unrestricted intake (no hard drives in the way), the air around the CPU should be fairly cool anyway.

If you look at the original prototypes from CES, you'll see that there actually was a pseudo CAG originally. Apparently testing showed no cooling improvement with it, so it was deleted in the production cases.

I hope that's the case. My system uses the 3000b duct and a fanless XP-120 to cool my newcastle, much like Edward Ng did. Hopefully I can get this case and it will cool the same or even better.

One thing I would like to know about this great case is....can a Smartdrive enclosure fit in the lower hard drive area, once the rack thing has been removed? Some measurements of my own Smartdrive, and visual guesstimates of the P180 suggest it might just be able to fit in somehow, which would be terrific.

I wish Antec thought of making the P180 configurable for both vertical tower and horizontal HTPC use. It would have been nice if you could rotate the drive cages and mount feet and the bottom had the same brushed aluminum finish. Seems to me that you could fit three 5.25 drives horizontal with a spacer plate and then have little V groove tracks on the corners of the case walls that the mount feet could slide into so they could be moved and still keep the sleek appearance of the P180. That would have been truly innovative...

I'll ask my metal shop buddies how feasible it would be for them to mill the tracks and track feet, refinish the bottom, and chop up the drive cages for horizontal mounting.

Does the front door have enough clearance from the side vents to house a USB powered LCD screen? Seems like with the side vents on the door it wouldn't impede airflow at all.

Guys, a few places are showing stock on this thing. I don't plan to get it until Newegg has it in stock, but thought I'd post it. ComputerHQ says they have it, though I haven't verified. Resellerratings doesn't give them a very high rating though. Some sites are showing ETA this week and next.

I'm lving the black version of this case, still no word on Uk distributor for it though. Which is a shame.

This would probably be best in the Phantom 500 thread. But I wonder how well the Phantom 500 would work in the bottom section and turning the fan off. Of course I wouldn't be able to put hard drives in that cavern.

I'm wondering the same thing about this case with the phantom 500. I am hoping that this PSU is part of the case review coming soon.

It even has a user review on the computerHQ website!
(not very favourable though )

Well, I grabbed one at TechonWeb.com. Got a shipping number and it's suppose to be here Friday. I'll let you guys know how it looks if I get the right case.

For any of those interested it costs $120 shipping to England.

The silver version is nice but there's still no word on when the black will be availble? I really want the black one but it cost almost $60 more than the silver.

EndPCNoise are being asses at not telling us anything. Seroiusly, why didnt' SPCR pick a more reliable vendor? I really wanna black one.

Hey, when you get it.... I found it curious that the techonweb description of the case indicated 2 installed fans, instead of the 3 that the antec site describes. I'm wondering if they're pulling one of the fans (and thus lowering the price by about $13, too). Just curious how many fans it ends up coming with from techonweb.

I've decided to forget the black version and go ahead an order the regular one.
I'm tired of waiting. Endpcnoise clearly doesn't have their act together, plus they want $200 shipped when I can get it for like $70 less elsewhere.

Wow, the black is nice but it definately isn't worth the $70 price difference.

I just read this

lenny has posted a first impressions here:
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=22725

lucky guy...

rumour has it the case will appear in Singapore by end of June. The Sonata II is already supposed to be here although I haven't been down to the famous (infamous?) SLS (Sim Lim Square) for a while.

For the silver P180--- some places are charging up to US$200 (atacom.com), but you'll nominally be able to get it from buy.com for $130. Interesting that buy.com also only lists it as having two 12cm fans.

For the black P180--- If it's $70 more expensive, I'll buy the silver one and black-enamel the thing in my woodshed myself. Then I'll send SPCR a $10 check to show my support, and still be better $50 on the deal. Actually.. I might *white* enamel the thing.. it'll look better in my nautical-themed room.. hmm... talk about a "fridge look".

Ah, when we get word of a UK supplier for the black spcr version of this sweet sweet Antec P180 it will be a happy day indeed ...

Silver version in stock.
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/ ... 08cd514a27

Interesting, that. The writing directly under the picture indicates 3 standard fans, which is what the Antec site indicates. However, the description below says

Up to 2x120mm Fans
- 1 rear (standard) 120mm TriCool Fan with 3-speed switch control
- 1 top (optional) 120mm TriCool Fan
- 1 lower chamber (standard) 120mm x 38mm (thick) TriCool Fan
- 1 front (optional) 120mm fan
- 1 (optional) 80mm case fan in the Air Duct over the graphics card

I keep seeing this at a LOT of sites offering the P180....they seem to be making the top blow-hole fan optional. At least, they're SAYING it's optional, I'm curious if they're actually shipping the P180 with only 2 fans.

There's definitely 3 fans in the one I got. You can search for my thread with links to pictures. But there's very definitely 3 fans in the retail box.

- 120x25 top
- 120x25 rear
- 120x38 PSU chamber

All 3 came with this little white switch hanging off a short length of cable that allows you to select the speed. I guess thats what Antec meant by tri-cool.

Ya, I didn't bother asking you because I noted you definitely had received all 3 fans. I also noted, though, that you picked it up at a local store. All of the fan number discrepencies I've seen are for internet stores, so I'm really curious if they could all be mistakenly posting wrong data, or if they really have pulled a fan out.

Nice writeup, by the way. You're helping fill the huge gaping complete vacuum of official review by SPCR (hint hint).

Central Computer also does online ordering, so I should think it's the same retail package. Maybe there's more than one version of the P180, though I doubt it - logistic nightmare. Maybe they got it from an earlier Antec write-up? Now that I think about it, with negative case pressure (two intake fans, both not included), leaving out the blowhole fan would mean air gets sucked in from there since it doesn't come sealed.

Anyway, mine's far from a review. I was just trying to supplement the very nice visual tour with some photos on things that I thought were important but not mentioned in that article.

That has to do with what some of the internet stores actually does -- though usually this was noticed mostly with camera shops, I guess computer cases receive the same treatment, too:

1. Store receives retail packages of things.
2. Store takes out certain things from the package and lowballs the price. The honest ones will actually tell you in the details that it has less things in the package than "usual," though they don't usually state that straight out, so you need to compare it to the usual retail package in order to notice that.
3. Store sells the stuff taken out as "accessories". Sometimes selling them for more than the price at other stores when you buy their lowballed item with the "accessories" together.

Definitely sneaky, and will generally aggravate the impluse shoppers who saw the lowballed price and didn't notice the missing stuff until they bought it.

ZZF has it
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... e=shopping

The camera shops are even worse, some will hang up on you, and put your order and permanent back order unless you buy the accessories.

There was a lot of discussion about the use of the Antec Phantom 500 in the P180. Any comments on whether the mCubed semi-passive T-Power 400W would solve some of the problems with controling the fan mentioned with the Phantom.

It has an internal temperature probe that can be connected into a T-Balancer, and a fan safety cut-in of 80C, with recommended cut in or 60C Its fan is a single 120mm.

The built-in PSU temperature probe, with a probe on the HDD would allow you to manage the internal case fan as well as the PSU fan to cut in as the HDD's or PSU got too hot, so this'd give the control that the Phantom lacks.

Wasn't sure where to post a link to the Computerbase review of the P180, but figured I had to somewhere based on Mike's involvement. Although in German, the pictures say it all: similar (well to me 1dB is similar) noise, vastly better temps compared to their reference (Temjin SST-TJ06) case.