New Black Versions of Antec P180 & P150 Cases... And New Updates to go with Them

Thanks for the reviews and infos!

The SOLO is a very welcome development in Antec's Product line. The very reasons why I held off on the P150 --> power supply and white, have been addressed. Nice that the rubber issue is corrected as well. Unfortunately, the SOLO is not yet listed on Antec's European website. But if the European introduction is anything like the P150, in a couple of months, after the ship docks in Rotterdam, the containers are unloaded, we'll find it over here too. It will be worth waiting for!

-sun.moon

Hey !
Good job, well done. just a typo on the intro shown on spcr home page :

"Recently, the company released significantly updated versions of the P180 and the P180, including much demanded black finish jobs. Please click on read more."

Should read P180 and P150 I guess

http://www.antec.com/pdf/CaseComparison.pdf

Odd that P150 is listed as a "Quiet Mini Tower" while SOLO as "Mid Tower"

Very nice. Good to see Antec is listening

Yes, but it's a shame that they didn't give the P180 the 150's drive suspension - I'd have bought straight away.

Maybe they...

a) didn't have enough room for drive suspension (due to the internal divisions)
b) thought wasn't worth the trouble / they'll use it in a future product
c) *forgot*

Couple of questions:

1) Are all the black versions of the new revision?
2) Are there any regular P180 with the changes?

1) There probably are black SPCR versions in retailers' stocks which are original.
2) Yes. Both silver & black versions have the upgrades.

Devon,
did you mean to say silence friendly?

I am certainly not a fan of anything noise-friendly. silence all the way

I ordered a P180 on Monday and was going to ask in the forums if there was anything new due from Antec and now this. I read the article last night with a slight dismay as my P180 arrived on Thursday. I was considering whether it was worth the cost of returning it, but when I looked at the case manual this morning it turns out I already have the new version.
I bought it in the UK from Savastore for £74 including postage.
It states on the box that it’s a P180 V1.1 which might be useful to know if you are purchasing over the phone and trying to determine what version a retailer has in stock.
I’m off to build that computer now…

You missed that typo

Why in the world did Antec make the black p180's door silver(ish) on the inside? When opened fully and stowed on the side of the case, as shown in the picture, the "all-black" appearance is gone.

As to the P150/Solo, yes, Antec listened - sort of. The Solo's silver and black configuration got 18% in an SPCR poll, only 2% better than the silver and white P150, while all-black got 42%, more than the other two combined. This out of 107 votes in a three week poll.

Did Antec hire some fresh-out-of-B-school marketing types?

Why, oh why did they not suspend the drives in the P180 like the P150?

I would like to see how much difference that makes compared to the current drive-slot with grommets.

Hmm. This is a semantic issue. I mean by noise-friendly what I think you mean by silence-friendly. I think that this is evident from the context. For what it's worth, I consider "noise-friendly" to mean "improving noise", not "increasing noise" as you seem to think. I doubt there is a recognized defintion of "noise-friendly", so please work with me here. I don't think the meaning is very difficult to suss out given the context.

I just bought a P150 on ebay for $26! Even with the $10 for S/H, its only $36! I hope its the new one, but Im guessing its not. In the new version the only difference besides the color is the HDD straps and nonstealthed drives, correct? I dont know if it will come with the PSU or not, but I dont really care, mine is sufficient...[/img]

Has the P150 got the same updated rubber suspension bands as the SOLO?

Yes. The article should have made this clear.

Updated the post on the front page to make clear what changes do and don't apply to the new revisions / black editions.

I just ordered the P180B without reading the postscript to the original review.

As i'd ordered the case based upon the original SPCR review i was surprised to find the VGA Duct missing.

Am pleased to say that Antec were very quick in responding (same day) to my question regarding the 'missing' VGA duct.

I'm looking now forward to moving my not so silent setup into its new house.

I sourced the P180B from Ebuyer for £85 (various delivery prices) which was the cheapest I could find the black cased version in the UK. Glad to find that it is the new revision.

Shame about the silver interior to the door!

Just curious, am I the only one who can't get to any of the other pages except page 1 of the original review?

Thanks!

You mean this review?

All 13 pages work fine for me. FF1.5.04.

Yeah, that review. Funny, everything seems to be working just fine now. My ISP must have been having DNS or caching issues, since my cache was cleared multiple times.

Oh well, works now!!!

Quick question:

I was always under the impression that the back PCI plates were closed because of EMI radiation... is this not the case?

And by having those open now, doesn't it actually allow a much bigger short-circuit path from there to the rear fan?

Thanks

Yes, I would imagine that having the vents closed would be good for cutting down EMI, but the vents are so small that I doubt they make much difference where EMI is concerned.

Regarding a short-circuit in the airflow, I would imagine you're right, but only if a VGA card is not used — not the primary market for the P180. With a VGA card in the way, the short-circuit becomes useful because it provides much-needed cooling to the expansion cards.

I'd like to see a new model (maybe the P170?).

Basically it would be a cross between the P180 and the Solo (P150 rev2). I find the P180 too big/bulky and the tri-layer exterior is perhaps a little overkill. So make the P170 a mid-tower, separated psu chamber, suspended hard-drives, Solo's fan filtering, and the Solo's dampening substance instead of the tri-layer business. Price-point: something less than a P180.

Is there room for the separated psu chamber in a mid-tower?

My experience with a Solo and comments.

Regarding

I built a Folding rig with two Asus 9600GSO's with the Glaciator Fansink on an Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard. I tried running the tri-cool at the lowest speed but the heat in the case went way up, with the case becoming warm to the touch and the exhaust air getting quite warm. Cranking the fan up lowered the temps, but the noise went way up. I started looking for a replacement 120mm fan that would be a good balance of CFM/noise. Then I started looking for a pair of 92mm fans for the front. At one point, I noticed the CFM's for the 92mm's, and when adding them up, realized that the CFM from 2 92mm fans is LESS THAN the CFM of one 120MM fan, not to mention the CFM through the PSU! So much for that idea.
Secondly, I tend to move parts around quite a bit. In order to remove the PSU, the motherboard has to be removed, unless I'm missing something! Kinda like the Camaro's that you had to loosen the engine mounts and jack the engine up just to replace the spark plugs.
Otherwise, it's a nice case. It will show you how dirty your environment is. With 5 people and a dog in my house, my case looks dirty within 2 weeks.
Musings: I wish that the manufacturers would make cases the size they NEED to be, not some pre-conceived idea of what size they should be. If this case was slightly (like .5 inch) taller the PSU removal problem could have been solved. If it was a little wider and taller, 2 120mm fans could have been used in the front. The PSU removal problem could also be fixed if the support bar was removable, which I understand could be a rattle concern.

There is no need to cross-post -- please refrain from doing this!

I normally don't....it's just that that other thread goes back to 2005 and the last post there was Jun 15, 2007, although I just noticed that the last one in this thread was Jul 02, 2006.

Well then you're double-screwed you silly necro-poster! Slap yourself with a wet trout!