Antec P160 aluminum case

The just-released Antec P160 “Performance One Super mid-tower” aluminum case is anticipated with a great deal of excitment over its bold appearance and Antec’s

December 7, 2003 by Ralf
Hutter (with Mike Chin)

Antec has been busy: They’ve
released more than a half dozen new cases during the past 12-14 months.
There’s the SLK1600, SLK2600, SLK3700AMB and SLK3700BQE, the Lanboy, the Sonata,
the Overture, the Minuet, the new Super Lanboy… and the subject of this review,
the brand new P160.

Antec copy writers were allowed off the leash for the promotional work on this one. From the P160 product page on their web site:

There are plenty of ways to experience mind-numbing performance. You could strap on a jet and blaze across the sky. Or you could just grab our new P160. Carved from supremely strong anodized aluminum — the same stuff fighter pilots swear by*…

*Disclaimer: OK, that’s not really true. But it sure sounds cool.

Woah! Are they still talking about a computer case? Does the P160 come with a shoulder harness and grab handles so you can hang on for dear life? Ah… well, they are having some fun, and that’s not a bad thing. It just is. But just in case, here’s a photo to bring you back down from the wild blue yonder and remind you that it is, in fact, a PC case.

As someone who keeps up with the computer case scene, I’m used to seeing people’s
feedback in forums on what they want from a case. The Antec Sonata was a big
hit and seemed to fill a niche that never existed before. It is a popular
case, but I’ve also seen a lot of people requesting an updated version.
They say, “We want a case like the Sonata but how about adding a removable
motherboard tray, making it out of aluminum for light weight, and selling
it without a PSU so we can install the PSU of our choice”. Another common
request is for conveniently mounted front I/O ports like USB 2.0, Firewire and Audio out.

Well,
it seems like Antec really listens to its customers because the new P160’s
list of features reads like it was lifted right off of a case junkie’s wish
list.

CASE SPECIFICATIONS 1.2mm anodized aluminum Removable motherboard tray Front control panel swivels up to 45 degrees Connectors: 2 x USB 2.0, 1 x IEEE 1394 (FireWire, i.Link) and 2 x audio jacks LED temperature display with two built-in sensors Accommodates any ATX12V power supply 10 drive bays Color-coordinated CD-ROM & floppy drive covers 4 external 5.25″ 2 external 3.5″ 4 internal 3.5″ Rubber mounting grommets in hard drive trays Cooling capacity: 1 x 120mm low speed fan 1 x 120mm fan mount Built-in washable air filter Removable Side Panel Fits motherboards up to Standard ATX External Dimensions: Height – 20.3″ Depth – 19.7″ Width – 8.1

The P160 is actually the first case in a new line that Antec is calling Performance
One. They’re calling the Performance One line a cross
between a Quiet Computing case and a Performance case. Their promotional copy says

“It combines the best of Quiet Computing technology with Antec’s
years of experience designing high-performance cases”

Looking at
the list of features, their claim seems justified.

To keep things quiet the case comes
setup with a rubber mounted 120mm fan in the rear and can accommodate another
120mm fan in front of the hard drive bay for additional cooling if required.
The P160 also uses the rubber mounting grommets in the hard drive sleds that
Antec introduced in the Sonata.

The performance side of the equation is handled
by the lightweight aluminum construction, the removable motherboard tray,
the complete set of front I/O ports with built-in temperature sensors, the
easily removable drive bays and the top-class case cooling provided by two
120mm fans.

Antec continues their
attractive promotional packaging for the P160.

THE EXTERIOR

Antec calls the P160 a “Super Mid Tower” case. The height is 20.3″, exactly 2″ taller than the SLK3700 and 3.5″ taller than the Sonata. The extra height appears to be directly related to their new top front control panel. More on this later.

The case has four
external 5.25″ bays, two external 3.5″ bays and four internal 3.5″
bays. The internal bays are laid out in the same 90° orientation of Antec’s
Sonata and SLK3700BQE and include the same type of snap in, easily removable
drive trays with grommet mounting points for the drives. These trays are constructed
from aluminum, as is the majority of this case. The external 5.25″ bays
utilize the familiar snap-in drive rail system that Antec uses on their other
cases, albeit, out of aluminum instead of plastic and steel.

The sheet metal is
1.2 mm anodized aluminum, which is thicker than the more common 1 mm. The edges have been deburred
and most are rolled over to prevent cuts while working inside the case. Many
of the slots and holes, while not having any burrs, have been left fairly sharp.
I never cut myself working inside this case but a lot of the wires had their
insulation shaved a bit while being pulled through various bulkheads.

Side Panels

Both sides of the case are removable, the right side via a set of four thumbscrews,
the front two of which are only accessible after the front bezel has been
removed. The left side door is held on by a set of two thumbscrews on the
back wall and a set of rotating latches on the upper side of the case door.
One of these latches has a barrel lock built into it to prevent unauthorized
access to the interior of the case. Both side doors swing open from the top
and then lift up out of the case. If you’re working in a cramped location,
this method is slightly easier than the normal Antec method of swinging open
and being removed from the back. I’ve come to like this door. It’s real easy to grasp
both latches, turn them 90° to open the door and then use the latches
as a handle to lift the door away from the case.

Front Bezel

This front bezel represents
a design departure for Antec. With the P160 Antec has combined a new styling
exercise with functionality. The bezel attempts to carry over the silver
theme of the main body with a plastic silver painted face and chrome trim.
The silver edging that goes around the main faceplate integrates many small slots that open into the chassis front, and possibly provides a secondary path for air intake.

The use of plastic rather than aluminum will disappoint many who especially like the brushed aluminum on the most visible, front portion of the case. Whether Antec’s is successful stylistically is certainly a matter of personal taste, but it doesn’t do much
for me. This decorative chrome is too busy and a little over the
top for my sensibilities but it does go along with the silver theme
so at least it’s not glaringly out of place. (MikeC’s comment: Way too James Bond for me.)

Antec’s
previous bezel designs have pretty much conformed to standard case style:
a set of 5.25″ and 3.5″ drives, perhaps covered by a door, power
buttons and lights, a set of louvers to cover the fan grill underneath the
bezel, and on the newer cases a set of USB and perhaps Firewire ports. The
P160 bezel ventures into new territory.

Swiveling Control Panel

At the top of
the bezel, we see the most evident new feature, the tilting “control
panel”. This panel swivels up to 45° in order to give the best
access to its features for a seat user when the case is placed on the floor. Antec has been innovative in locating
all the buttons and I/O ports at the top.
Normal case design dictates, for whatever reason, that all these buttons and
ports be located in the middle or at the bottom of the bezel, sometimes even
buried underneath a door. With the P160 they are all right out in the open,
up at the top of the case where they are very easy to use. From left to right, the control panel features a Firewire port, 2 USB 2.0 ports, reset
button, temperature sensor readout, audio I/O jacks, HDD activity and Power
LEDs and the power button.

Front I/O panel. Firewire, USB 2.0, reset
button, Temp readout, Audio I/O jacks and Power button. Nice! Also note edge vent slots.

I can verify that both the USB 2.0 ports are indeed USB 2.0 and are a pleasure
to work with, not having to bend down to connect a USB device to them. The motherboard that I used in this review system has no onboard Firewire
or audio and my Firewire PCI card has no internal headers so I was unable
to test the performance of the front panel Firewire port or the audio ports.

Built-in Digital Thermometer

Another nice feature of this swiveling I/O panel are the 2 built in thermal
sensors and the LED readout for them. There are 2 separate 26″ long sensor
wires with flat sensors on the ends. These are long enough to reach to almost
anywhere in the case where you might want to measure the temperature. The
LED readout is easy to see and can be set in either Celsius or Fahrenheit.
I set up one sensor lead about 1.5″ above the CPU cooling fan intake to
measure the case temp at the cooling inlet. The other sensor was set up at the PSU fan exhaust to measure the air temperature exiting the PSU. While
in operation the LED readout on the I/O panel toggles back and forth between
each different temperature reading every 3 seconds. The readings seem accurate,
as far as I can tell. The case temperature reading was within 1°C of the
motherboard’s temperature sensor reading, and the PSU temperature reading from
the sensor was the same as the reading I got from an external thermometer
that I used for comparison purposes.

The power and reset switches and the HDD activity and power LEDs all worked
just as they should. The reset button, while not as large as the main power
button, isn’t recessed and can be inadvertently depressed while
trying to plug in a USB device.

How do I know that?

Because I did it while
plugging in a USB memory stick and not paying attention to what I was doing.
I’d like to see this reset switch made smaller and recessed below flush
or guarded by a raised lip or something.

Built-in Optical Drive Covers

Another new feature for Antec is the 5.25″ drive bay covers. Filling
the top two slots on the P160’s bezel is a set of drive covers that look like
the face of a standard optical drive. They’re actually spring-loaded
hinged doors that cover the real optical drive faceplate. The open/close button on the bezel protrudes through
the back and butts up against optical drive
mounted in the case. Pressing the button on the cover transfers through to
the optical drive and the tray opens, pushing
open the hinged cover. (See photo below). This system provides
full functionality to the optical drive while neatly sidestepping any color mismatch
issues.

Flip-open optical drive cover. The black CD drive mounted behind the bezel normally remains hidden behind the silver cover.

Another nice feature on the front
bezel is the color coordinated faceplate for the floppy drive. This lets you
mount your floppy drive behind it in a method similar to the optical drives.
The drive can be any color but it’s hidden behind the faux floppy faceplate
so it doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb yet it’s fully functional.

Big Intake Vents

Along
with the top mounted I/O panel, the front air intake slots in the lower part of the bezel are the most visually prominent features of
the P160. (MikeC’s note: They make one think of the polished intake vents on… er… the engines of a jet fighter plane? Yikes, those Antec copywriters have got under my aluminum skin!) The slots are oval shaped, about 1″ x 4″ in size.
The slots are about an inch deep and are surrounded by a continuation of the
same chrome trim that surrounds the outside perimeter of the bezel. The air
intakes have a straight path to the interior of the case, broken only by the
expanded metal grillwork, the washable air filter and a wide open fan grill on the inside chassis.
At first glance, this expanded metal grill looks a bit restrictive but it
certainly does nothing to keep the noise in the case so it must let the air
flow in rather well too.

Front air intakes. Note the chrome surrounds.
Blue LEDs are imbedded in the top of each slot.

Directly behind the air intake slots on the back side of the bezel is the
removable, washable air filter. It is similar to
filters on previous Antec cases, a fine plastic mesh screen stretched
over a plastic frame. It requires the bezel to be removed. One common flaw of the last several Antec cases I’ve used is also found here: The
intake airflow from the 5″ x 3/4″ slot on the bottom lip of the bezel completely bypasses the front air filter. (MikeC’s note: So don’t be surprised if you still end up with dust bunnies in your case after a few weeks even with regular filter cleaning.)

Removing the front air filter. Note the
slot in the bottom lip of the bezel

The front bezel is pretty easy to remove — just pull straight out from the bottom after the left side
door has been removed. There’s a spring loaded bar that engages a slot in
the front bezel. This bar only retracts out of the way if the left side
door has been removed. The front bezel is held in by a set of six plastic
tabs that snap into holes in the front chassis wall. There’s also a plug
in wire connector that provides power to the three LEDs that are imbedded
into the front intake slots. These 3 lights cast a blue glow throughout each
intake slot… but they do nothing for me.

LEFT: Back side of bezel. Note the flip-open
CD-ROM drive covers, the FDD cover and the removable air filter. RIGHT:
Mmm, bling, bling!

The Back Panel

The back of the case sports the usual ATX standard PSU mounting holes, an
I/O shield attached to the removable motherboard tray, a set of seven covered
PCI card slots and a very nicely vented 120mm fan grill that looks like a
direct copy of the Sonata fan grill. This grill provides unimpeded
airflow for the included 120mm case fan. The extra 2″ height over a SLK3700 case can be clear seen here — it is the space above the hole for the PSU exhaust, which is used mostly for the top front control panel.

Rear view. All the usual suspects and
no included PSU. Note the excellent fan grill.

THE INTERIOR

Ooh, look at all that beautiful shiny unblemished aluminum!

Big front intake vent features an open pattern grill similar to the back.

A few new things here; otherwise it’s a continuation of Antec’s successful
Sonata and SKL3700AMB interiors.

First up are the four 5.25″ drive bays
with the familiar screw-on rails. One change here is the inclusion of two sets
of mounting holes on the rails. The first is for mounting the drives so their
faces are flush with the face of the front bezel, the other set is positioned
so the drive will sit below the face of the front bezel and is intended to
be used by an optical drive in one of the top two bays with the
flip-open faceplates.

Next comes the first of the 3.5″ drive bays, this
one is intended to mount a standard floppy drive as well as one more 3.5″
drive. If the floppy drive is mounted in the top drive bay it can be positioned
behind the fake bezel, quite like the optical drives, so it matches the front
bezel.

Four HDD bays and the “door” for
the front fan compartment. The wires are power for the front LEDs.

Sidewinder HDD Sleds

The basic setup is very similar to that first used in the Sonata and then more recently on the SLK3700BQE. Beneath the middle set of 3.5″ bays is the hard drive cage that is rotated
90° from the normal orientation and is provided with snap-in drive sleds. Each sled has 4 firm black rubber grommets on the bottom for
mounting the hard drives. The rubber grommets serve to dampen vibration from
the drives and keep them quieter than a normal “hard-mounted”
drive. Antec has provided special shoulder bolts to mount the drives to the
grommeted sleds. These bolts create just the right amount of tension on the
grommets when the bolts are tightened until they bottom out on the drive. It is not a complete solution: The grommets are just a bit too hard to eliminate drive vibrations; they reduce it. (You may know if you read the SPCR forums that I ended up using pads of Sorbothane® in place of grommets and screws to achieve complete freedom from HDD vibration in the SLK3700BQE.)

One advantage of the sideways oriented drives is that it’s easier to route
the IDE and power cables along the sides of the case, out of the airflow.
This should make it easier to maintain good airflow through the case and keep
temperatures down, although this is offset somewhat by the construction of
the drive cage itself which provides only four 3/4″ x 4″ slots for
the air to circulate through the drive cage area.

The drive sleds and the cage are made out of aluminum, just like the rest of the case. They fit rather loosely into the cages;
it seems like there’s some potential for a noisy or high vibration drive to cause the sled
to rattle within the cage. Despite that, the sled can stick or jam easily when inserting and removing. This may be a result of aluminum’s softness rather than any design or manufacturing flaw. I used a
Seagate Barracuda IV, still the quietest desktop drive ever, for this review and I didn’t notice any vibration or
rattling coming from the drive cage, but I did experience more seek noise
than normal. I don’t know if this was due to the drive cage resonance, or
perhaps the very open, unrestricted air intake slots, or maybe a little of
both.

Door to the front fan

Between the drive cage and the front case wall is a small
aluminum door fastened with a thumbscrew (as are the majority of the
removable pieces on the P160. Another nice touch by Antec). This is
actually the front fan mounting bracket. It slides into the front of the case
sort of like a guillotine blade and has a 120mm hole and 4 mounting holes
to allow the owner to attach a 120mm x 25mm fan of their choice.

The front
fan grill is very open and unobstructive, this should provide a unimpeded
path for the air to flow into the case. This fan mounting setup is flawed though.

1. The fan has to be screwed directly
onto the plate, there’s not enough room to use any sort of dampened mounting
method such as O-rings or the same type of rubber mounts that are used on
the rear fan.

2. The second problem is that the mounting bracket itself fits
loosely in its rails and can rattle around easily. This definitely
isn’t conducive to quiet operation. Antec does offer the caveat that you
“not install a front fan unless necessary for cooling, since it will create
additional noise“. They’re spot-on with that tip.

120mm front fan bracket slid out.

Included 120mm Fan

The case comes equipped with one 120mm fan that’s intended to be used as
the case exhaust fan on the back wall. This fan has no model numbers on it
but seems to be the same low noise version I found in the SLK3700BQE.
It comes wired with a 4-pin Molex connector with a pass through connector.

Antec also included the four silicon rubber mounting barbs that are
also used in the Sonata and the 3700BQE. These mounts do an excellent job
of decoupling the fan so that any fan vibration or noise isn’t amplified by
being bolted solidly to the case wall.

I first tried this fan out at 12 volts
and while it wasn’t as loud as some 120mm fans that I’ve heard, it was still
too loud for me so I undervolted it to 5 volts. At 5 volts it’s pretty darn
quiet, and puts out a fairly decent amount of air so
I left it. This fan has a somewhat noticeable clicking
noise that decreases in frequency, but not volume, as you lower the voltage.
The excellent fan grill on the rear wall doesn’t seem to add any additional
air turbulence noise to the case.

Rear case fan. Note the silicon rubber
mounting barbs. These do a good job of decoupling the fan from the case for
less noise.

Removable Motherboard Tray

One of the things that you’ll notice when you open up the
P160 is the removable motherboard tray. This has got to be the #1
most requested features on enthusiasts’ wish list for cases. Apparently
Antec was listening to their customers when they drew up the plans for the
P160. The Antec tray will fit micro-ATX or standard ATX motherboards. It’s
aluminum and comes with threaded steel inserts for the brass motherboard standoffs
that are included in the accessory box.

The Antec motherboard tray is designed
differently than most of removable motherboard trays that I’m used to dealing
with. Instead of including a bracket that the AGP and PCI cards bolt onto,
Antec has designed this tray so that the cards must be removed from the tray
before it can be removed from the case. This makes it more of a hassle than
if they had designed the tray in the normal fashion where the motherboard
and cards are all attached to the removable tray.

Motherboard tray removed from case. Note
the standard ATX and m-ATX hole pattern. The six slots are the tabs that hold this tray onto the chassis. Note the
handle.

Another departure from convention
is that instead of the tray sliding out the rear of the case, it actually gets
pulled right out the open side of the case. The tray is attached to the case
by some tabs on the tray which engage slots on the case as you slide the tray
into position against the back case wall. There is a retaining plate that
holds the tray in place. The tray rests against three nylon pads that are
attached to the chassis. These pads keep the tray from rattling.

There is
a protruding “handle” that can be used to grasp onto the motherboard
tray for removal, that way you don’t have to hold your motherboard by the
CPU fan or the memory sticks when you’re installing or removing it. The problem
with this handle is that it is positioned in such a way that it block easy
access to the IDE and FDD header of most motherboards. Rounded cable users
probably won’t have any problems with this, but for people that use flat ribbon
IDE/FDD cables and like to keep them folded flat out of the airflow this handle
provides a nice challenge. Having the tray pull
out the side of the case instead of the rear means you’ll have to move all
the disconnected IDE and power cables back out of the way so they don’t keep
getting hooked on the motherboard and components as you’re removing it from
the case.

Motherboard installed on tray. Note the
position of the handle relative to the IDE/FDD headers.

Antec has not included a power supply with the P160, allowing the user to choose whichever power supply fits their needs. I used a Seasonic Super Silencer 400W. This power
supply mounted with no problem at all.

Also included inside the P160 is a box full of the usual motherboard
standoffs, assorted case screws and drive mounting screws plus the special
shoulder bolts for use with the hard drive mounting grommets. There’s also
a bag containing four sets of aluminum drive rails for the 5.25″ bays
and a set of keys for the lockable left side panel. With the left side panel
locked the case is impervious to casual intruders. Neither the front bezel
nor the right side panel is removable until the left side panel has been taken
off the case.

A Good Manual!

Then there is the Owner’s
Manual. Most case manuals, if they exist
at all, are pretty basic. Antec has been continuously improving their manuals recently, and the P160 manual continues that trend: It is by far the best case manual I’ve seen. It is
remarkably thorough and easy to understand. All the assembly
procedures are well covered, from the connections for the myriad of wiring
that emanates from the back of the I/O panel, to different techniques of
mounting the optical and floppy drives.

ASSEMBLY AND TESTING

Setting up a system in the P160 was very straightforward thanks
to the roomy, well designed case. The well-written manual made it easy to
correctly mount the optical and floppy drives to take advantage of Antec’s
“stealth” mounting technique. The power supply bolted right on to
the back of the case and there’s plenty of room above and behind it to neatly
tuck away any unused power supply wiring.

The rear case fan was literally and figuratively a snap to mount
thanks to the cleverly packaged directions that came with it. The fan comes
tie-wrapped to the back of the case, securely wrapped inside its padded
installation instruction sheet: Yes, this sheet does double duty as
a protective wrap for the fan and instructions on how to install
the fan using the silicon rubber mounting barbs that are pre fitted into it.
Antec has taken an extra step to make sure the fan arrives in perfect shape
and that its installation goes smoothly.

For my initial build, I chose not to use any cooling fan in the
front of the case, in the interest of low noise, and to see how well the P160
breathes with just one exhaust fan running at a fairly quiet 5 volts. After
my initial testing I did add a 92mm Panaflo L1A to the front grill to spot
cool the HDD. I wanted to see if it made any significant difference to the
HDD temperature or the noise level. This fan was mounted to the front fan
grill using four of the E.A.R. fan isolators.

Test System Components

* Intel 875PBZ motherboard, with BIOS P05.
* Intel P4 2.4C CPU, at stock speed and voltage (1.525v, 66.2 Watts max)
* Thermalright SLK900U + 92mm Panaflo L1BX @ 7V,
* 2 x 512MB of Corsair XMS3200c2 RAM running at 400MHz.
* ATI 7500 graphics card, passively cooled.
* 80GB Seagate Barracuda IV hard drive.
* Plextor 40x CDRW drive
* 400W Seasonic Super Silencer.
* stock Antec 120mm fan @ 5v
* CPU temperatures read from the internal thermal diode with Motherboard Monitor
5
* Ambient temperature was 21°C

Idle temps were determined by starting the machine from cold and allowing
the temps to come to a stable point. Load temperatures were generated by 30
minutes of two instances of CPUBurn.

Temps	Idle	Load
Case	25°C	34°C
CPU	27°C	49°C
HDD-no fan	36°C	36°C
HDD- fan cooled	32°C	32°C
Temp sensor at CPU inlet	25°C	33°C
Temp sensor at PSU outlet	30°C	36°C

These temperatures are quite good considering the CPU fan is running at 7
volts and the stock Antec case fan is at 5V. The case fan and the PSU fan are
all the exhaust fans there are on this case. The P160 obviously breathes very
well. This hardware configuration runs about 1-2°C cooler than the identical
configuration in an SLK3700BQE. I’m assuming that’s due to the open front
air intake of the P160 compared to the SLK3700BQE and not to any supposed
advantage of the aluminum case. Hopefully that myth has been sufficiently
debunked that no one lends it any credence.

The downside to the open front
air intake is that the P160 is also somewhat louder than the BQE. With the
P160 in it’s typical position sitting on the floor to the right side of my
desk I can hear the CPU fan (a 7 volt 92mm Panaflo L1BX) and the HDD seeks.
With the same hardware in the SLK3700BQE I cannot hear the CPU fan and the
HDD seeks are noticeably quieter than the P160.

Aside from the noise escaping through the air intake slots of the P160, I
notice a constant hum that is not present
when the same hardware is running in my SLK3700BQE. Not ever having worked
much with aluminum cases before, I can only guess that this extra noise is
due to the resonance of the aluminum chassis being excited by fan and hard drive vibrations. The panels of the P160 do flex
more than the panels of the steel cases that I normally work on. This extra noise probably wouldn’t show up on a sound
level meter because it is rather subtle, but it is a bothersome sort of noise.
It consists of a “throbbing” sort of hum that changes amplitude
on a regular, cyclical basis. It’s probably not something many people would notice as
I’m comparing it to a system that is extremely quiet. (MikeC’s note: Experiments with panel damping materials such as AcoustiPack may be fruitful.)

FINAL THOUGHTS AND CONCLUSIONS

The Antec P160 is roomy and easy to work on. The removable motherboard tray will
come in handy for people who swap out components on a regular basis. The 120mm
fans certainly provide great airflow. The I/O panel location makes great sense
and is a pleasure to use, the poorly positioned reset button excepted. The aluminum construction
makes this case noticeably lighter than a steel case of comparable size, something
the LAN Party guys will appreciate.

From a silent PC perspective, the 120mm fans and excellent internal layout
gives the ability to effectively cool this case using very low speed quiet
fans. The excellent airflow is a double-edged sword though. The same open front
air intake that helps give great airflow to this case also lets noise
out the front. There is a fine balance between low noise and effective cooling, and Antec has leaned towards the latter. In comparison, the Sonata has a
fairly restrictive grill that’s quite effective in keeping noise from getting out, while the P160 has a very
open grill that flows a lot of air but lets more noise out. Is one better
than the other? I guess the answer lies in your priorities; for me
they’re both too much of a compromise. I prefer the front bezel design of
the SLK3700 series, where Antec has achieved a better balance between cooling airflow
and noise reduction.

Another noise issue with the P160 is the very slight hum or vibration that
I can hear. I believe it’s from the aluminum construction and some experiments
with dampening materials may help here. It’s not a real big issue though,
the system I tested the P160 with runs very quietly and the difference between
the P160 and a steel case is pretty subtle.

The P160 is Antec’s fusion of silence and performance, and for the most part
I think they’ve pulled it off well. The P160 is an excellent choice for someone looking for a high performance
case that’s easy to work in, has great cooling and lots of features. For someone
looking for a cutting-edge quiet case, it misses the top rung. The open front air intakes and aluminum construction increase the noise level to a bit above what can be achieved with their steel Sonata or SLK3700BQE cases.

PROS * Excellent I/O panel with lots of features * Roomy, easy to work in interior * Removable motherboard tray * 120mm fans * Excellent case ventilation * Grommet mounted HDDs and fans * “Stealth” covers for optical & floppy drives * PSU not included * Well written manual * Light weight

CONS * Open air intake allows noise to escape * Aluminum panels resonate * Styling of front bezel (for me) * Unprotected reset button * Non-aluminum front bezel?

Great thanks to Antec Inc for the P160 samples and for their continued support of SPCR.

* * *

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