Antec Performance One
by Purav Sanghani on February 13, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Inside the P160
The P160 provides us with a few surprises inside, not that we're surprised anyway with any of the great features that Antec provides in many of its products. One of the main areas packed with features is the front end of the case.
There are three types of drive bays in the front section. The top 5-1/4" drive bays do not have screw holes, but use drive rails only. The first set of 3-1/2" drive bays, however, does not use drive rails, but Antec has holes drilled to allow standard screw installation. To install drives in either of these bays, we need to remove the front bezel by pulling it off from the bottom, as many other cases allow, and slide in the drives with attached rails through the front.
The bottom set of drive bays are for hard drives only. As we can see from the picture, there are four slide-out drive-trays with rubber grommets, which will help cushion the drives as well as allow us to secure them to the trays by screwing them in from the bottom. The trays are slightly wider than any 3-1/2" hard drive, so there is no chance of scratching the sides of the drives.
We also notice how much space is left over at the bottom of this drive cage. It seems like wasted space and could have easily allowed an extra drive to be installed.
From the 5-1/4" drive bays, specifically at the height of the third bay from the top, there is an aluminum support bar that extends all the way to the back of the chassis just below the power supply mounting area. It is obvious from the power supply cutout at the back of the case that there is much more room between the power supply and the roof of the case. We shouldn't have any trouble installing the PowerStream unit into the P160.
Down at the bottom of the backside of the P160, we see seven expansion slots with steel covers on them. The covers are secured to the slots by thumbscrews, which carry the tool-less design.
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LX - Sunday, February 13, 2005 - link
Will the 180's price be comparable?AtaStrumf - Sunday, February 13, 2005 - link
Nice: cables connected, screws in place :-)I even know now why it takes you so little time
to put it together. Because you already have mobo, RAM, CPU, HSF assembled and everything else is already out of the box. Not a typical situation whenever I was building a PC though.
Anyway, I have a couple of suggestions for future case reviews:
CHIEFTEC Dragon DX-01BD-U or similar
http://www.chieftec.com/products/Workcolor/Dragon....
Thermaltake Tsunami
http://www.thermaltake.com/XaserCase/tsunami/tsuna...
cHodAXUK - Sunday, February 13, 2005 - link
Damn, some of the Antec P180 previews make it look damn good, think I might be upgrading soon :DLive - Sunday, February 13, 2005 - link
Nice review of a decent case for a change. Hopefully you will get your hands on the upcoming P180 as it looks to be a great case. I would love to see more reviews of Antec cases as I see them as the ones to beat. So if a case is better and cheaper then Antec case you know your on to a winner. So while you wait for the P180 and the Sonata 2 take a look at the budget SLK 3000B and the rest of the 3XXX series.FearlessUser - Sunday, February 13, 2005 - link
I got this case from Newegg for $110 with a clear side window, the one without the window is like $15 more. And I've read many places that the case only comes with 1 120mm fan, but I got 2. http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?desc...Nice looking case, I just have to get a few more things to put the rest together.
cHodAXUK - Sunday, February 13, 2005 - link
How about a review of the Asus Vento 3600? ;)Have a look...
http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=603913
Thinking of building a PC in one of those for my 11yr old nephew, hopefully it will be *BLING* enough for him :)
IKeelU - Sunday, February 13, 2005 - link
Nice review.btw do you guys plan on reviewing the lian-li V1100? I heard it's really quiet, and I wonder how it compares to this one in terms of usability, sound, and temps.
IKeelU - Sunday, February 13, 2005 - link
bupkus - Sunday, February 13, 2005 - link
#17 said: "..at it's price point ($115) it is by far the best constructed aluminium case around..."I got an all AL Cooler Master a couple years back and was floored with the quality. Unlike the P160, it was a real work of art. It was a newegg refurb so it was real cheap and flawless! ;) Of course, by today's standards, the 80mm ceiling fan just doesn't do it, but that was then.
#18 - Ditto. Although I do like Al, I like the value I have with my Sonata as it comes with a True Power 380W PS for less than the P160 without.
#21 - I agree about the rubber fan mounts. Yesterday, I removed the 120mm fan as it kept slipping off two of it's rubber inserts. I'm thinking of remounting with some metal screws and rubber washers from Home Depot. The fan itself vibrates more than it should, so it's not balanced very well.
ElFenix - Sunday, February 13, 2005 - link
"The external look was also easy on the eyes and we believe that many will accept this model over any of the pre-mod cases that we have reviewed. "hahahah