P182/Nine Hundred Comparision

[Computer-Ed]

2 year ago Antec revealed a new case design. This case did something radical, at the time, and created two compartments to allow for super effective cooling. To further help with the cooling Antec offered two 120mm fans in the rear of the case, one in the back and one on top. This resulted in the cooling promised but Antec was not yet done, they also promised near silent operation. They accomplished this by using only 120 mm fans and creating a special layer process for the panels to keep the noise in. Antec delivered on all its promises and went a step further; they created what was and still is, in my opinion, one of the best looking cases on the market, so the P180 was born.

Now Antec could have stopped here and we would have all been content; however they showed why they are an industry leader and listened to consumer feedback. That feedback resulted in the P180B which incorporated a few changes to evolve the case design forward.

Well today we again see why Antec is on top, they have once again listened to our feedback and the P182 is another evolutionary step in this cases design.

As you can see the P182 is basically identical to the P180 and P180b in base layout from the outside. In fact the only real difference cosmetically is the change of the panels from silver or black to a gunmetal color. I honestly think I like this look better. It maintains the elegant look of the case but without the flash of the silver or the same old thing feel of the pure black.

As in the P180B the front door panel has been redone and is made the same way the side panels are, this makes the door more rigid and results in less warpage. Also the doors magnet latch feels a lot stronger to me than it did on the original P180.


On the rear of the case we begin to see the first change over the previous versions. At the top of the case in the back are two small switches. These are the speed controls for the two 120mm fans in the back and top of the case. This is a thoughtful design idea which means it is easy to change fan speeds if you need to without having to open the case.

You will also notice two holes in the back of the case. These holes are predrilled to allow easy installation of water-cooling on the case if you so desire. With this cases natural propensity toward quiet operation water cooling is a logical addition, it is nice to see Antec anticipate this need and provide an easy hookup that would not require user modifications and still keep the integrity of the cases appearance.

Opening the side of the case we see the familiar layout of the original P180 design. As before the case has two removable 3 1/2:” hard drive bays, one in the upper and lower chamber, we also have the lower chamber cut in half by a 120mm fan.

In the original P180 this lower fan was much thicker and noisier than the other two 120mm fans. In the P180b and the P182 that fan was replaced with a fan identical to the other two fans in the case.

Pulling out the drives bays you will notice that the top chamber has a mount for an intake 120mm fan. The lower chamber has a box design that I will be taking about more at the end of this review.

While we have this side open to us take a moment and look at the top of the motherboard tray, just above the top row of mounting screws. There you will find two cutouts as well as one on the forward side of the tray. These are part of what I think is one of the biggest improvements with this case.

When we open the back panel you will notice that the motherboard tray has a number of places to attach zip ties. You will also notice if you look closely that the guides for the back panel are actually lifted a bit off the tray and there is a hole in that guide down near the PSU.

One of the complaints with the P180 design was the way the wiring had to be run. It made it hard not to have wires crossing the board in various locations. Antec showed that it heard our cries by putting in a system that allows easy cable routing. Just how easy? Well let me put it this way with my P180 case I spent about an hour getting my cable routing done where I was happy that my air flow was fairly free. With the P182 you can see how I routed the cabling and how open the upper chamber is, that was done in less than 3 minutes.

The three access holes in the motherboard tray mean that you should be able to route your cables with easy to any location and keep the motherboard area basically cable free. For demonstration purposes I threw in a generic power supply and an old P4 motherboard. While I did not install the drives or the front panel cables as you can see the cabling would be almost invisible when this would be finished, and it took only a minimum of effort.

Now this might not appear to be a big step up from the P180 but I cannot stress enough how huge this is that Antec has put in a solid and easy to use cable routing system. When I did my quick test run I used a generic PSU and motherboard for a reason. One of the complaints with the P180 and Antec’s entire bottom PSU designs is the cable length can be an issue.

The cable routing system made this less of a problem as you can see. The only issue with length I had was the 4 pin motherboard connector. However for $3 I can buy an extension on Newegg and this problem vanishes.

However when it comes to buying a PSU there are other considerations. The lower chamber design looks to restrict air flow for the PSU if it is using a 120mm fan. As you can see Antec did raise the PSU up enough to allow fair air flow, the same amount of room is open at the top if you want to use it. This point however becomes mute as many of the newer and more efficient PSUs are moving back to the 80mm fans in back.

After playing with this case a bit I do have a few design notes and suggestions for Antec.

Increase the depth of the back tray area by about another ¼”. The cabling fits back there and the panel does close but it is kind of like packing an overstuffed suitcase and you need to work a bit to make it happen. The case side is really thick so I did not detect any bowing when it was on but the fit was a bit too tight for my taste.

Remove the fan in the middle of the lower bay. It hinders the flow of cables in that part of the PC and most people remove it for that reason. Remember the front bay I was talking about down there. By just moving the lower bay backward in the case 1” a 120 MM fan could easily be put in front of the bay. This would provide the cooling the middle fan is supposed to give and yet be out of the way and make working in the lower bay easier. As for actually case performance and quality, it’s an Antec, what can you say. The case is heavy and built like a rock. It’s beautiful and elegant finish is covering the build of a tank. There were no sharp edges and the parts had tight tolerances. In my testing for sound the case was near silent with case fans on medium and low, on high the case could be heard but it was not much worse than a Nine Hundred on low.

Airflow in this case is terrific, especially when you consider it was designed for low noise, something that typically means low air flow.

I have seen a lot of cases over the years and Antec has always delivered the most solid and best constructed. While other companies have gone for fancy lights and weird shapes to make their cases stand out, Antec has always delivered a solid understated design that showed the elegance of simplicity. This elegance is at its peak in the P182. The cases look makes it at home in an office or a home, for a gamer or just someone that wants a great looking PC. Its noise level makes it the perfect fit in any room and its cooling means it can handle anything at stock speed and even some light overclocking with no issues.

The P182 is the logical evolution of the original P180 line; it brings all its strengths forward and addresses many of its weaknesses. I have no problem saying that the P182 is one of the best cases you can buy today. If you want a great looking case that is professional in its appearance and not gimmicky then this is a MUST buy case.

[JazzyJake]

nice, but i would have liked to have seen more pictures to illustrate what you were talking about

[Computer-Ed]

I have more pics to post coming now..

[Lead Head]

What happened to the chromed out ultra-reflective P182 that looked pretty slick?

Looks like a nice update to the P180 too. The cable management looks MUCH better.

[Computer-Ed]

The P182SE is available but I understand it is fairly expensive. The cable management is the BEST I have seen in a case yet.

As you can see in the last pic if I had the drives installed there would still be zero cable clutter to block air flow.

[Lead Head]

Originally Posted by Computer-Ed

The P182SE is available but I understand it is fairly expensive. The cable management is the BEST I have seen in a case yet.

As you can see in the last pic if I had the drives installed there would still be zero cable clutter to block air flow.

$229 @ newegg.com for the chrome one, I'll think I'll pass on that one! Just to bad Antec didn't think of the cable management for the P180

[Computer-Ed]

What I love is Antec is evolving this case. The P180 was a great case, the P180B addressed the issues with the door and the thick profile lower chamber fan. The P182 addresses the cable routing and adds easy support for water cooling.

I am hoping to see the cable routing of the P182 put into the next generation of Nine Hundred.

[gvblake22]

WOW, that cable management system behind the motherboard tray is great!

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

WOW, that cable management system behind the motherboard tray is great!

Indeed. Though it's normally not the main thing people look at when choosing a case, it's a very nice feature. I've always been hesitant about the P180 mostly because of that and it's rather steep price for a 'simple' (in design, that is. Very classy though) case. If someone found itself in the same situation as I were i'm pretty sure it would be a sell. :)

[Computer-Ed]

You need to however be sure of the cable layout and have power extensions for the 24pin, 4pin and 8 pin just in case. However I have come to realize it is a good idea to have those anyway to help with cable routing for almost any case.