Comments on: Antec P183 Mid-Tower Case

By: Rhys

Rhys — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 03:14:44 +0000

Thanks for all your comments. I will forward them to the reviewer of this product, hopefully he can answer to your concerns and questions!

By: Olle Petersson

Olle Petersson — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:18:27 +0000

I bought this case recently (after the price dropped to about £100).

It’s very nice, but also have some minor issues.

From page 3:
“Also there is a small keyhole which… can be locked to stop people from turning your computer on as the power button is concealed within.”
This is somewhat wrong. Half of the power button is accessible through the venting hole just above the lock, as can be seen on picture 8, and easily operated with the door closed. I never open the door just to turn the computer on.

So there’s one issue: Lack of lock. You can’t lock the computer from being powered on/off, and what’s worse; you can’t even lock the side panels from being opened! (Too bad if the stuff inside is prone to be stolen…)

Then we have the dust filters. Just as with most other cases the filters are a joke! They’re tight enough to impede the air flow, but not good enough to catch fine dust.
I’ve mounted some real filters between the plastic mesh and the metal grid, and is seriously considering removing the original “filters”.

Moving on to cable management. The distance between motherboard tray and side panel is pretty tight. It takes some real effort to close the side panel when most cables (ATX, IDE and assorted other power cables) are drawn that way.

Cooling:
This case allow for excellent cooling! Using the setup “as is” isn’t recommended though. Two fans pulling in different directions create more noise than necessary, while not optimising the air flow. It’s much better to remove either fan and mount that on either end of the upper HDD cage. The now empty exhaust mesh should be closed off in some way.
I moved the top fan to the middle of the case, where it’s now blowing cool air on to my graphics card. The top hole is sealed off with clear acrylic.

From page 7:
“The metal frame too is very good for heat loss … and therefore should contribute to keeping all the components very cool.”
A widespread misconception! The case material has just about no influence whatsoever on the temperatures, unless you actively use it as a heatsink for the hot components (like in the Zalman TNN). Here neither the CPU nor the GPU are bolted onto the metal frame, but rely completely on air flow to move the heat away from any attached heatsinks.
(Even if the hot components actually were bolted to the frame it would be bad, since the frame is encased in the plastic side, front and top panels!)

Cheers
Olle

By: PaulL

PaulL — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 03:59:34 +0000

Can the upper hard drive cage (which holds 2x 3.5″ hdd) be replaced by one that matches the lower – so that it can hold 4×3.5″? That would then make this a case that holds 8×3.5, plus I a couple on adapters in the 5.25″ space.

I’ve looked at the 1200, but it is a bit too noisy and bling (with those blue leds) for my liking. So I think the 183 is better for my purposes. Except I already have 6 drives, and I wouldn’t mind room to put in at least 2 more…

By: readersgroup

readersgroup — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:32:45 +0000

look’s good!

By: Rhys

Rhys — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:24:16 +0000

Obviously you’re open to your opinion. Some enthusiasts would prefer better performance from their computers and overclockability over silence – therefore there is a need for more fans; however, some, like yourself would go for silence. It would therefore be better to include more fans – costs money to add fans; doesn’t to remove them. But like i said, it’s all personal preference.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Sat, 09 May 2009 19:43:35 +0000

As for this statement about fans “Of course, it would have been nice to see all five provided for the user”, I think it is better that more fans aren’t supplied. Researching the P182 the last few days would seem to indicate that a good number of people would prefer quieter fans (see Silent PC Review for fan tests that “show” the P182 fans are reasonable but not the quietest) and supplying more fans would be a waste. In fact, personally I would prefer if no fans were supplied to reduce the unused PC components that myself and others who build their own PCs accumulate.

By: PeterB

PeterB — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:00:38 +0000

…and needs at cut-out in the motherboard mounting plate to ease install (and when replacing)of the CPU cooler if this has a backplate mounting system……

By: Rhys

Rhys — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:56:52 +0000

@ Leg’z : the case was very quiet but not silent – as indicated on page 7.

@ John : because we’re poor! We’ll be reviewing the P193 soon so look out for that one – we’ll do some temperature tests too and we’ll use a more up-to-date rig.

By: John

John — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:53:21 +0000

how comes reviewer never use An I7 processor to review this case, as it a new case, i think it be holding all the new i7 processor?

nice to see some temp on i7 in a p183/193

By: Leg'Z

Leg'Z — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 22:36:48 +0000

A side panel fan ? Are you serious ?
And the silent ?