External Impressions

Included with the P190 are a whole load of accessories:  Manual, Instructions for various add-ons, loads of screws, cable ties, optical drive rails, video card /SLI clips, clips to lock the hard drives in place, clips to install fans in the bays, 2 PSU cables and finally… the keys for the front lock.

Along with all this, you receive more than enough additional cables for the PSU- most of which you will probably never need.

The case itself is constructed from steel, but many of the panels on this case are backed with plastic. This is primarily to reduce noise but it also makes the panels feel much sturdier and I also quite like the feeling of more weighted panels.

The front door of the case is made from both layers of plastic and steel, just like the side panels, this helps to isolate the noise of the fans. The double- hinged door can swing 270 degrees, and will stop comfortably at 90 degrees. There is a lock on the front of the door which conceals the power switch, so if you don’t want people using your pc, just lock this door. When shutting this door you will notice that it is magnetic, this helps when closing it, but also if you swing it 270 degrees it will stick to the side panel comfortably.

After opening the front panel you will notice two large vents which allow cool air to be sucked through when the door is open. However when the door is shut, air is sucked up through a little groove in the bottom of the front panel.

If you click each vent on the front panel, it will swing open. Inside is a dust filer which can be easily removed and cleaned. We found this quick access to the fan filters very beneficial as it makes it easy to remove and clean each filter now. Also, as these filters are washable, all you need to do is get them under a tap and clean them.

The front of the case has a power switch, reset switch, firewire port, 2x USB, Audio ports and of course the lock.

The side panels are again backed in layers of plastic to prevent noise. To remove the side panels, you simply undo the 2 black thumbscrews on each panel and then pull the panels backward- like normal.

The right hand side panel has an ‘Antec Big Boy Fan’ installed. This 120mm fans can be ran at slow, medium and fast speeds via a switch on the back of the case which we will look at later.

The top is made from steel but is covered with around 3mm plastic on the outside. The top fans are dual 140mm fans and again have 3 speeds which can be controlled at the back. Just like the side fan, these fans also have black mesh covering them to protect our fingers.

At the back of the case there are a lot more features than your average case would have.  At the top left hand corner is a three way switch which enables you to control the speed of the fans at the top and on the sidepanel. Beneath is a 120mm Fan to extract the hot air and there are also the normal motherboard mounts. Above these mounts are two rubber sealed holes which are for water cooling tubes. At the bottom of the case are 2 Power Supply’s (650W Neo Power and a 550W Neo Power) which are mounted vertically side-by-side, the power of these two PSU’s combined equals 1200W of power. These Power supplies are linked together with a cable that enables these PSU’s to work at exactly the same time.

Here is the Antec P190 next to a Lian- Li V1000 and a generic standard size case. This should show you the sheer size of this case.