Antec P280 ATX Mid Tower Computer Case Review

Manufacturer: Antec, Inc.
Product Name: ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Model Number: P280
Price As Tested:$139.99

Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by Antec.

For many enthusiasts want a quiet system, with room to spare, and a beautiful exterior the Antec P280 is exactly what they are looking for. The Antec P280 is a "Super Mid Tower" designed as an addition to venerable Performance One series. This refresh comes with a redesigned interior, exterior, and an updated port selection. These updates came without Antec disrupting the Performance One series goal of "Quiet Computing", using materials with different acoustic qualities to help minimize the amount of sound leakage. Benchmark Reviews will evaluate if the noise characteristics and build quality of the Antec P280 are worthy of the Performance One moniker that it has been given.

Depending on a user's needs cases usually fall into a couple of categories. We have the enthusiast who wants a quiet system, a air-cooled system, or a liquid cooled system. Each of these areas has its own sub-culture based on further wants and needs of a user. Using a triple layer front panel, and dual layer side panels the Antec P280 was designed for the enthusiast who wants a quiet system that can take the highest end components available. This combined with USB3.0 front panel connectors, ample space behind the motherboard tray, and beautiful design work together to make a case that has lots of potential without being overly expensive. So without further ado let us start into the process of evaluating the Antec P280.

When reviewing a case you have four major things you need to look at. First, you need to look at build quality because no one wants to spend hours putting hardware in a case only to find defects or to have parts that will fail months later. Secondly, you need to look at cooling because as the heat output of components goes up, so do cooling needs. Third, you need to look at the acoustics of your new case because as anyone who has worked on or near servers knows adequate cooling can come at an acoustic cost unless a company put expenses into preventing this. Lastly, you need to look at the ease of build, which depending on your system may or may not play a big role in your choice of case. If you like, I spend lots of time inside of your case modifying parts then you want a system that you can easily move around in while making modifications. On the other hand if you want to setup your system and leave it then this becomes less of an importance and therefore can be moved lower on the requirements for your case.

Antec P280 Features

• 9 expansion slots and up to XL-ATX motherboards
• 2 front panel USB 3.0 ports
• Advanced cooling system: includes 3 fans and 4 additional fan mounts
• Dual-layer design: 0.8 mm steel / polycarbonate side panels deaden noise
• 6 quiet 3.5” / 2.5” drive bays utilize trays with preinstalled silicone grommets
• 120 mm internal intake fans (optional)
• Triple-layer (aluminum, plastic, foam) front bezel with double-hinged door: opens up to 270°
• Grommet-lined cable routing holes with 30 mm of space behind the motherboard tray
• 3 tool-less 5.25” drive bays
• Fan power hub: 4 x 3-pin fan connector on a single Molex
• PSU intake & front air filters

Antec P280 Specifications

Closer Look: Exterior

An enthusiast case is in some ways an extension of the person who owns it. Each user has certain styles that they appreciate in their life and many times a case can be found that matches their style. Some people want a flashy case that screams "LOOK AT ME!", other enthusiast want a sleek, modern looking system. Antec designed the P280 with the latter enthusiast in mind using a simply and yet elegant design utilizing blacks and greys as its primary colors.

The Antec P280 keeps its design simple all the way around, using a simple aluminum cover for front door with the Antec logo stamped on it. But, this door is not as simple as it first appears as Antec P280 utilizes a triple-layer aluminum, plastic, foam core to help block out as much noise as possible. This design helps block out some of the noise that would be created by the fans inside of the system making for a quieter system overall.

From the rear, you can see Antec P280 is great for everyone but the neediest of customers. It provides nine expansions slots, the openings needs for a water-cooling setup, and high/low switch for the included Antec TwoCool fans.

Continuing with their attention to detail the bottom of the Antec P280 includes rubber feet to help prevent vibrations inside of the P280 from being transferred to the floor which could create noise.

Much like the rest of the P280 the top of the case was kept simple and elegant, with two exhaust 120mm Antec TwoCool fans, a power switch, and a reset switch.

Behind the tri-layer door Antec continues with the simplicity of its design in the P280 with its three 5.25" drive bays, openings for two more 120mm intake fans, and a removable filter for the system.

Unlike many cases that utilize a front door the Antec P280 places its USB, and audio ports outside of the door allowing the users to plug in peripherals with the added benefit of the silence that the tri-core door can provide when closed.

Closer Look: Interior

The beautiful simplicity of the Antec P280 continues even after it is opened up. Antec made sure to add everything an enthusiast could want in a case and nothing more.

Inside of the P280 it is apparent that Antec has paid great attention to what users want in their cases. They use a beautiful matte black finish that sadly may never be seen since the dual layer sides used have no windows on them. To help with keep users system cool Antec utilizes a bottom mounted PSU that intakes fresh air through a filtered opening in the bottom of the case.

Behind the motherboard tray Antec was able to fit 1.18" of space between the tray and the outer panel allowing for all of the cables in the system to be stored behind the tray and out of the way of airflow. Antec also included an extra-large CPU cutout making for easy installation of the many large tower coolers on the market.

Antec included six 3.5"/2.5" drive bays but an interesting fact is that they included two dedicated bays for the 2.5" drive bays allowing for users to have a RAID 0 SSD boot array, and still have six drive bays open for a RAID5 array should they need large amounts of storage.

The three 5.25" drives bays use a tool less mechanism to lock each item into place. Each mechanism is based on a spring-loaded lever in which a user will pull on one end while installing their drives and once they let go it will lock the drives in place. This allows for easy installation, and removal of 5.25" drive from the Antec P280 system.

Detailed Interior Features

Just like the many other parts of life the devil is in the details for cases. Thankfully Antec made sure that they had all the details perfectly sorted out.

Antec has included three Antec TwoCool 120mm exhaust fans with the P280. Each of the TwoCool fans is rated for This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it on high, and 21.3CFM@17dBA on its low setting. Even better, since this make up the largest part of a case that can fail they each have a three-year warranty should anything go wrong.

The rubber grommets included allow users to safely route their cabling behind the motherboard tray without needing to worry about snagging their cables on sharp edges of the case.

The Antec P280 included a filter for enthusiast's power supply intakes making sure that their PSU is able to be kept cool and clean allowing for optimal performance throughout its life. Even better, the filter is easily removable without even opening the case allowing users to clean it without hassle.

Each of the 3.5"/2.5" drive caddies comes with rubber grommets that will absorb some of the vibrations created be the mechanical nature of hard drives. This helps increase the longevity of each drive and may increase the overall performance of a system with 5-6 hard drives.

Antec P280 Final Thoughts

Much like two of my favorite cars the BMW M3, and the Nissan GT-R, I found the Antec P280 with its subtle looks, mute colors, and gunmetal grey front to be very beautiful. However, underneath its rather conventional exterior lies a great amount of power. In the case of the cars, it can propel the driver to great speeds or in the case of the Antec P280 hold a processing powerhouse that can be used for any number of purposes. Even better, like the BMW the Antec P280 is a comfortable daily driver that when not being run at 100%, maintains its silence and composure until the moment that the power is needed. The only thing that I would like to see in the P280 is that Antec would include two more 120mm fans in front rather than forcing the user to buy two more fans if they would like to get the best cooling potential out of the P280.

Antec P280 Conclusion

The Antec P280's performance is exactly as it claims to be, providing users with adequate cooling at an extremely low noise level. I found that with the fans on low the Antec P280 was near silent and even on high, the Antec P280 stayed quiet. Thankfully, the tone given off by the included TwoCool fans allowed them to easily blend into the background. Users in need of extreme cooling performance may need to look elsewhere but for those need lots of space and a quiet computing environment they need not look further.

Although appearance is very subjective, I found the Antec P280 with its subtle looks, mute colors, and gunmetal grey front to be very beautiful. The combinations of colors means that the Antec P280 could easily be used in as a workstation in an office or as a gaming rig at home without look out of place in either.

The Antec P280 is extremely well built with its steel exterior, dual layer sides, and triple layers door make for a very solid feeling case. Unfortunately, although I feel the Antec P280 could stand up to much abuse and last for a very long time Antec has only included a three-year warranty on the P280.

The Antec P280 is about as functional as they come. For a moderate price enthusiasts are given a case that can hold almost any imaginable combination hardware including a 3-way SLI/CFX setup and a large tower cooler. At the same time if users would like to utilize a large number of hard drives, and a low power system the Antec P280 could provide a very quiet home server.

At $139.99 the Antec P280 provides a fantastic deal to an enthusiast. Combine this with a quiet performance, a beautiful design, Antec's legendary build quality, and all of the different options that the Antec P280 provides enthusiast and it appears that Antec may have created a real home run with the P280.

Although the Antec P280 is near perfect especially for our readers who would like their computers to be silent it would be nice to see two more 120mm fans added to the front as it could help drop temperatures a little and give our readers a little more headroom for overclocking. None-the-less the Antec P280 provides a great level of customizability, quiet performance, and a beautiful design without breaking the bank. Because of that, I am glad to award the Antec P280 with Benchmark Reviews Golden Tachometer Award.

Pros:

+ Sleek design
+ Triple layer front helps prevent internal system noise from escaping
+ Solid construction will allow for years of faithful service
+ Large amounts of space for almost any combination of hardware
+ Nine expansion slots allow for users to effectively use a 3-way SLI or CFX setup

Cons:

- 1-year warrenty
- Very heavy
- Door could get in the way if the 5.25" drive bays a frequently used.

Ratings:

• Performance: 9.00
• Appearance: 9.00
• Construction: 9.50
• Functionality: 9.00
• Value: 9.50

Final Score: 9.2 out of 10.

Benchmark Reviews invites you to leave constructive feedback below, or ask questions in our Discussion Forum.

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