Antec P280 White Window case Review

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys this is dmitry with haruo canucks and welcome back to another review and tech has been a little quiet lately with new cases perhaps not as aggressive with new releases as the competition but today we're going to take a look at the p280 the white windowed version it builds on the very popular p280 chassis with the same focus on silence and retails around 150 mark the main difference now include a new white powder coating which is pretty sweet and the large side panel window to reveal the gorgeous interior now usually windowed side panels are not the best at noise isolation but here antique used polycarbonate that is a more durable plastic compared to acrylic panels that we see so often and this is actually a better sound proofing material so it is a good implementation the front panel opens with a nice span of 270 degrees so you really have to try really hard to accidentally break the door and it is coated with noise dampening foam the dual front intake is covered with a removable dust filter and the fans are secured by two screws plus these knobs on the corners for easier installation the panel is spaced away from the fans leaving a nice gap that would equate to appropriate airflow while keeping things silent connections wise there are four usb ports audio jacks and pr buttons at the very top along with dual 120mm fan mounts moving to the back we have a three channel fan controller an exhaust fan nine pci slots and a nicely ventilated area behind the motherboard plus a bottom mounted power supply dust filter that is removed from the side and the chassis is well elevated for that convenient access also for any picky individuals out there the white on the chassis varies from the powder coating parts to the plastics used it's not a really big deal but it is still worth mentioning now taking off the panels it is an identical interior to the previous p280 and even resembles the antec 1100 the drive caddies here have rubber grommets to prevent audible vibrations plus ssd support in the middle the problem however is with the screws provided for mounting of mechanical drives as they're just a tiny bit too long and when fully screwed in they allow the drive to wobble and you can see here the drives are not fully secured onto the bracket and this is caused by the screws being too long and for chassis with sole focus on silence this is a bit of a letdown and aside from the standard drive cage there are two dedicated spots for ssds that also could use an improvement because the drives are mounted too far forward the window panel closes just fine but it's the back that's inconvenient and is routing your sata cables to the very top and all the way forward might introduce hassle and this ssd cage really should be relocated so the sata connections are aligned with the rest of your drives at the back the drive cage also supports two 120 millimeter fans with a simple clamp attachment which is really convenient and allows that extra airflow delivery plus the case is large enough to support 12 inch gpus without any clearance issues now i don't particularly like the location of the fan controller at the top as that requires a molex connection and i really don't see why this couldn't have been installed in the rear where all the cable masks is handled and turning the case around the p280 white is so easy to work in thanks to all the cable tie notches to secure cables and over 30 millimeters of clearance until the panel and one thing that i haven't seen on any other case are these new rubber grommets that are not simply aligned with the cutout but instead have these little rubber clips holding them in place thus making them a lot more secure when passing multiple thick cables through and starting with the assembly the chassis is clearly designed with xl atx motherboards in mind for that four-way gpu setup because the rubber grommets are spaced to accommodate four large motherboards which actually causes a bit of cable clutter for standard atx setups the lack of any cutouts underneath the motherboard meaning discrete routing for the front panel usb and audio ports is a little more difficult and i wish the cutouts underneath were included now if you plan on water cooling we have just over 50 millimeters of clearance from the top fan uh until the memory modules and a wider top portion of the chassis to accommodate four wider radiators and flipping the case around it does clean up well and certainly can handle a lot more routing those uh sata ports was unpleasant though and the extra molex connector near the rear fan is not ideal but the p280 sure pulls it off now it's on the cleanest of the builds because the slightly spaced rubber grommets and the large window doesn't help either the polycarbonate window i think is a good addition certainly the better choice of plastic for soundproofing and while the chassis has a lot of functional qualities like a roomy interior and a very clean cut design and the new improved rubber grommets i cannot say i'm impressed in fact i'm a little disappointed that antek is not taking cues from the competition where it's about bringing something new to the table and not just the paint job the included screws for the drive caddies are my biggest complaint as they just don't securely hold the mechanical drives in place the ssd cage needs to be moved back and the fan controller hub needs to find a new spot and if you're serious about silence the defined xlr2 would be a cheaper and a more silent alternative while the p280 has the advantage of a window to showcase your components and i was honestly expecting more from antec based on the most recent releases from the competition so we'll see if they're able to catch up with something more innovative in the near future but what do you guys think of antec leave your comments down below and as always thanks for watching and we'll see you in the next reviewhey guys this is dmitry with haruo canucks and welcome back to another review and tech has been a little quiet lately with new cases perhaps not as aggressive with new releases as the competition but today we're going to take a look at the p280 the white windowed version it builds on the very popular p280 chassis with the same focus on silence and retails around 150 mark the main difference now include a new white powder coating which is pretty sweet and the large side panel window to reveal the gorgeous interior now usually windowed side panels are not the best at noise isolation but here antique used polycarbonate that is a more durable plastic compared to acrylic panels that we see so often and this is actually a better sound proofing material so it is a good implementation the front panel opens with a nice span of 270 degrees so you really have to try really hard to accidentally break the door and it is coated with noise dampening foam the dual front intake is covered with a removable dust filter and the fans are secured by two screws plus these knobs on the corners for easier installation the panel is spaced away from the fans leaving a nice gap that would equate to appropriate airflow while keeping things silent connections wise there are four usb ports audio jacks and pr buttons at the very top along with dual 120mm fan mounts moving to the back we have a three channel fan controller an exhaust fan nine pci slots and a nicely ventilated area behind the motherboard plus a bottom mounted power supply dust filter that is removed from the side and the chassis is well elevated for that convenient access also for any picky individuals out there the white on the chassis varies from the powder coating parts to the plastics used it's not a really big deal but it is still worth mentioning now taking off the panels it is an identical interior to the previous p280 and even resembles the antec 1100 the drive caddies here have rubber grommets to prevent audible vibrations plus ssd support in the middle the problem however is with the screws provided for mounting of mechanical drives as they're just a tiny bit too long and when fully screwed in they allow the drive to wobble and you can see here the drives are not fully secured onto the bracket and this is caused by the screws being too long and for chassis with sole focus on silence this is a bit of a letdown and aside from the standard drive cage there are two dedicated spots for ssds that also could use an improvement because the drives are mounted too far forward the window panel closes just fine but it's the back that's inconvenient and is routing your sata cables to the very top and all the way forward might introduce hassle and this ssd cage really should be relocated so the sata connections are aligned with the rest of your drives at the back the drive cage also supports two 120 millimeter fans with a simple clamp attachment which is really convenient and allows that extra airflow delivery plus the case is large enough to support 12 inch gpus without any clearance issues now i don't particularly like the location of the fan controller at the top as that requires a molex connection and i really don't see why this couldn't have been installed in the rear where all the cable masks is handled and turning the case around the p280 white is so easy to work in thanks to all the cable tie notches to secure cables and over 30 millimeters of clearance until the panel and one thing that i haven't seen on any other case are these new rubber grommets that are not simply aligned with the cutout but instead have these little rubber clips holding them in place thus making them a lot more secure when passing multiple thick cables through and starting with the assembly the chassis is clearly designed with xl atx motherboards in mind for that four-way gpu setup because the rubber grommets are spaced to accommodate four large motherboards which actually causes a bit of cable clutter for standard atx setups the lack of any cutouts underneath the motherboard meaning discrete routing for the front panel usb and audio ports is a little more difficult and i wish the cutouts underneath were included now if you plan on water cooling we have just over 50 millimeters of clearance from the top fan uh until the memory modules and a wider top portion of the chassis to accommodate four wider radiators and flipping the case around it does clean up well and certainly can handle a lot more routing those uh sata ports was unpleasant though and the extra molex connector near the rear fan is not ideal but the p280 sure pulls it off now it's on the cleanest of the builds because the slightly spaced rubber grommets and the large window doesn't help either the polycarbonate window i think is a good addition certainly the better choice of plastic for soundproofing and while the chassis has a lot of functional qualities like a roomy interior and a very clean cut design and the new improved rubber grommets i cannot say i'm impressed in fact i'm a little disappointed that antek is not taking cues from the competition where it's about bringing something new to the table and not just the paint job the included screws for the drive caddies are my biggest complaint as they just don't securely hold the mechanical drives in place the ssd cage needs to be moved back and the fan controller hub needs to find a new spot and if you're serious about silence the defined xlr2 would be a cheaper and a more silent alternative while the p280 has the advantage of a window to showcase your components and i was honestly expecting more from antec based on the most recent releases from the competition so we'll see if they're able to catch up with something more innovative in the near future but what do you guys think of antec leave your comments down below and as always thanks for watching and we'll see you in the next review\n"