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Antec P160 Owners Come

Why not just post your questions so people can answer them.
 
First air or water cooling? What's your setup? Can you post pics?

1) Does the plastic front panel actually look like plastic or does it have a sleek aluminum look to it? (i know it looks good in pictures on newegg but I'm curious about in person)

2) Is the side panel sturdy? or is it fairly flimsy?

3) Does the front slots let out a lot of noise?

4) Can the two pre-fab 5.5" bays that swivel to let the cd/dvd tray come out(the top 2 on newegg's pictures), can they be moved to the bottom or are they attached at the top?(assumed attached).

5) Fan that comes with it quiet as they say?

6) Hard drive trays and floppy drive rails detachable or are they riveted?

Umm that's about it I think. I'll pm you or post again if I have any more questions, if you don't mind of course.

Thanks
Steven
 
I'll answer as best I can. My case is an air-cooled setup. I have the stock Antec 120mm fans (two are included) plus a Panaflo 120x38mm in a custom blowhole on top. I'm using an Enermax Noisetaker dual-fan PSU (which I may swap fans out for quieter ones) and a Vantec Stealth 80mm for CPU cooling my Thermalright SLK-800. My project has been finished for about a week now, and I'll be posting a picture thread on it this weekend.

The mirror-finish part of the front panel looks a little more like plastic, but that's just the outer ring; the rest of the front panel matches closely with the case and looks aluminum. Either way, it doesn't detract from the look of the case, IMO.

As for sturdiness of the side panel, that depends on what you mean. Could I warp it if I torqued it while it was off the case? Probably. Could I crack the plexi? If I threw it around, yes. Mounted in the case though, it is very solid, as the case adds structural integrity. Like any aluminum case, it needs to be treated with care. I don't know of an aluminum case that you can throw about the way you might with a steel one.

Noise level? My case has a constant "whooshing" sound to it, but I do have a third 120mm fan. It is no louder than my former HX-08 tower, which had three 80mm Panaflo's (two medium, one super heavy duty), a 60mm Panaflo, and an 80mm Sunon for the CPU heatsink/fan, plus the 2 fans in the power supply. The noise level is more dependent on how you build the machine. Choose a quiet power supply and CPU fan, and keep the stock Antec fans for cooling, and you should do well. If you want ultra-quiet, switch the 120's out for Vantec Stealths.

I believe the two CD-ROM faceplates on the front of the case can be moved. I didn't myself because I like them at the top of the system where they'er easier to reach.

Contrary to current advertising, the case now comes with two Antec 120mm fans, or at least mine did. The rear one is a blue LED model (I bought the P160 with the side window, the one without may or may not have an LED fan), the front is just a plain clear one. They're reasonably quiet and move a fair amount of air, but not as quiet as the 28dB Vantec Stealth 120mm models.

Hard disks mount on detatchable trays, the mounts are rubber grommets with special screws designed to reduce vibration and therefore noise. All 5.25" devices mount on rails. The two 3.5" devices mount via screws to a removable tray that slides out the front once the case bezel is removed.

To sum up, what's good for me may or may not be for you. But I did a ton of research before buying this case. The only other case that even interested me after a long search was the Chenbro Gaming Bomb II, and those can't be had for love nor money at this point. If you want a good review on this case, check out the Tech Report, or Silent PC Review. Both sites have good reviews on it.
 
You should Thank LoneWolf, that was a good write-up. To add alittle bit:

The Front CD Covers can be moved around , took me about 2-3 minutes to figure it out. I put my Gatewatch 2x on the top (looks great, looks like it was made for this case, imho)

The sidepanel is probably more sturdy than i would expect, and i could'nt imagine someone expecting it to be more sturdy. The Fans are as quiet as you would expect a case to come with.
 
I do appreciate the reply very much Lonewolf and yours too diehard.
I'm having a hard time convincing myself to buy a case that is this expensive. I know it's really not that much in the land of good cases but still torn.

Do either of you have pictures of your setups?

Thanks again

Steven
 
i've got the case too. I use it with a watercooling setup (Xice EC900 external passive watercooler) and with the following:

2 Antec supplied 120mm fans (on in front and one in the rear)
Antec NeoPower 480w (single 120mm fan)
solid side panel (no window)

quiet to me...i sleep next to it, so... :)

cheers,

dave
 
dave_graham said:
i've got the case too. I use it with a watercooling setup (Xice EC900 external passive watercooler) and with the following:

2 Antec supplied 120mm fans (on in front and one in the rear)
Antec NeoPower 480w (single 120mm fan)
solid side panel (no window)

quiet to me...i sleep next to it, so... :)

cheers,

dave
Click to expand...

Do you have any picures dave?
 
steven1110 said:
thanks dave.

The review was very well written.
Click to expand...

i try.

Personally, it's my daily case (along with my P4 system in a Thermaltake Tsunami).

Love it. My only problems with the case right now are: the 3 vertical intake slots on the front panel are dust magnets...I noticed that i couldn't see the blue LED's this morning and a few quick swipes with my finger netted me a sizable dust bunny in each one... lol

:)

cheers,

dave
 
dave_graham said:
My only problems with the case right now are: the 3 vertical intake slots on the front panel are dust magnets...I noticed that i couldn't see the blue LED's this morning and a few quick swipes with my finger netted me a sizable dust bunny in each one... lol
Click to expand...

That's understandable though. On my case now I have 2 nice sized slots in the front covered with a hexagonal mesh(not a fine mesh either) and after about a week I have to clean them(darn cats).

Steven
 
steven1110 said:
I do appreciate the reply very much Lonewolf and yours too diehard.
I'm having a hard time convincing myself to buy a case that is this expensive. I know it's really not that much in the land of good cases but still torn.

Do either of you have pictures of your setups?

Thanks again

Steven
Click to expand...

I just posted the pics of my rig last night to a new thread, but as no-one has replied to it, it's moving down the list. Here's a link to it:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=834825

P.S. The way to rationalize buying an expensive case is to look at how many years you'll own it. My previous AOpen HX-08 full tower has been around since 1996 or 97, and is still in good shape.
 
I bought my P160 in May and it came with just one 120mm fan in the rear with no LED's. I added a second 120MM in the front, While we are on the subject: my video card (9800xt) runs at 68C while just surfing the net or other non game intensive activity. I am considering cutting an 80mm blowhole in the side of the case to blow air directly on the video card. Does any one have any experience with cutting a hole in the side? Are there any issues I should be aware of? Thanks.
 
jstenuf said:
I bought my P160 in May and it came with just one 120mm fan in the rear with no LED's. I added a second 120MM in the front, While we are on the subject: my video card (9800xt) runs at 68C while just surfing the net or other non game intensive activity. I am considering cutting an 80mm blowhole in the side of the case to blow air directly on the video card. Does any one have any experience with cutting a hole in the side? Are there any issues I should be aware of? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Using a hole saw: use a center drill so it doesn't slip around on you. Put a thick piece of wood underneath the case panel for the center drill to dig in to.

Using a dremel: Go slow, be careful, put multiple layers of masking tape down so if you were to slip the aluminum wouldn't get hit hard if any at all, be careful, use the grinder to make the whole look good, and oh ah be careful.
 
jstenuf said:
I bought my P160 in May and it came with just one 120mm fan in the rear with no LED's. I added a second 120MM in the front, While we are on the subject: my video card (9800xt) runs at 68C while just surfing the net or other non game intensive activity. I am considering cutting an 80mm blowhole in the side of the case to blow air directly on the video card. Does any one have any experience with cutting a hole in the side? Are there any issues I should be aware of? Thanks.
Click to expand...

If you look at the pics of my modded case, you'll see what I did to solve this. I bought an Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer and a pack of OCZ BGA Ramsinks. The VGA Silencer mounts to the card and has a much better fan, one that should last forever. The heatsink runs along the length of the card, and the fan blows across it and exhausts air out the back of the case, not only cooling the card, but lowering ambient temperature within the case. The fan has low and high speeds; low is very quiet, high isn't super loud. Either setting works better than a stock ATI heatsink.
 
I can have pics up Tuesday night, i will post in the case thread, and this thread if it is still active. I went with Pure UV stuff so it should look little bit different than the pics here.
 
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