Antec P182 Performance One

Assembly line

The P182 wasn't exactly an easy case to assemble a system inside of, though we've tinkered and trashed chassis' that were a lot worse. The main issue we had during construction was the lack of space and the various frames and enclosures meant that, in order to screw the motherboard in securely, we had to bend our wrists into some RSI-inducing angles.

The plus side to this was that although we had to perform some difficult wrist-yoga, only half as much screwing was needed total. Whoever packed the case up for us had been kind enough to screw all the brass stand-offs in in advance, bless 'em.

Once the motherboard was installed though, everything was quickly put in place. There were still issues with rogue cables creeping throughout the chassis, but with a little imagination we were able to easily find less direct routes for them, pin them back, or just tuck the excess into empty drive bays.

It was during one of these creative re-directions that we stumbled across the interior toolbox. It's mounted a little out of the way, and we wouldn't really suggest storing spare screws in there like the manual prompts if you want a truly silent case – it's the only surface we could find that wasn't covered in rubber grommets and some rattling would doubtlessly occur.

As soon as the cables were all routed through and everything was plugged in, we took a step back to admire our work. It isn't the most graceful solution in the world, but we have to admit that the included cable-tidies and behind-motherboard access certainly go a long way to alleviating the routing worries we had with the previous case.

Setting up drives, both optical and hard was an easy task thanks to the removable drawers and railed installation.

One thing we would change about the P182 though is the absence of carry-handles. It isn't a light case by a long shot once the system is housed inside and since it needs to be turned round and over a few times at least in order to take advantage of the behind-motherboard cable routing, the lack of good grips soon begins to grate a bit. It's not system-wrecking design flaw but it can be a bit of a hassle, especially if you succumb to the desire to use the detachable chimney vent as a handhold. That's a strategy we can certainly NOT recommend.

Another plus we noticed was that there was just enough room for an Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX and an SLI setup. It might require shifting out the top drive drawer to make it fit, so users with more than four hard drives won't be able to make it work, but fit it does. It's yet another thing to love about the Antec P182.