Antec P120 Crystal Review

Written by Antony Leather

February 24, 2020 | 11:00

Tags: #antec #atx #glass-case #watercooling

Companies: #antec

Interior

The E-ATX-capable interior is minimalistic and very unconventional. The PSU mount is in the roof as are the primary storage mounts, but this then frees up the lower portion for large motherboards and water-cooling gear. Specifically, the base offers a trio of 140mm/120mm fan mounts that can house a 360mm radiator, although due to the proximity of the rear expansion slots, you'll likely find a height limit here of only 28mm. Shorter radiators have essentially unlimited thickness, save for any PCIe expansion devices you're using. 

The side fan mounts comprise a trio of 120mm or pair of 140mm fan mounts, with space for a second 360mm radiator, albeit with the need to remove the two 3.5in/2.5 mounts in the roof. However, radiator depth here is essentially unlimited as you have the entire width of the case to play with, plus this would clearly be a great place to fit RGB fans or a distro plate. Cable tidying is catered for, but apart from a few Velcro ties and GPU support in the accessory box, there are precious few mod-cons here that you might expect even at this price. You'll need to spend some time dealing with the spaghetti yourself.

There are various cable-anchor points, but the large roof PSU shroud should allow for some to be stowed up there instead. As well as two removeable 3.5in/2.5in trays, there are two dedicated 2.5in mounts behind the motherboard tray and if you're going all-out with water-cooling then they'll likely come in handy unless you're opting for an M.2-only storage solution. The base is clearly an ideal place for mounting pumps and/or reservoirs, especially those that can be installed in fan mounts. 

The rear vertical GPU mount, which will require a riser cable, can potentially interfere with that, but there's still a good 170mm or so in front of our GTX 980 case-test card if you wanted to use the vertical option, which also offers three slots, allowing triple-slot cards to be used, or even better, to offset a dual-slot card away from the side panel to improve airflow.

The two 3.5in/2.5in trays can be removed independently, be we like the fact that Antec has taken the time to jazz up the front ends so they fit in with the style of the case and the angular PSU shroud next to them. Overall, it's not a feature-packed interior, but one that offers an impressive level of water-cooling hardware support, particularly at this budget.


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