P182 Special Edition - One of the best cases gets better
by Joshua Buss on April 12, 2007 1:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Exterior
There is really no point in skirting around the P182 SE's most fantastic selling point. Both side panels and the front door are coated in an incredibly well polished stainless steel finish.
The finish is so clean in fact, we found it hard to really take a good picture of the case. Faced with this challenge, we figured it might be best to just take a few pictures of exactly what we saw when photographing the unit.
Just as the original P180 and all of its siblings, the P182 SE does not have much at all on the front side when the door is closed. "Antec" is embossed in the top right corner, but other than that only the ports and a lock for the panel are visible.
The case comes with two USB ports, a FireWire port, headphone and microphone jacks, as well as power and reset buttons all accessible on the front of the case. When the door is closed, the power and reset buttons are covered -- a good way to keep prying hands away from your system.
Getting back to the finish and its reflectivity though, the side panel in particular could almost be suitable as a replacement for most bathroom mirrors.
As soon as the door is opened, however, we are greeted with the familiar sight of a matte black plastic finish encompassing the power and reset buttons. The door is magnetically latched and it takes just the right amount of effort to open it up. It also hinges back all the way to the side of the case for users who would prefer to have it always open. Like its predecessors, the P182 SE allows for four 5.25" drives, one 3.5" drive, and gives easy access to both 120mm fan filters for cleaning.
One of the bigger additions to the P182 over the P180 is the inclusion of externally accessible switches for the top two fans on the back at the top of the case. This of course makes its way into the special edition as well, which is quite an improvement over having to take off the side panel and find the switch for each tri-cool fan. The soft rubber water tubing ports make their appearance on the back too, for an easier installation of external water cooling kits.
There is really no point in skirting around the P182 SE's most fantastic selling point. Both side panels and the front door are coated in an incredibly well polished stainless steel finish.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
The finish is so clean in fact, we found it hard to really take a good picture of the case. Faced with this challenge, we figured it might be best to just take a few pictures of exactly what we saw when photographing the unit.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
Just as the original P180 and all of its siblings, the P182 SE does not have much at all on the front side when the door is closed. "Antec" is embossed in the top right corner, but other than that only the ports and a lock for the panel are visible.
The case comes with two USB ports, a FireWire port, headphone and microphone jacks, as well as power and reset buttons all accessible on the front of the case. When the door is closed, the power and reset buttons are covered -- a good way to keep prying hands away from your system.
Getting back to the finish and its reflectivity though, the side panel in particular could almost be suitable as a replacement for most bathroom mirrors.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
As soon as the door is opened, however, we are greeted with the familiar sight of a matte black plastic finish encompassing the power and reset buttons. The door is magnetically latched and it takes just the right amount of effort to open it up. It also hinges back all the way to the side of the case for users who would prefer to have it always open. Like its predecessors, the P182 SE allows for four 5.25" drives, one 3.5" drive, and gives easy access to both 120mm fan filters for cleaning.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
One of the bigger additions to the P182 over the P180 is the inclusion of externally accessible switches for the top two fans on the back at the top of the case. This of course makes its way into the special edition as well, which is quite an improvement over having to take off the side panel and find the switch for each tri-cool fan. The soft rubber water tubing ports make their appearance on the back too, for an easier installation of external water cooling kits.
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yyrkoon - Thursday, April 12, 2007 - link
IF they do sell for $170usd, I would have to say that is too much. I have seen the regular P180's at around $100 usd, and sometimes less. Having said that, I personally own a Lian-Li PC-G50(silver), and while without buying the add-on 3x5.25" to 4x3.5" drive converter, you would not be able to get more than 3 drives in it. Now, I do own one of these bay converters, and I do have 4 HDDs internally (soon to be 6), and I have to say, comparred to this case, it is much more of a bargin. Keep in mind that I am a fan of Antec, and I love the fact they make good, solid cases (and PSUs), that are very functional, with lots of room.This Lian-Li case I own, is also far more in-expensive, made of 100% aluminum, looks very good( clean, no bright colors, or 'fancy' lines ), very functional, is a reverse ATX layout (if you are into that sort of thing), very quiet, even with the stock fans, and is only 15" tall ! Add the bay converter kit, and you start to encroach on the Antec case in price.
Now the one major thing I have as an issue with my own case . . . No room for a HUGE third party CPU fan, in fact, the best I could probably fit in it, would be the cooler supplied with some AMD Opterons, which is exactly what I bought, just have not put it in yet.
All in all, I'd have to say, the P182SE sure is a flashy case, probably too bright for me, and I would probably prefer a black P180 instead. That being said, the internal layout is pretty dahmed nice.
BPB - Thursday, April 12, 2007 - link
Forget about $170usd. Here's http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...">Newegg's pricing: $229.99 + $23.72 for shipping for a total of $253.71! Yikes, that's awfully high.strikeback03 - Thursday, April 12, 2007 - link
The review stated that the normal P182 is around $170, with the SE version (which you linked to) at $230yyrkoon - Thursday, April 12, 2007 - link
Still, for $250, you can get a very nice Lian Li case, somethign I myself would preffer.yyrkoon - Thursday, April 12, 2007 - link
Forget about newegg, they tend to jack up prices because . . . Someone gave the item a good review, people are buying it moderatly and they have a script that jacks the price up(cost, and demand), and hardly seem to be in a big hurry keeping the 'hot' item in stock.I bet if you froogle around, you'll find someone like eWiz, ZZF, or mWave has it for a much better price. All of thee companies are as reputable as newegg, just some of them do not have as good shipping (ZZF usually has free shipping on everything though), and may take up to 7 working days to arrive at the doorstep . . .
cbuchach - Thursday, April 12, 2007 - link
Yes, I own a P180. The case is great except for the fact that all the cables from the bottom power supply/hard drive compartment route through the panel opening. The new cable routing features, instead of the mirror finish should have been the focus as in my opinion this is the best update to the case.Gigahertz19 - Thursday, April 12, 2007 - link
I'm definitely interested in this case for my new comp build at the end of this summer. My goal is to try and build a computer that is dead silent, I want to be able to sleep in the same room at night with my computer 10 feet away and not hear a single whisper. Not sure if this is possible with air cooling but I'll try, so would most people say this is the silentest case you can buy?tydas - Thursday, April 12, 2007 - link
Well, I did not go for a silent build but I wanted quiet and with the p180B and my components its very quiet. I'd imagine with the right components like samsung HD, fan less cpu and fan less cpu it could be done. A nice 120mm fan with low rpm is silent so it comes down to components.hubajube - Thursday, April 12, 2007 - link
Nice case but doesn't allow for good cable management. It looks like a rats nest in there. Oh well, I guess I'll keep my Aspire case for a few more years.JoshuaBuss - Thursday, April 12, 2007 - link
Actually that's not true at all.. there are a ton of options for cable management. I just didn't take the time to manage them all very carefully because we wanted to get this review out asap.