Antec P100 Performance Black Case Review

By Aidan Moore

Manufacturer: Antec Inc.
Product Name: P100 Performance Series
UPC: 0761345811002
Price As Tested: $89.99 (Amazon | Newegg)

Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by Antec.

The P100 is an entry level computer case in the Antec Performance series of computer cases. Within the Performance series, Antec positions the P100 as a combination of sophistication, silence, and overall coolness. This translates into a relatively sleek looking ATX enclosure with a minimal amount of visible ventilation, and a brushed metal front door to further reduce any noise from escaping the interior. In this article, we will be dismantling an i7 P79 content creation computer housed in an older E-ATX enclosure and re-packing the system into the Antec P100. Benchmark Reviews will look at the Antec P100 and determine if the case delivers on its promise of silence and cool performance with an attractive price point.

(From Antec Web site)

Model	P100
Case Type	ATX Case
Color(s)	Black
Drive Bays	9 Drive Bays: • 2 x 5.25″ tool-less drive bays • 7 x 3.5″ / 2.5″ drive trays
Motherboard Support	Mini-ITX, microATX, Standard ATX
Expansion Slots	7 expansion slots
Maximum graphics card size:	12.5 (317.5 mm)
Maximum CPU cooler height:	6.7″ (170 mm)
Cooling System	• 1 x 120 mm front intake fan • 1 x 120 mm rear exhaust fan • 2 x 120 / 140 mm top exhaust fan (optional) • 1 x 120 / 140 mm front intake fans (optional)
Water cooling support:	rear water cooling grommets
Enlarged CPU cutout	Yes
Front Ports	• 2 x USB 3.0 • 2 x USB 2.0 • Audio In/Out
PSU Mount:	Standard ATX
Dimensions	Unit dimensions: • 484 mm (H) x 220 mm (W) x 523 mm (D) • 19″ (H) x 8.7″ (W) x 20.6″ (D)

The P100’s most striking visual feature is the brushed metal finish front door which swings open to reveal the drive bays and front fan intakes. Although the door definitely adds a stylish element to the case, the first thing you notice is that the door is extremely lightweight and obviously made of plastic. Despite this, the door opens and closes smoothly and latches securely with a small magnetic clasp.

The two 5.25” drive bays rest above a large fan intake area which is thoughtfully covered with a dust filter. The P100 ships with a single 120 mm fan in the top front port location, and has options for a second fan up to 140 mm in size. The included fan can also be up-sized to 140 mm.

The bottom of the case shows that Antec has considered dust management for the computer power supply by including an easily removable and flexible dust filter.

The top of the case is dominated by a slightly raised ventilation grill that comes very well sealed with an acoustic foam insert. The mounting holes on the grill look like they can support just about any kind of single or dual closed loop radiator once the foam is removed.

A second 120 mm fan for case exhaust is included on the rear of the P100 chassis. Unlike the front fan included with the P100, the rear fan cannot be upgraded to a larger size. The rear of the P100 has standard access cutouts, as well as small amount of passive venting for air flow, and access for an external water cooling loop.

The overall quality and metal fit of the enclosure is excellent.

The Antec P100 interior is well laid out with generous access to the back of the motherboard for CPU cooler mounting. Extra wide grommeted access holes make it very easy to route power supply and SATA cabling.

There is just enough room to accommodate the usual mess of power supply and other cables around the back of the P100.

It is very convenient to mount SSD’s with drive mounts that easily accommodate 2.5 inch drives. Although the P100 drive mounts are made of plastic, they provide sufficient support for 2.5″ and 3.5″ hard drives.

Two USB 3.0 connections and two USB 2.0 connections are available at the front of the case. Standard audio, power and reset is also available here. The power and reset buttons are simple momentary switches that rely on a plastic hinge made from the P100 case front. Although this adds a streamlined look to the front of the case, it is possible that the plastic hinge may fatigue after extended use.

The Antec P100 was used to rebuild a three-year-old x79-based system whose enclosure had effectively disintegrated from the rigors of multiple builds.

This particular system is fairly demanding from a space and thermal management perspective. There is a Corsair H100 cooling system for a 4.4GHz overclocked i7, seven hard drives including a PCI based SSD card and two power-hungry dual slot graphics cards. The case that is being replaced has 4 large fans and the H100 cooler for thermal management

The P100 will be evaluated for temperature and acoustic performance once the above components have been installed.

• Motherboard: Asus P79 Deluxe
• System Memory: 64GB
• Processor: Intel i7-3960X
• CPU Cooler: Corsair H100
• Audio: External USB
• Video 1: GEFORCE GTX-TITAN
• Video 2: GEFORCE GTX-590
• Disk Drive 1: OCZ RVD3-FHPX4-480G
• Disk Drive 2:: Samsung 840 EVO 500
• Disk Drive 3: Multiple 3.5′ Hard drives
• Optical Drive: Samsung Blu Ray
• Enclosure: Antec P100
• PSU: Corsair TX850M
• Monitor: Multiple 1920 X 1200
• Operating System: Windows 8.1 Pro

The P100 has a spacious interior, although I initially wondered whether it would be able to accommodate the Corsair H100 CPU cooler in the space above the motherboard.

The relatively small 850 W power supply easily fits into the bottom of the case with plenty of room left over. You could easily install some of the largest power supplies in this case without bumping up against the disk drive bays.

It turns out that the Corsair H100 CPU cooler doesn’t even begin to fill up the available space at the top of the P100 case. There’s still plenty of room for cables to push through for power supply connections to the CPU.

The motherboard installed effortlessly thanks to the numerous cable feed through points thoughtfully lined with rubber grommets.

The back of the case provides for plenty of space to route the motherboard power supply cables as well as power and data for the SATA drives. There was no need to apply any force to the back panel when the case was sealed, indicating that the wires fit well inside the wiring side of the P100.

Once the computer was powered up, it was obvious that the extra acoustic padding in the P100 is responsible for a very silent case. Even with the graphics cards under full load from a GPU-based rendering program, the fan noise was minimal.

After several hours of heavy workload with a typical system power dissipation of over 700 W, the motherboard temperature started to creep up above 60 degrees. After installing a second 140 mm fan at the available input position and increasing the fan speed profile, the system temperature remained in the mid 50s.

The overall system build using the P100 went very smoothly with absolutely no surprises. Antec has obviously considered low acoustic output as a priority in the design of this case, as the most noticeable feature of the enclosure is the extensive use of acoustic padding.

There’s plenty of room inside the enclosure for even the largest dual fan CPU water cooling system. Provisions are available for an external water loop through the back of the enclosure.

The Antec P100 is a stylish enclosure with well thought out locations for the USB power and audio outputs.

The extra acoustic padding lends a bit of weight to the P100, and this contributes to the overall impression of a fairly high-end enclosure. It is unfortunate that the front door of the P100 feels so flimsy, and it wouldn’t take much of a drop to completely shatter this component of the enclosure.

Building a system using the P100 is a pleasure due to the well thought out interior and the attention paid to extras such as extra-large feedthrough’s for wires and well-designed hard drive mounting hardware.

Available now for $89.99 (Amazon | Newegg), the Antec P100 represents very good value for a cost conscious ATX computer enclosure. The inclusion of generous acoustic padding and dust filtration adds to the overall value of the case.

The P100 turns out to be a great computer enclosure option for a completely new build or as a replacement case for an aging system.

+ Elegant Design and Styling
+ Lots of room inside a well designed interior
+ Intelligent hard drive mounting system
+ Plenty of acoustic foam for noise reduction
+ Excellent dust management

– Inexpensive front door
– An extra intake fan may be needed for thermal management

• Performance: 8.50
• Appearance: 9.25
• Construction: 8.25
• Functionality: 9.00
• Value: 9.00