Great computer case with lots of options and excellent cable management
I purchased this case on the recommendation of a friend. I'm glad I did. Antec makes some of the best computer cases out there, and this one is no exception.

Features:

1. Cable management features that allow you to run 90% of your cables behind the motherboard or under the main compartment. The case is designed so that the power supply and lower two hard drive bays are isolated from the main section of the case, allowing you to keep the power supply cooler, as well as better manage SATA cables.

2. Excellent, quiet fans on both front, back and top to keep things cool. While it doesn't have 120mm fans like some Coolmaster cases, I've never had heat issues, and I overclock my processor, and run a crossfire configuration with two ATI 3870s (soon to be 4870s!) I love how thick the removable panels on each side are. They provide good insulation for the case and give it a solid, well built feel.

3. Logical layout with many, many drive bays, including 4x hard drive and 3x 5.25" bays. All the screws you could ever want for installing everything come with the case.

4. Awesome looking case! I have the silver "gunmetal" case, and it is really cool looking. Rather understated without a bunch of gimicky LEDs flashing everywhere. Definitely subdued, but cool nonetheless.

A few dislikes:

Because of my particular motherboard and the way I ran 6-pin power cables up to feed my graphics cards, there is very little space between the bottom of graphics card #2 and the partition to the lower power supply/lower hard drive bays area of the case. To take out card #2, I have to also take out card #1, and my Auzentech Sound Card. This is more an inconvenience than anything else.

The power re-set button on the front of the case is rather small. I have to use my pinkie to press it. Again, more of an inconvenience than a real issue.

If you want a solid case with a logical layout that will keep things nice and cool without a lot of glitz, this is your case.

Nice but for one major flaw and a few little gripes
I like this case, it has a nice feel, except the front door hinge is flimsy plastic and broke off. Now the case has lost it's cool look, although it's still just as functional. The front door panel just smooths out the look and impedes airflow a little anyway. Be careful not to knock into that door or it will break off.

Otherwise, a nice looking, quiet and cool case. With three 120mm fans going at low speed it's very low key. The adjustable fans are a nice touch, although a knob setup for fine tuning would be preferable to the fixed three-speed switches. Still a nice touch. I keep mine on low and have good flow.

Incidentally, I found the stock Intel cooler to be quieter than the Zalman 9700 I have mounted. Even so, with the Zalman on the E6850, two SATA drives, the 8800GTX (at stock 50% rpm) and three 120mm fans on low powered by an Enermax Infiniti 720W PSU it is all pretty quiet and idles very cool in an average room (70 degrees). CPU idles at about 20 (Vista drops it to 2ghz). It's notable that the case is quiet enough that I can hear the difference between the Zalman and the stock cooler.

As others have noted, the removable top HDD cage gets in the way of larger 3D cards like 8800GTX. I had to pull that cage to fit mine. Kind of a drag since I'd have liked to mount some drives there and the removable cage is nifty, but one can always get some adapters and put a raid array in the 5" bays below the DVD.

Besides, it's nice to get that extra airflow right onto the big 3D card. I pulled the lower chamber fan and placed it in front of the 8800GTX. There's a mount point there with a filtered inlet so it works out well.

I think that's a better setup than having the fan in the lower chamber, since that cramps the cabling a bit and it seems like overkill for ventilation since the PSU draws through the lower chamber anyway. It was kind of a pain to remove the fan from there, but it makes accessing the drives easier and the fan is very handy for the other slot. Now my main two-drive array sits in the bottom cage and seems to stay cool enough with the airflow from the PSU and it's all good, and the 8800GTX is happy with the extra airflow. In my opinion they should assemble it with the fan there in the first place and forget the lower chamber fan. Make the case slightly longer and one could fit the massive 3D card AND have the drive cage in use.

Overall not a bad case to work with except for the weak and brittle plastic hinge that broke off, which really sucks. And if it was a couple inches longer it would help with big video cards.

Also, it would be nicer if the rear panel screws were held in place when loosened. As it is they are completely removable, and lose-able. Not a big deal.

If the design was a little more optimized it would be a 5STAR product, but it feels a little overpriced as it is.

PS: Once advantage to this case versus the 900 is the air inlets have easily removable, cleanable filters. That's one of the main reasons I got it and it's proven to be a nice part of the design.
The side panels are pretty swanky too, with their aircraft-grade padded look. It is a pretty quiet case, with the option of adjusting the fans up if occasion demands.

Another Astounding Antec Chassis
Introduction: Antec is one of the finest manufacturers of computer chassis and power supplies. This case is a fine example of why Antec firmly holds their good reputation.

Background on the Reviewer: I am an IT Professional. I have been building computers since 1997. I currently work in an IT Field for the US Government.

Features: Steel, Aluminum, and Plastic construction. Blue power and activity LEDs in a stealthy mount. 270-degree front-panel door. Minimalist exterior, carefully organized interior. 7x 3.5" bays (one with an external face for drives with removable media). 4x 5.25 bays. Front USB, Firewire (1394), and Audio jacks with Intel-Standard motherboard headers for each. 3x 120mm fans, with mounts for up to 2 more (and room for 1 more mount to be added if you are into case-modding).

Why This Case Earns Top Marks: The design present in this product is fantastic. The interior design is spacious and carefully organized, leaving room for even the largest ATX motherboards, and the longest video cards. The understated exterior gives the case a very "classy" appearance, a quality present in many of the higher-end Antec chassis.

This chassis is designed for quiet computing. It includes silicone rubber bushings on the hard drive mounting apparatus, silicone rubber pads on the power supply mounts, and three-layer side-panel construction. One thing to consider doing while assembling your system in this case: purchase some rubber or silicone rubber washers (3/16" or 4mm) to install around each of the fan-retaining screws (so you'll need 12 by default or 16 if you use the included optional mount).

My favorite aspect of the design used in this chassis is the manner in which the motherboard tray is arranged. While this tray isn't removable, it does include loops for zip-tying cables along behind it, and gaps for those cables to return to the top-side of the motherboard. This allows one to have an extremely clean wiring job with positive airflow to encourage adequate cooling of the internal components.

Things that could make this case shine even brighter: the lower intake vent does not have a means for mounting a fan. It has a small space the size of a 120mm fan but not a pre-drilled mount. Even a novice case-modder could find a manner in which to add an additional fan here, however. A little bit of drilling and dremeling will allow a 6th 120mm fan to provide better intake to the lower bays.

Conclusion: I love this case. I am completely satisfied with my purchase (I ordered it here on Amazon). I highly recommend this case.

Best Case I've Owned
This is the most thoughtfully designed case I have owned (my fourth). My main purpose in purchasing this was to build a quiet, custom PC as most custom machines tend to be ridiculously loud. This case fits that bill quite nicely with the separate hard disk/power supply chamber and large, low RPM fans.

These are the features I really like about the Antec P182:

- Separate chamber for power/hard disks
- Great construction quality with acoustic design principles built into the outer case materials
- High quality, quiet hard disk mounting system and removable mounting box
- Great airflow for cooling that is also quiet
- Design allows routing of cables behind motherboard which also helps improve airflow

There are a couple of things to keep in mind with this case, however:

1) Your power supply will need a relatively long cable to get the power connector to the mother board, depending on where your MB's connector is located on the board.
2) The fans will not always turn on when you power on the PC if they are set to the lowest setting. This is not a problem for the two upper fans as you can manually jump-start them with the switches on the back of the case. The lower chamber fan, however, only has a fan speed control inside the case so if it does not start consistently on the lowest setting, you may have to leave it on the medium setting. This creates substantially more noise

Overall, the Antec P182 is very well built, with the most thoughtful design I have ever seen in a PC case.

Just OK.
This is my second Antec case, my first one being a P180. I bought this because I had a good experience with my P180 and this one is almost identical in design. Generally, there's LOTS of room to work with.

However, be careful with the dimensions of the power supply unit that you select. If you try to put in a larger, rectangular PSU it will NOT fit because the lower chamber fan placement would leave no room for the PSU cables. I'm using a Corsair 620W and it fits fine, as well as being a great PSU.

Overall, I'm just OK with the case, but there were two things that were really disappointing.

The mobo standoff screw mounts were very cheaply made, with soft metal. When I lightly tightened down the mobo mounting screws, two of them STRIPPED OUT so I had to find and use screws with a slightly larger dimension and even then they didn't tighten down properly. There can be NO excuse for this type of defect.

Secondly, the fans that came with it are complete junk. I assume they used these to keep their price attractive and competitive. The fans had MOLEX connectors only (peripheral power connectors) and no mobo fan header connectors.

I'm not sure how to get around the screw mounts issue. I'm not sure if they're replaceable with sturdier mounts or even pin lock mounts. But, definitely toss the fans and replace them with higher-quality ones with mobo fan header connectors.