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[nextpage title=”Introduction”]

Antec P182SE is a “Special Edition” version of their P182 case. Both cases belong to Antec’s most high-end family of cases, Performance One. What is “special” about P182SE compared to the standard P182 is the mirror-like finishing, external speed control for the top and rear fans, holes for external water cooling system, black interior and an internal flexible flashlight. Let’s see how this latest high-end case from Antec looks like.

The first thing that catches the eye is the mirror-like finishing, as you can see in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Antec P182SE case.

In Figure 2, you can see this case’s front panel. It has four external 5.25” bays, one 3.5” bay and two meshes where air enters to cool down the hard disk drives. You can install one 120 mm fan behind these meshes, but the case doesn’t come with this fan. You can also see that there are two USB ports, one firewire port and mic in and headphone out jacks. Since this is a high-end case, we think it should have an eSATA port on its frontal panel.

Figure 2: Frontal panel.

In Figure 3, you can see the rear panel from this case. On this case, like several other cases from Antec, the power supply isn’t installed on the top of the case, but at the bottom. On the top section where usually the power supply is located there is a 120 mm fan that comes with the case. At the very top part you can see two knobs for controlling the speed from the rear and top fans. This case also features seven expansion slots (just like almost all cases) and holes for you to install an external water cooling system.

Figure 3: Rear panel.

In Figure 4, you can see how P182SE looks like inside. What immediately caught our attention was the fact that the case was also black inside. Usually black cases are black outside but silver on their inside. This case has six internal 3.5” bays. Pay attention how the power supply goes on the bottom of the case and how there is a 120 mm fan in front of the power supply. On the other side, behind the motherboard tray (not shown on our pictures) there is a cable organizer.

Figure 4: Inside P182SE.

On next page we will discuss what is inside P182SE in more details.

[nextpage title=”Inside Antec P182SE”]

In Figure 5 you have a close-up from the rear and top 120 mm fans. Notice a black tube: that is the flexible flashlight that comes with this case, portrayed in Figure 6, which should help you installing new parts on your computer.

Figure 5: Rear and top fans.

Figure 6: Flexible flashlight.

As mentioned the power supply (which doesn’t come with the case) goes on the lower section of the case and there is a 120 mm fan to cool it down, see Figure 7.

Figure 7: Where the power supply is installed.

This case features two cages for hard disk drive installation, each one holding up to three hard drives, so you can have up to six drives, more than enough even for the hard core user with a big RAID array. Each hard drive is installed to a small drawer that is inserted in the cage. At one of the sides of each cage there is a small toolbox that can be used to hold screws for when you want to add more hard drives, for example.

Figure 8: Hard drive installation.

[nextpage title=”Main Specifications”]

P182SE case main specs include:

• Application: ATX and smaller form factors derived from this one.
• Material: steel.
• Power supply required: Doesn’t come with the case.
• Available colors: Black with external mirror finishing.
• Size: 21.3” x 8.1” x 19.9” (52 cm x 21 cm x 51 cm) (H x W x D).
• Weight: 31 lbs (14 Kg)
• Bays: Four external 5.25” bays, one external 3.5” bay and six 3.5” internal bays.
• Expansion slots: Seven.
• Fans: Three 120 mm fans, one at the rear, one at the top and one in front of the power supply. External speed control for the top and rear fans.
• Extra features: Flexible flashlight, toolbox on the hard disk drive cages and cable organizer behind the motherboard tray.
• More Information: https://www.antec.com
• Average price in the US*: USD 200.00.

* Researched at Shopping.com on the day we published this First Look article.

[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]

This case is definitely a high-end case targeted to above-the-average people that want a fancy and high-end case. We liked its internal flexible flashlight (something we haven’t seen before), its cable organizer behind the motherboard tray and the external knobs to control the speed of the rear and top fans, but there are two big problems with this case.

The first problem is its price. It can be found around USD 200 and if you buy online you have to add shipping, which can increase the price a lot (we tried here and we got USD 60 in shipping and taxes).

The second major problem is its size. It is small for a high-end case: it is just too thigh if you want to add two video cards and lots of hard drives. When building a high-end PC using this case you may think that you probably should have bought a bigger case.

Even thought the construction quality of this case is outstanding we think that the average user can find a high-end case with a better cost/benefit ratio on the market.