Antec P183 Review

Testing:

To properly test the Antec P183 computer chassis, I will be testing for both the idle temperatures as well as the full load temperatures on some of the commonly stressed components. All of the idle tests will be measured after the computer has been sitting for 30 minutes with little to 0% CPU usage shown in the Windows Task Manager. For the CPU full load test, I will be running the Prime95 stress tester for a full hour set to a blend mode stressing both the CPU and RAM set at the normal priority. I will be using Real Temp 3.0 to read the CPU temperatures; Chipset full load temperatures will be taken at this time as well using the software included with the MSI Eclipse SLI motherboard.  For a GPU full load, I will be running 3DMark Vantage back to back and reading the temperatures with RivaTuner. The hard drive is going to be stressed by runing a defragment through Windows Vista, maximum temperatures will be displayed through HDTune. All of the below tempeartures are in degrees Celsius.

Testing Setup:

• Processor: Intel i7 920
  
• Motherboard: MSI X58 Platinum
• Memory: Mushkin HP3 12800 7-7-7-20
• Video Card: Nvidia Geforce GTX 260
• Power Supply: Mushkin 800w Modular Power Supply
• Hard Drive: Seagate 1TB SATA
• Optical Drive: Lite-on DVD-RW
• Case: Antec P183
• OS: Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit
• Ambient Temperature: 26° Celsius

Comparison Case:

• Case: Antec P183 @ Low Fan Speed
• Case: Antec P183 @ Medium Fan Speed
• Case: Antec P183 @ High Fan Speed
• Case: Chieftec BL-01B
• Case: Thermaltake Armor Extreme Edition
  
  

Wow! the Antec P183 was able to perform quite well when it was stacked up against the other two cases. It was able to tie the Cheiftec BL-01B in the CPU full load test when the fan speeds were set to high, though the GPU temperatures were not quite as good. However the placement of the GPU in relation to the exhaust fans were not that great. The hard drive being placed in the lower chamber with the PSU was a good idea, as it was able to stay well below the other cases, and even at low fan speeds, which did not have much effect on the HDD temperature. The chipset temperatures were in-line with the other cases, as they did not vary much at all.