Antec Mini P180

Verdict:

[+] Mini Cooper
Good looking; strong and durable; massive yet quiet 200mm ‘big daddy’ fan

[-] Mini Clubman
Cramped inside; no intake fans as standard

The Antec Mini P180 is a stylish and solid little case for micro-ATX motherboards, and was announced by Antec earlier this year. It’s pitched toward someone wanting a case to house a small performance PC who neither wants a huge tower, nor something as restrictive as a true small form factor case.

Our first impression of the Mini P180 was surprise at whether or not it’s actually possible to fit a whole PC inside – the Mini P180 measures only 212 x 436 x 435mm (W x D x H). Visually it isn’t over the top, just modest and simple, although the gunmetal colour exterior is attractive and fashioned from high quality material. The build quality of the Mini P180 impressed us throughout testing, but its side panels aren’t just heavyweight for the sake of giving a good impression and making the case robust. They’re triple layered (aluminium, plastic and another layer of aluminium) to dampen noise. It’s worth noting that due to the fact the side panels are so thick, adding a window although would be rather tricky.

A TALE OF TWO COMPARTMENTS

Internally, the case has an upper and lower chamber design which isn’t often seen in such small cases, but it clearly shows the Mini P180 shares design DNA with the larger P180. The Mini P180’s lower chamber is the smaller of the two. It’s designed to house a full-size ATX power supply and theoretically two optical drives. The upper chamber holds all the main system components: it has room for the mATX motherboard, and there’s a single free 5.25in external bay, and five 3.5in drive bays split between two caddies. The first caddy holds three hard disks and the second holds two, mounting the disks in slide out trays, which ensures wide-spacing. Each caddy is fitted with soft spongy plastic grommets to dampen vibrations. One of the caddies also has a small plastic box on its side, which can be used for storing spare screws.

COOLING

Although the Mini P180 shares its name and external looks with the P180, it also takes obvious cues from Antec’s recent Nine Hundred and Twelve Hundred. As with those cases, directly above where the CPU HSF will be is a large 200mm exhaust fan and at the back of the case a smaller 120mm exhaust fan. Together these can rapidly remove hot air from the case’s main compartment. As we’ve come to expect from Antec, you can select how fast the fans run using a switch, and these switches are now handily mounted on the back of the case. Unfortunately the case doesn’t include intake fans, although it’s possible to attach two 120mm intake fans in front of the hard drive bays. The front of the case has two intake dust filters that are easily removable for cleaning.

BUILDING A MINI SYSTEM

The Mini P180’s compact size means that building a system is quite tricky. We found it impossible to fit an mATX board into this case without first removing the 120mm rear exhaust fan, an inconvenience that could have been avoided if Antec had used a removable motherboard tray. The next issue we encountered was more problematic: there’s no way to use a graphics card which is longer than 9.5in unless you remove one of the hard disk caddies. If you do this, you’ll only have three free 3.5in drive bays, which is less than ideal. The next problem we faced was that only one optical drive slot is easily useable. The Mini P180 has three 5.25in bays, but two of these are difficult to use because they’re in the lower compartment, along with the PSU. The power cables make it difficult to actually fit the drives in, and you need to carefully route the cables out of the way behind the motherboard tray to create enough space. Even if you do this however, putting your drives down there isn’t ideal from an ergonomic point of view, especially if you have your computer on the floor.

The top 5.25in bay remains free of course. Antec also supplies the kit you need to convert one of these three 5.25in bays into an externally accessible 3.5in bay, if you still feel the need to fit a floppy disk drive. There’s a good amount of space behind the motherboard tray, and anchors on its underside to help with neat cabling, and the case and comes with plenty of cable ties too.

CONCLUSION

Antec cases usually feature clever design touches, and it has worked hard to bring these to its mATX case. The Mini P180 features some clever ideas when it comes to noise reduction, and the build quality is superb. Its size means assembly can be a bit of a battle, but there are two big problems. The first is that if you use a long, high-end graphics card you’ll lose half your 3.5in drive bays. Secondly, the price: at closer to £100 it’s actually more expensive than many excellent quality full-size ATX cases, including the full size Antec P182. Compared to other mATX cases, the Mini P180 is massively overpriced – even SilverStone’s excellent all aluminium Sugo cases come in at almost £20 less. Ultimately there’s a lot to like about the Mini P180, but little to ultimately recommend it unless you really love its looks.

You can buy the Mini P180 from Scan Computers for £98.70 inc VAT (price correct at time of review)

For more information on the Mini P180, visit Antec's website

IN DETAIL

• OCZ Core Series 30GB - Hard disks / storage
• Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB - Hard disks / storage
• Asus EAH4870 TOP - Graphics cards
• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro - Sound cards
• Multiwinia - Games
• Zotac GeForce GTX 260² - Graphics cards
• Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 - Graphics cards