External Appearance
The P180 features a brushed aluminum and moulded black plastic exterior on the sides, top and front panel, with the latter featuring the Antec logo in the top-right corner, along with the usual ports at the front for FireWire, USB2.0, headphones and mic.
Both the side panels and the door of the P180 chassis are soundproofed through a multi-layer production process. Each panel features two aluminum layers with a layer of soundproofing sandwiched in between them. This does mean that the sides of the cases are heavier of course, which would explain the substantial weight of the P180, even when empty.
The side panels are attached using thumb-screws on the motherboard side and standard screws on the other. Fitting the side panels to the case is quite a fiddly process; they are very tight to fit, but it does mean that vibrations from the chassis are kept to a minimum.
At the front of the side panel there is a vented channel that runs around the whole of the front end of the chassis, providing the ventilation required for the fans at the front of the case.
Inside the front door there are four 5.25” bays, the hidden power and reset buttons along with 2 x 120mm fan filters, There's a solitary 3.5" bay between them.
The door of the chassis is also soundproofed, but due to the fact the drive bays are countersunk it means there is adequate airflow into the chassis as well as compatibility with popular bay drives such as the Creative X-Fi and Fan Controllers.
Around the back is where we start to see features that make the P180 different from the norm, with everything moved to the top and the PSU placed at the bottom. There is one 120mm fan located on the back of the chassis and seeing as ‘heat rises’, Antec has fitted a 120mm fan to the top panel of the chassis, as well.