Performance
What's interesting about our revamped test bed is that it shows how much cooler and quieter today's modern components can run. We could build our overclocked Core i5-3570K processor into a cardboard box and we doubt it would struggle to keep cool with be quiet!'s Dark Rock 3 heatsink strapped on top.
Going forward, we suspect the performance gap between mid- and full-tower enclosures will narrow, with the latter relying on elaborate liquid-cooling to eke out an advantage. Even with air cooling and stock fans, the P380 has no trouble keeping our 4.4GHz chip running suitably cool under maximum load.
Quite a few chassis struggled with the demands of our previous test platform - dual Radeon HD 7950s had a tendency to become hot and bothered - but a pair of GeForce GTX 970s are seemingly much easier to keep cool. There's little separating Antec's P380 from the two mid-tower comparisons.
We've previously described < 30dB at idle as barely audible and < 36dB while gaming as nice and quiet. The P380 conforms to those standards and the low noise levels are testament to the components used in our test bed. The be quiet! CPU cooler and power supply, as well as the EVGA graphics cards, ensure a good level of quietness and it would take particularly poor chassis fans to spoil the build. On that note, the Fractal fans are to our ear the best we've heard thus far - they create a smoother sound than the either the Antec or the Cooler Master.