Antec have released the P190 Super Midi Tower Case, one of the biggest and most
powerful cases on the market, complete with DUAL PSUs, we take an in-depth look.
The P190 case is a very similar design to the Antec P182 Mid Tower case, which has been extremely popular in the PC enthusiast market over the last 6 months or so. It has pretty much the exact same drive bay design and configuration, they even look very similar, but there are several key differences between the two models which we will go into more detail throughout the review.
The features of the P190 are: (taken from www.antec.com)
- Dual chambers structure. The power supplies reside in a separate chamber to isolate heat from the system and lower system noise
- Dual-layer sound-deadening panels for Quiet Computing
- Flexible snake light (installed), lights your way while working inside the case
- Cable organizer behind motherboard tray minimizes cable clutter
- Fits up to ExtendedATX (12" x 13") motherboards to fit your dual processor board, or any other board you could possibly have
- Rubber grommeted ports on the rear for liquid-cooling tubes allow you to easily mount external liquid-cooling hardware
- Neo-Link 1200 Watt dual power supply system:
- One 650 Watt Neo Power is responsible for powering the motherboard and add-in cards, while another 550 Watt, handles your drives and other peripherals
- Advanced cooling system - Even larger fans than previous designs, move more air and turn slower for even quieter operation
- 2 top 140mm TriCool fan (standard)
- 1 rear 120mm TriCool Fan (standard)
- 1 lower chamber 120mm TriCool Fan (standard)
- 1 side 200mm Big Boy fan with air filter (standard)
- External fan control on the rear panel (for the 2 top fans and 1 rear fan in the upper chamber)
- Front-mounted ports provide convenient connections
- 2 x USB 2.0
- 1 x IEEE 1394 (FireWire®, i.Link®)
- Audio In/Out (AC’97 & HDA)
- Dimensions: (H x D x W)
- 20.28 x 23.35x 8.07 (in)
- 51.5 x 59.3 x 20.5 (cm)
- Net weight: 43.2lbs / 19.6kg
- Gross weight: 51.1lbs / 23.2kg
So that’s the main features as listed by Antec, but it really doesn’t explain a lot about this AU$570 case, so we’ll be going into some of its main features in more detail:
The Power Supplies:
The Antec P190 comes standard with not just one, but two power supplies, which Antec call the ‘Neo-Link 1200’. One is a 650W unit which is responsible for powering the motherboard and PCI-Express cards, and the second is a 550W unit which takes care of everything else (hard drives, fans etc...). It must be noted that these are not standard ATX units, as each one can only do half the job of a normal Power supply, i.e. the 550W unit does not have motherboard power connectors at all, and the 650W unit has no Molex or SATA power connectors.
So it’s not a redundant setup in any way at all, and if one of the units were to fail you would have to remove both units to put in a standard ATX PSU until the faulty one get repaired or replaced, as one cannot function without the other, or in conjunction with a standard unit. There is a bridging cable between the two units unique to these power supplies, and without this cable, the second unit would not get the signal to power up, so you’d have your motherboard running, but no power to your drives.
Each power supply has its own power switch at the rear, and I can just see someone turning on one unit and not the other and ringing up a support line to complain their drives aren’t powering up, anyone who has worked at some level of tech support would know that someone will do this without a doubt. As these units can’t function without each other, it might have been a better idea to simply make something like a double size power supply and have that in there instead, basically have these same two units, but enclosed in a single case for simplicity’s sake.
The output of the power supplies with their combined 1200W of power is sure to exceed anything that even the most avid PC enthusiast can throw at it, and because this case can take E-ATX motherboards (up to full 12” x 13” size) such as dual XEON/Opteron boards these power supplies are made to handle them with ease as well, with all the connectors these types of server boards would require.
The connectors available on each of the power supplies are as follows:
650W:
20+4Pin ATX Motherboard Connector
8-Pin CPU Power Connector
4-Pin CPU Power Connector
2 x 6-Pin PCI-Ex Power Connectors
2 x 6+2-Pin PCI-Ex Power Connectors
550W:
6 x Molex Power Connectors
4 x SATA Power Connectors
The 550W unit also has 5 modular power connectors, which (if all being utilised) can give another 9 x Molex connectors, and 4 x SATA connectors as well as the option for 2 x FDD power connectors.
As you can see, there is no shortage of connectors, and the inclusion of modular cables will help to keep the mess to a minimum, well as much as you can in a case like this.
The power supplies themselves are kept in their own compartment at the base of the case, which keeps the cooling for the power supply (and the heat) separate from the rest of the system. The cables from the PSUs are able to be routed through small access holes into the main area, or (for the motherboard power cables) routed behind the motherboard tray where Antec has also included tie down points and cable ties to keep everything secure and out of sight.
The power supplies have a normal 8cm fan inside each of them to keep them cool, and they do so with almost no noise whatsoever, as is the focus of this case. They are fed cold air via a 12cm fan that resides in the lower compartment just in front of them, this fan also helps keep the hard drives in the lower bay nice and cool by drawing in cold air from the front, making the lower compartment a wind tunnel of sorts. Noise is further reduced by the use of rubber anti-vibration strips installed underneath the PSUs.
Each of the power supplies has 3 separate +12V rails, able to deliver 19A each in the 650W PSU and 18A each in the 550W. The picture below shows the spec sheets of each of the units:
I can’t see any system being underpowered with these bad boys in there, and you will have relative peace of mind with their reliability, first of all because they’re Antec units, so that in itself instils faith in their quality, and they come with a 5 year warranty.
Drive Bays and Installation:
In the P190 there is room to install:
- 6 x 3.5” Hard Drives
- 1 x 3.5” Floppy Drive
- 4 x 5.25” Drives
All of the 5.25” drives are installed with drive slides, as is common place in Antec cases and many others these days, there are also drive slides for two hard drives to go in the upper 3.5” bay, however instead of the drive slides screwing into the sides of the drives, the drives screw into a sliding drive carriage with anti-noise grommets around the screw holes.
One thing that is missing with all the drive bays that utilise drive slides in the P190 is the ability to secure them in with a bolt or screw, to stop them coming loose in transit and bouncing freely over the motherboard and video cards, having worked in computer stores that shipped built custom systems, I’ve seen it happen more than once, including with Antec cases. The ability to add just one screw, or some form of secondary restraint would save a lot of potential damage.
Under the top 3.5” hard drive bay is a single bay for a 3.5” floppy drive, it could potentially be used for another hard drive, but as it uses drive slides which slide in from the front of the case and don’t go very far back, your hard drive might end up sticking out the front of the case a bit, not really the best look.
The drive cage in the bottom of the case can house another 4 x 3.5” hard drives, which don’t use drive slides this time, and instead screw into the cage itself, again with all screws going through anti-noise grommets. This bottom drive cage, along with the top one, leave a great deal of room between the drives to allow air to move through and keep the drives cool, which will in turn have them lasting longer.
Both hard drive bays can be removed completely to aid with installation, actually the bottom ones can’t be installed at all without taking it out. Once a thumb screw is removed from each of them, the cages can be pulled out via the little ring on the side and you can install your drive(s). Once you’re done, pop them back in, replace the thumb screw and be sure to secure the ring into its holder so it doesn’t rattle around, it’s nice to know Antec think of the little things like that, cause if that was rattling it would annoy the crap out of me.
Cooling:
The cooling in this case is serious business, with a 120mm fan at the rear, 2 x 140mm fans up the top, a 120mm fan in front of the power supply, and a massive 200mm ‘Big Boy’ fan in the side panel this case has the ability to move a simply massive amount of air through it, to keep everything inside nicely chilled.
The fans are all ‘Antec Tri-Cool’ items which means they all have a speed selector switch and 3 different settings of low/medium/high. The top and rear fans have their speed switches built into the back of the case, while the side panel and lower fans have their switch hanging loosely on a cable and you have to open the case to adjust them. Antec suggest leaving all fans on low to minimise noise, and even on low these things can still move some serious air.
Their specifications are as follows:
120mm:
- Low – 39cfm @ 1200rpm @ 25dBA
- Med – 56cfm @ 1600rpm @ 28dBA
- High – 79cfm @ 2000rpm @ 30dBA
140mm:
- Low – 47cfm @ 700rpm @ 20dBA
- Med – 66cfm @ 1100rpm @ 21dBA
- High – 94cfm @ 1500rpm @ 32dBA
200mm:
- Low – 82cfm @ 400rpm @ 24dBA
- Med – 108cfm @ 600rpm @ 27dBA
- High – 134cfm @ 800rpm @ 29dBA
So you can see from the numbers above that moving air through the case is not a problem.
There are also two fan mounting points in the front of the case for two more 120mm fans so you can have them blowing directly over the hard drives, these aren’t included as standard in an effort to keep the noise down, and they aren’t really necessary as the air is already drawn in through these two holes anyway. These two front fan mounting points have removable and washable mesh air filters to help keep the inside nice and clean and the side 200mm fan also has a removable and washable air filter, so as to avoid blowing dust directly onto your motherboard and video cards.
Aside from the included case fans, the P190 also has two rubber grommets at the rear of the case to allow water pipes to pass through easily if you have an external water cooling setup, we’ve seen this is quite a few of the current Antec range of cases, and it sure beats having to cut holes in your shiny new case if they’ve already been done for you.
The Chassis:
The chassis of the P190 is extremely well built, a little too well built in fact as it weighs a ton! Around 24kg (53lbs) before you even start putting other parts inside it. Once it’s built with a few drives, big video cards and a decent cooling setup it’d be easily over 30kg, not exactly something you’d want to lug around to a LAN. Once this thing is built, it’s staying in the same place!
The chassis is heavy not because of its size, well not JUST because of its size, but it’s also because it’s made out of steel, not aluminium like many of the big flashy cases going around these days, and while this makes the P190 stronger, it’s also makes it a lot heavier. The strength of the case is excellent, with the side panels off there is a tiny bit of flex in the main chassis, but with the side panels bolted on there is almost nothing, you could probably rest a car on this thing it’s that strong (note – Don’t try and rest a car on this case, after all, it could scratch it :) ).
Each of the side panels has a layer of sound deadening material on the inside, in another attempt to make the case as quiet as possible, and inside the case on any parts that may come into contact with the side panels there is a layer of felt fabric to prevent and vibrations, as well as strips of foam along the edges of the side panels themselves.
As mentioned earlier the motherboard area is big enough to take a full size Extended-ATX motherboard, such as Dual CPU server boards, so it’s almost guaranteed that it will be able to fit your motherboard, whatever it is and however big it is, and with the power supplies that the P190 packs inside, you can be sure it will be able to run it as well.
Appearance:
The appearance of the P190 is very similar to the older and smaller P182, with an all-black appearance including a black brushed aluminium door which only requires a light touch to open as it’s held closed magnetically, although it can be locked with a key for a little bit of protection from prying fingers.
On the front of the case by the door there is a small panel that holds the usual USB, Firewire and Audio ports, these are able to be used even with the door closed or locked, and the audio ports have connectors inside for both HD Audio and the older AC’97 standard.
Unlike the P182, the top exhaust fans don’t protrude from the case at all, they keep the same line as the rest of the case, as do the rear and side fans as well, so there’s no odd protrusions when looking at the case front or side on.
Other Features:
There are a couple of other small features in the case that we haven’t mentioned yet, the first is a hidden storage compartment on the motherboard side of the case next to the top 3.5” hard drive bay, it is big enough to hold some business cards, or a USB flash drive etc. And although it is difficult to get to with the side panel needing to be removed, this serves as some security and keeps whatever you have in there somewhat safe.
The second is a LED snake light hidden away in the top of the case next to the two 140mm fans. This light has the ability to be either Molex powered or plug into a USB header on the motherboard. I think it’s a brilliant inclusion, the number of times I’ve been under my desk using my phone as a torch trying to do something inside my case, this would have come in very handy. It can even work with the computer turned off by using the standby USB power, just like how the light in your optical mouse doesn’t go off when you shut down.
Conclusion:
As with most Antec cases, the P190 is extremely well designed inside with lots (LOTS!) of room and plenty of expansion capability, and coupled together with a great appearance and outer design makes it a winner in my books. The downsides of the case is the price (AU$570), and the weight. The price can be explained by the power supplies and their inherent quality, as being Antec you can be sure they’ll be quality units, and a 1200W PSU on its own would set you back nearly AU$500 on its own anyway, and when you look at it that way, it’s actually quite good value.
I would certainly consider this case if I was building a mega system, so long as I didn’t have to move it anywhere.
Pros:
- Big
- Lots of Expansion capability
- Huge Amount of power from dual PSUs
- Good Looking
- Huge Cooling Capacity
- Nifty Inclusions (storage box, snake light)
Cons:
- Big
- Heavy
- Expensive
- Non-standard PSU system
OzHardware Rating – 9.5/10
This product can be purchased online at www.techbuy.com.au (Direct Link)
