Subjective Comments and Conclusion

While our experience with the P182 and P190 were great, we do have a few recommendations for them.

For both cases, it would be nice if the steel frame was replaced with aluminium. This would help to make these cases lighter, as they are pretty heavy as is. This would make these cases more attractive to those who move their computers around frequently, like LAN party participants.

For the P182, power supply compatibility for longer units would be good. Many high end power supplies, including Antec's own Quattro series would not fit properly in the case, with the lower chamber fan and divider in the way. If the fan was moved to the front of the hard drive tray, a couple of inches could be gained which would allow for a greater number of power supplies to work with this case.

As well, while we didn't specifically test temperatures for the cases, additional stock cooling for the P182 would help bring it more to par with its bigger brother, the P190, which has much more airflow. Adding another fan to the top should be easy.

Lastly, for the P182, the clearance issues with long video cards needs to be addressed. While long video cards can fit in the case, it comes at the expense of losing mounts for hard drives. If using SLI or Crossfire, this would mean losing two hard drive mounts. This could be addressed if hard drives could be mounted sideways or if the case were extended by two inches.

For the P190, the clearance issue with tall heatsinks interfering with the Big Boy fan is a big issue. This case is targeted towards high end users, and many high end users use high end aftermarket heatsinks, many of which are tall. This could be fixed by widening the case by a couple of inches or using two smaller fans and moving them closer to the middle of the side panel, away from the typical CPU socket position.

As well, offering a P190 without the Neo-Link 1200 power supply combo should be considered. Many users would like the option of using whatever power supply they want. The P190 has a big chamber to fit long power supplies. Additionally, having two supplies increases the chance of power failure. Something else for Antec (if insistent on a case+PSU combo) to consider is replacing the Neo-Link 1200 in this case with a single Antec Quaddro 850w or 1000w unit instead.

While we didn't do any objective testing, we found subjectively that they are very quiet (even with all fans on, although we mostly used the low speed settings). Temperature wise, things were great on that end too. With a high end system, you shouldn't have any temperature related issues (even when overclocking!).

Overall, despite these things we were very happy with the P182 and P190 cases. Quality wise, they were great. Usability wise, we didn't have many problems. Dependant on what hardware you are using, and there aren't many issues at that, we would recommend these cases to our friends and family.

At the time of publishing of this article, the P182 was a great value. In it's price category, it's hard to find many other competitors that offer similar features, and with the same level of quietness and thermal properties. Because all of this, we would like to give the Antec P182 our Editor's Choice award, and 10/10.

For the P190, if you're a power user with high end video cards in Crossfire or SLI, a quadcore CPU (or even multiple CPU's), and 6 hard drives... basically you need tons of room and need a case that will keep everything quiet and cool, you gotta get Antec's P190.