Hello!,

First I just wanted to tell you that I enjoyed the quality of the review on this case. The detail and the pictures that were provided were excellent. I purchased this case after reading this review. I only wanted to comment on a few things that I think should be highlighted so that these companies don't continue to cheap out and start putting out more crap! I love the looks of the case but when I got it I was rather disappointed in the quality of the "plastic" that was involved. The tilt face at the top is extremely poor quality and could break off it seems without a huge amount of force. Also, the USB & FireWire ports that are mounted in this face are extremely CHEEZY. The plastic "mirror" looking molding around the front looks nice but I am sure will flake since this is just grey plastic painted with a mirror coating. This was enough to sour me on the case. I was just hoping that you would mention some of these things so that Antec doesn't think they can get away with attaching junky pieces to an otherwise quality case. The case would be absolutely AWESOME if these changes were made.

1. Instead of the grey plastic-mirror molding piece, have an aluminum piece that could be anodized to any specific color.

2. Replace the round, plastic tilt-display with an aluminum tilt display. More tricky with aluminum but by looking at the nice way they rounded the inside edges of the case I would say it would be no problem.

3. The USB and firewire ports are like cheap brittle plastic! Replace these.

Maybe I am not so impressed since recently I purchased a Lian-Li PC-68USB and found the overall quality to be great. The aluminum and USB ports on this system were very high quality.

Just my opinion!

Thanks,
Ken.
tronplayer@hotmail.com

Tacky with a capital T.

I think this baby is UGLY, but thats just personal taste. I really dig the drive bays and have used them in their silent cases, all in all it isnt bad.

I really want to see TR review Lian Li's PCV-1200

http://www.lian-li.com/products/pcv1200.htm

im pretty sure that is going to be my next case.

Great TR review, as always.

Andy: how do the noise levels of this one compare to the sonata? Two things i sort of dislike about the P160 are that 1) it's significantly taller and 2) it's flashier.

Nice review of what appears to be a nice case.

Got a question about the internal 3-1/2" drive bays though. With the drives mounted sideways like that, is there enough clearance for a SATA connector between the back of the drive and the right side panel? SATA connectors tend to stick out a little farther than PATA ones...

I think this is a great case; I looked at it before settling on an Aopen A600. The one thing I didn't like is that with the USB and audio ports at the top (I had this configuration on another computer), the wires tended to dangle down and interfere with the CD trays, which was very annoying. On the other hand, on my case they're all the way at the bottom, which is very hard to reach.

I have had my eye on this case ever since they announced it, unfortunately the front is what kills it. I really like the insides, tons of little details here and there makes it stand out.

That BTX case from lian li is great. I saw that on bit-tech a while back. I am turning one of those antec/chieftec clones into one right now.

I am still on the hunt for a case, coolermaster discontinued the good ATC ones so I am screwed for the time being.

Great article!

So are there any decent sound cards that have the pins required to use the audio jacks on this case? I looked at a few that have been reviewed here but it didn't look like any of the pictures showed it.

add another vote to the ugly column please. took a look at it and skipped the rest of the article. That piano black case they make is way more appealing than this.

I'm very interested in the new Lian Li's as well. It'll be interesting to see how mounting the mobo "upside down" like that will affect things.

i'd be hard pressed to choose between a sonata and the p160...well if i was in the market anyways ;)

Perhaps antec does a better job, but man I hate those optical drive bay covers... Why not get a black cd or dvd burner and be done with it?

I get OEM cases with those optical covers, and it can some times take a 1/2 hour of fiddelling around to get the drive to the right place where the door cover will open and close properly...Some days its enough to drive you (ok me) insane...

This has to be the dumbest implementation of a motherboard tray yet. I don't know why Antec looked at Lian Li, Coolermaster, and Kingwin's SLIDE OUT trays, and said "Oh hey, let's make a pull out tray that won't come out if there's any PCI cards installed. That way if the user has to say, swap a heatsink out, they get to take all their cards out too."

I mean, it's not like they were breaking new ground... they knew what the shortcomings were. Why not just use a slide-out tray? It's not like the cost wouldn't have been marginal.

Nice try Antec, but keep trying. You'll get it right one day.

With all you guys talking about noise problems, why don't you just download SPEEDFAN and use that? It's free and a great little program to control your fans, assuming you have them plugged into the 3-pin MB headers.

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

good review, but that case is ugly as hell,.....

id like a TR review of this lian-li

http://www.lian-li.com/products/pcv1000.htm

or this coolermaster

http://www.oxfordpc.com/components/index.php?action=show_product2&i...

yes, 120mm ins and outs are the shizzle, i used to think thermaltake cases were the ugliest but now im taking a likeing to them, especially the lanmoto, this antec looks like ass, i actually prefer their beige boxes. Sonata looks 5x better than that thing. It looks like a skank case thats trying to be hot, but you cant get past the cheesiness of that front. FUGLY

This is the next case I get. I've been eyeballing it since it came out.

Dr. Evil, is it possible to turn the 3 LEDs off? I'll probably end up wiring a potentiometer in there, but It would be nice if the option is there.

Also, how thick is the aluminum? I have a really sweet idea for a side panel. I can't decide if I want the un-modded panel so I can mod it or the modded one, 'cause it looks really sweet.

I want the nice 120mm intake/exhausts, but I want to be able to use an eATX mobo, too. :(

This is my work PC case. It is great. And I own an Antec Sonata and SX1030b. :)

I built my home machine with this case, and I love it. I can't understand what people see in those Coolermaster or Lian cases. For one thing, they don't have the Antec's awesome hard drive trays; from pictures of those other cases, you have to screw the drives in from both sides of the case. Also, with the window side panel, the P160 simply looks incredible.

While the air filter works great, the black inserts inside the intakes unfortunately also act as filters. After just a couple weeks, there was a noticable coating of dust on them. The leds only amplified the look of the dust.

Also, the line of decorative holes around the bezel bring in dust. After a quick shot from a compressed air can to the intakes, I blew into the holes and a whole hoarde of dust bunnies flew out and attacked me. I was afaid for my feet!

This is a great case i've had one since last novemeber and it gives my overclocked prescott and motherboard plenty of room to breath.

Dr. Evil, you're alive!!!

Case looks good, though. 120mm fans are the way of the future in quiet cooling.

I'm actually in the market for a new case and this one interests me greatly. Thanks for the review Dr. Evil. Now if only that front bezel wasn't so ugly. I think it's just those fan intakes. But I might be able to get used to them as the other features of the case are really nice. :-)