The P183 has been placed in the Performance category over at Antec which means this case should be loaded with hidden sound dampening materials, dust filters where needed and other solutions to lower the noise coming from your computer.

The package for the Antec P183 is pretty much all black, with a yellow design line all around and an image of the product itself on the front side. All in all a stylish and clean looking package.

Opening up the package reveals some sturdy packaging making sure the case won’t jump around and get scratched during transport. We also find a manual included in the case together with some accessories such as drive rails and screws.

Both the sides and the front of the case are covered with a plastic sheet to protect it from scratches, something that Antec is very keen on preventing.






Antec continues on the design line of the first computer case in the performance category, the P180. On every case since they’ve changed some smaller things and compared to the P182 the P183 have some additional details in the front of the chassis and also no fan guide on top of the chassis.







Continuing down and looking at the additional air vents in the front, if we look through them just above the front panel we can see the power and reset button.

Thanks to this design both the buttons are usable without opening up the front door. The door itself swings open a fully 270 degrees and is held in place while closed thanks magnets.

The front panel itself features a lock, with the all so standard key that is used to all computer cases available ( most probably ). Below we find an eSata connector, two USB and one of each connector for microphone and headphones.

Just above the lock there is a power led, a really tiny one. But the activity led is even more hidden until you start up your computer, then the air vent just above the lock lights up.

Nothing more in the front to speak of, except the air vents on the sides that we’ve seen on earlier cases as well.









Opening up the door reveals no less than four 5.25 inch drive bays, one 3.5 inch bay and the two doors with built-in air filters in front of the two intake fans which are very useful and easy to clean.

All the drive bays are covered with air filters and are both easily removed and cleaned thanks to the tabs on the sides which are easily pushed toward the center to remove them.

Other than that, the P183 looks pretty much the same as the P182.





The back of the case features one 120 mm exhaust fan, IO bracket, expansion slots and also a small tri-speed fancontroller, as seen on the earlier cases in the performance series.

The base color of the internal guts is the normal metal color, why don’t the companies continue with the all so wonderful black internals? Well one reason for the performance series can be that it just is a performance computer case and therefore designed for good cooling and low noise, with drawbacks on the parts you don’t see as much ;)

If we look further down in the back of the case we see two holes for water-cooling hoses, if you have an external system.



The sides of the P183 are completely clean of details, no Antec logo, no air vents or windows.

On next page we’ll open up the case to find out what Antec has changed on the inside.