Antec Mini P180 review

The Mini P180 is a smaller version of Antec’s excellent Performance One case series. An understated design makes it one of the better looking PC cases we’ve seen, but as it’s a mini-tower it will only accept micro-ATX motherboards.

The chambered interior has been designed to manage heat effectively and has pre-cut holes between sections for cable management. A huge 200mm fan in the top of the case spins slower than the rear 120mm exhaust fan, but moves more air for a cooler system. There aren’t any front intake fans installed as standard, but there are two mounts if you want to add some in the future.

Three external 5.25in drive bays and a single 3.5in bay should provide enough room for several optical drives, fan controllers or memory card readers. Five internal 3.5in bays are ideal for adding plenty of storage, but you’ll have to remove the upper drive cage to install a long graphics card.

All the external drive bays are hidden behind a hinged door, but intake vents let cool air into the system without having to leave the door open. Two USB ports, an eSATA port and two audio jacks sit to the side of the door and are always accessible.

With only two fans, the Mini P180 is a very quiet case that can still cool a PC effectively. Larger midi-tower cases are much more versatile, but this is still the ideal case for anyone with limited room for a PC.