Antec P280 Full Tower Chassis Review

Overall I’m really happy with Antecs P280 chassis, while many aspect of it don’t leap out at you at first, it has plenty of refinements that make it perfect for today’s high end components and gaming rigs, while keeping an (almost) understated appearance that you generally don’t find with a lot of similar priced chassis.

The overall appearance of the P280 is a mixed bag, on the interior we have a continuous black paint job that keeps everything looking neat and tidy, but the interior component layout, drive trays and general finish are highly functional rather than style focused, this is of course a good thing as I would generally take performance and functionality over style any day when it comes to the interior of the chassis.

While this chassis can be bought with a window side panel, the model we reviewed today did not, so internal appearance isn’t incredibly important  add to this the modest application of sound proofing materials within the chassis and its clear that most of the P280 is intended to not be seen, or heard. Yet with all that said, its impossible to miss that fantastic front door panel with its aluminium finish, the mixture of heavy, black and soundproofed surfaces combined with the highly styled front panel give the P280 a rather sophisticated overall appearance.

Performance isn’t fantastic too, there is a reason we use this chassis in the eTeknix office and at trade shows such as iSeries. There is more than enough room in there for a multi-GPU setup, some entry-mid level water cooling, plenty of airflow, robust cable management and high build quality, which ticks more boxes than most people require when making a chassis purchase.

It’s not all good however as I do have one major shortfall on the P280 design, while the chassis does come fitted with three 120mm exhaust fans, there are no pre-installed intake fans, which for a chassis of this size seems like an oversight, so I would suggest picking up a pair of 120mm fans along side this chassis so that you can really enjoy its capabilities. This minor oversight aside I still think this is one of the most versatile chassis on the market today and its perfect for those that want all the bite of a powerful system, without the bark of loud design features often found on other gaming chassis.