Antec P9 Windowed Mid-Tower Chassis Review
Peter Donnell / 8 years ago
Final Thoughts
Price
The Antec P9 Window is available from Overclockers UK for £79.99, which is about £15-20 cheaper than many rival chassis such as the Define R5, Phantom 530, Carbide 330R. However, it is competing with the BitFenix Ghost and be quiet! Silent Base 600, both silence-focused chassis for the same money, giving you some tough choices to make when placing your order.
Overview
The latest effort from Antec is a promising one, they’ve been tinkering around with a few projects over the years and almost lost their way in terms of quality and design, but the P9 Window is a welcome return to form. This isn’t some crazy looking gaming chassis, it’s actually a little bland if anything, but that’s actually what I like about this. Not everyone wants their chassis to be bright orange and full of lighting, they just want something that looks neat and tidy, blends into the corner of their desk nicely, and doesn’t cost the Earth.
Build quality is classic Antec, with thick metal panels that don’t flex or rattle, well-finished and durable plastic components that blend in well with the metal work, and everything locks and clicks into place with ease. A lot of thought has gone into the design of this chassis too, with indirect airflow on the front panel, which helps reduce a lot of unwanted noise from your system, a capped off top panel to help keep things even quieter, and there’s even some anti-vibration material on the right side panel. On top of all that, you’ve got a decent selection of fan mounts in the front, top, back, and bottom of the chassis, with all intakes having easily accessible dust filters for easy maintenance. If that wasn’t enough, there are two fan controllers built into the front panel, allowing you to toggle fans from off/low/high, meaning you can take full control of your acoustics and performance.
Little details go a long way too and having dust caps on all the front panel I/O ports is a nice touch. The addition of tool-free storage bays, as well as a tool-free removal system for the top hard drive caddy, dual SSD mounts behind the motherboard, extensive cable tie loops throughout, and a few pre-installed fans too; it all adds to the value for money. It’s nothing innovative, but the quality is robust, it’s packing plenty of cool and practical features, and it’s priced well enough to offer some decent competition on the market.
Pros
- Durable build quality
- Tidy aesthetics
- Large side panel window
- Dust filters
- Noise dampening
- Dual fan controllers with off function
- Tool-free drive bays
- Pre-installed fans
Cons
- None
Neutral
- High-end GPUs will likely require top HDD bay to be removed
- Included fans look a little cheap
“If you’re looking to build a versatile system for work and gaming, the P9 Window is a robust chassis for the job, with the added advantage that it wouldn’t look out of place at home, or in the office.”