Antec Performance One P280 Midtower Case Review

Moving Inside the Antec P280

Those familiar with the previous Performance One cases will notice the rather drastic layout change. Gone is the separate thermo chamber design to a more open layout. The layout gets a couple things I like, a less complicated drive cage arrangement and 9 expansion slots.

There are 4 tool-less 5.25″ bays, 2 dedicated 2.5″ drive bays, and 6 drive trays that can hold either 2.5″ or 3.5″ drives.

On the inside of side of the drive cage are tool-less fan mounting spots for an additional pair of 120mm fans.

In the lower back is the power supply area. The vent screen is inside the case. Its guide rails are what the power supply rests on.

Above the power supply are the expansion slot covers. The covers are held in with thumbscrews.

At the top and back are three TwoCool 120mm fans, with individual speed controls.

A little different from Antec cases in the past, there is a power distribution block that powers all the fans from a single molex connector.

The front panel wiring has a change or two as well. The P280 has USB3 on the front panel. If your board doesn’t have USB3, for an additional charge of $2.50 you can get a USB3 to USB2 converter cable. There is also only HD audio connecton for the front panel audio connections. This could be an annoyance for someone moving an older system with AC97 audio to a new case.

Moving around to the right side, there are 4 grommeted wire routing holes down the side and bottom of the motherboard and 2 open wire routing holes at the top. Antec also provided many places for wire ties to help keep things tidy. The CPU cutout in the motherboard tray is massive; there should be no issues getting to the back of CPU sockets.

From the tray to the side panel is 1″, absolutely cavern-like compared to past Antec cases. Plenty of room for even the beefiest power supplies’ main 24pin cable.

There is over 2″ in the hard drive cage area — plenty of space for connections and wires.

The side panels have a layer of polycarbonate that acts as a sound barrier.