Antec P82 Flow

[Darksaber]

The Antec P82 Flow may be a compact chassis, but it packs quite the punch at an attractive price. With four 140 mm fans out of the box and a well-engineered exterior, it manages to turn heads, and ends up working well while looking clean despite its simple interior—all without breaking the bank.

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[FreedomEclipse]

Yeah... the Phanteks Eclipse P300 & P400 would like to have a word.

Surprisingly good cooling performance though

 

[Valantar]

They call it "Flow", yet give it a solid metal front panel? Is that meant as a joke?

 

[kapone32]

I liked the 140MM fan placements. I do not like the fact that the fans are all 3 pin. On top of that using Molex to power fans is so 2000s. If the case actually had mesh at the front... (I know the review temps weren't bad) but there is so much lost potential in this case for me that, even though it is better than the Cougar MX330 in terms of fan support (as there is no 140MM support on the MX330) but not in terms of design or price.

 

[Vario]

They call it "Flow", yet give it a solid metal front panel? Is that meant as a joke?

And the grills that are behind the panels are pretty restrictive in design. Maybe it should be called the Antec Bake.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

And the grills that are behind the panels are pretty restrictive in design. Maybe it should be called the Antec Bake.

Did you even look at the thermal results?

 

[Turmania]

The bequiet 500 dx new one is miles better. I dont know about prices though.

 

[Valantar]

Did you even look at the thermal results?

I did. Are they supposed to be impressive for a case that comes with four 140mm fans included? 'Cause they are decidedly middle-of-the-road, yet that fan configuration is about as high end as you get in a stock configuration for a case (low end cases might have a single 120mm, with the vast majority of cases having two fans, typically also 120mm). In other words, this case is trying to compensate for a low-airflow design by being crammed full of fans, and as a result its... fine. Mediocre is a fitting word. If the front panel was mesh and everything else was left the same, it would likely be topping every chart.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Oh. Right, so you'd rather a case that doesnt come with any fans or barely any fans at all so you wont have a reason to cry about it. I getcha

 

[Valantar]

Oh. Right, so you'd rather a case that doesnt come with any fans or barely any fans at all so you wont have a reason to cry about it. I getcha

No, I would like a case that a) doesn't misrepresent what it does (such as being named "flow" despite being explicitly designed in a way that blocks airflow), b) balances form and function in a thoughtful way, and c) presents a good value proposition. This fails on the first two, even if it technically delivers on the third ("technically" due to the fans being very good value for the price, but the design then rendering them far less useful than they could be, and ultimately thus are representative of compensating for a poor design rather than delivering good functionality or value). I don't even particularly mind cases with solid front panels (my current case has one), it's just that this doesn't just have that, but a particularly closed-off one, more so than the norm.

 

[ShurikN]

Just because they are brute-forcing, doesn't mean the case has good airflow.

But out of the box capabilities are good, so that's all that should matter.

 

[cucker tarlson]

looked at temps testing - it's alright,quite good

but then for a crazy 3x140mm intake and 1x140mm exhaust there has to be something impeding the airflow if it's not topping the charts

damn this is 65 bucks.those fans must be cheapos.

 

[CandymanGR]

Awful airflow restricted cases are the norm now. Thats why i still love my HAF and i dont want to replace it. Even with dust filters installed, still destroys all modern cases in terms of airflow and temps.
I dont understand the approach of form over function with modern cases.

 

[Valantar]

Awful airflow restricted cases are the norm now. Thats why i still love my HAF and i dont want to replace it. Even with air filters installed, still destroys all modern cases in terms of airflow and temps.
I dont understand the approach of form over function with modern cases.

There's actually been a bit of a resurgence of mesh-fronted cases over the past year or so. Before that, though, things were bad, and to a certain degree they still are. But there are thankfully some better alternatives out there now.

 

[CandymanGR]

There's actually been a bit of a resurgence of mesh-fronted cases over the past year or so. Before that, though, things were bad, and to a certain degree they still are. But there are thankfully some better alternatives out there now.

Yes there is some resurgence of mesh front in cases. Coolermaster mostly does that and a few others too (Phanteks P400A for example). But the percentage of meshed cases in total, is rather small. Would you agree?
I also hope that support for 200-230mm sized fans also will make a return too, at least as an option for some of us who care more about cooling and silence than looks.

 

[Space Lynx]

@Darksaber In your opinion what case have you tested that you felt had the best dust filters? I noticed my Corsair 110Q has no dust filters, it says it does, but the holes are rather big on the front panel lol not really filtering anything. just wondering your thoughts on it is all, I know you don't test that really, but just like have you ever seen a dust filter and been like hmm, impressive, at its feel, airflow/yet density of holes?

 

[Chrispy_]

That's a really nice $55 case with $10 wasted on the expense of tempered glass and its additional considerations.

I wholeheartedly approve of these air-cooled, 'no-bigger-than-ATX' cases that are easy/clean to build in though. Too many gargantuan 'ATX' cases with EATX support + 3 radiators + vertical GPU riser + tempered glass everywhere + RGBLED cable spaghetti have lost their way trying to tick every single marketing checkbox there is, even if it makes the damn thing twice as big and twice as expensive as it needs to be for the 99.5% of people who have a moterboard ATX or smaller and will use no more than a single radiator, if at all.

 

[AddSub]

Next logical step in case design and trends progression is going to be: "Pre-heated air being pumped into the case for user convenience!". I mean, what's left really?

I have one of these modern tempered glass monstrosities. Gets OKish air flow BUT, that's with 4x120mm up front, 4x120mm on top, a 130cfm jet engine sounding Kaze Ultra 140mm in the back, and 80mm for the HDD/SDD cage. Yeah, I get airflow with TEN FANS! Ten fans will make any crap box have airflow. A regular case from pre "looks like a tempered glass RGB mini-fridge" era can do same or better airflow with a single 120mm intake and a single 120mm exhaust.

Antec, was never king of airflow. Their media center cases were infamous for being ovens even in the pre RGB era. It's everyone else too though... everyone...

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[MrIronGolem27]

Just bought this case.

It appears the PCIe slot covers are no longer the break-off kind, and the stock configuration includes a full set of reusable covers. Of course, the accessories box inside the hard drive tray no longer includes extra slot covers.

Other than that, nothing to report.

I also think these complaints about the front panel being too restrictive and the thermals being complete trash when considering the stock configuration includes 4x140mm fans, while understandable, are way too extreme. Yes, Antec could have included a mesh front. Yes, they could have ditched the tempered glass and a few other features. Yes, the marketing is a bit misleading. But at the end of the day, this is pretty damn good for $65 and not paying a cent extra for your own fans. Everybody complaining is decidedly not the target audience for this case.

damn this is 65 bucks.those fans must be cheapos.

Perhaps so, but the thermal results demonstrate that they're not trash.

To be quite honest, though, nothing about this case strikes me as particularly difficult to manufacture, case fans aside.