After showing off the P380 (for the second time) at CES 2015, Antec has now officially launched the case. The P380 is the newest case to make it to the Performance One series of chassis, which is the manufacturer's lineup of silent performance-oriented cases. Back when we saw it at Computex we thought it was a beautiful piece of art, so we're happy to see that it will be making it to shelves.
Inside, the case has room for up to E-ATX motherboards along with graphics cards up to 465 mm long. There are nine expansion slots, meaning you'll be able to cram in up to four dual-slot graphics cards. There are two 5.25" optical drive bays in the case, but these are not accessible from the outside. Instead, they simply serve as a place to hide cables and clutter. Underneath this there are three hard drive cages, which together offer room for up to eight 3.5" or 2.5" drives.
One of the highlights of the case is that it features a design which allows you to place it on either side of your desk without losing functionality (except that placing it on the left side would block the window view, but that, we would argue, isn't losing functionality). The front I/O module can be removed and mounted on the other side of the case to keep it accessible, and both sides of the case have power and reset switches. The slim slot-loading optical drive bay can also be swapped from ejecting the disc on the left to ejecting it on the right.
"The P380 is impressive not only because of its fine aesthetics and high-quality finish, but also because of its remarkable features," said Jerome Francois, Sales Director Europe at Antec. "The chassis offers space and sufficient flexibility and design options to meet the high demands of gamers and enthusiasts, while ensuring a smooth running performance and best cooling performance."
Being built for silent operation, Antec also put plenty of attention into noise dampening. All the drive mounts have rubber grommets for vibration reduction, and the side panels offer plenty of padding to reduce noise, too. You may wonder how that works with the side window, but at CES we saw that the seam between the window and the side panel is so well-built that it couldn't possibly rattle, and that side panel still has a decent amount of heft to it, so we doubt the window will let all that much noise through. Antec seems to think the same thing, because this is the first time that we've seen the company build a silence-oriented case that is only available with a side window.
The front and top of the case are made of large aluminum slabs, making for a very clean appearance. These slabs are bent, 4 mm thick, and anodized black on the front and back. The sides aren't anodized, so they show a very shiny aluminum glimmer, which looks better than all the chrome we've ever seen. The top can be easily removed to access fan mounting locations and the front I/O module.
Antec told us that the price will be at $229, although chances are street pricing will be sub-$200. It should be available in March.
Follow Niels Broekhuijsen @NBroekhuijsen. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.
