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Hardware Installation and Test Configuration
A small white box containing a variety of screws and zip ties comes packed into one of the open 3.5" drive bays. The case manual can be found on top of the PSU tunnel.
Test Configuration
Drivers and Settings
| Chipset | Intel INF 10.1.1.42 |
| CPU | 4GHz (40x 100MHz) @ 1.1V core |
| Motherboard | Firmware 1.10 3/2/2018 |
| RAM | 14-14-14-34 |
| Graphics | Maximum Fan for Thermal Tests | NVIDIA GeForce 398.36 WHQL Game Ready Driver |
Interior
The interior of the Antec P101 Silent is painted white, with components such as hard drive racks and the PSU shroud painted black to match the exterior. This adds some visual style to the interior of an otherwise boxy black case. But without a case window, you're not going to be seeing the inside of the case after building unless you're upgrading or troubleshooting.
Seven cable pass-through holes with rolled-metal edges perforate the motherboard tray, along with two more holes in the top of the PSU tunnel, both with rolled-metal edges. The holes in the upper edge of the motherboard tray are specifically designed for routing the ATX12V/EPS12V power cable and fan cables to the fan hub.
Given that this case is equipped with solid side panels, we found it a bit odd that the motherboard tray and PCI-E slot covers are painted white. Although the contrasting color scheme is a nice touch, no one will see these color accents. Antec could have put more of the color contrasts on the outside of the case, but that probably wouldn't appeal to everyone.
The eight expansion slots will accommodate graphics cards, even in multi-GPU configurations, up to 450mm (17.71 inches) with the hard drive racks removed and 270mm (10.62 inches) with hard drive racks in place. You can use CPU air coolers up to 180mm (7.08 inches) tall in this case.
As far as storage options are concerned, the P101 Silent can accommodate up to eight 3.5-inch hard drives and a total of ten 2.5-inch SSDs (two dedicated, 8 convertible from 3.5-inch bays). The SSD drive rack is located on the back of the motherboard tray. All 3.5-inch hard drive racks are located in the main component compartment, directly in front of the intake fan mounting locations. The hard drive rack consists of four parts, each containing drive caddies for two hard drives. The racks can be removed separately to to accommodate various build configurations.
Cooling
In total, there are mounting locations for up to four 120mm fans: three in the front, and one in the rear. The P101 Silent can alternatively accommodate up to three 140mm fans, two in the front, and one in the rear.
The chassis ships by default with three 120mm intake fans in the front. The rear exhaust fan location is outfitted with a 140mm fan by default.
Radiators and AIO coolers can be mounted in the top, front, and rear of this chassis. The mounting locations in the front of the chassis support 120, 140, 240, 280 and 360mm radiators. Radiators and AIO coolers up to 140mm can also be installed in the exhaust-fan mounting location. The mounting location in the front of the chassis can easily support radiators up to 360mm, sandwiched between fans in a push-pull configuration if you remove the modular drive racks.
We fitted the P101 Silent with power supplies up to 225mm in length without any issues.
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