Antec P8 Mid-Tower Chassis Review

Complete System

Getting everything installed in the Antec P8 took about twenty minutes, it really couldn’t have gone much smoother than it did. Of course, this chassis, as nice as it is, is hardly some big innovation or change. It’s pretty standard in terms of layout, so anyone with even a hint of building experience can put a rig together with it blindfolded.

The end result is neat and tidy, and cable routing is much better than you would typically find on a mid-budget chassis. There’s good clearance for a large CPU air cooler too. Water cooling options are definitely limited in the top, especially since most motherboards have the larger VRM coolers now, so be sure to measure three times before you buy one. Of course, you could also stick a radiator in the front or rear fan mounts anyway.

Room for huge graphics cards!

There’s certainly room in the front for a nice radiator. Even the 1080 Ti didn’t eat up much of the available space here.

The dedicated 2.5″ drive mounts are a nice touch too, again, they’re hardly a new idea but I like showing off the SSDs anyway.

No cable routing hole on the edge of the PSU cover does mean that GPU cables have to trail either over or under the GPU, rather than pass straight up. This isn’t a deal breaker, but with a tempered glass panel, you would want it looking as neat as possible. Surely cutting an extra hole wouldn’t break the bank Antec?

Tempered Glass!

With all the panels back in place, the build look pretty glorious. You really do get a very exposed view through that window, so keeping cable routing tight, and picking nice looking components will really pay off here.

Anything that’s dark should blend in with the all black interior very well, especially cables. Everything else that’s lighter in colour will be very easy to see, even in a well lit room.

With the system powered on, any interior lighting will shine through with ease.

The LEDs in the fans are subtle, and not as bright as I was expecting. However, I’m quite happy with the softer light they provide, it looks nice without thinking “I need to put shades on before I look at it.”

Finally, the last party trick is the small Antec logo on the front panel. It lights up in a cool white too and accents the design very well. Don’t worry, as if you don’t like this light, just don’t hook up the Molex connector inside and it’ll stay off.

Overall, a very nice build. Wouldn’t you agree?