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HomePC & LaptopCabinetAntec P120 Crystal Cabinet Review | Mid Tower Cabinet

Antec P120 Crystal Cabinet Review | Mid Tower Cabinet

Antec P120 Crystal Cabinet Review | Mid Tower Cabinet

Pros
  • Good build quality
  • Adequate cooling performance
  • Liquid cooling friendly
  • Detailed engineering with clean window panels
  • Lighting around the USB 3.0 ports
Cons
  • Only available in the black/grey livery
  • No grommets installed
  • No fans included
  • Only two 3.5″ storage drives supported

Often while making product companies take inspiration from products of other companies makes some tweaks in its design and new features to it and launches a new product in the market. But sometimes these efforts lead to failure. The company is declared as a copycat and the product is ignored And same happened with Antec when they launched the Antec P120 Crystal Cabinet. People immediately realize that this was the copy of Lian Li’s O11. Dynamic Is that true or not?

Well, today we find the answer to that question and without any further delay Let’s begin! So this is the Antec P120 Crystal Cabinet, Antec’s flagship PC case But first, let’s have a small history lesson Antec is one of the veterans in the PC industry. They used to be at the top of their game and their PC case were very famous among gamers. But with time they lost their popularity as they failed to evolve And they lost their original wow factor. Now about the Antec P120 Crystal Cabinet which is inspired by the O11 Dynamic, It is not the same! It’s a little bit different Looks like the O11 But it’s still different.

So let’s start with the overall design and there is no doubt that it has a clean look It’s almost a full tower case, has large dimensions, and is a tad heavy with a weight above 10kg The Major portion of this weight is contributed by its tempered glass panel Because the tempered glass and the steel panel used in this case are of very good quality. They are rigid, have minor flex and for the price, I think it is a very decently built case. The tempered glass is mounted on hinges and can be rotated 180 degrees sideways. Now the design here can be improved as the hinges on which the glass is mounted are of the same size.

If one of the hinges was smaller than the other then it would have been easier to mount or remove the panel It’s still fine but if the design can be improved then why not To hold the tempered glass in its position there is a nicely built lock here It has a spring-loaded mechanism and is easy to use It’s very reliable in case you have to travel with your PC or have to transport it somewhere It is safer than Lian li’s implementation in the Lancool 2 mesh. The front glass panel is not that easy to remove as you have to remove 4 very small screws And honestly, it’s not the kinda panel you have to remove again and again so it’s all fine.

There are no holes for ventilation on the top like you get in other cases and you cannot mount any fan or radiator whereas the PSU is mounted on the top At the top, you also have the I/O section which in my opinion is lacking As I would have preferred to have 4 USB ports. The USB ports light up, they are not RGB, just have a white backlight. Which is a very useful feature. Also, the location of the I/O section is a whole different debate as the users who keep their case on the right side will have difficulty reaching it. .There is a full-sized dust filter at the bottom of the case which can be pulled out from the front conveniently.

The reason for having a full-sized dust filter at the bottom is because of the fan mounting location provided here. Because of the design of the case, the PSU is mounted on the top, so the bottom section of the case is dedicated to mounting radiators and fans. There is enough space for mounting three 120mmfans or three 140mm fans Same in the case of radiators, except 140mm(420)radiator can be a tight fit Also there is no official support here for the 420mmradiator. so I won’t talk much about it There won’t be any problem when using a 360mm radiator as there is enough depth here for that. The clearance here can get limited in case you use the vertical GPU mount But it will also depend on the model(vertical GPU mount) you use.

The right panel has a very fine quality but I didn’t like its locking or latching mechanism It’s dependent on screws and unfortunately, the latch on our model was bent because of which the panel did not completely fit on the top latch So there was a gap visible between the front panel and the side panel which is a design flaw in my opinion On the same panel, you can see these cutouts which are used for ventilation for the side-mounted radiator. The bottom pane has support for 360mm radiators so that means that you can mount two 360mm radiators in this case at the same time considering you are aware of its limitation as you will face clearance issues if you are not careful.

Now there’s a big problem with the side radiator mount at least for me it is big If you are mounting a 360mm radiator in the case then there will be no space left for mounting any HDD Yes! Not even one! Unlike most other cases wherein the worst-case scenario, you can mount at least 1 HDD But here you won’t get any such option because to install the radiator you have to remove the 3.5 inch HDD bay. Now the HDD tray design is very good and is kinda over-engineered The HDDs are mounted on the grommets which reduce the vibrations.

The HDD bay is easy to remove, just remove the screws and it slides off Besides the HDD bay is the PSU section It’s just like what we get in a normal case where the PSU is mounted behind the HDD cage Instead of being at the bottom, it is present on the top The PSU area is very big and there is enough room for cables and big power supplies. The PSU shroud is made of 2 parts one is a black piece of plastic which I didn’t understand why is it made out of plastic and why is ita different part.

The bigger piece where the PSU is installed is made out of metal And to add some flavour to the case there are more angles here It’s not straight like the whole case which gives it a unique character. Other firms should take inspiration from this design and I will give props to Antec P120 Crystal Cabinet for experimenting with this one. I also liked the fact that I don’t have to install the PSU from the side Instead, you have to install it from the rear For that, you get a small bracket which you have to install on the PSU outside the case and then slide the bracket and the PSU in the case which makes this process easy You get a lot of cable tie points here.

There won’t be much problem in passing the cables I wish there were more tie points around the radiator but for most users, it will be fine. You also get 2 SSD trays here which are very good Seems like they did some efforts in designing it. But again I wish there was some way to mount a 3.5 inch HDD here. You don’t get many accessories with the case but you get a small GPU support brace It is easy to install especially with those 2 thumb screws you get along with it It also has rubber padding on the top which will protect the card from scratches.

Overall the installation was not that difficult It’s just like building in any standard case. Just be careful while passing the cables For cable management, you get a space of approx. 1 inch which is fine but can get tight if you add a fan controller or an RGB controller It’s a great option for those who want to showcase their RGB or their radiator setup It’s also a good water cooling case but it will depend also depend on the size of the radiator you choose or how you choose to design your loop. Now about the temperature, I was going to test the temperature with an air cooler.

But I changed my mind at the last moment. I realized the fact that if someone is buying this case they are probably going to go for a water-cooling setup So I have to modify my test setup as per the requirements It won’t be wrong to say that if you choose the right configuration, choose the right fan speed. The temperatures will be fine and unaffected by the presence or absence of the dust filter and also depending on the cooling capability of the setup or the processor you choose. There is a small concern that the GPU temps might get high if you mount the radiator at the bottom as all the heat from the radiator exhaust will reach the GPU or vice versa.

Now how much it affects the temperatures, well 4- 5 degrees approx So I think that I have almost covered every important feature of the case. There is some attention to details about which I am not going to talk much Like it has a lot of good quality thumb screws, you can mount a 140mm fan at the rear, has a dust filter for side intake which I won’t recommend using if you going for an exhaust style airflow. There is a lining of foam on the sides of the tempered glass which contributes to a better seal and reduces the noise from opening and closing the panel which was a problem with Lianli’s Lancool 2 So, about the conclusion.

This is not a case for beginners It is advance in implications and design So you have to choose your components carefully. The biggest limitation is the problem with the HDD cage. The 360mm radiator is going to be an important choice with this case but you lose the option to mount the HDD cage hence no HDDs so I think that’s a lot bigger compromise you have to make.

So that’s it for the case my friends Now I want to talk about Antec again! This is my request to Antec even if nobody listens, I just want to let my views out. So Antec! Please get back on track, your previous releases in the past has been a disaster. I would love to see your work on your original designs like you use to when you were in your prime. There is room for some more innovation, and creativity and I know you are capable of doing it Thank you guys

 

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So this concludes the topic for Antec P120 Crystal CabinetThat’s about it for me, I forgot to tell you something, If you’re enjoying this article, please make sure to share the article. If you have any questions, comment down below, and I’ll try my best to answer them.

Anas Saifi
Anas Saifihttps://techandpcs.com
Hi Friends My name is Anas Saifi. My Age is 23 Years. And currently, I am living in New Delhi, India. I am a Graduate of B.VOC (Software Development at Ambedkar Institute of Technology, Shakarpur Delhi. I have a few years of experience in web development and I also work on the Fiverr platform. I have 2-3 happy buyers. Currently, I running 2-3 blogs on WordPress. My goal is to achieve 100k traffic per month.
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