Antec P280 or Silverstone FT-02

[blinkdagger]

Hey guys,

Just wanted your opinion on these 2 cases. I've read that the P280 is made of cheaper materials compared to the FT-02 and the case fans are kind of loud. However, the P280 offers a lot of room to work in, as well as cable management.

As for the FT-02, I've read a lot of good things about this case such as build quality and heat dissipation, but people are noting that the room between the Mobo + cd/dvd/bluray drive is quite tight, and not enough room on the side for cable management. I've also heard that the AP fans can be loud, but for the most part cools better than the P280.

Anyone with these cases willing to share their experience or offer some insight on which case I should get?

Thanks!

[OmegaRED]

What are you going to put in there? How many video cards, HDD's etc? With the FT02 you don't run into issues until you start filling the case to capacity. The AP181's are loud but they do have a HI-LOW switch and with a fan controller you can easily make it a quiet case; low speed is 800RPM if I recall but I found 600RPM was the sweet spot. I had 5 HDD's+ SSD, 2 video cards and a sound card that's when I ran into cable management issues and couldn't use my DVD-ROM. The real negatives for this case aren't what you'd expect: Dust filters need to be changed often if the case is on the floor as there's 3 massive fans sucking in cool air and if you place it higher than you run into issues due to the horizontal mounting, all your cables are routed out the top and back of the case which means they lose a significant amount of their length. I could barely put the case on my desk the power cord barely reached.

I went from the P182 to the FT02 and from what I've seen the 280 isn't exactly roomy I'd consider it if I knew for certain I would never be doing SLI/CFX or if silence is a top priority. In my experience sound dampening isn't as effective as you'd think and a fan controller+silent hardware can turn a case into a quiet PC with a bit of effort.

I noticed you posted in this thread last year, I like the look of the 600T personally, it has a lot of what I like about the Cosmos 2 seems like it would be worth considering. I recall that being my 2nd choice when I bought the FT02. Right off the bat I see plenty of cable management, built in fan controller, tons of hard drive slots and effective cooling.

Originally Posted by keto

[lowfat]

I love my FT02 and find there to be a ton of room behind the motherboard tray for cable management, way more than any other case I've used. I could see the 5.25" bays being a problem though. There is a good chance optical drives would over hang the motherboard.

[dandelioneater]

I just shoe-horned an SR-2 into a p280 this weekend. It is very roomy inside, very similair to a HAF 932, just with a cleaner look. The P280 has really nice cable management with nice big rubber gromets on each cable cutout and I noticed that there is alot of room behind the motherboard tray to hide cables. It has an easily removeable dust filter for the front intake fans and a filter for the psu. I would say the build quality was on par with the coolermaster haf series. It has some sound dampening qualities in the side covers IIRC. Overall a really good bang for your buck full tower chasssis.

[blinkdagger]

Thanks for your opinion guys! I should mention that I'm planning to only have 1 GPU, prob air cooling.. but may look into the H100 if the rad fits.. maybe a sound card, and at least 1 SSD + 1 HDD for storage..

I've also come across the Obsidian 550D coming out in March... looks pretty solid and really customizable in terms of where you want your fans and stuff... Do you guys think it's worth looking into?

[BukitHedd]

I have the cheaper RV-02. I don't find the case loud, but this is my first high end computer. The fan noise is about as loud as a typical room fan on low. I have two hard drives, an optical drive, and a card reader. Cable management is good. The dvd drive does NOT hang over the motherboard.
I love this case. I would have bought the FT-02, but I got mine on sale for only $149, so it's about $80 cheaper than the FT-02.

I have my case on the floor beside my desk, quite far away from my monitor and all my cables reach. I'll try to post a pic up tomorrow.