The Case Interior
When taking a look inside the Antec P190 you will not see a spacious, simple case. It is constructed to separate most of the vital parts of a PC. The spacious motherboard tray is placed at the top, the two power supply units are placed at the bottom rear of the case while the large 3.5” removable drive cage is placed at the bottom front of the case. Moving upwards the front, you will find a smaller 3.5” removable drive cage and the 5.25” drive cage present. The two top 140mm exhaust fans and the single 120mm rear exhaust fan are included.
At the bottom of the case, you will find the two NeoPower units tight to each other. The first 650W unit has all of its cables pre-attached, while the second 550W unit has a few cables attached but can also take up to 5 extension cables which are found in the bundle in order to power more SATA and Molex powered devices. A small adjustable bracket at the rear of the NeoPower units holds them tight in place and can be adjusted if you replace them with a longer/shorter unit. The NeoPower units do not differ in size from normal ATX units so you can remove them and replace them with any ATX unit of your preference if you like to, but you cannot use each of the NeoPower units on its own. The first unit does not provide any Molex or SATA cables, while the second provides only SATA and Molex cables and even needs to be attached to the first unit in order to start. We will study the two units thoroughly later on. There is a removable plate separating the power supply unit compartment and the motherboard area which is leaving only a small hole for the cables when it’s attached. It is secured with thumbscrews and you can remove it to easily organize the cables and work inside of the case, then place it back.
Between the power supply unit compartment and the front drive cage compartment, Antec have placed a single 120mm fan. The fan speed of this fan is adjustable but once again you will have to remove the side panel to reach its switch. The fan is adequate to keep the drives cool and provide some fresh air to the power supply units. If you install a lot of fast 3.5” drives at the front cage, another 120mm fan can be placed at the front of it to keep them cool. The drive cage is removable and can be secured with a thumbscrew. It can take a total of four 3.5” devices. Antec also put anti-vibration rings to help decoupling the drives from the case, minimizing noise caused by drive vibrations.
A smaller 3.5” drive cage is present above the main 3.5” drive cage, in the motherboard area. This cage has two removable 3.5” trays for two 3.5” disks only, but it also has other uses. If you decide that you do not need those two 3.5” drive trays, you can remove them and either use the fan retention clips to attach another 120mm fan right in front of your PCIe VGA cards or the card holder if you plan on running a server. The card holder will NOT work with any normal PCIe card since even the largest of them are way too short. There is also a small “suitcase” at the right side of the cage, accessible when you take it outside of the case or if you remove the right side panel but you can only fit small things in it, like screws or very small tools.
The cable management system of the Antec P190 is one of the best we have ever seen. The cables can be routed behind the motherboard tray to every part of the case. There are openings on all sides of the motherboard tray, allowing the cables to be routed from the behind of the tray to all of the connectors with a minimum cable clutter. Antec even put a few cable ties and provides several more bundled to assist you even further when you are building your system. This design should keep the case as clean as it can be.
One of the most peculiar features of the P190 is the included torch. It can help when working inside your case, but there is a problem. It is powered via either a Molex or USB motherboard connector, which means that the PSU has to be turned on at the very least even if the system is powered down. Tampering with your hardware when they are getting power is not a wise idea at all. Oh, and you cannot turn it off. As an idea it sounds great, but we think that it fails miserably in practice.
Installing a system inside the Antec P190 is a rather more complex procedure with all the compartments and removable trays than working inside a typical ATX case, but the result is more than worth it. Even a high class motherboard like the Asus P5K3-Deluxe feels tiny inside it. There is a lot of room to let you work easily around the case. Even if you plan on building a serious server, you are going to love it. Routing the cables around the case will take most of the time you will need to complete the system, but it shouldn’t take an experienced builder more than 15-20 minutes to assemble it from scratch.
