If you’ve been following the PC space for a decade or more, you probably remember Antec for making a few boring, but high-quality silence-focused cases like the P180 series with their triple-layered side panels for extremely quiet acoustics. But the truth is, that Antec doesn’t exist anymore. The company hasn’t made a case like that in a long time, and while I understand that there just isn’t a big market for it anymore, especially with the abundance of quiet components to begin with, part of me is still sentimental for the old Antec.
But Antec is still kicking, and its new P10 Flux shows that the company still has what it takes to keep up, even if it does so somewhat unconventionally by today’s standards. This is a chassis that offers simplicity, a lovely fridge aesthetic and great performance, all at a better value than before. The P10 Flux has an MSRP of $80, but we’ve regularly seen it selling for as low as $65.
So, without further ado, let's find out of the Antec P10 Flux performs well, and whether it’s suitable for a spot on our Best PC Cases list.
Specifications
| Type | Mid-Tower ATX |
| Motherboard Support | Mini-ITX, Micro-ATX, ATX |
| Dimensions (HxWxD) | 19.1 x 8.6 x 18.8 inches (486 x 220 x 477 mm) |
| Max GPU Length | 15.9 inches (405 mm) |
| CPU Cooler Height | 6.9 inches (175 mm) |
| Max PSU Length | 8.1 inches (205 mm) |
| External Bays | 1x 5.25-inch |
| Internal Bays | 3x 3.5-inch |
| 3x 2.5-inch | |
| Expansion Slots | 7x |
| Front I/O | Front I/O |
| 2x USB 3.0 | |
| 3.5 mm Audio/Mic Combo | |
| Other | Fan Controller |
| Front Fans | 3x 120 mm (Up to 2x 140mm, 3x 120mm) |
| Rear Fans | 1x 120mm (Up to 1x 120mm) |
| Top Fans | None |
| Bottom Fans | 1x 120mm (Up to 2x 120 mm on PSU shroud) |
| Side Fans | ✗ |
| RGB | No |
| Damping | Yes, lots |
| Warranty | 1 Year |
Features
Indeed, the P10 Flux is a silence-focused case, and as such it comes with five fans and tons of damping material. Opening up the top for a radiator would just create a big hole for noise to leak out – so the top is closed and lined with damping material. And not just the top -- the side panels and the inside of the front door are closed as well.
Touring around the outside of the Antec P10 Flux, you’ll spot that there’s very little going on here. There are no tempered glass side panels, nor is there a radiator exhaust at the top of the case. Of course, this is all for good reason – silence – but the end result is a system that does look a bit like a household appliance.
In fact, the front door doesn’t really serve much of a purpose other than noise damping. There’s plenty of clearance on the sides for air to flow through, and yeah it hides the optical drive bay (whoa). But as we’ll see later in testing, it makes a significant difference to noise levels thanks to its layer of acoustic foam. It doesn’t have a fancy double hinge to flip all the way across to the side of the case, but you can reverse it to the other side if your case placement requires.
Top IO consists of two USB 3.0 ports, dedicated microphone and headphone jacks, along with power and fan control switches. We appreciate that this IO is placed at the top, as this is not a case you’ll keep on your desk – this is a case for a floor PC.
Internal Layout
Internally, the P10 Flux offers a basic but modern design – this case isn’t the kind of hard drive colony’s home Antec’s cases used to be. Instead, you’re offered room for an ATX motherboard, plenty of expansion cards, and room for a big radiator up front, up to 360mm. At the top you’ll also spot a 5.25” drive bay – a rarity nowadays, but this is a case that prioritizes function over form.
Flip the case around and you’ll find its cable management and PSU area. Here, there is room for big ATX PSUs, two hard drives under the PSU shroud (one inside the caddy and one on top), three SSDs, and you can mount a third 3.5-inch drive at the top shroud near the top IO.
You’ll also spot a fan controller.
Is a ‘Reverse’ Fan, Useful?
When it comes to cooling and noise, the P10 Flux does a few things differently than many cases we’ve been seeing. For one, it comes with five fans, but it also comes with tons of damping materials spread throughout the case’s door, ceiling and side panels.
With this much damping, noise levels should be much less intrusive than other cases, even if you use somewhat louder components. Don’t expect miracles, but this case should perform better than most mesh intake cases we’ve been seeing lately when it comes to acoustics.
The case comes with a fan controller that connects to all five fans, giving you two speed modes: low and high.
The case also comes with a reverse-flow fan – a spinner that has its blades pointing the ‘other’ way, meant for guiding air from the PSU area to the intake of your GPU for better temperatures. Of course, this exercise in creating a reverse-flow fan for improved looks is pointless in practice, as you might as well use a normal fan flipped over given that there’s no glass panel to see it through. But I still appreciate the detail – I’ve not seen a fan like this in a long, long time.
I’m curious to see how this setup will perform when we get to the testing phase.
We are using the following system for our case test bed:
| CPU | Intel Core i9-9900K |
| Motherboard | Asus Maximus XI Hero WiFi |
| Memory | Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000 MHz, 16 GB (2x 8GB) |
| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super Founder’s Edition |
| CPU Cooling | Noctua NH-U12S Chromax Black |
| Noctua NT-H2 Thermal Paste | |
| Storage | Corsair Force Series MP510 NVMe SSD, 480GB |
| Power Supply | Corsair HX750i |
Installing a system into the Antec P10 Flux is an absolute breeze. The chassis is big and has tons of space for hands and cable management. It won’t result in the prettiest build, but that’s not what this chassis is about anyway, given that it doesn’t have a glass panel.
The motherboard drops right into place, and though I installed the reverse-flow fan earlier, I removed it again so that I could get to the motherboard fastening screws and cable headers.
I then installed the GPU without any difficulties
And our large Corsair HX750i power supply installed swiftly too, conveniently with all the cables pre-attached.
Then, I took care of cable management, which went swiftly and easily thanks to plenty of space and included Velcro straps. Antec includes a few extra straps for more complicated builds, and you can also spot plenty of tie-down points across the back panel.
Lastly, I secured re-secured the reverse-flow fan by using a bendy iFixit screwdriver, though you can also just remove the GPU for easy access. With that, the build was complete and ready for thermal and acoustic testing.
For thermal and acoustic testing, we are using the following software & settings:
| CPU Clock | i9 9900k: 4.6 GHz (46x 100MHz) @ 1.1v |
| GPU Clock | RTX 2070 Super: Stock |
| GPU Driver | Nvidia GeForce 445.87 |
| Case & CPU Fan Speeds | Stock Configuration 100%, Standardized CPU 100%, Case fans 50%. |
| GPU Fan Speeds | 75% |
Fan Characteristics
As previously mentioned, the included fan controller only has two speed settings: high, and low. My guess is that it borrows 12V and 5V from the PSU rails through the SATA connector powering it, but being unable to connect to the motherboard, I have no quick way of accurately telling you the RPM ranges.
I did connect a fan up to the motherboard for testing, and they’ll spin at speeds between 550 to 1550 RPM, which are both slightly high figures, with the high low-end being due to only having DC control.
Acoustic Results
For our acoustic tests, we run three scenarios: CPU full load, CPU and GPU full load, and an optimized idle. The CPU Full Load test runs the CPU and case fans at their maximum speed. For the CPU and GPU full load acoustic test we add the Nvidia RTX 2070 Super FE at 75% fan speed, because in practice it never runs at 100 percent and is far too loud when it does.
For the optimized idle, we run the GPU fan speed at 40 percent (the 2070 Super FE GPU does not have a Zero-RPM mode), and run the CPU and included case fans at the lowest speed they will spin at – except in this case, where we have the fans on the ‘low’ setting of the fan controller for the optimized idle profile.
As far as acoustics go, the P10 Flux is a bit of a double-edged sword. Its second-to-last position on the chart is a bit misleading as I think that as a case, it’s actually better. If you look, the optimized idle sound level and the noise levels of the CPU and case fans at maximum speed are quite high, giving the case the disadvantage, as I sort by the latter for a fair comparison – sorting by the maximum noise level of the GPU creates confusing results as it pulls almost all mesh cases into the same noise level, when really they perform very differently until the GPU gets involved – so I leave the GPUs addition to the noise level out for sorting the table.
But, if you look carefully, you’ll spot that if you account for the noise level of the GPU, the P10 Flux would jump all the way to the top of the chart as the most silent chassis – and I can confirm, the case does a fantastic job of damping the GPU’s noise, especially the annoying, high-pitched fan whine from the obtrusively loud 2070 Super Founder’s Edition.
It’s just a shame that the included fans are quite loud, and that they aren’t optimized effectively by the fan controller for quiet idle operation.
That being said, I also dropped the fan controller into the ‘low’ setting for some tests, which raised temperatures by about 6 °C on both the CPU and GPU. This isn’t bad, and telling that you can just be lazy and leave the case in the ‘low’ setting permanently. But if it were me, I’d skip the fan controller altogether and create a custom fan curve for the case fans to optimize performance. But unfortunately, you cannot connect the controller up to the motherboard, so you’ll have to come up with your own method to connect all five case fans.
Thermal Results
For the thermal tests, all case and CPU fan speeds are set to 100 percent. The Core i9-9900K is pegged at a 4.6GHz clock at 1.1v on all cores to ensure consistent power consumption across test scenarios, and letting the GPU run at 75 percent fan speed enables it to maintain its power target while maintaining one set reasonable fan speed, so that the temperature is the only variable.
All that being said, thermally, the P10 Flux does put down an impressive show. Sure, it’s a bit loud, but running as cool as some mesh cases, it does show that the thermal headroom is there to optimize for silence, as the case’s design intends – provided you find a way to hook the five fans up to your motherboard.
Conclusion
The P10 Flux, in a way, clearly shows Antec’s roots and quiet case design experience. Compared to the old Performance series, similar design elements show, albeit at a lower cost. The chassis is excellent to work in, well thought-out, practical in use and maintenance, and provides an overall pleasant user experience.
Where things go south a little is in the cooling setup. I genuinely appreciate the inclusion of five fans, especially at this price point, and they cool quite decently in the standard setup. But they’re not great acoustic performers, don’t have PWM support, and the fan controller stands in the way of proper speed optimization. As a result, this case won’t appeal to the enthusiast who seeks that added control – and it absolutely defeats the point of all the noise damping material inside the case.
That being said, if you’re someone who just wants to get a PC running without putting too much thought into it, chuck it under your desk and not look back, the P10 Flux can be a great option – the damping material does mean that you can shove loud components in this case and expect good noise suppression. The lack of a side panel means no focus on expensive RGB components, and again, it’s easy for maintenance.
In conclusion, the Antec P10 Flux is a good choice for a lazy builder who just wants a system that works without getting obtrusive. It’s a great case, but with disappointing fans. As such, the performance enthusiast, especially those seeking silent systems, are better served with an open mesh case and spending the time looking for quiet internal components instead – or if you’re feeling wasteful, opting for this case but replacing all five fans and skipping the fan controller. But with its MSRP of $80, and especially its street price of $65, it’s very hard to fault the P10 Flux, and it does meet expectations.
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