Page 3 - Physical Look - Inside
Both side panels are easy to remove thanks to the large thumb screws holding them in place. The thumbscrews are very comfortable to grip and can be easily unscrewed with your hands. As seen from the previous page, neither side panels have tempered glass and are instead treated with foam padding to absorb any inside noise. With the side panels removed, we can view the interior of the Antec P10 FLUX. The black color of the case is consistent all throughout the interior, which is nothing special per se, but is still nice to look at. The PSU shroud covers a good portion of the bottom with the exceptions of having an opening in the front for radiator mounting, some cut-outs just below the motherboard area, and ventilation holes directly on top of the shroud. The cutout on the bottom left side aids with handling the PSU when installing it, but is more traditionally used to display your power supply. In this case, this cutout makes a little less sense aside from helping install the power supply as there is no tempered glass side panel. The ventilation holes also offer support for two 120mm fans aside from allowing airflow from below and above the PSU shroud.
The motherboard area is large enough to mount various motherboard sizes including ATX, M-ATX, and ITX. The rear exhaust fan can be seen sticking out a bit on the top left-hand side while the 5.25" drive bay can be seen on the top right area, which is typical for most PC cases with no tempered glass panels.
Moving to the interior of the case, we can see more cutouts for cable management. I think the size of the cutouts is very good, especially for the thick eight-pin CPU power cable, which is usually routed through the top left cutout. The seven horizontal expansion slots can also be seen being held by standard screws. There are no vertical expansion slots, but those are not essential.
A change that could make a difference is adding a fan or radiator mounting holes at the top. Instead, like the side and front panels, the ceiling of the case is padded with the same noise reduction foam. If it was not clear already, we can see that Antec is really pushing the P10 FLUX to be silence-focused, especially with the sacrifice of a fan or radiator mounting option. On the left side, we can see the pre-installed 120mm exhaust fan. Unfortunately, the rear mounting position can only fit fans at a size of 120mm. While the general design of the back interior is fine, I think some users may be disappointed by the lack of mounting options here, as a radiator or fan cannot be placed at the top and the rear cannot fit a 140mm fan.
As noted earlier, we can see the PSU shroud is not entirely solid when taking a closer look at the bottom. Three cable routing holes can be seen directly on top of the PSU shroud. However, I feel like these cutouts are a little too close to the motherboard area and could potentially make for a tight cable squeeze, especially for users with regular ATX motherboards.
What is interesting is the purpose of the two 120mm fan mounts on the PSU shroud, that being to place a reverse fan, which is designed to intake air from beneath the PSU shroud. This is also why the right side panel has ventilation holes, as it will draw air from the outside into the area underneath the PSU shroud, which will be directed towards the GPU through the reverse fan. However, as suggested by Antec, this only really works by mounting the reverse fan on the middle section, as the PSU blocks most of the area underneath the rear mount. The PSU's existence will greatly reduce the airflow, which will defeat the purpose of the reverse fan in the first place. I suppose you could place an additional regular fan on the rear mount to bring additional airflow over your power supply, but I would consider that unnecessary in 2021. In the end, I do not think there is anything wrong with just sticking to five fans, which is already a lot.
Looking at the front, we have a better look at how the front fans are installed. The metal cage behind the intake fans has holes that allow the fans to be mounted at the front. There is also a magnetic dust filter covering the fans from behind, which is rather strange and not a great design choice in my opinion. This will reduce a lot of the airflow compared to placing it in front of the fans, not to mention the filtering is also less effective. The fan filter is a lot harder to clean compared to one that is externally accessible as well. Lastly, if you want to place a radiator here, the air will not be filtered before entry.
With all these in mind, now very clear that an air cooler is encouraged for the Antec P10 FLUX. While there is a radiator clearance space of 360mm in front, that would block most of the intake airflow. The lack of a ceiling mount at the top does not help for those who want a liquid cooler mounted there. With the way this case is designed, you will most likely save more time and precious airflow by simply installing an air cooler. Once again, we see the 5.25" drive bay located above the intake fans, which can be used to hold any external drives that you may still want for your PC build.
Looking at the back of the P10 FLUX, we can see the various front cables routed closer to the left side. The clearance between the panel and tray at the front came out to around 33mm and the rear measuring around 25mm. Straps branded with the Antec logo can be seen holding the cables in place. I think cable management would be fine for this case with all the space below the PSU shroud. A fan controller can be seen in the center with the pre-installed fans already connected to it. The controller is capable of supporting six voltage-controlled fans, which is appropriate for the 6-fan capacity of this case. This fan controller is powered by a SATA power connector. All the control comes from the fan controller button on the front panel, which allows for two options: High or low. I wish Antec had at least made an option for three different fan speeds rather than just high or low. Even if this is just an $80 case, I still think that a medium fan speed would be very helpful for airflow options and noise, especially for a performance-centered case. An even better option would be a motherboard-based PWM controller.
When it comes to more storage options, we can see a single-bay cage underneath the PSU shroud capable of holding a 2.5" or 3.5" drive. To the right of the fan controller, two drive bay sleds can be seen for installing a total of two 2.5" storage options. On the left side of the fan controller, we can see another 2.5" drive storage option, although there is no drive sled associated with it. And, finally, we have a 3.5" HDD or another 2.5" SSD mount on the top left area of the back, bringing the total storage options on this case to a very admirable six.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Installation and Conclusion
