I had a little trouble getting the rear I/O panel out. It was my fault, not a problem with the case, as I'd never done it before. At any rate I emailed Antec tech support. To my surprise, they actually called me on the phone, and it was a savvy Antec person from within the US (as opposed to Bombay). Congratulations to Antec for superlative tech support.
The reason I'm posting this, though, is that the fellow went out of his way to caution me to be careful with the locking tabs on the side panel. They're plastic, and they've received reports that they're breakable. I think they will replace them under warranty, but it will be some time before they have any available. Be careful when removing and replacing the side panels on this case, and you should be OK. Follow directions and slide the panel back toward the rear of the case before trying to lift it out. It does not pop directly out like my Antec 1080. It works like my old Dell case in this regard. First back, then out.
Drawbacks I've noticed so far: (1) steel instead of aluminum in the body of the case -- it's approximately 2.3 times as heavy as the feather-light P160. (2) no included mechanism for sealing the top vent if you don't want to use that fan. (3) Sadly, the tray is not removable.
These are far outweighed by the new innovations, however. The most noteworthy to me is this fabulous air duct for the video card(s). As I mentioned, this allowed me to buy a fanless X800XL. I'll be using an 80mm fan inside the duct as my only fan blowing air INto the mobo area, which is, of course, thermally isolated from the hard drives and PSU. This setup still results in one fan for the video card, but it should be essentially silent compared to the one on a standard-cooled nVidia or ATI product.
The "wind tunnel" lower bay for the HDs and the PSU is nicely designed. The fan there is a special one that moves more air at lower RPMs than the other 120mm fans, and the access is designed to bring all the cables one will use up into the upper compartment and then routes the SATA data cables along with the SATA power cables through a separate, smaller opening back down to the HDs. Both the large opening and the smaller one between the upper and lower chambers can then be closed, via sliding panels, down to a size just big enough for the cables to fit through. I ordered an Antec TPII 550, but I'm thinking that this case isolates PSU heat so well that a Phantom 500 might work perfectly. (This might be the case for which the Phantoms are ideal).
I've seen front-panel dust filters before, but they were always difficult to access, discouraging cleaning. On the P180, access couldn't be easier -- just tap open the hinged grid in front of the two filters and pop them out.
Some have a yen for a black version, but I think this case in aluminum and black (all black from the front with the door opened 270°, another great feature) is strikingly attractive. It's MUCH better looking than the somewhat garish Antec P160.
The included fans are very-high-quality Antec TriCools. Antec says their products are rated for noise output by an independent lab, and IF these can stay at low speed, they should be inaudible. Fan grids are true honeycomb rather than round holes punched in a honeycomb pattern -- an extra-expense touch that reduces turbulence and noise.
I'm going to set it up as Antec delivered it with the exception of the added 80mm fan in the duct. IF I think there's an objectionable amount of noise coming at me from the top vent, I'll seal that off and move that fan to the front panel, blowing in. To start, however, I'm assuming that Antec did their homework and, with silence as an objective for the case, designed it and configured it this way for a purpose.
I could spend a lot more on a case, but so far I don't think I'd trade the P180 for any of them. I'll post a subjective assessment of the noise when I'm finished building in about a week.