Antec p180(b) owners

[MarcVenice]

Since my PSU draws it's air from the bottom, how is this going to work in the p180b? Can I just flip the PSU around so it draws air from the CPU/Mobo compartment? Is there some room between the actual bottom of the case and the PSU?

I need these questions answered before I go off buying a p180b. I like the PSU being in the bottom, especially if it gets a lot of cold air supplied, it will make it run better and less noisy. I also like all the nifty other stuff in the p180b which the sonata III doesn't have. Other cases like the thermaltake soprano/tsunami are similarly expensive but also don't have all the clever stuff.

Thanks in advance,

Marc

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

SPCR was directly involved with the design of the P180. They have done three reviews of this case, one is a full build. If I ever worked this box, a visit to SPCR would be inorder to do some reading.
That's just my silly two cents.

 

[MarcVenice]

Definately going to check it out. Thanks

 

[MarcVenice]

...showing the front 120mm intake air vents. The upper vent has a mounting bracket for a 120mm fan. The lower vent does not have one because there is a 120mm fan in line in the middle of the chamber. Any type of ATX PSU can be installed: Single 80mm fan, single 120mm fan, or dual fan. It can be mounted right side up or upside down as desired. The vent holes around the PSU opening on the back panel allows exhaust of the airflow generated by the center 120mm fan when a fanless PSU with minimal ventilation is used.

Found what I needed to know. BUT, the next problem arose, haha, I gotta make sure the cables of my PSU are long enough to reach everything on my motherboard , because in the extensive review they mentioned this might be a problem for some people. And since I've got a double slot 8800gts in my PC things might get tricky.

 

[Beowulf]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
...showing the front 120mm intake air vents. The upper vent has a mounting bracket for a 120mm fan. The lower vent does not have one because there is a 120mm fan in line in the middle of the chamber. Any type of ATX PSU can be installed: Single 80mm fan, single 120mm fan, or dual fan. It can be mounted right side up or upside down as desired. The vent holes around the PSU opening on the back panel allows exhaust of the airflow generated by the center 120mm fan when a fanless PSU with minimal ventilation is used.

Found what I needed to know. BUT, the next problem arose, haha, I gotta make sure the cables of my PSU are long enough to reach everything on my motherboard , because in the extensive review they mentioned this might be a problem for some people. And since I've got a double slot 8800gts in my PC things might get tricky.

I had to buy a 12inch 4-pin extension cable to route it behind the motherboard tray. I use a corsair 520 watt power supply. Otherwise the cable would go over my pci cards and that makes it a hassle when upgrading cards. This is with a p180b version 1.1 basically a p182. I also flipped the power supply so the fan is facing up.

 

[MarcVenice]

Thanks for the advice, I'll know what to buy if I cant get it to fit. I read you need 18" cables to make it fit, and that's pretty much exactly the lenght of the cable I have No PCI cards though, so we'll see. Oh and I went with the p182 it was in fact cheaper then the p180 and has the nice cable management behind the motherboard.

Btw, how quiet is it? Is it really that quiet? And do you use all 3 fans? I've been contemplating buy another tricool 120mm fan for in the upper front fan tray bu I figured 3 fans should do the trick and will make plenty of noise allready

 

[Beowulf]

My P180B is exactly the same as a P182, so the nice cable management is present. With the corsair power supply the 4-pin would ride over my video card which annoyed me. The case itself is quiet compared to my old PC, I have the tricool fans set at medium with a yate loon dsl in the front. I can hear the tricools at medium but its not loud at all, the yate loon is silent though.

 

[MarcVenice]

Yeah I read about the 4pin thingy on silentpcreviews, they actually snuck it below a little gap that's present under a full lenght videocard. I looked at my current setup, but couldn't really find a gap between the mobo and my 8800gts to fit it between Guess I'll go pick up a extension cable tomorrow, shouldn't come to expensive, right? Does the p180b have the fan controls in the back as well btw? I figure that if my cpu/gpu go into idle mode when I leave the PC on to download all the fans can be on low to make the least amount of noise as possible.

One last question, you flipped the PSU, so now it's sucking air out of the CPU compartment, right? Isn't the air there hotter then the air coming from the fan in the middle, in the lower compartment? Oh and would you suggest putting the HD's in the lower or in the higher compartment? I've got two of them to worry about, as well as 2 dvd players. And sorry for the spelling in the above message ...

 

[Beowulf]

The p180b version 1.1(which I have) has the fan controls. It's just a p182 in black but without the black interior like the p182se. Earlier p180b's don't have the fan controls in the back nor the improved cable management. The top two exhaust fans are set to medium in the back of the case, well at least for me.

I put my HD in the lower compartment, I was in a rush when initially setting it up and didn't realize how to put the HD in the higher compartment. Since it took longer than a minute, I decided to the bottom it goes. I probably wasn't thinking right at the time but I was pretty hungry and needed to get the system running.

As far as the PSU goes, well I just didn't want it taking in stuff from the rug. I've heard people picking up dust in inverted motherboard cases with the PSU 120mm fan facing down. So just in case that happens, I flipped it. I personally don't worry much about the air its getting with the 120mm fan on the PSU. I have a 120mm in the lower compartment blowing air on the PSU along with a 120mm in the Upper HD compartment. I figure its going to be getting some cool air from both.

 

[omerome]

If you have the P180 v1.1 revision, you can run the 4 pin connector without running it over the video card. Use the cable management system behind the motherboard and run it straight up where your back case fans are. You will have enough wire to connect it without running it over your video card.

You can see my specs in my signature to give you an idea of what I'm working with in terms of the power supply and motherboard.

 

[Beowulf]

Originally posted by: omerome
If you have the P180 v1.1 revision, you can run the 4 pin connector without running it over the video card. Use the cable management system behind the motherboard and run it straight up where your back case fans are. You will have enough wire to connect it without running it over your video card.

You can see my specs in my signature to give you an idea of what I'm working with in terms of the power supply and motherboard.

That is true, depending on your PSU. With my Corsair 520 it wasn't long enough without an extension. At least, I was not able to.

 

[omerome]

Strange, I have the same 520HX and I was able to run the 4pin straight up behind the motherboard to where the plug is located. Maybe it has to do more with the motherboard and where the plugs are situated.

 

[Raider1284]

You mount the psu upside down in the p180, so the fan is ontop of the psu. It will not suck in air from the motherboard section because the case is compartmentalized. The tricool fans on low are quiet, but I at least can def notice them on medium and high. On high they pump out alot of air, on low speed I'm assuming the yate loons will push out more air.

 

[omeganot]

Originally posted by: Beowulf
I put my HD in the lower compartment, I was in a rush when initially setting it up and didn't realize how to put the HD in the higher compartment. Since it took longer than a minute, I decided to the bottom it goes. I probably wasn't thinking right at the time but I was pretty hungry and needed to get the system running.

What issues are you having with the HD in the lower compartment?

 

[Stefx]

Originally posted by: Beowulf
I put my HD in the lower compartment, I was in a rush when initially setting it up and didn't realize how to put the HD in the higher compartment. Since it took longer than a minute, I decided to the bottom it goes. I probably wasn't thinking right at the time but I was pretty hungry and needed to get the system running.

I don't see the problem

Both of my HDs are in the lower HD-PSU tunnel. That left the upper bay free, and I installed a Scythe Kama Bay with a 120mm silent fan.

 

[WT]

I have a FSP Epsilon 600 which has damn near the longest cable length runs of any PSU and I still had issues with my 4 pin running over the vid card. I tried routing it under the card but came up short by about 2 inches. The 4 pin placement on my MSI P6N Plat is the only complaint I have with the setup, but I don't show off the interior enough to worry about it anymore.

Edit: added a pic - Where to hide that damn cable ??

 

[nataku00]

Since I didn't have the cable management options of the newer P180/P182, I bought an 8" long 4 pin extension cable for my HX620's existing 4 pin cable and routed it up along the inside edge of the case next to the rear exhaust fan so that it's not draping across my case. Right angles along the bottom of the mobo zone to get to the back edge and held in place with a couple of zip ties and some sticky mounts.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
Since my PSU draws it's air from the bottom, how is this going to work in the p180b? Can I just flip the PSU around so it draws air from the CPU/Mobo compartment? Is there some room between the actual bottom of the case and the PSU?

Um... false dilema...

I doubt that it's even possible to run a P180(b) PSU any other way than upside-down because that's the way the mounting holes are drilled, et cetera!

Am I missing something here?

 

[MarcVenice]

Yes you are, there is a bracket which can be put on your PSU either on top or on the bottom, making the PSU draw air from beneath or from above. You then shove the psu with the bracket in place into the case, and the bracket will allign with the mounting holes. The mounting holes from the PSU aren't used. So you can flip it any way you like. The dilemma was still false though, since there's plenty of clearance beneath and above the PSU to draw it's air from. The hole for your cables to run through up to your motherboard is situated on the right though, so if you flip the PSU in a way where the cables are coming out from the PSU are also on the right, you will have the least cables impeding airflow from the middle fan blowing air towards the PSU. So that's what I did.

 

[VinDSL]

I see...

The more I read about these cases, the more I like them.

I can see why they're so popular!

 

[addylo]

I just got my P180B and can now understand why these are so highly rated. Very impressive!

So, on placement of the HDs... are there advantages to using the upper or lower compartment? Would one compartment or the other be more overall efficient on cooling?

 

[Ravynmagi]

I keep my harddrives in the lower chamber. I only wish the fan down there was infront of the harddrives, but it still seems to cool them well enough.

Reason I didn't use the upper chamber are two. First the harddrives sitting infront of the upper air intake would warm up the air a bit before it got to my video card and motherboard, so without the drives there, you should get cooler air flow. Second, I wanted to remove the hard drive cage in the upper chamber so there is plenty of room for my 8800GTX.

 

[cytoSiN]

Originally posted by: Ravynmagi
I keep my harddrives in the lower chamber. I only wish the fan down there was infront of the harddrives, but it still seems to cool them well enough.

Reason I didn't use the upper chamber are two. First the harddrives sitting infront of the upper air intake would warm up the air a bit before it got to my video card and motherboard, so without the drives there, you should get cooler air flow. Second, I wanted to remove the hard drive cage in the upper chamber so there is plenty of room for my 8800GTX.

Agreed. I used the lower chasis in a P182 and actually removed the upper one completely so it wouldn't block the intake fan at all. I'm using an 8800GTS, so there was room before, but the SATA cables touched the back of the 8800 pcb, which I didn't like, and it felt cramped. It fits much nicer this way, and makes evertying much cooler.

I don't use the lower fan since it makes the bottom too cramped with the PSU, cables, and HDDs down there, but the HDDs are at around 40 C, which seems fine for now.

Using a 620HX, the 4-pin connector ran right up the back and out that little slot to plug neatly into an Abit IP35, no extension needed...it's long enough, but *JUST*, so you should make sure you have it rigged properly behind the mobo before installing the mobo.

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: WT
I have a FSP Epsilon 600 which has damn near the longest cable length runs of any PSU and I still had issues with my 4 pin running over the vid card. I tried routing it under the card but came up short by about 2 inches. The 4 pin placement on my MSI P6N Plat is the only complaint I have with the setup, but I don't show off the interior enough to worry about it anymore.

Edit: added a pic - Where to hide that damn cable ??

Try running it under the video card. I ran my 20-pin ATX cable that way on my old Epox board before I went to my current board.

 

[alyen]

I have P182 with SilverStone Zeus. The power supply intake is directly infront of the case fan.
The cables on the Zeus 850W are long enough to reach around the back of the case to main board power socket.