sygyzy:
Well my main rig is finally assembled. What you are asking is contained
in the following final arrangement ... at least for what I did.
The case is reasonably cool at idle/light work and fan speeds minimized,
very quiet and all incoming air is filtered.
I'm about to build an MCE2205 system with the same parts but adding a
tuner card, differnt burner and externals.
Antec P180
My setup for air-flow/cooling/heat dissipation.
I use a Thermaltake Hardcano13 5.25in drive bay fan controller to control the
speed of my 3 120mm case fans and monitor the temperature of three heat sources.
Upper Chamber:
I removed the 2 supplied 120x25mm Antec TriCool 4pin only fans.
I mounted a 120x25mm TriCool 3/4pin fan (#1) in front of the upper (driveless)
HDD cage and set it to (but not necessarily used at) HIGH drawing filtered air IN.
Temperature Probe #1 monitors the SB chip.
Another 120x25mm TriCool 3/4pin fan (#2) is mounted in the upper rear of the
case and again is set to (but not necessarily used at) HIGH venting air OUT.
Temperature Probe #2 monitors the NB chip.
I removed the Antec VGA duct and clear duct taped over the remaining holed
opening to prevent dust from entering and hot air from the rear area of case
being recycled back into the case.
My motherboard has no chipset fan (heatpipe) so no turbulence from that.
My ATI X1800XT?s 92mm fan exhausts its air/heat OUT of the case.
(Intake yes but turbulence no). I clear duct taped over the areas of the card?s
I/O vent grille not covered by cooler vent housing.
I use a Zalman CNPS9500 HSF. Its 92mm speed adjustible fan draws air in from the
case?s upper interior area (especially from my RAM sticks), though its own
heatpipe, onto the Asus mainboard's heatpipe cooling fins and into the upper rear
Antec TriCool fan venting OUT of the case.
The Zalman HSF FanMate2 controller is mounted in front on the cover of the second
from top empty 5.25? drive bay below the Hardcano13 fan controller.
After I removed the blowhole fan, I clear duct taped over the meshed opening and replaced the grille.
I did this to prevent 1) an excessive negative air-pressure build up in the case which invites dust entering from unfiltered, unsealed areas; 2) the wind-tunnel effect of the front/Zalman/rear fans from being inrefered with and 3) interior case noise coming from a vent where it would be quite audible.
Lower Chamber:
The supplied Antec TriCool 120x38mm intake fan (#3) is set to (but not necessarily used at) HIGH and draws air IN through lower front filter, pulls air around 2x500GB Seagate 7200.9 SATA2.5 HDDs; then pushes air around/through an Enermax Liberty modular 620W PSU and OUT of the case.
The PSU has a quiet, smart (speed controlled by need) 120mm fan that exhausts
air OUT of the case. Temperature Probe #3 monitors the PSU.
Interior components not specifically mentioned above:
Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Toledo
Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe nForce4 SLI X16
Corsair XMS-3500LL PRO 2GB kit
Plextor PX-716AL Double/Dual DVD±R/RW CD-R/RW E-IDE slot load burner
Mitsumi FDD.
By the way, the P180 comes with a 120x38mm 4pin only the Lower Chamber mounted between the PSU and lower HDD cage configured to draw air IN through the lower front filter. Also, out of the box, there are 2 120x25mm TriCool 4pin only fans set to
exhaust air OUT of the case and are located at the blowhole and upper rear of the Upper Chamber.
There is no fan mounted behind the middle front filter in front of the Upper Chamber HDD cage. The mounting is there/ready for a 120x25mm fan which should be set to draw air IN.
How one sets the speeds depends on your internals and tolerence of noise.
The fans are quiet. There are quieter fans around but they tend to move less air. Trade-off.
I try to make sure that case fans balance out for a slight positive internal pressure.
Dust collecting around unused I/O covers indicates negative for one.
Specs on the speed, noise and air-flow levels of the included fans are here:
http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=81800# >Manuals.
Specs on the substitutions I made are here:
120mm Antec TriCool 120 DBB fan 4pin/3pin 761345-75121-6
http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=75080
Also: Thermaltake Hardcano 13 5.25in Multi Function drive bay
controllers w/6 IN 1 card reader & LCD disp. Part #: A2259
http://www.thermaltake.com/accessories/a2259hardcano13/a2259hardcano13.htm
Zalman CNPS9500 LED Copper CPU Heat Sink 92MM Fan 1350-2600RPM
18-27.5DBA W/Blue LED
http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=165&code=005009
Happy trailz,