Are you happy w/ your p180?

[fatalcure]

Well, when i was ready to build my new system, i read up on reviews for cases and the antec was usually one of the top for system builds b/c of air flow/cooling...and newegg reviews gave it 5 eggs.

Well, i finished my build and am not entirely satisfied w/ the wire management (it actually has NONE) of this case...and im sure all these wires are hindering air flow.
First is the 24 pin power connector and the CPU power connector, which is as far as you can get from the power supply, so those two wires can't be avoided.
The front panel connector wires are super long and twist tied and i have no place to push those anywhere.
Next, I have a 8800gts in there, its a long card that requires the pcie power connector. Now, w/ the power connector plugged into the gfx card, i can't put a hard drive in the pull out bays b/c there is no space to put the power connector for the sata hdds, the power connector for the gfx card gets in the way...so i had to put my hdd in the bottom chamber.
Now, i wish there was a way to route the damn power connector from the psu to the bottom chamber hdd right thru where the fan is instead of going up thru one hole and down to the next chamber. And its so jam packed in there that I have to have my sata cables from my mobo outside the chamber or either the sata cable or power connector for the sata hdds hit the bottom fan.
Add the wires required for the extra usb ports and the 3 fans and you've got a mess in there.

Although my case doesnt have a window and i'm not trying to show it off or anything, i'd still want a neat looking inside for both airflow and ease of access.
It is a very good looking case from the outside and the fans are super quiet but I would go for a bigger case next time or a case that offers some type of wire management. My previous pc was a full tower case and maybe i got accustomed to all the space i had in there (even tho not all that space was used).
But anyway, if you have any suggestions i'd be up for em!

Thanks

 

[natethegreat]

First is the 24 pin power connector and the CPU power connector, which is as far as you can get from the power supply, so those two wires can't be avoided.

This is the most common complaint I see from P180 owners. I was lucky and had a MB that put the 24 and 8 pin connectors in the upper right corner.

The front panel connector wires are super long and twist tied and i have no place to push those anywhere.

Stuff the extra lenght behind the upper HDD cage.

Next, I have a 8800gts in there, its a long card that requires the pcie power connector. Now, w/ the power connector plugged into the gfx card, i can't put a hard drive in the pull out bays b/c there is no space to put the power connector for the sata hdds, the power connector for the gfx card gets in the way...so i had to put my hdd in the bottom chamber.

The case was designed to have the hard disks installed in the lower bay...

Now, i wish there was a way to route the damn power connector from the psu to the bottom chamber hdd right thru where the fan is instead of going up thru one hole and down to the next chamber. And its so jam packed in there that I have to have my sata cables from my mobo outside the chamber or either the sata cable or power connector for the sata hdds hit the bottom fan.

I have 2 HDD's in the lower cage and did not have problems with the SATA power or data connectors conflicting with the fan when I had one in there. I took it out because it did not affect the temps of the HDD's that much, the PSU draws enough air over them to keep them cool.

Add the wires required for the extra usb ports and the 3 fans and you've got a mess in there.

Mine's not messy: Pic

Although my case doesnt have a window and i'm not trying to show it off or anything, i'd still want a neat looking inside for both airflow and ease of access.
It is a very good looking case from the outside and the fans are super quiet but I would go for a bigger case next time or a case that offers some type of wire management. My previous pc was a full tower case and maybe i got accustomed to all the space i had in there (even tho not all that space was used).
But anyway, if you have any suggestions i'd be up for em!

Thanks

Maybe post a pic of your case and I'll make some suggestions.

 

[CyC]

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/2977/img0447mn8.jpg

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/3916/img0446ec0.jpg

dremel is the best tool to cable management for that case

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: CyC
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/2977/img0447mn8.jpg

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/3916/img0446ec0.jpg

dremel is the best tool to cable management for that case

Nicely done... What HSF is that?

 

[potato28]

Originally posted by: CyC
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/2977/img0447mn8.jpg

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/3916/img0446ec0.jpg

dremel is the best tool to cable management for that case

Nice job! That's why I can't seem to get my P180 very clean. And Fullmetal; It's looks like a Tuniq Tower

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: potato28

Originally posted by: CyC
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/2977/img0447mn8.jpg

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/3916/img0446ec0.jpg

dremel is the best tool to cable management for that case

Nice job! That's why I can't seem to get my P180 very clean. And Fullmetal; It's looks like a Tuniq Tower

Ah, okay. I should have known. I've never seen a top down view of one of those... Wow those things are wide...

 

[CyC]

hehe yup its a tuniq..

here is the picture of the places i did a little dremel work

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/175/img0428vl3ex7.jpg

 

[sdanger]

dremel = cutting it up right? lol.. sorry for being a n00b

 

[Noubourne]

Nice work on the P180 man. My buddy had to remove the lower fan due to HDD cables. I'm going to show him your work.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: sdanger
dremel = cutting it up right? lol.. sorry for being a n00b

Dremel is a tool similar to a drill. It provides special cutting bits for precision cutting. (Also for degrouting and chiseling, very handy tool). For this purpose though, yes, he is cutting into his case.

-Kevin

 

[MichaelD]

Pics of my P180 in the OP of this thread.

I'm stupidly happy with my P180. It is indeed a major PITA to get the cables neat, but the end result is worth it. Of course, depending on your motherboards' layout, some are easier to make neat than others. It is entirely possible to have decent cable management and therefore good airflow w/o Dremeling the case. My airflow is great and all three fans are on low. The loudest thing in the case by far is the HD.

 

[idiotekniQues]

im very happy with mine, it was a bit harder to setup but not terrible like some people make it seem. my wires are just fine, i called veryone i knew to borrow a dremel but to no avail and i had no money to buy one lol. i may take this apart to do the wires if i get my hands on one. i took some pics but the lighting in this room is so bad that it is all shadowy. i have to bring a couple desk lamps down here and take some.

the only place they arent fine is in the bottom HD cage. i do have an issue with antec advising you to use the lower HD cage but then giving you no room for wires when you have 4 HD down there. it is a complete mess and if you try to slide out the drive cage to swap a drive, something you wont do too often, you have to be very careful as wires will get snagged and you will snap something off, which i just about did. however, the fan below does work with no obstructions after some fiddlin with your fingers and the wires.

 

[Snowice]

yes, happy

 

[Hauk]

As Joe Dirt once said, "Dang!"

That's an amazing job CYC. Wow...

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: fatalcure
Next, I have a 8800gts in there, its a long card that requires the pcie power connector. Now, w/ the power connector plugged into the gfx card, i can't put a hard drive in the pull out bays b/c there is no space to put the power connector for the sata hdds, the power connector for the gfx card gets in the way...so i had to put my hdd in the bottom chamber.

Not true...I also have a 8800GTS and have 2 HDDs in the middle rack. The power cable (the cable itself not the connector) for the video card sits in between the 2 HDDs. It JUST fits. It wouldn't work if the video card were any longer. THankfully I have no IDE cables (external DVD writer) so it is fairly clean inside. The SCSI cable however messes it up a bit but not as badly as an IDE cable would.

 

[Wino]

For those interested in purchasing a P180 soon, the P182 was announced a couple days ago, which makes cable management a bit easier (slots in the tray, etc). This doesn't help current P180 owners, just a heads up for those like me that will be doing a build in February.

 

[idiotekniQues]

i wonder since they pushed that motherboard in to allow cabling behind it, if the big air cooled towers will still fit.

 

[Kyle]

I built my brother a system w/ it and really enjoyed the build, however my cable managment was well below my personal standards =)
honestly I didnt try that hard to make it nice in there because he was not O/C'ing or anything.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

I'd say it's very easy to keep it neat and tidy if you only have 1 video card, an optical drive and one or two SATA hard drives.

Of course the more crap you throw in it the harder it is going to get to manage it - I couldn't place my X-Fi on the lower of my two PCI slots as it would have otherwise interfered with the same space the PSU cables have to occupy coming out of that slot...

I only have 4 hard drives, but I wanted to install the two I have the OS on (RAID-0) in the upper HD bay to get right behind the fan I installed there. Although I could always move them down with the other two drives and keep all 4 in the lower compartment to help clear things up - although I can't say its messy as I did get it to where it is pretty good for how much stuff it has in it, especially compared to other examples I see here that seem like barebones to me

 

[Nessism]

I agree with cable management being an issue with the P180. It's mostly a visual issue though; wires running around in the case are not going to affect airflow enough to matter. Frankly, after owning this case for a while now I really don't care for the basic layout. Having the power supply down in the bottom chamber along with the hard disks doesn't seem to have any functional advantage, plus it causes the cabling issues. The quality of the case is excellent though, and it flows a lot of air. How quiet the system runs is directly related to the fans in it, and the P180 has lots of fans from stock so it's not particularly quiet.

 

[idiotekniQues]

i have 4 hard drives, 1 optical and 2 pci cards and my cabling is quite neat, and i never tried neat cabling before on any build. it took me maybe an hour longer to do it than i would normally take.

it is neat except inside the bottom hard drive case where it is practically impossible to work in. id have to take the PS and fan out to work on the wiring in there, or dremel something.

1 of my hard drives is PATA, same with my optical so they do not use skinny little sata cables. also, i have an extra 4 pin molex and second ide port already in my upper drive bay ready for a second optical drive that i want to put in there since i planned ahead.

im installing photoshop and my camera raw software so ill post pics later.

 

[teatime0315]

I have a p180 and I love it. The insides are actually pretty clean. Did a minor wiring job. Overall, I am completely satisfied with my P180

 

[0roo0roo]

just zip tie stuff down. i don't think it matters much, i remember custompc magazine putting a thermal camera on cases and the p180 did very well. so idon't think a few wires are going to destroy airflow, just do the regular ziptieing/cable folding etc.

 

[0roo0roo]

just zip tie stuff down. i don't think it matters much, i remember custompc magazine putting a thermal camera on cases and the p180 did very well. so idon't think a few wires are going to destroy airflow, just do the regular ziptieing/cable folding etc.

 

[idiotekniQues]

i may try to clean stuff up a bit more. the two IDE cables (one black going up one grey going down) are both layed flat against the back of the case so they do not obstruct any airflow.

there is a fan in the middle front blowing in thru the empty hard drive cage onto the NB/vid card. also in the upper drive bay is a 4pin molex and another ide port ready for aanother optical drive so i dont have to wire for that in the future. 2 drives is all i need.

http://athos.smugmug.com/photos/123430226-L.jpg