Question for P150 Owners

[GTaudiophile]

Referring to the upper/external 5.25" drive bays: Are the faces of the drives (DVD-RW) exposed or do they sit behind a white, spring-loaded flap?

 

[nomagic]

I do not have TX640B, but I do own P150, so I will give you my impression of P150. Hope this helps you decide.

I have the P150. It is a decent quiet case and with solid construction (heavy). I have two nexus 92mm fan for front intake (optional) and a fanless PSU (Antec Phantom 500; not included). The included PSU does not allow my computer to post. In addition, the phantom was DOA once. It is good that the replacement for phantom worked. Otherwise, I would scream out of misery.

Besides the PSU nightmare, i like everything about the case. The hard drive suspension is awesome. I could barely hear my hard drive. The case color is good too (white is the new black )

One thing to note, the edge of the case interior is not well polished. The edge cut my index finger, and I am using one hand to type right now. (ouch!!)

I like the antec case, but I will never buy another antec PSU. I do still believe that antec make excellent PSUs, but I will not try my luck again.

If you choose P150, be prepare to deal with antec for replacement PSU. The process is not difficult, and antec's customer service is ok, but a hassle nonetheless. Or, you can just buy another PSU. But who knows, the included PSU might work for you!

 

[nomagic]

The drives are not exposed. They are covered like you said. But be aware that some DVDRW drive might not fit. My Pioneer DVDRW drive (108D) did not fit. However, becuase the pioneer drive is black, I bought another white DVDRW drive that fits.

 

[GTaudiophile]

I have already decided on this PSU:

ENERMAX Liberty ELT500AWT 500W

Hope it's good.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Originally posted by: nomagic
The drives are not exposed. They are covered like you said.

I'm confused now! Drives looks exposed in this pic.

 

[nomagic]

Interesting, the one I have comes with stealth covers for the two 5.25 driver bays. Maybe the cover can be taken off or there are variations of the case. Anyways, I am too lazy to open my case and check now.

EDIT: OK, maybe I am not lazy. Check the mechanical drawing Link
Item 7 indicates that two universal cdrom doors are present in the case.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Hmmm. I see. The top two are the universal doors and the third is a standard face plate. But the pics shows #2 being used without the door? I PMed the owner of that pic to ask him what he did.

 

[taterworks]

To avoid a Cyber-SLAPP, I've removed the content of this post.

 

[RalfHutter]

GTaudiophile - I pm'ed you, but just to clarify for everyone else:

The stock P150 comes with 2 "stealthed" 5.25" bay covers. These are standard 5.25" covers so they are removable. You can use them, or remove them and mount your 5.25" device flush with the bezel in the normal fashion. That's what I chose to do on my P150, since I like seeing the activity light on my DVD burner. I used white vinyl dye on the beige faceplate of my Plextor 716 so it matched the color of the case. I also removed the other (unused) stealth cover and replaced it with a standard blank 5.25" cover, just so the bezel doesn't look too busy.

FWIW, the optical drive is positioned where it is because I fabricated a cool air duct to run from the top 5.25" bay to the PSU. Here's a pic. And another, and one more. Finished product looks like this.

 

[tempuraki]

Originally posted by: RalfHutter
I used white vinyl dye on the beige faceplate of my Plextor 716 so it matched the color of the case. I also removed the other (unused) stealth cover and replaced it with a standard blank 5.25" cover, just so the bezel doesn't look too busy.

Hey where can I get some of those white vinyl dye? I have the same floppy/reader you have, but in gray, and it's ugly leaving it out there without any, um, makeup

And yes, the 5.25 drives can be exposed OR hidden behind the face plates. If I got some dye I will liberate my drives too

BTW, the PSU works fine with my MSI NEO4 mobo.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Originally posted by: tempuraki

Originally posted by: RalfHutter
I used white vinyl dye on the beige faceplate of my Plextor 716 so it matched the color of the case. I also removed the other (unused) stealth cover and replaced it with a standard blank 5.25" cover, just so the bezel doesn't look too busy.

Hey where can I get some of those white vinyl dye? I have the same floppy/reader you have, but in gray, and it's ugly leaving it out there without any, um, makeup

And yes, the 5.25 drives can be exposed OR hidden behind the face plates. If I got some dye I will liberate my drives too

BTW, the PSU works fine with my MSI NEO4 mobo.

I still think I'm going to use a different PSU. Unless someone tells me that newegg has all new stock of newly-revised P150s!

 

[RalfHutter]

Originally posted by: tempuraki


Hey where can I get some of those white vinyl dye?

Any autoparts store, in the paint section. It comes in spray cans.

 

[gorka]

Ralf,

Nice setup....you really are the cabling guru!

That's a good idea with the dye. I'm not a big fan of those trick-sliding face plates either, so I may go that route.

BTW...I see you are one of the lucky ones with a working Neo-HE working with the P150. Is that still from your original review?

I'm really itching to pick one up, but even if the Neo did work, I still don't think it will be enough for the SLi setup I'm planning on.

I'm still wishing Antec would sell this on a "Black-SLi ready 550watt Neo-HS Gaming version."

 

[Tiamat]

Ralf pretty much answered the questions. I have had the shock cords snap on me and found my harddrives on the bottom of the case. Just be careful. In addition, the paint cannot take any type of beating. My playstation 2 controller's wire hit against it (not the hard plastic part) and the paint chiped. The case came with 2 paint chips. I bought some enamel white high gloss paint, but have been too lazy to try to apply it.

Edit: My comments might be a bit harsh, but I do enjoy the case even with its pitfalls. Antec Customer support has helped me out completely. The paint thing is relatively minor, but an eyesore. Replacement Suspension cords will be mailed out to me this monday.

 

[gorka]

Tiamat,

still...the chords would be a concern...I mean...this is likely a manufacturing flaw/defect, which could provide to be a bigger headache to Antec than the PSU problem. At least if the PSU is dead...it doesn't break anything, unlike if say, the chords snapped and took thne HD and data aloing with it.

 

[RalfHutter]

Originally posted by: gorka
Ralf,



BTW...I see you are one of the lucky ones with a working Neo-HE working with the P150. Is that still from your original review?

Yes, it's the original. It's been running almost 24/7 since Aug/Sept when I got the case. I even ran it under full 2xCPUBurn load for a 5 weeks stretch after the "issues" with it started hitting the boards. It's worked 100% flawless for me.