Antec Mini P180

Show off your quiet rig.

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ddot
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2010 1:14 pm
Location: Alberta, Canada

Antec Mini P180

Post by ddot » Tue Sep 07, 2010 1:21 pm

Specs:
• Antec Mini P180 (Black)
• Intel Core i5 750
• Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD4
• Corsair XMS3 12800 DDR3 (4 x 2GB)
• Western Digital 500GB Blue (Single Platter)
• Western Digital 1TB Black
• Sapphire ATI 4670 512MB Ultimate (Passive)
• Corsair VX 450W
• Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme (aka TRUE)
• Scythe Kama PWM 120mm (CPU Fan)
• Scythe Slip Stream, 120mm, 1200RPM (Case/GPU Fan)
• Zalman Fan Mate 2

Image Image Image Image

Notable Modifications:
• Top 200mm fan was removed and vent was covered with a piece of craft foam cut to fit.
• CPU Fan soft mounted to the TRUE with velcro. (Black tape was used to seal up the small air gap.)
• Both top and bottom drive cages were removed (along with some of the tracks).
• Hard drives are suspended in the lower external drive area using black fabric elastic.
• Drive covers were removed from the lower external drive area and replaced with mesh to allow a front to back airflow over the haddrives for the power supply.
• Gap between upper and lower chambers covered with black craft foam.
• Case/GPU fan held in place with black craft foam that also serves as a fresh air duct to the front of the case.
• Zalman Fan Mate 2 located where the speed controls for the included fans were. Allows for the Case/GPU fan to be slowed down during non graphic intensive tasks.
• Black craft foam used to create separate air flow zones for the CPU and GPU. (Unfortunately the divider ended up a little more curvy than planned)


The loudest component is the idle noise of the single platter WD 500GB Blue. A little disappointed in it as the double platter WD 640GB had a lot of positive feedback. This will likely get swapped out for a SSD in due time. Second loudest component seems to be the Corsair VX 450W.

(Astute observers may notice the videocard is plugged into the 8x PCI-E slot. This was just bad planning on my part as it turns out the TRUE and the 4670 Ultimate don't fit that close together. However as I don't usually push my graphics that hard, I doubt I'll ever notice much of a difference.)


Finally, a big thank you to Mike and everyone else here at SPCR! It was a combination of a lot of different ideas picked up from a lot of different threads that led to my design.


-Todd


Edit #2:
Replaced preliminary temps with more detailed results:

Code: Select all

CPU Temp (°C)   GPU Temp (°C)    GPU Fan (RPM)    CPU Fan (RPM)    CPU State     GPU State    Test Preformed

34.0            36               688              650              idle          idle         -
33.0            33               1118             650              idle          idle         -
69.25           41               688              1300             load          idle         OCCT: Linpack
39.5            102+             688              795+             idle          load         OCCT: GPU
39.0            81               1118             843              idle          load         OCCT: GPU
73.0            82               1118             1300             load          load         OCCT: Power

Ambient temperature was 19°C.
The CPU temp is an average of the 4 cores.
The CPU fan is a PWM fan and controlled by the motherboard.
The GPU fan is connected though the Zalman Fan Mate. 688 RPM is the slowest speed, 1118 RPM is the fastest speed.
The GPU load test with the GPU fan at 688 RPM was cut short once the GPU crossed 100°C.
Last edited by ddot on Mon Nov 22, 2010 3:43 pm, edited 3 times in total.

frenchie
Friend of SPCR
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Joined: Tue Jul 08, 2008 4:53 am
Location: CT

Post by frenchie » Tue Sep 07, 2010 2:48 pm

Great looking build, very tidy too !! 8)
Temps maybe ?

Ever thought of suspending the HDs ? maybe the vibration is causing the noise you're hearing... ?

ntavlas
Posts: 811
Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2007 2:35 pm
Location: Greece
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Post by ntavlas » Tue Sep 07, 2010 3:55 pm

Very nicely done build, I like how you partitioned the interior. When a quiet HDD becomes the loudest part it`s an indication that you did it right. I`m curious about temps too, though by the looks of it I would expect them to be good.

ddot
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2010 1:14 pm
Location: Alberta, Canada

Post by ddot » Wed Sep 08, 2010 8:03 am

frenchie and ntavlas, thanks for your thoughts.

The hard drives are actually already fully suspended. I ran fabric elastic back and fourth through the existing holes in the frame of the case. No permanent modifications. I popped off the mesh and took another picture looking straight along the hard drives, this should illustrate it more clearly. It's definitely not vibration noise. Even my 1.5 year old WD 1TB Black (3 platters) is quieter than the 500GB.

As for the temps, I ran a couple quick tests and posted them above. Enjoy!


-Todd

danimal
Posts: 734
Joined: Mon Jun 08, 2009 2:41 pm
Location: the ether

Post by danimal » Wed Sep 08, 2010 7:39 pm

that duct work is interesting.

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