Worth Upgrading an Antec P180?

Enclosures and acoustic damping to help quiet them.

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Mr. B
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Worth Upgrading an Antec P180?

Post by Mr. B » Sat Feb 04, 2017 2:11 pm

After many years with my aging build in the trusty Antec P180, I'm finally contemplating a new build, perhaps in a new and slightly more compact case. I've done some shopping and I'm not all that impressed with anything I've seen out there. I know newer cases allow cable routing behind the motherboard but I made some cutouts on my P180, to allow the same. The Antec P280 seems nice, but not so much nicer than what I have.

My only real requirements are a clean look, 2-3 5.25'' bays, and room for four 3.5'' hard drives. Is there anything compelling out there?

quest_for_silence
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Location: ITALY

Re: Worth Upgrading an Antec P180?

Post by quest_for_silence » Sat Feb 04, 2017 10:04 pm

Mr. B wrote:Is there anything compelling out there?

Compelling? I'd say no, particularly if you upgraded the Antec stock case fans.
Otherwise, a "new classic" may be the Fractal Design Define R5.

nagi
Posts: 125
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Location: Outside the box

Re: Worth Upgrading an Antec P180?

Post by nagi » Sun Feb 05, 2017 1:49 am

I have to agree with quest_for_silence. I have a P180 and an a Fractal Design R4, which is an older version. AFAIK the R5has better front cover (R4 has one that was just as bad as the original from the P180), removable 5.25" bay, better filters and a "reversible" front door that feels flimsy according to some. The R5's new side-panels feel even more flimsy, wobble(!), but close easier. It also has a dedicated HDD LED finally. Oh and it has a new fan controller that you might or might not use.

My observations on the R4:
advantages:
- provides more potential airflow
- all fan slots are 140mm, but can fit 120mm fans as well
- the stock 140mm fans are not that bad, though the 140mm fans in general can be louder unfortunately last time I checked
- has much less problem with giant video cards (though you still have to remove the middle HDD cage to fit one that is over 310mm, leaving you with only 3 3.5" slots)
- cable management is markedly better
- dedicated ssd trays behind the motherboard
- USB 3.0 ports
- watercooling support, with basically all fan monts doubling as radiator mounting slots and more.

disadvantages:
- the side-panel dampening is worse,
- the side panels are much more fiddly and can be prone to vibration
- the much softer gromets of the P180 are better at cancelling out vibration from multiple HDDs
- the P180 dust filters are much, much better at blocking out dust

TBH, I was compelled to search eBay for another P180/1/2/3, (as none of them are sold here) due to the door vibration issue that came up every week to every odd month. It can be solved with a swift kick, but after years of searching for the exact cause, I could never find it. I do have to say though that a few friends also bought the R4, and none of them had this particular problem, so YMMV.

Hatch
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Joined: Mon May 07, 2007 7:27 pm

Re: Worth Upgrading an Antec P180?

Post by Hatch » Sat Jan 06, 2018 3:48 pm

Here I am a year after you guys and also contemplating an upgrade to my older i7-860 system that resides in my P180 case. I bought the case in 2010 and it has been fine for my needs. A little on the heavy side but I knew that going in and it has been pretty easy to keep the build virtually silent for 8 years as I occasionally upgraded the guts with more memory, a couple of graphics card upgrades, larger HDs and a couple of SSDs. I had a Samsung SSD go bad on me recently and that prompted me to consider a completely new build. Heaving the P180 up onto a work surface is an ordeal and if I have to open 'er up for anything I want to make it worth my while.

The R4/R5 looks like a nice case but I think I'll stick with the P180. List price in 2010 when I bought it was $150 and I got it for $90 after a discount. I've been pretty happy with it.

Riok
Posts: 28
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Location: France

Re: Worth Upgrading an Antec P180?

Post by Riok » Sat Jan 13, 2018 10:30 am

@Hatch:

I have an R5. It's great but I doubt you would gain anything from updating. Maybe your fans get used and they need to be changed ? Any problem with your temps or fan noise ?

Antec P180 sounds like a good old BMW or a good old Harley. You don't change thoose things :p

blankus
Posts: 16
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Re: Worth Upgrading an Antec P180?

Post by blankus » Sat Jun 16, 2018 12:05 pm

I bought the P180 in 2006 and I'm very pleased with it.

After an upgrade of internals (CPU, PSU, SSD, etc) five years ago the only thing spinning/rotating at idle are the CPU fans (Noctua NH-C14) and until a year and half ago the old NVIDIA GTX 670 got replaced with a card not spinning at idle. Yep, really silent more than 95% of the time.

The overclocked i7-4770k still performs very well for my usage, but in a few years I'll upgrade but most likely keep the P180. Did I mention that amortized over number of years of usage the P180 is a marvelous purchase?

Olle P
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Location: Sweden

Re: Worth Upgrading an Antec P180?

Post by Olle P » Mon Jun 18, 2018 6:06 am

My P183 will stay in service until the CP-850 PSU bites the dust.
That should be quite some time from now...

Vonstalee
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Jun 19, 2018 8:04 am

Re: Worth Upgrading an Antec P180?

Post by Vonstalee » Tue Jun 19, 2018 8:05 am

You have one of the cleanest cases out there.

I also really like the Obsidian 500D from Corsair as an alternative to look at.

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