P180 Motherboard / PSU compatibility List

amplemind · Post by **amplemind** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 7:47 am

Can I get a PSU with an 18" wire for under $50?

And if yes, what would it be?

thetoad30 · Post by **thetoad30** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 11:49 am

MikeC wrote:
thetoad30 wrote:So assuming a Sonata TruePower 380 PSU (one 80 mm fan spinning slow) and 4 Western Digital 250 GB hard drives in the lower bay, would you recommend having the fan installed? If the fan IS installed, do we need to tape off the back vents as mentioned in another thread?
I think it would be worth experimenting. This is a borderline case, the questions being:

1) Is the PSU quieter working with just its own fan to cool itself and the HDDs, or will its fan ramp up?
2) If a 120mm fan is used, how much airflow is needed to keep the PSU fan from ever ramping up and is that quieter than just the PSU fan?

IIRC, the Sonata is not really that quiet even at idle, so perhaps a slow quiet 120mm fan would not add any audible noise while certainly helping both PSU and HDD cooling.

As for your second question -- If the fan IS installed, do we need to tape off the back vents as mentioned in another thread? -- definitely not.

Ok, I just ordered the case, an S12-500 (I wanted the updated circuit design), and a Scythe Ninja.

Now, still assuming the 4 WD 250GB in the bay, with the new 120mm fan in the case, would I be able to remove the fan? I know the PSU could ramp up (I read the S12-430 review) and all, but how much quieter would it be than having the optional 38mm fan? And would having the optional fan in there actually keep the sound lower by keeping the PSU cooler and not ramping up as much?

Also for anyone, I have an ASUS board. P5AD2-E Premium. If I read this thread correctly, I need an extender for ATX and ATX 12V connectors, right?

Thank you.

Post by **MikeC** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 12:09 pm

thetoad30 wrote:
MikeC wrote:Now, still assuming the 4 WD 250GB in the bay, with the new 120mm fan in the case, would I be able to remove the fan? I know the PSU could ramp up (I read the S12-430 review) and all, but how much quieter would it be than having the optional 38mm fan? And would having the optional fan in there actually keep the sound lower by keeping the PSU cooler and not ramping up as much?

Several dBA quieter. The S12-430 in that situation will hardly ramp up at all. Devon never heard in ramping up during all his testing, and he had it pulling as much as >300W AC. The 120 fan does drop HDD temps by maybe ~6 degrees, tho it's not that bad even with just the S12 fan going.

thetoad30 · Post by **thetoad30** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:41 pm

ok, cool. Hard drive temps are my main concern with this new case, and I'm very glad they are seperated from the main enclosure, as CPU and NorthBridge temps are my secondary concerns.

I like the fact that the fan in the bottom is optional.

Did I read somewhere that this fan is also replaceable? In otherwords, can I mount a nice and slow Yate Loon or Nexus to this part if my hard drive temps are above normal?

Thank you.

Post by **MikeC** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 5:15 pm

thetoad30 wrote:Did I read somewhere that this fan is also replaceable? In otherwords, can I mount a nice and slow Yate Loon or Nexus to this part if my hard drive temps are above normal?

yes

thetoad30 · Post by **thetoad30** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 5:52 pm

Ok. Now I'm going to need to find some nice HVAC tape.

But here's the key: I want it to leave as little residue as possible when removed. Duct tape is too sticky...

So I'm trying to figure out what the best tape to use is... if anyone has any advice on this topic that would be great.

What did Ralf use in his configuration?

Thank you for all your help.

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 6:27 pm

You could just use electrical tape, guaranted to not leave residue.

thetoad30 · Post by **thetoad30** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 8:34 pm

I thought of that... and for the back, I just may do that... but if I was to ever remove the top fan (if Antec doesn't come out with a plate by then) I wanted to get something silverish to match the case...

ereinion · Post by **ereinion** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 11:06 pm

I don't have the information on the mobo, but a guy, on another forum, wasn't able to plug his 4 pin on his mobo, PSU -> OCZ modstream

Just to let you know

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 2:30 am

Here's a suggestion...

1. Get some silver tape that may or may not leave residue.
2. Fold it over so that the stick side is touching the sticky side
3. Attach the folded over silver, now non-sticky square wiith electrical
tape to the appropriate fan opening.
4. Profit.

thetoad30 · Post by **thetoad30** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 7:57 am

Shadowknight wrote:Here's a suggestion...

1. Get some silver tape that may or may not leave residue.
2. Fold it over so that the stick side is touching the sticky side
3. Attach the folded over silver, now non-sticky square wiith electrical
tape to the appropriate fan opening.
4. Profit.

Um, wow, why didn't I think of that? Such an easy solution! That's a good solution... thanks! I'll try that out and see how it works!

JerryT · Post by **JerryT** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 9:59 am

yacoub wrote:Can I ask why some are mounting S12 Seasonics upside down? I'm looking into a 500W S12 to power a DFI Ultra-D NForce4Ultra board. Think the power cables will reach the connectors on that one alright? And do I mount the PSU right-side-up or upside-down? =P

I have my S-12 500w installed rightside up with that MoBo Yacoub. The 16" cable works OK. Have to go straight to the connector, but it fits OK.

Freelancer77 · Post by **Freelancer77** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 11:11 am

JerryT wrote:
yacoub wrote:Can I ask why some are mounting S12 Seasonics upside down? I'm looking into a 500W S12 to power a DFI Ultra-D NForce4Ultra board. Think the power cables will reach the connectors on that one alright? And do I mount the PSU right-side-up or upside-down? =P
I have my S-12 500w installed rightside up with that MoBo Yacoub. The 16" cable works OK. Have to go straight to the connector, but it fits OK.

Ok, now I'm worried again. In an earlier thread, MikeC said clearly that an S12-500 ATX12V cable would reach on an ASUS A8N SLI, but youre saying it's 16" long. That's at least 2" short for that MOBO. The DFI is fine, since the ATX head is close to the middle of the board. On the A8N it's up near the PS2 backplane connectors, about as far from the PSU as possible. It will suck to get everything for the build this evening and have to wait for an extender. Perhaps the 12V cable lengths vary and I'll get lucky.

woodchuck69 · Post by **woodchuck69** » Sat Jul 02, 2005 9:44 am

Greetings all -

I just installed an Antec Truepower II 550 and the main ATX + 4 pin connector are both over 20". The 4 pin will stretch out flat to 21" but the main, sleeved cabling has a slight bend/twist in it that I didn't want to pull too tight - so it meaures around 20" as is.

Both of these cables will actually extend from the bottom, mounted position to outside the top edge of the P180, so any MB should be ok.

I installed it wth an Epox 9NPA+ Ultra.

iowastate89 · Post by **iowastate89** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 10:49 am

I haven't seen this configuration verified yet: anyone have problems with an Antec Phantom 500W with an A8N SLI board?

andyd · Post by **andyd** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 11:11 am

like some others...my config...

asus sli premium
seasonic s12 500 with fan facing down

1. the main cable barely reaches but does. leaves no slack so the cable moved around.

2. atx is the problem. asus put the atx to the upper left making it a very difficult thing to reach. one way i got it to reach was by routing the cable underneath the video card. works but i don't like the pressure put on the capacitors in that area. if the atx conntector was a inch lower it would have been perfect.

i ordered that extender kit as it seems to be the best option but im a little concerned about this method. are there no dangers using a kit like this? has there been any stories of the kit failing on anyone?

Wex · Post by **Wex** » Sun Jul 10, 2005 10:43 pm

Hmm... so I'm guessing I need an extension cable for my Antec True 430, to go with an ASUS A8N SLI Premium...?

PositiveSpin · Post by **PositiveSpin** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 4:35 pm

PC Power and Cooling offer a "TurboCool" 510W power supply that supports SLI (it has two 6 pin VGA power cables) - it gets various names, but you can identify it as the "510W SLI power supply that costs a lot".

It fits nicely into the P180 (it's exactly the size of the PSU cage). It is well-suited, in fact, because all the cables come out in the centre of the top of the power supply, lining up beautifully with the cable hole into the top chamber. The ATX12V connector is on a 20" lead, but it provides plenty of length to reach anywhere (reaches top of case with 6" to spare).

It's also rather nice in that it provides 6 SATA connectors, on two leads of 3.

All the leads are covered in mesh. It does have a LOT of connector cables (but only one floppy connector - surprising), making it a bit tough to get all the cables up the cable hole.

The price is intimidating, and I'm not sure about the noise level, but I'm building this machine for performance (I wouldn't put a dual-core 3.2GHz or a 7800GTX in a machine intended to be quiet).

It has only one fan - a rear exhaust 80mm - and the only air intake holes are a nice open mesh on the opposite end (no top / bottom / side holes) - should make for a straight air flow. Seems appropriate for use in the P180. I'm going to evaluate it, but I think I'll be leaving the bottom chamber fan out - I suspect the PSU fan should give enough ventilation, given that I'm only using one or two hard drives, and those are 160Gb Seagate 7200.7s

I'm mentioning this because this is one power supply which should work with pretty much any motherboard in the P180.

FWIW

PS: forgot to mention - I'm using an ASUS P5WD2 Premium motherboard - like so many ASUS boards, the ATX12 connector is near the keyboard socket ("top left").

FJC · Post by **FJC** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 3:06 am

Asus P5WD2 motherboard here in my P180, with a Seasonic S12-500W power supply. I mounted the power supply fan-down. The 12v cable barely reaches the connector on the P5WD2 (located at the top-left of the motherboard, near the keyboard connector). I have it basically going across the motherboard, just behind the PCIe slot, then going left around the CPU cooler. It does fit, and isn't being pinched by my video card.

Freelancer77 · Post by **Freelancer77** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 7:08 am

FJC wrote:Asus P5WD2 motherboard here in my P180, with a Seasonic S12-500W power supply. I mounted the power supply fan-down. The 12v cable barely reaches the connector on the P5WD2 (located at the top-left of the motherboard, near the keyboard connector). I have it basically going across the motherboard, just behind the PCIe slot, then going left around the CPU cooler. It does fit, and isn't being pinched by my video card.

Many of the 64-bit boards currently sold by Asus have the same placement for the power connectors, whether Intel or AMD based. You description exactly matches the routing I used. The cable isn't stressed, but there's no slack to speak of.

In spite of appearance, the 12v bundle is not touching the NB heatsink, it passes "above" the back corner of it.

dingnecros · Post by **dingnecros** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 12:33 pm

Currently have

Dfi NF4 ultra-D
AMD 3200+ A64 venice OC'd to 2.6GHz (30% OC)
Zalman CNPS 7700Cu
OCZ Plat Rev2 Ram
XFX 6800GT with VF 700 Cu
Kworld BT878RF Tv tuner
2 x SataII Hitachi HDD
1x Maxtor 30GB HDD
1x DVD+-RW Drive
1x DVD ROM drive

Planning to buy new case and PSU

Will the S12-500 be enough for powering an my current OC'd system while remaining resonably silent, with the possibility of allowing me to add more stuff or upgrades in future.

Also will the air flow in the P180 be sufficient to maintain a resonable (around 35C to 38C) case temp. I am really near to ordering that stuff and would appreciate someone can help me decide on these questions

Krazy Kommando · Post by **Krazy Kommando** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 7:02 pm

has anyone out there tried the S12 with an MSI K8N Neo4?

John Reid · Post by **John Reid** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 5:32 am

Using a FoxConn NFPIK8AA-8EKRS (socket 940 Nforce4PRo SLI board) with an OCZ Powerstream. Had to route the 4 pin power straight up from the PSU, but there's slack. 24 pin cable is fine with no issues.

here's a pic of the board:

http://www.foxconnchannel.com/picBig.cf ... -8EKRS.jpg

blunden · Post by **blunden** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 2:47 pm

Is anyone still running Athlon XP's and Abit NF7s v2.0 and knows if the Chieftec 360W (yeah, I know, kinda bad PSU but I might buy a Tagan) will reach?

Freelancer77 · Post by **Freelancer77** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 2:58 pm

dingnecros wrote:Currently have

Dfi NF4 ultra-D
AMD 3200+ A64 venice OC'd to 2.6GHz (30% OC)
Zalman CNPS 7700Cu
OCZ Plat Rev2 Ram
XFX 6800GT with VF 700 Cu
Kworld BT878RF Tv tuner
2 x SataII Hitachi HDD
1x Maxtor 30GB HDD
1x DVD+-RW Drive
1x DVD ROM drive

Planning to buy new case and PSU

Will the S12-500 be enough for powering an my current OC'd system while remaining resonably silent, with the possibility of allowing me to add more stuff or upgrades in future.

Also will the air flow in the P180 be sufficient to maintain a resonable (around 35C to 38C) case temp. I am really near to ordering that stuff and would appreciate someone can help me decide on these questions

The S12-500 will handle all of that easily. It is a remarkably efficient and smooth running PSU, and the 12v rails are built with higher-performance systems in mind. I'm running a much less powerful video card, but 4 Raptors and 1 IDE HD, otherwise our systems would see similar power draws, and the Seasonic has no problems at all. During idle it's fan doesn't spin, and when it does I don't notice it, so yes, it's quiet enough. The lower chamber does a good job of isolating sound.

The P180's airflow is totally up to you. It is the most customizable case for tailoring to cool, quiet, performance, etc. that I've come across. You can't expect truly silent with the rig you have, so comfortably quiet will have to do. You can still have that in the P180 with FOUR 120mm fans running at low speed with all the airflow you need.

blunden · Post by **blunden** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 12:45 pm

blunden wrote:Is anyone still running Athlon XP's and Abit NF7s v2.0 and knows if the Chieftec 360W (yeah, I know, kinda bad PSU but I might buy a Tagan) will reach?

Guess not.

blunden · Post by **blunden** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 4:54 am

I have decided to buy a Tagan 430W 2force. Will the cables reach? What do you guys think of it? To me it seems great but I know you have higher standards.

I may have found a store in town that sells extension cables so that I can use the Chieftec 360W until the Tagan comes in the end of the week.

Akkuma · Post by **Akkuma** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 7:27 am

I've been reading up for the past few weeks a lot of the reviews here on SPCR and after hours of looking at cases, I decided on getting a P180 for the great airflow, great ducting that can be done, and the silencing.

Cutting to the chase, if I am thinking correctly in context of the P180, a straight airflow design would be vastly superior to the "newer" 120mm fan psu designs of a fan facing either down towards the bottom of the case, or up towards the upper chamber. If I am not correct, please let me know. The problem is the amount of quality PSUs with a straight airflow design seem to be reduced drastically due to the vast majority of cases not using PSU design & placement like the P180.

What I am looking for is a good <$100 PSU with a straight airflow design. I would have loved to get a Phantom due to their amazing efficiency, but they are extremely costly.

With this in mind, the only PSUs that seem to be best for the P180 are either the Antec SmartPower 2, Seasonic SS, or a Enermax Noisetaker (not really straight airflow design, but it seems due to not having only 1 fan blowing air up towards the divider or down on the bottom of the case).

Now the first question that would need to be answered is whether I am right that P180 really should use straight airflow PSUs. If this is the case which of the 3 choices would be best with a DFI nF4 Ultra, taking into account things like cable management, efficiency, etc.?

blunden · Post by **blunden** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 9:06 am

The cables were very long on the Chieftec 360W wich made it easy to route the cables. I'm going to buy a new Tagan this week though so I can only hope that it has long cables too.

I really like this chassi so far. Though I have a fan that gives a kinda high pitched sound. I get the feeling it is the CPU-fan but I'm not sure. I will have to check it more thoroughly.

I have one question though. The metal plate that covers the external 3.5"-slot should be bent off, right? Is there any easy way to do that?

EDIT: Any ideas what to do with the HDD2 connector? Is there anything you can use for? Is it even possible, without huge mods, to use one led for each drive on my NF7-S v2.0?

sean10mm · Post by **sean10mm** » Sat Aug 27, 2005 7:20 pm

Akkuma wrote:Cutting to the chase, if I am thinking correctly in context of the P180, a straight airflow design would be vastly superior to the "newer" 120mm fan psu designs of a fan facing either down towards the bottom of the case, or up towards the upper chamber. If I am not correct, please let me know. The problem is the amount of quality PSUs with a straight airflow design seem to be reduced drastically due to the vast majority of cases not using PSU design & placement like the P180.

Well, it just so happens I got a P180 case and a SmartPower 2.0 500W PSU today...

It seems like the PSU is always quiet (something I couldn't say for the TrueBlue 480 I had in the same system in a Super Lanboy case...). The fans never spin up to significant speed/noise, even with Prime95 running. Not totally silent, but very quiet and not ramping up/down at all.

Note that I wouldn't have gotten this PSU if it was going into a normal case, since 2x80mm fans is always worse than 1x120mm fan, noise-wise... unless the 2x80mm fans hardly do anything because they already have a fat 120mm fan blowing on them in the P180.

It also has the modular cable setup from the NeoPower 480, and the cables are almost all sleeved (except the 4-pin ATX & the little one you can plug into the mobo if you want to, which I didn't).

With an Asus A8V Deluxe 2.0 motherboard, all the cables reach the motherboard, but barely. The 4-pin ATX cable was a bit of a nightmare, but I was able to route it under my cards and around my heat sink to get to the socket without having to force anything or do anything dumb. You would think Antec would make it easier to use one of their newer PSUs in their new flagship case, but it can still be done with some grunting and swearing.

For fans, I have a total of 4 Antec TriCool 120mm LED fans (back, top, front & on the XP-90 on my CPU) along with the fat 120mm lower chamber fan that came with the case. With all the fans set to the lowest speed, it isn't literally silent, but it is very quiet and is still moving a ton of air. This case with 5x120mm Antec fans at low speed makes considerably less noise, and keeps my components cooler by 2-3C, than the Super Lanboy did with 3x120mm fans, and it wasn't bad by any stretch.

P180 Motherboard / PSU compatibility List

antec

PC Power and Cooling 510 SLI