P180 Motherboard / PSU compatibility List

[sean10mm]

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?

Yes, you remove the plate, I just bent it back & forth until it came out on its own.

I don't know what to do with the HDD2 connector, my HDD1 connector doesn't seem to do anything now that I think about it.

[JonV]

In case anyone's wondering, the Antec Phantom 350W will reach pretty much any connector on any motherboard. The ATX12V reaches my Asus A8N SLI Premium (plug at top left, like the other Asus boards) just fine - didn't even have to route it under the video card.

[blunden]

I got some cable-specs for the Tagan 2force-series from Tagan's support.



EDIT: I just installed the Tagan U22. It took som pulling in the cables and such to make it possible to install without removing the 120 mm fan in the bottom tunnel while mounting. The cables reached fine, though I only needed less than half of all the cables.

[UG]

The Tagen Easycon 430w PSU and Abit AN8-Ultra fits. The 24 pin has plenty of room as it's halfway down the motherboard on the right. The 4 pin 12v cable has to run up along the motherboard between the cpu and ram to fit. Snug but a little bit of leway. Might get an extender so i can tidy it up a bit.

[psiu]

Have an Asus A7N8X motherboard, my Truepower 330 (inverted) has no problems reaching, although this mobo just uses the ATX power connector (Socket-A mobo).

[dragontales]

My smartpower 400w cannot reach the Asus A8N-E. Both the 24 and 4 pin needed an extension.

[spworley]

My Seasonics 500 PSU worked fine with a DFI Lanparty NF4 SLI. The main power harness has no real slack, but it didn't interfere too badly when routed through the power cable hole. My lower chamber has no fan, so I found routing the power cables though the HD cable hole (and not the power cable hole) gave more slack and also a better path further away from my vid card and northbridge.

[woodchuck69]

PC Power and Cooling offer a "TurboCool" 510W power supply that supports SLI

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.

I just used this combo. The 510 SLI's pack of black mamba cables are a nightmare if you have any PCI cards installed in the last slot. Being that I have a 7800GTX, a Tekram SCSI card and an Audigy 4, I must use the last 2 slots on my Epox 9NPA+ Ultra.

The top/centered location of the cables coming out of the PS is too close to the last PCI slot to successfully navigate around it by bending the cables. This is where the Dremel cutting wheel choped about 1.5" out of the cable opening towards the non-motherboard case side. Now the cables easily fit through the opening without smashing down the last PCI card. At this point, the only challenge becomes figuring out what to do with all the PS cables the thing has. I improvised by taking off the little black screw holder box on the back side of the upper HDD cage. The excess cables all feed nicely back into there.

They must have definitely refined the fan controller on this PS, it isn't anything close to the noise levels people made it out to be. The chipset fan on the Epox is actually louder. If you want to hear loud... I've got a ~1998 PC P&C Turbo 300 you should hear...

So far my Fluke multimeter has been pegged on 12.12V and 5.13V no matter what I do to the machine... the PS just yawns at anything you throw at it.

[PositiveSpin]

The Phantom 500 can be installed in the P180, and its ATX12V cable will reach even the nasty "behind the keyboard connector" spot easily.

I'm using an ASUS P5WD2 Premium motherboard, which can take either ATX12V (4 wires) or EPS (8 wires). The Phantom supplies both connectors - it has an 8way connector at the end of a reasonable length cable, then a short extra bit with the 4 way connector on it. I can use the 8 way connector (just) on this motherboard - the cable is not taut, but there's next to no slack. Using the 4way would have given me heaps of slack, but I preferred to use the 8way because it offers more wires, therefore lower current.

Using the Phantom 500 in the P180 is not especially easy, because the Phantom is so long. I wanted to use a 120mm fan in the tunnel so there'd be some air movement past the hard drives, and so the Phantom's fan didn't need to run. I couldn't use the supplied 38mm thick fan, but I found I could substitute a 25mm Tricool (removed from the other P180 I bought earlier).

You have to pull the cables up quite hard to get them to clear the case fan, but once you do, there's a nice clear air flow in the power supply tunnel.

Can't say that I'm thrilled with Antec's Phantom build quality these days - the wires coming out of the Phantom are all tangled together. Looks like they had all the 12V wires together, all the 5V wires togethers, and all the neutrals together, then grabbed them any-old-how to make up the cable runs. The first four to six inches are horribly tangled. Worse still, they aren't all the same length, so if you try to use cable ties to neaten them, you can end up with bulges where some wires (often the yellow, for no apparent reason) are longer than the rest. For the price of the Phantom I'd expect better. Must say that this made me respect the PC Power and Cooling power supply more!

[PositiveSpin]

PC Power and Cooling offer a "TurboCool" 510W power supply that supports SLI

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.

I just used this combo. The 510 SLI's pack of black mamba cables are a nightmare if you have any PCI cards installed in the last slot. Being that I have a 7800GTX, a Tekram SCSI card and an Audigy 4, I must use the last 2 slots on my Epox 9NPA+ Ultra.

The top/centered location of the cables coming out of the PS is too close to the last PCI slot to successfully navigate around it by bending the cables. This is where the Dremel cutting wheel choped about 1.5" out of the cable opening towards the non-motherboard case side. Now the cables easily fit through the opening without smashing down the last PCI card. At this point, the only challenge becomes figuring out what to do with all the PS cables the thing has. I improvised by taking off the little black screw holder box on the back side of the upper HDD cage. The excess cables all feed nicely back into there.

They must have definitely refined the fan controller on this PS, it isn't anything close to the noise levels people made it out to be. The chipset fan on the Epox is actually louder. If you want to hear loud... I've got a ~1998 PC P&C Turbo 300 you should hear...

So far my Fluke multimeter has been pegged on 12.12V and 5.13V no matter what I do to the machine... the PS just yawns at anything you throw at it.

Yeah, I've been very impressed with this power supply. It's not the quietest I've ever heard, but it's decently subdued. It helps, I guess, that it's vastly overconfigured for the load

I'm seriously considering getting another one, which is impressive, considering that it costs A$386 here (about US$300). That's considerably more than even the Phantom 500, which is available here for about A$230 (about US$175).

[vine-au]

A7N8X-E MB
&
SilenX 520W PSU

fit perfectly, with room to spare.

[DaY8Ge=)]

PSU list that can be installed in P180

It is an agreement of PSU sold in Japan list.
It is my pleasure if it serves as a reference.
=)

[WallStreet]

I have a Chaintech VNF4/Ultra and was planning to get the Antec P180 and a Seasonic S12-430 PSU. Anyone having this care to comment on whether the main power and ATX12V reach OK? The VNF4/Ultra’s main power is near the CPU socket about 2/3 of the way up the board in between the CPU socket and the backplate. The ATX12V is near the top of the board, near the parallel port. Here’s a picture:

http://www.chaintechusa.com/tw/images/P ... ltra_L.jpg

Any help appreciated – I am out to build a powerful but quiet system. My Venice 3000+ CPU is overclocked to 2.55GHz (XP-90 heat sink). If someone has a better PSU suggestion for the P180 in the $100, please let me know that also.

Thanks!

[lenny]

ATX12V should reach, main ATX cable is going to be a mess. It should reach, but it'll have to go over your cards to get there.

[WallStreet]

ATX12V should reach, main ATX cable is going to be a mess. It should reach, but it'll have to go over your cards to get there.

Thanks. Yeah, most boards have the main ATX connector on the other side (away from the backplate). I knew that location was going to be bad

[YegaDoyai]

epox 8npaj and tagan 420 fit nicely, but due to placement of the powerconnectors the cable has to snake over the north bridge.

[IonYz]

Gigabyte K8N Ultra-SLI + Seasonic S12-500 = Success (with caveats)

• Main power cable is tight but connects
• 4pin must be routed under video card
• Because of 4pin position all PCI (and remaining PCI-E 8x) slots are inaccessible

Oh, and be sure to connect front-case cables BEFORE wiring power and installing the video card. Haha, I learned that the hardway. Oh well, what do I expect, first PC built in 6 years. I'll probably buy the Silverstone Extension kit though, if I oh, ever want to install another PCI or PCI-E card, or relieve tension on the cabling.

[mrochester]

Asus A8N-SLI Premium and Silverstone Fanless 300watt PSU work perfectly too.

[Freelancer77]

Any Seasonic S12--- and Asus A8N--- combination works fine as well.

After reading the "review/roundup" of cases on Anandtech, I felt embarassed for them. They are normally very thoughtful, thorough and trustworthy in their details and assessments of gear, but I was quite dissapointed in them allowing publication of this article.

They couldn't manage to issue one word of praise about the P180 without reminding the reader that they were "worried" about the bottom PSU arrangement. It was as if the writer were doing his best to bury all the positive comments by repeating the one "flaw" he perceived.

Then they employ the worst possible choise of PSU, the OCZ PowerStream, which has a body too long and cables too short. I would submit that hardly anybody is likely to buy a P180 who doesn't have a clue what they are getting into, and would notice the PSU chamber arrangement before they got to the build and "discovered" the "problem".

No other case reviewed had a "negative" aspect restated as many as five times throughout the article.

Add to this the bogus "scoring" mechanism, and the remarkable refusal to actually compare the very significant attributes of construction, parts fit/quality, and design detail that puts the P180 (and the Lian Li to be honest) way ahead of the other thin, plastic wannabes. It's understandable how the Thermalrock Eclipse gets top nod. A good case by all means, but not built to anywhere near the standard of either the V1000 or the P180.

[Burner27]

PC Power and Cooling offer a "TurboCool" 510W power supply that supports SLI

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.

I just used this combo. The 510 SLI's pack of black mamba cables are a nightmare if you have any PCI cards installed in the last slot. Being that I have a 7800GTX, a Tekram SCSI card and an Audigy 4, I must use the last 2 slots on my Epox 9NPA+ Ultra.

The top/centered location of the cables coming out of the PS is too close to the last PCI slot to successfully navigate around it by bending the cables. This is where the Dremel cutting wheel choped about 1.5" out of the cable opening towards the non-motherboard case side. Now the cables easily fit through the opening without smashing down the last PCI card. At this point, the only challenge becomes figuring out what to do with all the PS cables the thing has. I improvised by taking off the little black screw holder box on the back side of the upper HDD cage. The excess cables all feed nicely back into there.

They must have definitely refined the fan controller on this PS, it isn't anything close to the noise levels people made it out to be. The chipset fan on the Epox is actually louder. If you want to hear loud... I've got a ~1998 PC P&C Turbo 300 you should hear...

So far my Fluke multimeter has been pegged on 12.12V and 5.13V no matter what I do to the machine... the PS just yawns at anything you throw at it.

Do you have any pictures of your rig that you can post for us? How did you mount the unit (i.e feet down or feet up?)?

[Burner27]

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").

Do you have any pictures of your rig that you can post for us? How did you mount the unit (i.e feet down or feet up?)?

[Bar81]

Can confirm the Silverstone 300W fanless works fine as does the SilenX 600W

[PositiveSpin]

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").

Do you have any pictures of your rig that you can post for us? How did you mount the unit (i.e feet down or feet up?)?

Sorry - I don't understand the question - are you talking about the feet on the case? I run all my P180s (just bought #3 ) upright, sitting on their feet.

The PSU I mount in the standard manner - there's no reason to mount it upside down because it's a straight-through power supply - no vents or fans on the top or bottom.

No photos yet - I'm still messing with them. The current configurations are:

1. Pentium D 3.2GHz / ASUS P5WD2 / PC Power and Cooling 510SLI / ThermalRight XP120+Panaflo / Leadtek 7800GTX - this is NOT a deliberately quiet machine - it's a game box! But it runs cooler and quieter than my 6800Ultra game box - impressive.

2. Pentium D 2.8GHz / Gigabyte 8I945P-DG / Antec Phantom 500 / Zalman Reserator 1plus / 2xGigabyte passive-cooling 6600GT running 4xHyundai L90D+ - now THIS box is quiet! Pondering swapping out the Tricool case exhaust for something even quieter - can't get Nexus. Maybe look for a Globe? Anyone suggest something else?

3. (in progress) Pentium D 3.0GHz / Gigabyte 8N-SLI / Antec TruePower2 550EPS (may change to PC Power and Cooling) / Intel stock HSF(temporarily - might become a Zalman 9500 or 7700) / 2xLeadtek 7800GT in SLI mode - this is an experiment, and may change more than once. Although experimenting with SLI for games, this box is likely to end up doing another job as another 4 display machine.

[fowen]

If anyone would like to sell the fans they took out of their P180 I would be interested. Send me a PM with how much you want for them.

One question I have. I have the P180 and I haven't fired it up yet but I have notices the fan at the bottom is twice the size of the normal 120mm fans. Is it quite a bit louder? Does it push a lot more air?

[Ralf Hutter]

One question I have. I have the P180 and I haven't fired it up yet but I have notices the fan at the bottom is twice the size of the normal 120mm fans. Is it quite a bit louder? Does it push a lot more air?

Those questions are answered in the review of the P180 on the main SPCR site. There's even sound files to listen to.

[DraGoNsLaYeR]

What is length needed to reach the 4pin connector? I have an Asus P4P800 Deluxe and 4pin connection is right by where the USB ports at the back of the motherboard are. How long would the cable have to be? The powersupply I'll be using is a TruePower 430

[TheJAG]

What is length needed to reach the 4pin connector? I have an Asus P4P800 Deluxe and 4pin connection is right by where the USB ports at the back of the motherboard are. How long would the cable have to be? The powersupply I'll be using is a TruePower 430

I'm wondering as well The Enermax Liberty ELT620 I ordered has a 22'' 4pin connector. This together with an A8N32 DeLuxe (with the same location for the 4pin as in the quote) and double slotted 7800GTX it looks like it's gonna be a tight fit. Does someone have an idea if I'll be ok with this setup or should I go for an extension cable?

thanks!

[DraGoNsLaYeR]

I'm not sure on the length of my connectors, but they reach fine with my setup (I bought the case).

[kamina]

I'm starting this thread to hopefully collect in one place info on how various MB and PSU fit in the P180. I notice lots of people asking such questions. I'll start:

Motherboard : Asus A8V Deluxe, XP-120.

PSU : Seasonic S12-430 installed upside down.

Issues : ATX12V too short.

Notes : ATX12V is too short even when untwisted. It has to go across the PCI slots and under the AGP card. The XP-120 is part of the problem due to its size, but even a smaller cooler will contribute only an extra 15mm at most, not enough to route it neatly.

By the way, the CPU socket location aligns perfectly with the top and rear case fans, just like the MB shown in the Ninja review.

Does anyone know where to get ATX12V extension cables? I had to build my own...

So from this I would understand that the cable is long enough if you don't have any pci-cards?

[zikje]

I've had problems with my setup. I routed the 4-pin cable underneath my PCI-cards, to the right of the slots, and then to the left of the Ninja, towards the plug. It fitted but did stretch. Now my system turns out to be instable. It started crashing. Cause: the 4-pin cable stretched to much. Looking for a quiet PSU with longer cables now.