Antec P180/182 HDD Cage bottom or top

MastaSlayer · Post by **MastaSlayer** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 2:46 am

I have an p182 and 2 hdd but i was wondering which is the better place to put them, in the top cage or bottom cage.
i got them in the top cage with fan and they idle at 29c and not much higher under load and cool down fast which is great compared to my last generic one and the rubbber makes it whisper quiet.
Though i was wondering if i put it in the bottom cage would the temps be better or worse since the fan(currently no fan there only the 3 stock ones) is some distance behind them and would it be as quiet?
is it even ok to have your hdd in a verticle position?
but i assume this would make my components above the psu cooler since no hdd in the way(gotta get extra fan for top though if i use hdd on bottom n move stock fan with it), though it might make the psu hotter with hdds down there.

So yea was wondering what are your experiences and any advice would be great thanks... and sorry for babbling on...

Das_Saunamies · Post by **Das_Saunamies** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 3:04 am

I prefer to have my HDDs, and in fact all components, as low as possible to keep the center of gravity near the bottom. It's also the sturdiest place in a normal case, as the silicone feet will be there to secure the case to the floor. Usually the mobo layout favours cabling on the floor of the case, but the P18x are an exception to this.

I doubt there's any downside, excuse the pun, to mounting HDDs vertically instead of horizontally.

If it was my case, I'd probably seat them in the bottom compartment and see how it went from there. If the vibrations bothered me, I'd try the top cage. Temperatures wouldn't matter much as stability seems to be key instead of grade, as long as it's sub-critical.

I have a sneaking suspicion this has been discussed before, so why not browse around the forums while waiting for replies.

BenSanford · Post by **BenSanford** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 4:40 am

I believe in one of the many reviews of the p180/182 found that the Drives actually ran cooler in the lower bay. Modern high efficiency power supplies don't produce much heat so the lower compartment is cooler than the upper area. They also suggested that you tape off the air input holes that are at the rear of the case around your PSU (not the PSU exhaust). This will cause the PSU's fan to draw air in from the front of the case (past the HD's), and then out the rear.

I also removed the central fan in the lower compartment and relocated it to the front of the lower compartment to make sure I was getting good airflow past the HD's. There was a recent thread on modifying the P180 to do this, (and it's essentially the same mod for the P182.

Ben

MastaSlayer · Post by **MastaSlayer** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 4:59 am

Yea i tried searching around to see if this was discussed before but couldnt find anything, maybe i missed it soz.

i'll try n put my drives in the bottom n see how things go though but i need to get a another fan first and i looked at the mod for the p180s i personally dont want to try it as i dont wanna do something to it that i cant reverse.
Thanks for the advice Ben, Das

Also if anyones got temp readings for top and bottom difference that would be appreciated

Lensman · Post by **Lensman** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 9:37 am

I have my drives in the bottom compartment on my p182se. My reasoning is:
1. The HDD's are going to dump their heat somewhere in the case. I'd rather have it be the PSU chamber rather than the GPU/CPU chamber.
2. After reading the Google article on HDD failure rates, I care much less about HDD cooling than I used to.

A couple of additional points:
1. I think HDD's are tested in the horizontal position rather than the vertical, even though I know their made to run in both orientations.
2. I run a Scythe S-FLEX in the normal position in the bottom chamber. I figure that at low speed it's not adding perceptibly to the noise and I figure the PSU fan can use some help to make sure it never has to spin up to high.

In other words, I'm adding my vote for the lower chamber.

BTW, I am running a EVGA 8800 GTS 640 KO ACS and a Q6600 so I need all the help I can get in keeping the case temps low in the upper chamber.

vortex222 · Post by **vortex222** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 10:11 am

the HD temps will be slightly higher in the lower chaimber compared to the HD temps in the upper chamber with a fan installed in the front.

My 2 WD's and single samsung run mid 40s with only the PSU cooling them, And my SCSI high RPM drives run mid-high 30s when installed in the upper chamber with a Tri-Cool on low (which is not whisper quiet). When i become un-lazy im going to remove the tape around the PSU and reroute the power cables to install a fan in the lower chamber and see if it helps, but im not unhappy with mid 40s.

MastaSlayer · Post by **MastaSlayer** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 2:36 am

vortex222 wrote:Tri-Cool on low (which is not whisper quiet)

lol well i seriously cant hear it unless sit down and just try to listen for it even then its like nothing

or maybe i just worse hearing or something ...

Thanks for your opinions lensman, vortex

I'll try the bottom chamber once i get a fan and i think bottom probably would be better like you said lens, dumping the hot air elsewhere away from the hotter stuff and probably clear up some more cables mess from the top chamber aswell. Hopefully the fan will keep the temps around the same as mid 40's do seem high, i dont know much but i use a program called DTemp suggested by someone here and it gives a warning 41c so i assume above that is no good for HDDs

Das_Saunamies · Post by **Das_Saunamies** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 1:49 am

HDDs can take thermal stress well enough, above 40'C is nowhere near critical, try above 60'C. Under 50'C is what you usually get with low airflow cooling, modern drives do better than old ones.

My HDDs start off low-30s in my Sonata II as the flat gets chilly during the night, but they climb to low-40s after some use even though there's a fan in there. The combined heat from three drives just fills that little chamber, and Sonata's cooling design blows.

Refer to your drives' manuals to see what the manufacturer has to say about operating temperatures, usually it's below 65 or so.

cundallini · Post by **cundallini** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 4:07 pm

imho, upper cage is much better. put a 120mm fan in
front of the cage, and you're good to go. i have two hdds
in the upper cage, and only one in the lower cage. as i
said, there is a papst 120mm fan in front of the two hdds
in the upper cage, and as for the lower cage, the stock
120mm fan which came with the case running at min speed
(which i have put in the opposite direction than as it came
originally with the case - it blows towards the front rather
than to the back of the case).

the hdds in the upper cage, with fan running @ min speed,
go up to 37-39c, but teh hdd in the lower chamber rarely
goes under 39-40c. i can get it as low as 34c with all of the
fans at maximum.

(including cnps9700 on cpu and vf900 on
vga card - the hdds in the upper cage then go as low as 31c,
the vga card goes as low as 34c, chipset @ 37, pwm @ 50-52c,
and cpu as low as 21-23c - but as you can imagine, with all of the
fans running at max, it starts to sound as if you were somewhere
near a waterfall or sumptin).

the vga card itself is running at approximately 39c all of the
time, and that's after i have replaced the original one (before the
replacement the card wouldn't go in idle mode anywhere near
39c - 48c was the best). which means that hdds in the upper
cage ain't really blocking any airflow to the vga card at all. in fact,
my hdd in the lower chamber suffers the most.

the psu is running contantly at around 900rpm. it never goes
beyond that, even when the computer is fairly stressed.
the cpu is not overclocked, and it runs with everything on min
@ around 31-34c.

so, my vote goes for the upper chamber, unless... unless you
have a vga card that heats up like a motherf....r (8800, 2900 etc).
oh, yes. i almost forgot. put some fan controler for the 120mm
fan in front of the upper hdd cage. this way, you can control
the air intake as you wish.

but, also i must say, with two zalmans in the case, a chipset
fan, four 120mm fans and a psu fan... it is quiet, but is not
inaudible as someone said. so, if you gots the dough, maybe
you should try nexus 120mm fans. btw, has anyone tried
replacing the stock fans with nexus ones? do you have a fan
controller or sumptin, because those stock fans can be "excused"
for their noise, for at least you do have some control over their
speed(s).

ps.
forgive me, this is my first post.

Wibla · Post by **Wibla** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 5:01 pm

Why on earth would you reverse the direction of the lower fan?

I find temps and noise to be lower in the lower compartment than in the mid compartment, but the difference isnt really that big.

mr_plow_king · Post by **mr_plow_king** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 6:07 pm

Unless you have more than 4 drives, you should use the lower chamber with the fan blowing towards the back of the case please... a 120mm fan at 600-800 rpm like a Yate Loon should be more than enough

cundallini · Post by **cundallini** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 4:37 am

Wibla wrote:Why on earth would you reverse the direction of the lower fan?

well, i thought that it would be better if the air was blowing
in direction of the hdd, rather than in direction of the psu.
psu rarely goes warm, at all. unless all the fans are @ min
speed(s), and i fire up a game or sumptin. and i must say,
the removal of that fan was a pain in the ass. so, i ain't
doing it again. no way.

and for now, it does a pretty good
job. if i had left it in the original position, then the psu would
get all the warm air that is definitely billowing up in the lower
hdd case. i had an ide hdd in the lower chamber, so i thought
that the ide cable was guilty of higher temperatures, and then
i replaced it with a sata hdd, but no noticable difference.
dunno why. simply, the lower cage has higher temps. up to
5-6c.