Howdy,
I've had the case for about 4-5 months now. I have to say I'm really disappointed in this case. When I initially put the system together (system in sig) I noticed when the video card was installed it didn't quite match up to the short side of the case, where the screw goes. It was close to 1/16" space there, at the time I didn't think much of it because in the past I've had cases that didn't quite "line up". But recently on my DFI board, I've had both pcie x16 slot flake out on me and had to RMA the board. Maybe the excess strain when the video card was secured to the case caused this. I haven't had a motherboard component stop working after months of use unless something has caused it. It seems that the stand-offs for the motherboard are too tall, I couldn't use the I/O shield that came with the board because of the mismatch. I'm wondering if anyone else with the case has noticed this, or do you think this could've caused the slots on the motherboard to become faulty?

I've also had the other common problems with the case. The front door on mine bows out 5mm and both side panels have spots around the edge where the aluminum is pulling away from the plastic.

Any info or opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

matt

My P180 has been a great fit for every motherboard I had in it.

The inability to use the motherboard's IO shield sounds like something wrong is going on...

Did you make sure you don't have any unused standoffs behind the motherboard, where the motherboard has no "hole" available for the standoff? This could cause a short and possibly raise the motherboard higher than it should be.

Yep, I made sure to check they didn't preinstall any that I didn't need like they do in the Sonata. This wouldn't even have been an issue if they didn't make some of the stand-offs permenant, which I don't know why they did. I could've tried other sets of stands I have laying around. After I sent the DFI in I put another board in there just to check, maybe there was some weird reason the DFI was raised like it was. It was the same so I didn't even bother to install everything and just left it.

I was planning to call them about all this anyways to see what they'll do. But I haven't read about anyone else with this issue with the motherboard. So I wanted to see if it was common or not that way I could make it a point to let Antec know. Thank you for your response.

matt

I called Antec, as soon as I mentioned the front door and panels the guy said he'll send those out to me. So that is taken care of.

For the motherboard mounts, he knew what I was talking about but said he had trouble visualizing it. So I had to take some pictures and email them to him. I did some measuring, the mounts in my P-180 are 7mm high. I used a Sonata case I have as a reference (all measurements should be the same as far as motherboard mounts and backplane are concerned). All slots and openings on the back of each case are the same. What I found was the motherboard mounts for the P-180 are 2mm higher than those brass ones supplied with the Sonata. I also measured the few brass ones you get with the P-180 and those were 7mm as well.

Again I don't know if this is enough to put a strain on the motherboard slots when a card is installed and secured. But I'd like to be sure so I don't have to go through all this hassle again of trouble shooting, having to RMA and wait.

I do have a SLI setup with two BFG 7800GTX 256MB on my DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D modded in my P180 SPCR Edition, and don't have any problem while installing the cards. I've just removed and re-installed them to see if I had the same trouble than you, and the answer is no!

Maybe you're just a little too hard with your component!

A better idea is I can take a US dime and slide it under the end of the bracket of the card. I just took some pieces of scrap metal and used em as shims for my cards. I'm not RMAing the case, one the cost and it would probably about a month before I had a replacement case in my hands.

I had the same very problem with my old system. P180 and A8N32-SLi... But that system is now sold.