Good people of SPCR, there seems to be some interest in how well various components work inside the P180 case, so I thought that I’d give some comments about the components in my system. Maybe some others could give feedback about their components in this thread as well.

CASE: P180: 38mm lower chamber fan removed.
CPU: AMD 4600 X2
CPU Cooler: Scythe Ninja (passively cooled)
MOBO: Asus A8N SLI Premium
PSU: Seasonic S12-430
Video: Gigabyte GV-RX80L256V
HD: WD 3200JD

I REALLY love this system. The P180-Ninja combination works very well with the Asus A8N SLI Premium motherboard. The VGA hood just BARELY fits, and actually lightly touches the fins on the Ninja. The hood also just barely fits over the Gigabyte GV-RX80L256V video card. Part of the heat pipe structure actually fits INSIDE the hood. I had to adjust the hood’s sliding mechanism to make sure that nothing hot was actually touching the hood.

S12-430: I removed the P180's 38mm fan and taped up the rear case ducts so that the PSU fan pulls 100% of it’s fresh air from the front ducts (as recommended in one of the SPCR reviews). All of the power cables are able to reach the motherboard, though the square 4 pin connector barely reaches the top of the motherboard. I’ll be getting an extension so that I can route the cable better, but it works fine as is.

VGA and custom duct work: Adding the VGA hood did indeed lower the temperature of various components. The VGA hood looks like it would obviously channel cool air from the rear of the case to the video card. An interesting thing about the VGA duct is that it also helps to channel air from the front of the case (see blue arrows) over the cooling fins from the Ninja and video card. Without the hood, more air can pass around the fins without carrying away any heat (see green arrow in photo below). I also added a small piece of cardboard to block a path around the cooling fins near the top of the case (see purple arrow).



The chart below shows temperatures (C) reported from Speedfan while the two upper fans were running at low speed.

A…….B…….C……
----------------------------------------
34 .. 30 .. 43 .. CPU…
32 .. 30 .. 43 .. Case…
52 .. 49 .. ~93 .. GPU (ATITool)
46 .. 45 .. 56 .. Video: “Temperature of temp. chip” (ATITool)


A = No VGA hood. No top cardboard duct. (IDLE)
B = VGA hood + top cardboard duct (IDLE)
C = VGA hood + top cardboard duct (LOAD)


The 90+ temperatures of the video card under load makes me nervous, but a review at here reported temperatures at 105 C, so maybe I'm OK. If I have time, maybe I'll measure temperature with and without the cardboard duct at the top of the case.

Jason

Sounds good Actually I'm planning a not too different PC, with the P180, AMD 4400 X2, Scythe Ninja, Seasonic S12-500, WD 74gb Raptor.

Very interesting to see your 4600 X2 runs well passively cooled.

Very nice job.

One question: Is that the stock Antec exhaust fan?, And what RPM is it running at to keep everything cool?

nomoon : I've been wondering about what a little ducting (like you did) has effect on temperature. Thanks for providing the information!

operandi : They are the stock Antec fans - they have no tach output. You can see the speed selector switch at the end of a long white cable. Unfortunately I can't see the switch setting so we'll need nomoon to provide the information

I'm still using the stock Antec fans and I'm running them at the lowest speed. Lenny is correct in that they have no tach output, so I don't know what speed they are running. They are VERY loud at the MEDIUM setting.

Jason (nomoon.org)

I have fresh Measurements and I like the top duct!

The addition of the top cardboard duct (shown by the purple arrow in the original post) results in a CPU that is 5 degrees cooler and a GPU that is 4 degrees cooler under load. I’m keeping the duct in place!

The table below shows max temperatures (C) measured while 3DMark05 was run twice.

A … B
----------------
47 .. 42 .. CPU
47 .. 47 .. Case
37 .. 36 .. Chipset
88 .. 84 .. GPU (ATITool)
62 .. 60 .. Video: “Temperature of temp. chip” (ATITool)

A = VGA hood. No top cardboard duct.
B = VGA hood + top cardboard duct.


Jason

I've heard that there may be a problem with the length of the 20 or 24 pin power connector from the PSU (seated at the bottom of the case). It may not be able reach the mobo or it's a very very tight stretch. Is this a concern for the p180?

Yeah I was worried about that too... what happens if it doesn't reach, is it easy/safe to get a short extension cable for that connector?

I believe the DFI LanParty UT NF4's motherboards too have it up in the top corner, which couldn't be further away from the PSU.

Get extensions here.

It's not a critical issue with the P180 and the Seasonic S12 430. The 24 pin cable reaches fine to my Asus A8N-SLI Premium motherboard. The top 4 pin cable barely reaches the connector on the top of the board, but it does indeed work just fine. I'm planning to get an extension so that I can route the cable better, but it's not essential.

Jason

If it fits and you're happy with the system temps and things are stable, I suggest you don't extend the PSU cables. Adding an extension to any cable increases resistance -- particularly at the contact points for the extension. Small voltage drops at low power are not an issue, but at high load, it can become an issue. Contact points tend to increase resistance over time (joining of two air-exposed metal surfaces).

I heartily agree. Do not add "load-sinks", which is what an extension would create at the intermediate connector junction, to a power line if it can be avoided. But if you must, apply a dielectric grease to the contacts to mitigate oxidation of the exposed metal.

The perfect solution, short of a new PSU with longer cables, would be to run an entirely new set of wires of the correct length. However, that cannot be recommended because (1) it's dangerous to work in an open power supply unless you are CERTAIN you know what you're up to, and (2) bye-bye warranty on the PSU once you crack the case open.

FOLLOWUP: The S12 430's square 4 pin cable is not long enough to go behind the motherboard .... at least on my machine. I've seen some examples on this forum (with the P180 + ASUS A8N motherboards) where people have routed their 4 pin cable behind the motherboard in order to tidy up their cables. In once case using a different power supply (here), they turned their PSU upside down in order to give their cables a little more reach. With my S12 430, however, the cable was still not long enough to reach the top of the motherboard.