Antec P180 Review, Part 2: The Whole Nine Yards

blunden · **Posted:** Thu Jul 14, 2005 9:59 am

Would a Tagan PSU work nice in this case? Also I would like to know about the finish on the outer alu. Is it polished/brushed, totally flat (like most heatsinks) or how should you describe it? It's hard to see in the pictures.

Freelancer77 · **Joined:** Sun Jun 19, 2005 3:10 pm **Posts:** 194

thetoad30 wrote:

IIRC, I thought that the Sharkoon case was basically the same internal structure as the TJ06.

While not a bad case, I personally didn't like how the hard drives were not ventalated very well, and CRAMMED together in the top by the power supply.

Personally, I had a TJ05 before I got the P180, and I can tell you that I have never heard such a powerful computer (mine) at such a low noise level. Now, however, as the saying goes here on SPCR, once I quiet one component, I now start to hear all the others... mainly my 4 hard drives... its hard to hear them, but I can definately hear the whine.

On a side note, as I'm trying to optimise this case for quiet (that's what I bought it for obviously

) I am noticing that ASUS Q-fan does not work inside windows, and does not work for the chassis fan either. Anyone have any idea?

Also, is it ok to put Arctic Silver 5 onto a northbridge?

Thank you

I used AS5 when I threw away the original NB HSF (about an hour after the MOBO arrived) and installed an NB47J. I can hold the Zalman heatsink all day long, it never gets more than mildly warm.

On the issue of Q-fan, the 1.018 version fails to load on Windows 32-bit for me. Then again, I know that it's working (from BIOS) if I watch MBM5.

Freelancer77 · **Joined:** Sun Jun 19, 2005 3:10 pm **Posts:** 194

rpsgc wrote:

This is heresy!

Someone at a computer store's forum asked if they were going to sell the P180 and/or the new Antec PSUs and the site admin (store owner) said:

"I don't think this product [P180] has the advantages of the aluminum P160 nor it's practical innovations.
I would recommend the Sharkoon case which is similar in design, more ventilated and has more internal space for tidiness."

WTF?

The Sharkoon case has the same inside as the TJ06. Check out the review on Tom's Hardware Guides and see FOUR cases made with the same innards. Seems Silverstone didn't do the design, but bought it from a third party, who is now profiting from the hype of the TJ06 as other one-off case builders are using the template.

Anyone who'd say that the P160 has more practical innovations than the P180 with a straight face....ok, I'm calm again. I wonder which P160 advantage he had in mind. Maybe the cheesy plastichrome? Maybe the easily broken swivelling IO panel? Maybe the incessant rattling of the aluminum? Anyone else notice that on Antec's own website half of the list of available spare parts are for what will break on the P160? Now, it IS a fairly good case, but against the P180? Sheesh.

milleron · **Posted:** Thu Jul 14, 2005 7:44 pm

thetoad30 wrote:

On a side note, as I'm trying to optimise this case for quiet (that's what I bought it for obviously

) I am noticing that ASUS Q-fan does not work inside windows, and does not work for the chassis fan either. Anyone have any idea?

I'm not sure that Asus Q-Fan is implemented the same on all boards but on my A8N-SLI Premium, Q-Fan works on the CPU fan header and on the header labeled CHA-1.

Ron

Devonavar · **Posted:** Thu Jul 14, 2005 7:54 pm

blunden wrote:

Would a Tagan PSU work nice in this case? Also I would like to know about the finish on the outer alu. Is it polished/brushed, totally flat (like most heatsinks) or how should you describe it? It's hard to see in the pictures.

I would think that any PSU should work well in the case ... it's one of the case's good points.

I would describe the finish as slightly brushed. It's certainly not polished, but it doesn't have the grainy look of some other cases (the face of the Silverstone TJ06 comes to mind).

milleron · **Posted:** Thu Jul 14, 2005 8:03 pm

Thanks for a great review.

I'd like to add a suggestion from my own experience. The only fan in my rig besides the case fans is the 120mm one on my XP120. My chipset is passively cooled (Asus A8N-SLI Premium), and I opted for a passively (heatpipe) cooled Gigabyte X800XL. I therefore thought I would need the 80mm fan for the VGA duct, but when I installed it, it protruded so much that it hit the heatpipes atop the video card and wouldn't allow the duct to be remounted. I was about to discard the duct when I realized that I could literally mount the fan totally inside the duct. I put an Antec TriCool inside the duct so that not only does the fan not protrude, but the recessed area for the fan is vacant. In my case, the heatpipes actually intrude into that space slightly. The fans power wire comes out the by the front surface of the fan, and the TriCool's speed controller remains inside the duct. I'd have to disassemble the duct to change the speed of the fan, but I'll never do that. It's set on low. It's very quiet, essentially inaudible, produces a very nice flow of air over the video cards' heat sinks and heat pipes, and doesn't seem to transmit any sound to the duct. I'm very happy with this situation.

I see no reason to block off the blowhole. The TriCool there is set on low. It's inaudible to my ear, but does exhaust a nice amount of air from the CPU. The rear TriCool is being controlled by my TruePower II 550's "fan-only" connector, and it hardly turns.

My A64 3500+ sits at 33-35° idle and has never gone over 41°

I wish I had instrumentation to measure the sound of my computer, but I can say that it's the quietest one I can recall since the low-power CPUs of the early 90s

thetoad30 · **Posted:** Thu Jul 14, 2005 8:24 pm

Freelancer77 wrote:

I used AS5 when I threw away the original NB HSF (about an hour after the MOBO arrived) and installed an NB47J. I can hold the Zalman heatsink all day long, it never gets more than mildly warm.

On the issue of Q-fan, the 1.018 version fails to load on Windows 32-bit for me. Then again, I know that it's working (from BIOS) if I watch MBM5.

I have the P5AD2-E premium with 1005. My CPU fan does do the Q-fan implementation in BIOS, but the chassis fans do not do Q-fan at all, even when set to enabled in the BIOS.

milleron wrote:

I'm not sure that Asus Q-Fan is implemented the same on all boards but on my A8N-SLI Premium, Q-Fan works on the CPU fan header and on the header labeled CHA-1.
Ron

Yes, I have 2 chassis fan connectors, and no matter which one I connect to, they don't do the Q-fan. It would be nice, because then both of my Nexus fans would be spun at 700 RPM in idle, and then kick up to full when loaded. Would make for a nice, real nice, computer to sleep with in the same room.

SometimesWarrior · **Posted:** Fri Jul 15, 2005 3:21 am

I posted about the stock case fans a while back in this thread, but after more testing I've come to new conclusions.

First, the system was overheating when I ran the two case fans at super-low speed (5 volts, switch at medium). My modded graphics card was glitching (and scalding hot), and the hard drives, mounted in the upper drive cage, were at record high temperatures, although warm weather played a role in that too. Turning the case fans to 12-volts low (or 5-volts high) was simply too loud: it was more noisy than running my old case with the side panel off.

Out of desperation, I took the 120x38mm fan, which vibrates like crazy when held in my hand, out of the "junk parts" box. When I set it on top of the case, the rattling sound was very loud. But when I screwed the fan into the back of the case, there was virtually no noise! By touching the top case panel lightly, I estimated that the vibration transferred to the case by the 120x38mm fan (5 volts, switced high) was the same as the 120x25mm fans when running at 5-volts medium. I guess the P180's special case panels and extra-sturdy frame really made the difference, or maybe the fan's frame was doing something magical.

As counter-intuitive as it sounds, the fan that shook the most in my hand made the least amount of noise when hard-mounted to the case. By either holding the fan against the case or holding it a few millimeters away, I determined that suspension-mounting the fan would make almost no difference. So the 120x38mm fan stayed at the back of the case, and the 120x25mm fan was moved in front of the hard drives. Drive temperatures decreased by about 4-6 degrees Celsius, and noise stayed about the same--still dominated by the broadband hard drive sound.

MikeC · **Posted:** Fri Jul 15, 2005 7:05 am

SometimesWarrior wrote:

I posted about the stock case fans a while back in this thread, but after more testing I've come to new conclusions.

First, the system was overheating when I ran the two case fans at super-low speed (5 volts, switch at medium). My modded graphics card was glitching (and scalding hot), and the hard drives, mounted in the upper drive cage, were at record high temperatures, although warm weather played a role in that too. Turning the case fans to 12-volts low (or 5-volts high) was simply too loud: it was more noisy than running my old case with the side panel off.

Out of desperation, I took the 120x38mm fan, which vibrates like crazy when held in my hand, out of the "junk parts" box. When I set it on top of the case, the rattling sound was very loud. But when I screwed the fan into the back of the case, there was virtually no noise! By touching the top case panel lightly, I estimated that the vibration transferred to the case by the 120x38mm fan (5 volts, switced high) was the same as the 120x25mm fans when running at 5-volts medium. I guess the P180's special case panels and extra-sturdy frame really made the difference, or maybe the fan's frame was doing something magical.

As counter-intuitive as it sounds, the fan that shook the most in my hand made the least amount of noise when hard-mounted to the case. By either holding the fan against the case or holding it a few millimeters away, I determined that suspension-mounting the fan would make almost no difference. So the 120x38mm fan stayed at the back of the case, and the 120x25mm fan was moved in front of the hard drives. Drive temperatures decreased by about 4-6 degrees Celsius, and noise stayed about the same--still dominated by the broadband hard drive sound.

Your fan experiments are very curious. I have to admit I pretty much wrote off the 120x38 fan after listening to it separately and then seeing the results of the testing. But other questions arise concerning your build:
1) Why would you put the HDDs in the upper cage and not the lower? The lower HDD cage is better for cooling & also for noise.
2) What's the rest of the system?

nomoon · **Posted:** Fri Jul 15, 2005 9:11 am

milleron,

what are your temperatures for your passively cooled Gigabyte x800xl. I have details about my system here. These cards seem to run much hotter than the ones with the fans mounted on them, and I'm wondering how much benefit they get from the duct fan. Thanks in advance!

Jason

milleron · **Posted:** Fri Jul 15, 2005 10:17 am

nomoon wrote:

milleron,

what are your temperatures for your passively cooled Gigabyte x800xl. I have details about my system here. These cards seem to run much hotter than the ones with the fans mounted on them, and I'm wondering how much benefit they get from the duct fan. Thanks in advance!

Hmmmm . . . this card has no hardware-monitoring capability (none of the Gigabyte Radeon series do) according to Gigabyte's Web site. I didn't think it was possible to measure GPU temps. At any rate, when I installed ATITool as you did, I get a reading of 50° at idle and 80° with ATITool's 3D image running for about ten minutes (room temp is 27°)
Nevertheless, the heat sinks and heat pipes are cool to the touch.

How hot do the X800XLs with fans get?

I'd read that this card's heatsinks and pipes were made for Gigabyte by Zalman, but that they are not the ones that Zalman sells retail.

Ron

SometimesWarrior · **Posted:** Sat Jul 16, 2005 5:58 am

MikeC wrote:

Your fan experiments are very curious. I have to admit I pretty much wrote off the 120x38 fan after listening to it separately and then seeing the results of the testing. But other questions arise concerning your build:
1) Why would you put the HDDs in the upper cage and not the lower? The lower HDD cage is better for cooling & also for noise.
2) What's the rest of the system?

Hard drives are in the upper cage because they are PATA and the ribbons don't reach the lower cage. I finally purchase a motherboard where the ATA headers aren't on the bottom corner of the board (which made cable routing a pain in my old case), and then I get a case where that would be the perfect place for 'em.

The system contains:
Sempron 2600+ @ 2.1GHz, cooled by Thermalright XP-90 with Panaflo L1A 80mm @ ~7V in "suck" orientation;
6600GT AGP video card with stock fan replaced by Panaflo L1A 80mm @ ~9V;
Seasonic Super Silencer 300W, Rev. A3;
1604N and 1614N Samsung Spinpoints;
DVD-RW drive.

The components, ranked from noisiest to quietest, are:
hard drives (even one by itself might be the loudest component);
power supply;
9V Panaflo on video card;
5V-high 120x38mm case fan;
7V Panaflo on CPU;
either 5V-medium 120x25mm case fan.

Update: I was mistaken; the ribbons DO reach the hard drives in the lower cage. But drive temperatures went up 10C compared to when they were fan-cooled in the upper cage, even though I (mostly) taped the vent holes around the PSU. The hard drives weren't spaced apart, but I doubt that moving the drives to opposite sides of the cage would make a big difference. I couldn't squeeze the 120x25mm fan into the space between the hard drives and power supply without undoing half an hour's worth of careful PSU wire routing, so I gave up and put the drives back in the upper cage.

I'm not sure how much difference the choice of drive cages affects noise. Devon says at the bottom of Page 8 that both noise and cooling are virtually identical for both cages, although the bottom cage cools better when the PSU vents are taped.

Jibbah · **Joined:** Sat Jul 16, 2005 9:31 pm **Posts:** 1

Thank you for the excellent article.

I am not an expert PC builder, but I'm going to be building my next PC around this excellent case. I just picked one up along with an X-Connect Ultra to go inside it. The X-Connect appears to be slightly oversized for a PSU and juts out a bit from the P180's PSU cage. It looks like it will be too tight for the X-connect's cables to fit between the P180's large fan and the PSU.

It looks like my choices are find another PSU or lose that big fan.

What kind of heat penalty can I expect if I run without that fan? I don't have all my parts yet but here is what I plan:

ABIT AN8 Fatal1ty
AMD 64 San Diego ~3700
6800GT
XConnect Ultra 500w PSU
2 200GB Samsung SATA HD RAID
Plextor SATA DVD-RW

I'll probably run uGuru and overclock the CPU and GPU somewhat.

I've never tried aftermarket heatsinks for a CPU or a GPU, but I'm open to trying that. Thanks to the review I am consideing a Zalman fanmate, although I'm not going to need to use the extra drive bays.

Unlike many here I don't need a silent PC, but I wouldn't mind a quiet one.

Another PSU related question: The XConnect has two PSU fans, is any ideas on which direction to mount the PSU? Should the fan be facing up or down? Currently I have it facing up, but perhaps I want to point that away from the other components?

Many Thanks,
Jib

blunden · **Posted:** Sun Jul 17, 2005 1:52 am

Devonavar wrote:

blunden wrote:

Would a Tagan PSU work nice in this case? Also I would like to know about the finish on the outer alu. Is it polished/brushed, totally flat (like most heatsinks) or how should you describe it? It's hard to see in the pictures.

I would think that any PSU should work well in the case ... it's one of the case's good points.

I would describe the finish as slightly brushed. It's certainly not polished, but it doesn't have the grainy look of some other cases (the face of the Silverstone TJ06 comes to mind).

Is it what you would normally call brushed alu? Maybe you or someone else can take a close-up picture? I will probably buy this case regardless but it would be nice to know before I buy it.

trance · **Joined:** Wed May 18, 2005 6:10 pm **Posts:** 20

Has anyone managed to reach the Seasonic S12 series main ATX cable to an DFI LanParty mobo port?

Shadowknight · **Posted:** Sun Jul 17, 2005 4:47 pm

Endpcnoise now lists the black P180 in stock. I preordered, but still have my order as "pending." I shot off an e-mail to sales, hopefull they'll answer it tomorrow and let me know if it's actually in stock, or if there was an error on the website.

ereinion · **Posted:** Mon Jul 18, 2005 12:02 pm

CJ4 wrote:

I'm using an Enermax EG495-AX PSU, DFI Ultra-D Motherboard, Thermalright XP-120, and AMD 3700+ San Diego without any problems. I didn't need any cable extensions, though it took some work to figure out how to wire it all. I'm overclocking to 2750 MHz without it getting too hot or loud.

CJ

Do you have a pic of inside your case, i would like to see how the cable management can be done.

ty

peterson · **Posted:** Tue Jul 19, 2005 4:52 am

Quote:

Core Thermal Design

The positioning of the power supply and the 4-bay hard drive cage in the separate bottom compartment is a key aspect of the P180's design. There is a fan mounting spot — and a supplied 120 x 38 mm 3-speed fan — but the fan really only needs to be used with a fanless power supply. In normal use, virtually any fan-cooled PSU should draw enough air from the front vent of the bottom chamber to keep the hard drives cool. It should also have no trouble keeping itself cool without ramping up in speed.

From a thermal point of view, this arrangement is highly efficient in that the airflow of the PSU fan is used not only to cool itself but also the hard drives. At the same time, the heat of the PSU and hard drives are not adding to the heat of the CPU and video cards, which are the primary heat producers in today's PCs.

A top quality PSU will convert >80% of the AC power it draws into DC power. The remaining <20% of energy gets wasted as heat inside the power supply, which is what makes them get hot. If you have an 80% efficiency power supply and your system needs 200W DC during maximum peaks, then the PSU draws 250W AC, 50W of which converted to heat in the PSU. Hard drives rarely consume more than about 10W average in actual operation. If we assume two hard drives, the total heat in the PSU / HDD chamber or tunnel will not go above 70W. This is a small amount of heat to be evacuated through this free-flowing air tunnel.

Following this example, in a conventional ATX case where the power supply is positioned at the top, the 50W of heat from the PSU would be within inches of the hot CPU, which could easily be producing 100W of heat. The CPU and PSU would affect each other; both would run hotter, and any thermally controlled fans (in the PSU, on the CPU heatsink) would tend to ramp up faster. The 20W from the HDDs would also be added to the overall heat in the case, adding to the thermal load. With the P180's separate PSU / HDD chamber, the thermal load on all the components and on the airflow / cooling system is considerably reduced.

I've been giving this some thought. The comparison with a PSU next to a CPU does not imply that the PSU gets 100W of heat into it does it? It normally gets moving air from a CPU heatsink+fan and we all know that moving air cools by itself (if cooler than what it's passing of course).

Has there been made a scientific testing between these two configurations, and then there must be exact results, or is it just an implemented theory?
How much cooler air does the PSU get in the stated example?
And what's the difference in cooling the HDDs?

It's the qurious engineer in me seeks knowledge.

Perhaps i can develope an idea i can use in my own rig.

MikeC · **Posted:** Tue Jul 19, 2005 9:25 am

peterson --

No, I don't think the PSU gets 100W of heat, it's not what I wrote or believe, but it certainly gets a good chunk.

This is well supported in the review. The results obtained in the P180 vs the SLK3000B with the older Seasonic Super Silencer illustrate the thermal difference clearly: In the P180, the PSU fan never really ramped up; in the SLK3000B (with the same system), the same PSU fan ramped up very audibly.

BNG · **Posted:** Tue Jul 19, 2005 4:31 pm

Hi, just started checking out the forums after the p180 review and have some questions and comments. The review didn't quite test the extent of the acoustic properties by testing with fans and psu in and out of the case at most settings, as they would be easy to control and compare. I know the fans were all tested outside but during the rest of the test, setting never went above low and with other non standard fans.

So just a question to any p180 owners or the reviewers. I'm curious to know or atleast have an idea of what it would sound like if all 3 stock 120mm fans were on high along with setup similar to config 1.

Personally for me, the hdd can be ignored since I've got a barracuda 8, could barely tell it's there with it running bare on my desk, atleast for now while it's new. (28 dba idle)

and the my tt purepower psu shouldnt be more than 35dba at medium settings. (just approximating to other components that i have)

I think the loudest would be the 120x25 fan at 39dba?

Seeing that the recorded sound was only 28dba max with 1 fan at low, psu and the WD hdd. I would assume the 39dba would be brought down to the low 30's, similar to the hdd? Since the WD are considerably louder (32dba idle, 36 seek).

Thanks for any help.

Devonavar · **Posted:** Tue Jul 19, 2005 5:20 pm

BNG:
First of all, Welcome to SPCR!!!!!!!

Where are you getting your numbers? Please keep in mind that all of our noise measurements are in dBA/1m, which I somehow doubt the rest of your numbers are. Manufacturer's noise specs are rarely measured in the same way as each other, or in the same way that we compare noise, which means they cannot be directly compared against each other. The distance from the source is very important, because the amount of noise measured changes based on how far from the source it is.

If you're dead set on using numbers (rather than listening to find out which your loudest components are) I would advise you to use the numbers from our review of the WD Raptor, which are 21 dBA/1m at idle and 25-26 dBA/1m during seek. While I haven't personally heard the Barracuda 8, I would be very surprised if it measured 28 dBA/1m according to SPCR's method of measuring. The worst idle noise I've measured for a modern FDB motor drive (which the B-8 is) is 25 dBA/1m.

I do not advise trying to speculate how loud or quiet this case will make your system based on dBA estimates. The best idea I can give you of how it will sound are the subjective observations that I made in the comparison between the two systems. Compared to a conventional case, the P180 sounds much "nicer", but doesn't necessarily measure better for the same noise sources. That said, if you have thermally controlled fans in your case, you may see them ramp up less in the P180 because of its efficient thermal design. This is particularly true for power supplies.

BNG · **Posted:** Tue Jul 19, 2005 6:46 pm

Hey, thanks for the reply. I already listened to all the recording, and yes, the numbers for the hdd are manufacturer specs, i just used the numbes to compare the 2 drives. The seagate is pretty much silent, I can only tell it's running when under load even with the bare drive sitting in front of me.

From the review, the magnitude of hdd seek noise was reduced greatly, so I thought something similar would happen to the fans. But there were no recordings of fans at higher settings inside the case, and that's the basis of my question.

For me, any of the recordings below 30dba really made no difference to me. The sound was the same as the background noise from turning up the speakers while nothing is playing. I did the volume adjust thing with the test file and I'm in a silent room with only my laptop buzzing a little, even that is practically inaudible from a few feet away. I guess that proves how silent the p180 is with low fans and such.

I suppose the hdd had other features such as the rubber standoffs to dampen vibrations. And for the fans, other factors have to be considered such as turbulence from fan gratings and their proximity to the outside relative to other components.

But i just wish there were recordings of the fans running at higher levels to compare in and out of case, and not just 1 exhaust pulling 30cfm, that's unacceptable cooling especially with the p4s now that give like 110W of heat running stock, that was also examplified in the review.

I'm proud that I'm not on that boat but I still overclock with Athlons and would like to know what kind of acoustics the case can give me for the performance that I'm looking for and most importantly, what the case was meant to have since it did come with the 120mm fans (not meant for running at just low) which are perfect match for what I have.

Thank you.

PS: you dont happen to have any 80mm SHE delta's lying around to do a comparison do you

peterson · **Posted:** Tue Jul 19, 2005 11:57 pm

MikeC wrote:

peterson --

No, I don't think the PSU gets 100W of heat, it's not what I wrote or believe, but it certainly gets a good chunk.

This is well supported in the review. The results obtained in the P180 vs the SLK3000B with the older Seasonic Super Silencer illustrate the thermal difference clearly: In the P180, the PSU fan never really ramped up; in the SLK3000B (with the same system), the same PSU fan ramped up very audibly.

I didn't mean to criticise. I just wondered how the PSU was powerful enough to cool the HDDs since i was having some difficulties in cooling my own HDDs. But that's solved now.
Kepp up the good work.

SometimesWarrior · **Posted:** Wed Jul 20, 2005 9:13 pm

BNG wrote:

But i just wish there were recordings of the fans running at higher levels to compare in and out of case, and not just 1 exhaust pulling 30cfm, that's unacceptable cooling especially with the p4s now that give like 110W of heat running stock, that was also examplified in the review.

I'm proud that I'm not on that boat but I still overclock with Athlons and would like to know what kind of acoustics the case can give me for the performance that I'm looking for and most importantly, what the case was meant to have since it did come with the 120mm fans (not meant for running at just low) which are perfect match for what I have.

My impression from reading the review is that the "single 30cfm exhaust" (the true CFM rating of the fan will be different inside the case) provides perfectly acceptable cooling. If you look at the bottom of page 6 and note Configuration 5, you see that the hottest-running P4 on the market is held to only 55°C when running dual CPUBurns. Configuration 5 only uses a single low-speed 120mm exhaust on the back of the case, but it adds a quiet fan to the CPU heatsink. In all other configurations, there is no fan on the heatsink. This is why load temperatures are >60°C. Keep in mind what an amazing feat this is: the hottest CPU on the market can be run fanlessly with a single low-speed exhaust fan!

There is no reason to run the case fans faster than "low" speed, unless:

You are running a CPU significantly hotter than a >150W 3.8GHz P4 (ha!)
You are running a >3.8GHz P4 and your room temperature is >30°C
You are running a >3.8GHz P4 and you have dual 6800GT/U or 7800GTX video cards dumping heat in the case... and a single low-speed exhaust may even be able to handle this configuration.

The speed of the rear exhaust fan is not a major factor in system performance. It is, however, a major factor in noise. Loud case fans have no business on a site dedicated to quiet computers, except for being the butt of an occasional joke.

Just for fun, I put both case fans on my P180 to high speed. In free air, this would probably amount to a 90CFM increase (in the case it is somewhat less). The system sounds a whole lot like a central heating duct. It's the nicest-sounding "loud PC" anyone could hope for, I think

. The idle processor temperature dropped from 48°C to 43°C. I think the temperature drop would have been less if the CPU heatsink fan was not running at such a low speed: the case fans are not just evacuating heat from the case, but are also pulling much more air through the heatsink. (In other words, I wouldn't expect to see a 5°C improvement if I was running my heatsink fan at a "performance" speed.) My system temperature reading, which seems to move linearly with room temperature, only dropped 2°C when the case fans were sped up. My hard drives, which are also mounted in the upper compartment, also only saw a 2°C improvement.

Mari0-Br0s · **Posted:** Sat Jul 23, 2005 4:22 pm

Hi, I've just registered, this is my first post!

I've just ordered(well, on the 18th) my P180 SPCR from FrontierPC, but the order was still not processed, how long does it takes to theses guys to process a routine transaction and ship the case...??

Anyway, I'm just anxious, I've got all my other part. I intend to use an Athlon X2 4400+ CPU, a Western Digital WD2000JB HDD, a DFI nF4 Ultra-D board, a Antec Phantom 500 PSU, a Zalman CNPS7700-Cu CPUFAN and an BFG GF 7800GTX OC GPU. Oh, forgot to mention that I'll use some OCZ PC5000 on it.

Once I'll finally got the case, I'll give you details about the temps, but I'm sure it should be allright.

Shadowknight · **Posted:** Sun Jul 24, 2005 5:46 pm

Hey, I haven't gotten this question answered in the cases forum, but has anybody applied acoustipack to the interior? Does the rubber dampending strips interfere with applying the acoustipack, requiring cutting the sidepanel pieces into smaller chunks? I think there was originally a post with pictures, but it seems to be gone.

Jordan · **Posted:** Fri Jul 29, 2005 10:49 am

I really hope I get an answer on this as I'm looking to buy soon...

I have an Akasa fan controller with 4 control knobs. Has anyone else installed a fan controller behind the P180 door? Did you have to seat the controller further back into the case or can you shut the door without it obstructing it?

Shadowknight · **Posted:** Fri Jul 29, 2005 10:59 am

I've installed both Acoustipack in the door, and installed a Zalman fan controller. There is still PLENTY of space between the two, so you don't have to place it further back.

Oh, and for the record you can't use Verax or Nexus rubber sticks in either of the fan brackets. The ends stick out to far to allow you to reattached the bracket to the case. I haven't messed with the top fan, so I don't know about that. The rear exhaust, of course, is fine for using any time of soft mounting. As to EAR isolators, I don't have any open flanged fans right now and have no idea if they'll fit the brackets. You can use any type of vibration mounts inside the VGA duct without any problems.

Jordan · **Posted:** Fri Jul 29, 2005 12:42 pm

Thanks

For fans I just use cable ties and blue tack, not perfect but...

jermaink · **Posted:** Sat Jul 30, 2005 2:51 am

How tight is the fit when you use dampening material on the interior of the P180's casing? It looks like it would be pretty tight. Anyone got basic advice for things to look out for while applying dampening material?

Antec P180 Review, Part 2: The Whole Nine Yards

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