About a year ago, I put together my first PC, using an Antec Super Lanboy case. I was pretty happy with the results, but the case wasn’t quite up to snuff for my uses. Since I didn’t move the PC around much, the low weight of the Super Lanboy really didn’t do anything for me, and it struck me as being kind of fragile and not very quiet, even when using fairly slow 120mm fans. Also, I wanted a quieter power supply than the TrueBlue 480 that I used, which seemed to be my biggest source of noise under load. Finally, I wanted to set my PC up for future upgrades by having an ATX 2.0 power supply, and a case with a ton of room and cooling capacity to spare.

Enter the P180. On paper, it looked like a dream come true. That was an easy choice.

For a power supply, I decided to try the 500 W SmartPower 2.0. It looked like it was made for the P180, with straight-through airflow instead of a big fan on the bottom, and I hoped that with the big lower-chamber 120mm fan blowing on it that it would run much quieter than my last power supply, a TrueBlue 480. I also liked the fact that it came with modular, sleeved power cables like the NeoPower 480, which would make cable management less of a nightmare.

The end result:



The rest of the specs:

Asus A8V Deluxe 2.0
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester @ 2.2 GHz w/ Thermalright XP-90
2x512 MB OCZ EL Platinum Rev2 PC3200 RAM @ 2.0-2-2-10 1T
BFG 6800 GT OC @ 400/1100 w/ NV Silencer 5
WD 120GB 7,200 RPM IDE hard drive
Memorex dual-layer 16x DVD-RW drive

The cable managment gave me fits in this case, but I was able to get things to what I think is a fairly decent state of affairs. The vga duct seemed more trouble than it was worth, so I dumped it. There are a total of 4 Antec TriCool 120mm LED fans in this caes (intake, exhaust, top, and 1 on the XP-90), plus the big lower chamber fan that came with the case, all set on low. Operating temps seem to be pretty good (room temp was about 20C, all fans on lowest setting, from left to right idle/cpu load/video load):



The CPU is about 5C cooler than it was under load in the Super Lanboy, and the GPU is about 3C cooler. 12v never went outside 11.855-11.795 range.

As for noise... well, it isn't silent by any stretch, not surprising with no fewer than five 120mm fans running. But it is surprisingly quiet for the amount of air that it is pushing around, noticeably quieter than the otherwise identical system in a Super Lanboy with only three fans blowing at equal speeds. Two extra fans running and less noise is not a bad bargain. Next step is to start turning off fans to see what combo gives me the most cooling with the least noise.

Another upside is the Smart Power 2.0 + lower chamber fan combo. The idea of a power supply with 2 fans blowing straight through the PSU, that spin up sequentially only as needed, seemed to fit the P180 design very well. And as it turns out, PSU noise is very low under load in this system; apparently, the 120mm fan provides enough airflow to limit the fan speeds the SmartPower 2.0 hits. In a normal case, I would have gone with a PSU with one 120mm fan on the bottom, but in the P180 the SmartPower 2.0's setup seems to run very quiety.

Any suggestions are welcome, but I probably won't spend alot of cash on this system till next year.

Other notes:

I removed the fan filters so the airflow would be less restricted. I also taped over the grill that would have been the intake for the VGA duct, which yielded a nice little noise savings. 3M duct tape is just the right width.

Also forgot to add that the Memorex DVD-RW is loud as HELL. It works great, everything it burns is compatable with everything and it is very fast, but it spins up like a damn 747 on takeoff. That sucker is getting replaced next time I upgrade this thing.

Nice setup.

Would you please do me the favor of telling me the process you used to obtain your Vid card temperature reading? I've just been alt tabbing out from BF2 and HL2 to see what the temp reads on the nVidia control panel, which I know isn't accurate at all because the split second it takes to alt tab out decreases the vid card temp quite a bit.

I like how you got a temp reading while rendering 3d.

I ran a program called RTHDRIBL in a window. That's the window you see with the balls floating around in it.

http://www.daionet.gr.jp/~masa/rthdribl/

so THAT's what that program is. I've seen those letters posted in other forums so many times I couldn't for the life of me figure out if it was an anogram for something or what. heh. Thanks. I'll be loading this up for sure.

As for the fanless setup. I tried it before going to work last night and let the system sit through my shift. When I got home my sys temp was at 38c and the PWM was around 37. CPU was a cool 26 though. For now I'm going to keep my two Yate loons going; one intake, one exhaust with the top vent covered. Works best for me so far.

RTHDRIBL is really handy as a video stress tester, you can control the amount of stress you are putting on the card by the size of the window and the level of multisamples used; when the FPS is around 30, you are beating up your card pretty good. I usually let it run for an hour if I'm testing a card. It also puts a fair amount of stress on the CPU, but not as much as Prime95.

Hmm. nm about the fanless comment. I was thinking this was another thread.

Here's what I came up with after about 45 minutes of that program. I like that tool a lot. Thanks for the link.

That reminds me, I need to get a copy of Speedfan.

three quick questions:
a) can you see any blue light coming through the front of the case from where the blue tri-cool fan is? there isnt any in the image, but i hope there is IRL

b) how'd the SP500w go? im thinking of getting one of those and the P180 as well. are the cables long enough to do some good cable routing? is the modular cable design good? do you find yourself using most of the cables anyway?

c) is it at all possible to mount another 12cm fan in the front, at the VERY bottom of the case? (ie, right below the one u have installed atm) it looks like there is space for a fan, but ive not seen anyone give it a wizz before.

I do not believe you could fit a fan in the very bottom in front of the hard drives with Hard drives installed in the bottom rack. The space isn't as big as it looks once you get a drive or two in there.

Somebody on hardforum did it, but they had to take the rivets out of the hard drive cage to do it. I don't think the cage was overly stable in it's new position, from what I can remember.

ah ok, isnt worth it then