Your Basic Antec P180 Rig

Show off your quiet rig.

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Mr. B
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Your Basic Antec P180 Rig

Post by Mr. B » Fri Dec 08, 2006 1:52 pm

<superfluous story>
<!-- pics follow -->
Like many people here that build their own PCs, they evolve as money permits. That's certainly the case with me. After replacing most everything else earlier this year, my old Chieftec Dragon case was all that remained. More recently, noise of this case was becoming annoying and with the money to fix the problem, I set out to correct it. I've been lurking on this forum for a while which has helped me greatly in my purchasing decisions. Thanks to the people here by the way, this is an excellent community.
</story>

This is a pretty basic rig based on the Antec P180. There's no hard drive suspension or missing fan grills, yet. I'm stil working up the courage. The upper compartment is a little crowded but I think I've done a decent job in keeping things tidy. Should you see any room for improvement, I welcome any comments or criticism.

[EDIT]REVISED: Feb 19, 2007 - I made some small changes including some upgrades and suggestions from this post and thought it was worth the trouble of a post edit. Italisized text is old information.[/EDIT]

Parts List (complete):

Antec P180 Case
Seasonic S12-500 PSU
eVGA nForce4 Sli Motherboard (133-K8-NF41-AX)
with Thermalright HR-05 SLI chipset cooler
AMD 4400 2.2ghz Athlon 64 Processor
with Scythe Ninja heatsink (semi-Passive - CPU fan will usually be off)

eVGA (nVidia) 7800GT (256-P2-N519-AX)
with Arctic Cooling Accelero X1 VGA Cooler

Two (2) KINGSTON 1GB PC3200 RAM Modules KVR400X72C3A/1G
with Vantec heat spreaders

Western Digital 400GB HDD (WD4000KD)
Western Digital 320GB HDD (WD3200KS)
Two older IDE drives (WD 200gb & 80gb) sit in removable enclosures, these will on only rarely as their quite noisy)
Pioneer DVD-RW DL Optical Drive (DVR-108)

Three (3) YATE LOON 120mm Case Fans (D12SL-12)
undervolted to 7v by Sunbeam Rheobus fan controller

Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer Sound Card
Linksys WMP54G PCI Wireless Card
Generic USB 2.0 PCI Card

The Pictures:

I've tried to minimize any obstruction of airflow. Some cables such as the AC 12v CPU power plug are routed under the motherboard. I also removed the top drive cage and tracks for the same purpose.

Image

Things are pretty tight by the CPU fan but I'm confident these cables aren't going anywhere. This fan will be off most of the time anyway.
At the suggestion of folks here, I replaced the round cables with standard ribbon cables, which has largely eliminated the clutter that was here.

Image

This of course is the Thermalright HR-05-SLI chipset heatsink, which barely clears the video card. I like this accessory but the mounting does not feel solid at all. The cooler is easily moved. When my PC is on this thing feels dangerously hot but I'm assuming that's not a problem as the stock fan cooler was a pathetic piece of bend sheet metal with a wussy fan on top.
Image

At the suggestion of some folks here I sealed the top fan grill. Although I find it hard to believe this would actually improve temps, keeping dust out is reason enough to close it off.

Image

I have the lower chamber fan pointed towards the hard drives as I'm sure they are in more need of the air, although I've read many people do the opposite. I installed the fan grill after hearing a scratching noise. The motherboard power cable settled and was touching that fan.
I caught hell for this and put it back the right way.

Image

Since my case is nearly always closed I decided to take the cosmetic hit and remove those plastic fan grill covers as they appear to be a significant impediment to airflow.
Eventually I got annoyed seeing the fan filters but I created a workaround.

Image

I took a dremel to the plastic fan grill covers and removed some of the plastic, keeping the horzontal fins intact but removing the plastic behind it that impedes most of the airflow. This lets plenty of air in with no significant detriment to the cosmetic appearance. Unfortunately I was half done by the time I figured out the cleanest method. It's not pretty on the backside.
Image

I also inserted some black construction paper here to stop light leaks... just another anal fix.

Image

Finally, here is my case in its permanent home. I didn't realize it until after I had the case at home that it matches my TV pretty well.
Image

Thanks for looking. As I said earlier, comments welcome.
Last edited by Mr. B on Sun Mar 03, 2013 6:50 pm, edited 5 times in total.

ultrachrome
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Post by ultrachrome » Fri Dec 08, 2006 2:08 pm

Nice build. Couple of comments:

Standard ribbon cables might be a bit tidier than the rounded ones you used.

Lastly, with the lower fan pointed toward the hard drives it would seem to be in a pulling match with the PSU. I would think this would result in higher temps.

With the fan blowing toward the PSU, air from the front vents will be drawn through the drives.

autoboy
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Post by autoboy » Fri Dec 08, 2006 2:30 pm

Yeah, you don't want two fans blowing in opposite directions with no intake. The lower chamber is designed to pull air through the front and out the back through the power supply. The drives will be fine with just the airflow from the power supply. There is no need for the middle fan except for fanless power supplies. A hard drive only uses 10W and can be cooled easily with a tiny amout of airflow. If you want to leave the middle fan thats fine but please reverse it and let the chamber work as designed.

ciz28
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Post by ciz28 » Fri Dec 08, 2006 2:55 pm

ultrachrome wrote:Standard ribbon cables might be a bit tidier than the rounded ones you used.
Agreed, check out some of Ralf Hutter's threads to see great examples of cablegami:
viewtopic.php?t=6127
viewtopic.php?t=2439

Otherwise, the component selection looks excellent. I'm sure you're very happy with your setup :)

phartknokr
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Location: Great White North

Post by phartknokr » Fri Dec 08, 2006 3:57 pm

Love the Indifference poster in the last picture. Which of the following are you?

- Daktari.
- Lawrence Bourne III.
- The hundreds of you 2002 calendar owners who complained that this design wasn't available in any other format .
- Disaffected college students. For real this time.

andyb
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Post by andyb » Fri Dec 08, 2006 5:28 pm

Reverse the fan in the bottom chamber, its just plain wrong.

Loads of people feel all of the air blowing one way, but can barely feel any being drawn the other way. I can ramble off loads of scientific bullshit, but I will spare you the expense, the same amount of air enters one side as is pushed out of the other, but you have 2 fans fighting each other for air, and heat is the only winner, cool looses.

You only have one drive in the bottom compartment anyway, you dont even need the fan, just tape over the air vents around the psu at the back of the case and everything will be fine unless you live in an oven.


Andy

Mr. B
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Post by Mr. B » Fri Dec 08, 2006 5:49 pm

Thanks for the replies thus far. I'll go ahead and reverse the fan as there is some obvious consensus on this.

[edit]Not this this is surprising, well maybe to me, but HD tems showed some slight improvement after putting the fan the way it should be[/edit]

@andyb - there are two HDs at the bottom, one is not pictured. As hot as these things get it's nice to finally case a case that can properly cool them... or at least it's about to. :)

@ultrachrome - ribbon cables would help... i was looking through all my spare parts and I actually can't find any, quite odd... guess I'll have to buy some.

LinuxTech
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Post by LinuxTech » Tue Dec 26, 2006 2:31 pm

Great pictures and I like you dual overhead monitor setup. Watch your head!!

Mr. B
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Post by Mr. B » Thu Dec 28, 2006 4:04 pm

^^ LOL, everyone says that... the angle isn't as dramatic as it looks.

Rory Buszka
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Post by Rory Buszka » Thu Dec 28, 2006 6:20 pm

My neck hurts, just from looking at it. I'd rather get a new desk than put my spine under that kind of strain.

Mr. B
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Post by Mr. B » Thu Dec 28, 2006 7:58 pm

I'm in the market for a new desk but i just keep trillian and winamp up there so I don't have to look at it often.

laserred
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Post by laserred » Wed Jan 17, 2007 11:01 am

Mr. B wrote: @ultrachrome - ribbon cables would help... i was looking through all my spare parts and I actually can't find any, quite odd... guess I'll have to buy some.
EndPCNoise has some overstock black Asus IDE cables, both 40 and 80 conductor, very swanky, for like $.35 each. I picked up a bunch the last time I ordered, very cheap and didn't add anything to shipping cost.
As an aside, once I taped off my PSU chamber holes on the back, with just the PSU fan, my HDD temps in the lower cage dropped 12*F.

AMDforlife
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Post by AMDforlife » Thu Jan 18, 2007 2:16 pm

Hey! Nice setup you have there and very professional pics! I think the wire management is actually very well done considering:
a) You're working with a P180 :?
b) You have so many Drives in there!

It's too bad the Thermalright chipset heatsink is not sturdy. It looks very sharp and like it would work well.

With all that cooling ability why not OC that 3200 Venice a bit? Your GPU is pretty bottlenecked by that stock 3200+ processor.

jeremy
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Post by jeremy » Tue Jan 30, 2007 6:49 am

I don't see anything wrong with a P180 in regards to modding opportunities. It's obviously a large case with lots of room. What impacts that room are the amount of cooling devices you install and your cable management. This is simply common sense. In most cases I do see the option to cut away at a lot of metal - both making additional room for airflow and modding and reducing the weight of the case itself.
I've never been picky about vibration, it has never bothered me. Then again, I don't sit around for hours on end with my hands firmly placed on the HDDs. I do have a few loud parts, which I intend to replace eventually. I'm concerned with what a good fan would be, seems to come down to a Nexus as I see many of you here use that brand.

In regards to the Antec P180, you will get better airflow in the front if you remove the door. It's very flimsy and annoying. The side panel is also quite flimsy. I'm quite new to the concept of case modding but I'm learning a lot from the topics I've been reading.

Cheers,
Jeremy

Mr. B
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Post by Mr. B » Mon Feb 19, 2007 1:59 pm

Bump. I took new pics after upgrades and some tiny little mods, like the dremel'd fan filter covers.

psiu
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Post by psiu » Mon Feb 19, 2007 3:09 pm

ack! :shock:

You took out the filters but left the grilles in front of them? Those filters are a godsend. I haven't had to blow anything out of my case since I bought it in August 05...and you wanted to improve airflow but then blocked off all the vents around the side of the door with construction paper?

aaaaahhhhh *runs around in little circles, collapses while hyperventilating*

that upper monitor doesn't make you nervous? :lol:

SockToy
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Post by SockToy » Mon Feb 19, 2007 3:30 pm

You might like some of the stuff I did in my 180 here:
http://keg.zymurgy.org/~pingu/case/

I used rounded cables though ;) I'm fiddling with overclocking atm, so I moved the 1200rpm fan up onto the CPU and put one of the 800's down in the bottom instead. All fans are on while I toy with 3.6ghz.

Im probably going to construct a cardboard vent around the 8800 to help it vent its heat out the empty PCI slots beneath it, and maybe put in a divider between the GPU and the CPU too... theres a lot of heat rising off that card right into my CPU , which sucks. Its by far the hottest thing in my case at idle.

Maybe cable-tie another 800rpm SFLEX over the PCI outlets with my fake duct there to suck off the GPU... noisy little fan on it by comparison to the others ;/

Mr. B
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Post by Mr. B » Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:42 pm

psiu wrote:ack! :shock:

You took out the filters but left the grilles in front of them? Those filters are a godsend. I haven't had to blow anything out of my case since I bought it in August 05...and you wanted to improve airflow but then blocked off all the vents around the side of the door with construction paper?

aaaaahhhhh *runs around in little circles, collapses while hyperventilating*

that upper monitor doesn't make you nervous? :lol:
No, the filters are still there, behind the covers. If you look close at the filter cover pic you can see them. You're right, they are a godsend. So much less dust gets into this case than my last one. The only 'blocked vents' are around the power switch and lights.

As for the second monitor, it's not nearly as dramatic as it looks in the pic.

psiu
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Post by psiu » Tue Feb 20, 2007 3:16 am

Ah. well good then ;) Those filters rock :D

At least you don't live in SoCal, that monitor would be an earthquake hazard :P

Mr. B
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Post by Mr. B » Tue Feb 20, 2007 9:46 am

psiu wrote:Ah. well good then ;) Those filters rock :D

At least you don't live in SoCal, that monitor would be an earthquake hazard :P
If any force of nature moves it, i'll be in Memphis like last time. :)

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