P180 v.1.1 and Venomous X compatibility

[ramesses]

Hey everyone,

Building my new rig and I'm wondering if the Thermalright Venomous X fits in my Antec P180 v1.1 ?

The advertized height is 160mm, as far as I can tell I've got ~170mm from my mobo to the side panel. That doesn't leave much space for error and I don't feel like having surprises when putting my new PC together.

I've seen a bunch of pics of the Venomous X/ Ultra-120 eXtreme in Antec P cases, but I can never tell what version of the heatsink it is nor what case version.

Any info would be appreciated as I'd like to order my parts soon

thx

[williameis]

I have a p180 mini and VenX and it fits well, with about 1/2 an inch to spare (I don't know if my p180 is v1.1 though, didn't know there are multiple versions. I bought it in spring 2010).

To be honest I'm a little bit disappointed with my p180. It is certainly more quiet than a standard gaming/high end PC, and as far as I know might still be the best option, but I was hoping for more. The huge fan on top moves air well, but it's also noisier than I had hoped (I always leave it at lowest speed). With the fan completely off, my northbridge gets up to 90 degrees C before the computer crashes. I think the p180's design puts a bit higher than normal heat stress on the motherboard since all the GPU heat hits it directly. If you are buying a lower end graphics card, you will have no issues turning the big top fan off.

I've thought about trying to find creative spots for 6x or 8x silent 120mm fans (I like Slip Streams), but so far have not attempted it. The best option might be wiring a resistor into the cable that feeds the huge top fan- if that huge fan ran at about 50% of it's lowest speed airflow would likely still be fine and the noise would be soooo much better.

Make sure you don't get a powersupply with a downward or upward facing fan (which most high end / quiet power supplies do)- the p180 has metal on top and bottom of PS casing which will make the fan run full speed and have an overheated PS.

If a small amount of noise won't bother you feel free to disregard the above paragraphs :]