SPCR

Get the guys over in the engineering department to come up with a bottom case plug for the power supply and all its cords. Have the juice rerouted seamlessly in the case via cords or some other method and the cords will come out in easily accessible areas.

ex. hook power supply in at bottom, hook cords in bottom, case is built to reroute the juice, you get the cord near the top of the case which is for the motherboard and hook it up.

This seems like a nobrainer implementation in the next p180 along with something to cover the top stylishly and or unobstrusively.

Kudos on spcr's contribution to get the p180 a silver award from anandtech review on cases.

Can the P180 door be removed? How? (I don't like doors).
Randy

Officially ... no, it's not designed to come off.

However, the "hinges" are just plastic "pins", it's not hard to just pull the door off with a little force. You're not likely to break anything. That said, I do find that the front door blocks noise quite effectively, especially optical drive noise.

Greetings Randy & welcome to SPCR!

I don't like doors either, in general, but the P180's is designed to swing 270 degrees so it is out of the way. And one of the main things about the case is to allow air to flow but to block/damp/reduce noise at the same time, and the door is an important part of that.

I would think that it is removable, and I would say go look at the case "in person", and you might change your mind; either you'll accept the door as is, or you'll decide to consider another case. I'm partial to Evercases, which have a similar air flow design, but also lack a door! They are also a lot more compact, and a lot less expensive.

any pictures of a p180 with water cooling installed? does it require major modding? i want a p180 but i'm eyein on a silverstone tj07 cuz i don't need to mod or use a dremel and i'll be able to put a 2fan rad

noktekniq wrote:any pictures of a p180 with water cooling installed? does it require major modding? i want a p180 but i'm eyein on a silverstone tj07 cuz i don't need to mod or use a dremel and i'll be able to put a 2fan rad

I seriously doubt it, it's pretty tight inside and the only place you can put the pump in is probably in place of the upper drive cage. Even so it's still going to be very tight and cables are going to be a mess.

I had a P180, gave it to my wife as a hand-me-down because I didn't like a few things about it. The silicone feet reduce vibration but I grew to not like them with as much as I'd tinker inside my PC. I also didn't like that the front door warped quite a bit.

I've read that the latest versions have improved front doors. I still like the inside of the case and would love to see what it could do for my temps now as opposed to my Sonata II. Can anyone confirm that they've improved the front door to prevent it from warping?

Pretty much everyone has reported no-more warping issues with the new door design. You can do an RMA with Antec and they'll send you a new one for free; no need to send them your old one.

Does this case or any other recommended case (with good cooling and ease of installation) allow for:
1. Large heatsink on top of CPU (Zalman) with Eng clearance in the case?

2. Is the mobo easy to install or is there a MB tray?

Thanks, Peter

1. Yes, large heatsinks should fit, although this depends somewhat on what your motherboard is. The most like issue would be the top fan, which may be removed if you don't intend to use it. The VGA duct is no longer an issue, as it has been removed from recent revisions.

2. No, no MB tray. As for easy to install, you put it in, screw it down? It's no easier or harder than any other case. There's a fair amount of space to work with. I wouldn't call it difficult.

Did anyone found a way to control the tri-cool fans? People say the sleeve system isn't good for durability but i dont mind their sound much at low setting, i was wondering if i could slow them down even more.. can i use speedfan on the newer boards or do i need a hardware controller with these non-pwm fans?

You won't be able to use Speedfan; the connection is a Molex and won't allow it. You'll have to find a fan controller that will work with that connector, or graft a 3-pin plug on so you can use the motherboard to power the fan.

If you have a newer motherboard with 4-pin plugs, chances are Speedfan won't work, although I'm told that some boards (Abit?) will let you choose whether you have 3-pin or a 4-pin fan control enabled.

I have run the tricools at 7V with the power connector pins swapped around. It then does not run on the low setting; I have to admit i don't reall what happens at the mid setting...

MikeC wrote:I have run the tricools at 7V with the power connector pins swapped around. It then does not run on the low setting; I have to admit i don't reall what happens at the mid setting...

Im assuming from the recent 120mm test that on low its @5v (although the P180 manual mentioned one of the fans had different speeds). Swapping the pins will just increase it back to middle then?
My AN7 doesnt control fans anyway so i'd have to wait for a new board, although since this review im thinking in getting 3 noctua and just using the cable thingy. 18€ x3 is alot though :/

Not quite. The "L" setting is the equivalent of the "H" setting at 5V. The "M" setting is somewhere in between. However, there are other combinations that we didn't test. Undervolting with the fan controller set to "M", for example, would produce other possible noise levels. Depending on the voltages you have available, there's lots of combinations available, but you may have to work to find what works best for you.