My Antec P180 system: finally entering the 21st century!

[rootdown]

I hadn't built a new (up to date) system since around 1999 as i have been able to extend the life of my Asus P2B (440BX) mobo to the max. Incremental updates of pretty much all the components (P2 350 -> Celeron 850 @ 1.1Ghz -> Tualatin 1.1 @ 1.4) kept me afloat up to this year. Although updates and overclocks have been good to me, it was time to part with that trusty motherboard and make the plunge into the 21st century.
So I went ahead and built myself a nice computer around mid-october. Everything is new except for the HDDs and DVD burner which were salvaged from my previous computers.

Case: Antec P180
CPU: AMD64 3000+ Venice (E3 stepping)
CPU Heatsink: SI-120 w/ Antec Tricool @ low.
Motherboard: Asus A8N-E, NB47J on chipset
RAM: 2x512MB OCZ EL DDR PC-4800 Dual Channel Platinum
Video card: Sapphire x800 GTO2 (unlocked and rocking)
Power supply: Enermax EG495P-VE "Noisetaker" 480W
HDDs: WD 60GB, WD 80GB, both 8MB cache, both IDE
Optical drives: BenQ DW1620 (dvd burner), Liteon dvd drive



Soundproofing is not complete as free time is at a premium right now but it is already kinda quiet (but audible).
The top fan exhaust of the P180 has been taped up and the Tricool found it's way unto the SI-120. The taping job is not particularly soundproof (who would have guessed with electric tape). I will cut up some foam and insert it in the top exhaust bezel. It won't be visible and should help muffle the computer.
I've taken out the plastic separator (between the PSU chamber and main chamber) and taped up the holes using aluminium vent tape. The separator was just a hassle to work with. I now have more flexibility to route the cables. Speaking of which, it is not easy using IDE drives in the lower chamber. I've wrestled with a couple configurations before the current one. I've folded the IDE cable to get it into the lower chamber. This makes it possible to "hide" the main ATX and other power cables behind the folded IDE cable and it makes it look tidier. You guys with SATA drive have it easy.



I had to route the 12V ATX and GPU power cables through the middle opening. Both cables are sleeved together which makes it impossible to route the 12V under the mobo. Had I routed the 12V and 6V cables with the main ATX cable it would have been difficult to reach the 12V connector on the A8N-E . It may not look good but the cables are not restriciting airflow.



I'm no Dynamik but I am satisfied with my cable management so far.

The box is fairly quiet. I can hear wind sounds from the exhaust and heatsink fans. Packing the top exhaust bezel should quiet things a bit. The PSU's fan is at it's lowest setting, is inaudible and keeps the HDDs at 36-38C. Surprisingly, the video card is barely audible while idling.. At the moment, the loudest components are the hard dives. When both of them are seeking or coming out of sleep, they can be heard plainly. I guess choosing Western Digital some years ago is not paying off right now.

Now for some temps. Load temps were achieved with Prime95 and the ATItool artifact finder going at it simultaneously and were measured after an hour of load. Temps are given as "idle / load".

Room: 25-26C
CPU: 35C / 48C
Motherboard: 38C / 40C
Other mobo temp: 20C / 30C
Video card: 43C / 70C
HDDs: 38C

The PSU never ramped up during load testing which was predictable. Loading the CPU only (GPU idling), CPU temps hover at 44C. Loading the GPU at the same time than the CPU generated enough heat to increase the CPU temps by 2 to 4C. This tells me an AC Silencer 5 should be my next upgrade. Although this would bring issues of clearance with the northbridge passive cooler.
The video card idles at stock clocks (400/490) but under load is overclocked to 520/560 making it in effect an X850 XT. The cooler is sufficient for the task as it will keep the temps at/under 70C but the fan ramps up to 70% which is REALLY audible (but who cares while gaming).

Upcoming tasks (before the new year):
Change the Tricools with something else (Nexus fans?). Buy an AC Silencer 5 for the video card. Overclock the CPU a little while maxing out the RAM. Enjoy my new system.

Comments and suggestions are very welcomed.

[KorruptioN]

I like that, pretty clean. It'd probably be even better with SATA drives instead.

[rootdown]

SATA drives would have been welcomed. Unfortunately, with a couple of drives available i couldn't justify the added expense for SATA drives. Although i'm a big fan of (other's) cablegami, i'm not so good at it myself. It came through OK but i'm sure some on this board would have done a spectacular job of hiding the IDE cables.

[mr_plow_king]

Nice rig but why are you using the audio cables from your CD-ROM drives to your sound card since Windows XP does not need them ?

[rootdown]

Nice rig but why are you using the audio cables from your CD-ROM drives to your sound card since Windows XP does not need them ?

Ignorance my friend, I simply did not know. I guess i figured that since they are included with the motherboard and drives, I had to use them. Next time I open the case I'll yank them out.
Thanks for the info.

[Anorexicpeanut]

12345

[rootdown]

Thanks for the compliments Anorexicpeanut. I am really fond of this computer and case in particular. The P180 can be a b*tch to work with especially if you jump in without preparation. It forced me to think about and better plan the layout of components/cables/etc and even then, i ended up reconfiguring the cables 2-3 times. But once everything was in the case, it gave me a sense of accomplishment i hadn't felt since my first DIY system.
I also feel the P180 gives me enough headroom to overclock the comp without sacrificing too much silence if need be (or just for the fun of it, i didn't buy DDR600 ram to have it chug along at DDR400 indefinitely ).

P.S. Like a lot of other P180 owners, i can attest of the door warping issue being temperature dependent. Cold/cool room temps=very warped door, warm=slightly warped.

[EvilNick]

A weird question on SPCR I know, but have you tried overclocking with that board yet? I'm planning on a Venice 3000+ E6 and that same A8N-E board next year and I'm wondering if it's capable of hitting 300-330 on HTT. There've not been any reviews on the Asus A8N-E as far as I've searched, so user opinions are needed.

[rootdown]

I haven't really tried overclocking yet although it's coming, as i've bought the 3000+ and the RAM with this in mind. I did try to run the RAM at DDR600 (HTT 300) but the RAM would not pass Memtest even at 2.9V. Since the RAM is rated at DDR600, my guess is that the chipset was overheating as it's cooled passively. I haven't had the time to try again since then (2 weeks ago) but i'll give it a try this coming week-end (it's a 3-day week-end).
One thing with the A8N-E, VDIMM maxes out at 3V. Try to buy RAM that doesn't need higher voltages than 3V.
Edit: I think their is a voltmod possible with Asus A8N boards. Also, running RAM at 1T with HTT>250 is difficult on A8N boards (or so i have read).

[andrewscarella]

Hi,

I too purchased the p-180 and was wondering what you did with the vga cooler duct. That black thing with a spot for a fan in it that sits over the video card. I did not see it in any of your pictures. Mine is in right now, but I would like to take it out. Also, I have a fan in it. The antec instructions say to have the fan aimed at the graphics card. Some web sites have said to aim the fan out, to suck hot air out the back. Anyway, I would want to get rid of it all together. Do you use yours?

Andrew

[rootdown]

I am not using the fan duct. I haven't tested VGA temps with and without the fan. I just decided not to use it. This decision was compounded by the fact that I was (and still am) planning on buying an Arctic Cooling Silencer for my video card. Since the Silencer exhausts heat outside the case, i did not see much use in the duct. Plus the reviews on SPCR made me think the duct was more hassle than useful.

[EvilNick]

I haven't really tried overclocking yet although it's coming, as i've bought the 3000+ and the RAM with this in mind. I did try to run the RAM at DDR600 (HTT 300) but the RAM would not pass Memtest even at 2.9V. Since the RAM is rated at DDR600, my guess is that the chipset was overheating as it's cooled passively. I haven't had the time to try again since then (2 weeks ago) but i'll give it a try this coming week-end (it's a 3-day week-end).
One thing with the A8N-E, VDIMM maxes out at 3V. Try to buy RAM that doesn't need higher voltages than 3V.
Edit: I think their is a voltmod possible with Asus A8N boards. Also, running RAM at 1T with HTT>250 is difficult on A8N boards (or so i have read).

Cool, I'll be waiting for your results. I like the layout of the A8N-E compared to the more overclocker-proven DFI Ultra Infinity, just need to know if it can do 300+HTT.

[rootdown]

I've just upgraded the VGA card with an ATI Silencer 5 rev.2.


I knew there would be a clearance problem with the Zalman NB47J which is passively cooling the northbridge. I had to mod the NB47J and the Silencer for everything to fit. Inspiration for the mods came from the nForce4 chipset fan replacement thread, particularly ilh's mangled NB47J and the Silencer-NB32J mod.
I bended the fins of the NB47J, cut a row of fins to half height and cut part of the Silencer's plastic casing. It's a tight fit but the Silencer's fan clears the NB47J's fins.





I did some load testing to see the impact of the Silencer. Temps were taken after an hour of Prime95 and ATItool Artifact finder. CPU is slightly overclocked at 1960 MHz (stock: 1800 MHz), RAM is at 280MHz, GPU is at core/mem: 520/560 Mhz.

Room: 24-25C
CPU: 33C / 43C
Motherboard: 31C / 33C
Other mobo temp: 23C / 28C
Video card: 37C / 61C
HDDs: 36C

Compared to my first post, CPU temps have gone down 5C while slightly overclocked. Some of it is due to lower room temperature and the rest to GPU hot air being exhausted out of the case by the Silencer. GPU temps have gone down at idle, 37C compared to 43C initially, and I've gained 9C at load, 61C instead of 70C. These results are not as spectacular as others (gains of 15-20C), but this is probably due to the fact that the X800 GTO2's heatsink was already pretty good. The Silencer is a lot quieter though. At load the Silencer's fan was at 66% and was barely audible, in comparison the stock fan was LOUD under load (also 66%).
I think i may have reduced the Silencer's effectiveness by cutting parts of its plastic casing but this possible drawback is balanced out by the cooling it provides to the northbridge's heatsink.

I hope to post some overclocking results in the next couple of days.

Edit: I forgot to mention that one of the Silencer's bolts will not clear the first RAM slot's tab. I had to take that tab out with a pair of plyers.

[Fat_bloater_dave]

Heh useing the Silencer to cool the NB is clever i might give that a try on my new system when all the parts come, good work.

[nici]

Nice system Good luck with the overclocking

BTW is 520 the max your gpu core can do? i have a regular Sapphire GTO but it still has the R480core and its stable at 575MHz with the stock cooler nice OC, from 400 to 575 Only 2ns memory though, but i seem to have been lucky with that too as with some airflow it will do 553MHz Oh and i cant unlock the pipes AFAIK, so im stuck at little better than OCd 800XL rather than OCd 850XT PE

[rootdown]

BTW is 520 the max your gpu core can do?

I haven't tried higher yet. I read that all GTO2s could reach X850XT speeds so I clocked it at 520/560 right away (although mem @ 560 is higher than a X850XT). Never had any artifact even after hours of ATItool's artifact finder running.
Eh, I got a X850XT for 290 CAD. I could not ask for more.

[nici]

Well this card cost me 185€, so i shouldnt be complaining either as it performs better than the x800XL. Though it would still be nice if it ran on 16 pipes.. i get 5696 in 3dMark05 on the GTO at 573/553 12pipes and 5442 with x800XL at 459/555 16pipes. Game performance should be about equal i think.

[Mystr_Byrnz]

WoW. I like how the chipset cooler is being (very, I would think) actively cooled by the silencer.

Does the nb cooler create any turbulence being that close to the silencer blades?

Really cool mod. If only the rev. 3 cooler was good at keeping my vid ram cool. Other than that fact, I like the darn thing.

[rootdown]

@ nici
I tested the max OC on my GTO2 and it crashes at 540MHz (core clock). I've set it at 530, no artifacts and stable. The memory is doing a lot better and tops around 620 MHz without artifacts.
3D mark05 scores
16 pipes at 400/490 (stock): 4934
16 pipes at 520/560: 5977
Right now, i got 6335 @ 530/620 but my CPU is now slightly overclocked at 2000MHz (instead of 1800) with RAM at DDR500, which skews the results (i guess).

@ Mystr_Byrnz
I haven't heard any turbulence sound coming from the Silencer that may be caused by the NB cooler. Mind you, i don't know how it should sound unmodded. The only suspicious sound i got from the Silencer is a faint clicking caused by the fan. It is only audible when putting your hear close to the fan, definitely inaudible from outside the case.

[zikje]

I've got the P180 with GF7800GTX + Zalman VF700 Cu. This leaves space for the Zalman Northbridge, without bending anything. It's quiet too.

[rootdown]

This followup is mainly for EvilNick who wanted to know how good an overclocking platform the Asus A8N-E motherboard is.

I haven't been able to put much time in overclocking my system lately (packing boxes and preparing to move to a new house ).
With more time, i would have tested the HTT to find it's max frequency. I have tested the HTT at 300 MHz under Memtest without a problem with a divider on the RAM, but that's the only test i've done.

Right now, i have the HTT @ 288MHz with the RAM running 1:1, 2.75V, 2.5-4-4-10 2T timings. The HTT is limited by the RAM since i'm running it 1:1. I'ts the highest freq possible to be Memtest stable. Not too bad. The CPU is running at 2304Mhz (8*288, stock vcore=1.5V) with the SI-120's Tricool still on "low". I haven't tried 9*288=2592 as i would have to increase the speed of the heatsink's fan. Everything is rock stable (Prime95, 3DMark05 and Half-Life 2).
The downside of running high clocks on the RAM is that it needs additionnal cooling. The heatspreaders of the OCZ RAM are not enough and i had to add a 80mm Panaflo L1A@5V hanging over the RAM to achieve those high RAM clocks without Memtest errors. Under those conditions, the system went from "barely audible" to "kinda audible". It is audible in a completely silent room.

I intend to use a divider on the RAM and have it around 250MHz (no RAM cooling necessary) and get back to a quieter setup.

[davidstone28]

Slightly off topic, but what digicam did you use to take those pics?

[rootdown]

I used a Canon Powershot S400. It's an older model but the newer Canon SD300 has pretty much the same specs (4 megapixel, 3x optical zoom) in a lighter smaller case. The closeup pics were taken using the macro function which worked out beautifully.