My P182 Setup

bachhimself · Post by **bachhimself** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 11:09 am

Verry neat, when I have got my configuration I will also post some pics... It looks verry simmilair to your setup.

viewtopic.php?t=42144

Soterius · Post by **Soterius** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 12:20 pm

Okay, I'm a n00b but even so.... I've looked at pictures of the 8800 Ultra but there's nothing in these pictures that looks like it. Can anyone show me where it is located on these pictures?

jwoolen01 · Post by **jwoolen01** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 1:43 pm

Very nice cable management. Nice build!

graysky · Post by **graysky** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 1:46 pm

falcon26 wrote:I'll get some more pictures of the wiring behind the motherboard this weekend

You ever post those pics? Plus it looks like you removed the fan from between the PSU and the hardrives in the lower bay... how did you do that? I don't see way to without breaking it.

mr_a_mac · Post by **mr_a_mac** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 4:00 pm

graysky wrote:Plus it looks like you removed the fan from between the PSU and the hardrives in the lower bay... how did you do that? I don't see way to without breaking it.

You can remove the fan between the PSU and HDD bay by gently pushing in (to the right) the large "tab" sticking out, then sliding the whole fan casing out towards you. The whole unit is held in with 4 tabs that slot into square holes, and there is a little bump in the plastic moulding that stops it coming out too easily...you can see how it's held in place by looking from the HDD bay side.

Hope that helps!

Soterius · Post by **Soterius** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 5:35 pm

Sorry for repeating myself but could someone tell me if the 8800 is present on the pictures in this thread? I ask so because people say you can't use the upper HDD case when an 8800 card is installed. Now do they say that because of the size of the 8800? Because on the pictures in this thread, it seems there's room to install HDD. But again, I've searched the net for numerous pictures of the 8800 and comparing to those, I don't recognize it on the pictures in this thread. So what is that thing I see in the picture that has 6 big cable-like things on it???

mr_a_mac · Post by **mr_a_mac** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 5:48 pm

Soterius wrote:Sorry for repeating myself but could someone tell me if the 8800 is present on the pictures in this thread? I ask so because people say you can't use the upper HDD case when an 8800 card is installed. Now do they say that because of the size of the 8800? Because on the pictures in this thread, it seems there's room to install HDD. But again, I've searched the net for numerous pictures of the 8800 and comparing to those, I don't recognize it on the pictures in this thread. So what is that thing I see in the picture that has 6 big cable-like things on it???

What you are looking at is a modified 8800! The standard cooling mechanism has been removed and replaced with a heatpipe/fin solution with a larger (and quieter) fan mounted. I think the 6 cable-like things you are referring to are the heat-pipes. If I'm not mistaken, the heatsink is a HR-03 that falcon26 has referred to a couple of times.

And it definitely looks like an 8800...from what I've seen of them, they are generally about an inch (2.5cm) longer than most motherboards, and have 2 PCIE 6-Pin power connectors attached. Luckily, it would seem the P182 has enough room to fit it in, but it does look like you wouldn't be able to use many, if any, of the provide HDD trays in the upper HDD area, as the locking mechanisms stick out into the case and may contact the 8800.

Soterius · Post by **Soterius** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 5:50 pm

Okay, I recognized the 8800 being present, the heatpipes tricked me

(plus in 9 out of 10 pictures they show the card from the other side)

Anyway, I still wonder: Is it really impossible to install even one HDD in the upper case while also having an 8800 installed?

mr_a_mac · Post by **mr_a_mac** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 5:54 pm

Soterius wrote:Anyway, I still wonder: Is it really impossible to install a HDD in the upper case while having an 8800 installed?

I definitely reckon you could fit in at least 1 HDD using the provided trays, but you might be stretching it a bit to fit any more in. Don't forget, you can already fit, what, 4 HDD in the bottom tray? Might as well make use of the space down there, and separate the HDD heat from the CPU and GPU, especially with the heat an 8800 can pump out.

Soterius · Post by **Soterius** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 6:00 pm

That makes sense, mac. It's just that I heard someone say the upper HDD tray contains noise dampers (and fan provision) while the lower one doesn't. Is he right?

mr_a_mac · Post by **mr_a_mac** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 6:08 pm

Soterius wrote:That makes sense, mac. It's just that I heard someone say the upper HDD tray contains noise dampers (and fan provision) while the lower one doesn't. Is he right?

From memory (and I only got my P182 case last week), the upper drive tray has noise dampers in the form of soft silicone grommets, and the drives slide in on trays. You can also attach a fan, but with the 8800 there definitely isn't enough room.

Based on what I've read everywhere else at SPCR, you're better off suspending your hard-drives anyway (if you are worried about noise...if your issue is temps, your best hard mounting them or getting some ad-on heat-sinks and decent air-flow). But that's easy for me to say, I just replaced my 2 old Seagate 70GB hard-drives with 1 Samsung Spinpoint 400GB!

Also don't forget that you can put a fan between the lower HDD tray and the PSU to help suck in more air from the front and across the drives, and the lower tray also has the soft grommets. Choice of drive also makes a huge difference...I noticed it straight away when I swapped out the Seagates and put in the Samsung...very quiet, and a much more consistent sound signature.

jaldridge6 · Post by **jaldridge6** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 6:14 pm

duhhhhhhhhh. p180 doesn't really vibrate. Its too heavy. Top and bottom harddrive chambers both have rubber gromets which are 99% as effective [in the p180] as suspending them would be.

mr_a_mac · Post by **mr_a_mac** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 6:54 pm

Yeah, I agree, the case itself doesn't vibrate. But vibration isn't the only noise source created by hard-drives, you also have to consider resonance, which suspending helps to eliminate. Even using the soft rubber grommets, some vibration is going to be passed from the HDD to the trays, which in turn will vibrate a little, and it's this vibration that resonates in the empty spaces of the case and gets out anywhere the air can get out!

To me, this all makes logical sense, but I will just say at this stage I've never gotten around to suspending my drives...but plenty of other people have at SPCR, and you can read their testimonies in plenty of other threads. As for myself, I'll reserve my judgement till I try it myself...

falcon26 · Post by **falcon26** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 4:39 pm

Sorry guys for the no replys I got called out of town unexpectedly just got back today

Their's no way to mount a fan on the upper HD cage next to the 8800. If I use the fan mount near the front of the bezel it would work just fine. I'm actually thinking about try it this weekend to see if it would lower my gpu temps or cpu temps at all. My temps are already dam good. Just wanted to see if I could squeeze a bit more lower temps

Its only the sound I'm worried about, one more fan will make my system a tad louder and if adding a front fan does little for temps then forget it. I will get those pictures of the other side of my case this week for sure

I'm so backed up at work its not even funny, I'm actually still at work

And the fan in the lower part of the case with the psu and hd I got it out by accidently breaking it

And of course after I broke it I figured out how to take it out next time without breaking it

CoolColJ · Post by **CoolColJ** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 6:34 pm

Can the Thermalright Ultra 120 extreme be mounted facing the video card?

Since the passive MSI 8600gt I plan to get has the heatsink on the top of it facing the CPU, so it would get some ncie cooling from the fan if I can turn it to face downwards

faling that a facn on the top hard drive cage can blow across it, but probbaly not as good

falcon26 · Post by **falcon26** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 7:01 pm

Yes I believe it can be mounted that way....

MoJo · Post by **MoJo** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 2:05 am

Nice work falcon26, a really tidy and quiet system you have there.

I am struggling to put together a similar system. See by poor thread over here:

viewtopic.php?t=42262

I have a couple of questions for you. First, how the hell did you get your 8800 Ultra down that low? I have tried again and again to get my HR-03 Plus down to anywhere near those temps, but with a Nexus 120mm fan on full I still hit about 86 under ATITool. What do you use to test? Maybe your test software is not generating as much heat as ATITool does.

The other question is about your SATA cables. How have you routed them? They seem to be going around the back of the case, when unless I am missing something there does not seem to be a way of taking them from the lower front chamber round the back to the upper chamber. The side panel is supposed to sit flush against the metal. Are you just bending the side panel slightly or something? To be honest mine is bent a bit by the cables at the back of the mobo (Corsair HX520 PSU like yours).

falcon26 · Post by **falcon26** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 5:22 am

Hey Mojo,

I use sensors monitor for my gpu temps. And my room temp is pretty low most of the time due to having AC always on

And I just ran 3d mark and played a couple of rounds of BF2 to get a temp reading from the card. As for the sata cables I put them threw the back and in that small opening in the lower HD cage on the side near the side panel. My side panel does not stick out, its pretty flush. I've got to get pictures for everyone to see on the side I've just been so busy lately I haven't had time hopefully this week

protellect · Post by **protellect** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 6:58 am

You have inspired me to work on my cablework a little more; My tray of SATA drives is sort of a cluster right now

MoJo · Post by **MoJo** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 8:18 am

falcon26 wrote:Hey Mojo,

I use sensors monitor for my gpu temps. And my room temp is pretty low most of the time due to having AC always on And I just ran 3d mark and played a couple of rounds of BF2 to get a temp reading from the card. As for the sata cables I put them threw the back and in that small opening in the lower HD cage on the side near the side panel. My side panel does not stick out, its pretty flush. I've got to get pictures for everyone to see on the side I've just been so busy lately I haven't had time hopefully this week

Thanks falcon26, that's interesting. Have you noticed that there is a sharp edge where the PSU cables go up behind the mobo? I put a bit of foam in there to stop it damaging them.

Your GPU temps are similar to mine I think. 3DMark and games do not generate as much heat as ATITool. Most apps can't pump the GPU to 100% load all the time (the GPU is very parallel, and unless you are using pure shaders there are memory wait state issues too) so don't get anywhere near what ATITool manages.

walle · Post by **walle** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 11:29 am

Nice system falcon, the cable management that you managed to mould into perfection makes me question (just for a second of course), why I went with the Solo.

Misiowiec · Post by **Misiowiec** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 2:04 am

Every once in a while a real model build comes up, and this is certainly one of those. Great to see focus on both noise reduction and cable management, I've bookmarked this for when I upgrade!

Be excellent if you could provide that picture of the space behind the motherboard too.

matt_garman · Post by **matt_garman** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 5:22 am

falcon26 wrote:The 620 corsair is dead quiet and has rock soild on voltages. and its cable length is perfect. I've overclocked to 3.2 from 2.4 I had to up the vdimm and vcore just a bit

What memory settings/timings are you using at that overclock?

I've got the same board and processor. I can only get over 3.0 GHz with 1-1 memory timings (ref freq=266, mem freq=533). At least not without upping any voltages. See Intel 975XBX2 memory calculator.

oscar3d · Post by **oscar3d** » Fri Aug 17, 2007 3:18 pm

Hi: Nice pics.

I'm ordering a similar setup. (P182 + Corsair 620 HX)

May I ask you, how id you manage to connect the 4-pin 12V connector into the motherboard.

It seems so far from the Power Supply!!

I'm used to do mid-tower rigs, and this is my first full tower P182 rig.

How did you plug it?

Thanks.

MoJo · Post by **MoJo** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 2:00 am

oscar3d wrote:May I ask you, how id you manage to connect the 4-pin 12V connector into the motherboard.

It will reach around the back without problems. I have a 520HX which is the same. Just send it up the back of the mobo and in through the handy holes at the top.

mattt · Post by **mattt** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 3:21 am

very clean, nice wiring

oscar3d · Post by **oscar3d** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 8:20 am

Will do, thanks man!

djoole · Post by **djoole** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 1:48 pm

Hi, i can't post urls on the first post, lol
So here is the useless post...

djoole · Post by **djoole** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 1:49 pm

And here is the interesting one!

Hi falcon26, congrats for the impressive config.
I should have the same in a few weeks.

I have a mod to propose to you (you could even test it and let me know before i do

)

The thing is to mount the GPU heatsink on the top of it and not the bottom, like this :

And you orient the CPU fan/heatsink from bottom to top, so that you get this config :

Heat goes up...

You should win quite a few degrees.

What do you think of it?

MoJo · Post by **MoJo** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 2:34 pm

djoole wrote:Heat goes up...

A good idea, but you have to remember the 8800 Ultra is a furnace. Mine idles at 67C, hitting 97 under load with ATI Tool. In fact, I'd say the stock cooler is actually better than the HR-03 for this card, because it pushes the hot air out the back of the case. The Ultra is a real problem to cool.