Good old P180 VGA airvents..airduct for 8800gt installed!

zorrt · Post by **zorrt** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 3:02 pm

I remember looking around for ages for the p180 case when it was first released and so when I finally found one I snapped it up and drove it home and its been with me ever since.

With a new PC upgrade comes renewed fetish for tidying up the case and so here I am spending more money doing stupid things with the case.

Ran off and bought a dremel to chop up 2 sections of my case. I don't think there was a real point in chopping up the lower section of the case. Doesn't help in making the side panel any easier to get on.

do mind my poor hack job, it was 1130 at night. Its smooth as tho so no need to a seal.

With all the goodies back in after a having a painstakingly hard time getting the side panel back on.

With all that I'm still not happy with that. I think the main mess is because of the IDE hdd I have there but I don't really wanna ditch it. Looking for some Stretch Magic to tie it up in the 5.25" drivebay.

Then the only other thing left is the power cable for the motherboard. Stupid Seasonic made their cables so short. I've already extended the 12v rail when I first for the p180. Thinking of extending the motherboard power too. But if I route it behind the case it will be more of a challenge to get the panel back on.

Also waiting on the Nexus fans I've ordered which are taking their time to arrive.

Any other suggestions?

djkest · Post by **djkest** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 4:15 pm

you might want to remove that grill on top of your CPU HSF.

zorrt · Post by **zorrt** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 4:54 pm

djkest wrote:you might want to remove that grill on top of your CPU HSF.

Yea I was thinking of that but it stops dust from building up on the heatsink. I don't do regular cleaning of my computer. Besides I'm OK with the temps I'm getting atm.

Core2 e6750 clocked at 3.2ghz temps are, core 0 57degrees, core 1 57degrees, cpu case 53degrees running 2 instances of prime95 for about 10mins. Not too bad considering I'm only using the xp90 with panaflo fan at 5v. I havent tried pushing the CPU any higher but 3.2ghz was the first value I tried after I booted up the PC for the first time so I just stuck with it.

zorrt · Post by **zorrt** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 3:48 am

Version 2

- Poked a hole for the USB and front lights to come through from the bottom.
- Moved the fan in the lower chamber to the front of the case. Does no extra cooling for the 2 hdd there so that was a total waste of time. Plus now its noisier and I can't fit the grill back on unless I make a spacer for the fan.
- Extended the motherboard power cable to reach around the back. Next time I think I'll just get a new power supply instead of wasting the whole day chopping and joining.
- Chucked a rubber seal around the top cut I made for the sake of doing so. I wish i never made that cut so big.
- Removed my IDE HDD and considering ditching the IDE burner for a SATA one.

Case still looks kinda ugly. Too much colours in there. Oh wells. Now I just gotta wait for those Nexus I ordered a while ago to arrive and considering changing the GPU cooler to the thermalright v2 and maybe the CPU cooler to the Thermalright ultimate 90.

Techno Pride · Post by **Techno Pride** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 4:01 am

hiya, the heatsink says "silent-pipe", so where's the heatpipe?

zorrt · Post by **zorrt** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 5:03 am

Techno Pride wrote:hiya, the heatsink says "silent-pipe", so where's the heatpipe?

The pipe runs through the fins. You cant see it in that pic tho.

skeeder · Post by **skeeder** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 1:27 pm

your still running the tri-cools that came with the case? why not ditch for some quieter fans?

zorrt · Post by **zorrt** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 8:01 pm

skeeder wrote:your still running the tri-cools that came with the case? why not ditch for some quieter fans?

My nexus arrived a couple of days ago. Doesnt seem to make much diff to noise levels tho. Still have this annoying hummin sound coming out from the lower chamber (I think). Gotta try to suspend the HDD to see if that helps.

zorrt · Post by **zorrt** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 1:15 am

Back side...messy as but she'll do. Extended the 24 pin ATX and 12v mobo rail on the season s12 500w. Pain in the ass! You can see the heat shrink wrap where they've been extended.

Innards...better than my first picture right?

Running 2 Nexus as intakes and 2 tricool for exhaust. Needs 2 exhausts because that 8800GT puts out alot of heat and I need to suck as much out as possible. Also helps pull more air into the case since I only have 1 intake. Nexus on the XP-90 too, temp idles at 30degrees, loads just under 60degrees with 2 copies of Prime 95 running. Sealed off bottom chamber to prevent any heat from HDD coming up. Got rid of humming sounds from HDD by suspending HDD. Stock 8800GT fan still makes more noise than anything else in the case but eh.

Have an Audigy 2 value card there too. I use that card as primary sound card, primarily to give my games a slight boost. Only tested gains on my old rigs so not too sure if it makes a diff in my new rig. Old rig was an AMD64 3200+, with 7900gs, 2GB RAM, ASUS A8N-SLI. With Fear, gains were 29min, 64avg, 139max, 80% over 40fps as opposed to 26min, 59avg, 134max, 74% > 40fps.

And finally my setup as a whole. Do mind the mess. Removed the doors off the intake, helps keeps the system a fair bit cooler. Keeping grills tho, don't like dust. Note the new front door that I received from Antec just today! Works a treat, however my door stays open whenever the computer is on. I just like it because its free. Slightly lighter shade of grey tho, possible because my case is over 2 years old and dirty.

Psy · Post by **Psy** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 7:43 am

That looks extremely tidy. I'd like to do something like that with my old P180. Nice work.

SilentShoe · Post by **SilentShoe** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 8:24 pm

why not fit your zalman vga cooler on the 8800gt
i believe it would fit if u have the right mounting for the 7900 series.
i know the zalman vf900's fit, even though yours is vf700
otherwise awesome looking case, do u use that middle harddrive cage above the lower chamber? because u could probably remove it for better direct air flow from the intakes.

zorrt · Post by **zorrt** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 11:16 pm

Psy wrote:That looks extremely tidy. I'd like to do something like that with my old P180. Nice work.

Thanks. It'll look more tidier if I bothered to sleeve the cables but eh...

SilentShoe wrote:why not fit your zalman vga cooler on the 8800gt
i believe it would fit if u have the right mounting for the 7900 series.
i know the zalman vf900's fit, even though yours is vf700
otherwise awesome looking case, do u use that middle harddrive cage above the lower chamber? because u could probably remove it for better direct air flow from the intakes.

The VF700, would that be good enough to cool the 8800GT? The 8800GT gets 30 degrees hotter than the 7900GS. Has anyone got the temperature results with a VF900 on the 8800GT or better yet a VF700-alcu? My current VF700 fan is about to kick it, the bearings are gone and making wierd sounds so I don't wanna risk it.

I mount the HDDs in the lower chamber. Primary purpose of the cage still being there is to hide messy cables

But I guess another way to look at it is that its "tunneling" the airflow towards the video card. Don't know if it actually tunnels anything though. Ill try removing it later to see if it makes any diff and if it helps with temps I'll leave it off.

Things left to consider doing later on down the track, replace the 2 tricool with Nexus, replace Silentpipe HS with the HR-05, replace generic PQI ram with generic GEIL ram (which I'll be doing this weekend), apply artic silver on the video card (once I'm game enough to void my warranty).

zorrt · Post by **zorrt** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 4:51 am

While playing with my case this morning I realised the stock cooler on the 8800gt exhausts hot air directly towards the vents on the P180 so I thought I'd make an airduct to to allow the air to get out of the case. It does the job, you can really feel the hot air being pushed out of the case. Of course it would work better if i was to cut away the grills but I dont really like cutting my case where its visible. Temperature wise, results aren't spectacular or anything but eh it was a cheap build. I would imagine people with low airflow in their case should benefit from this tho.

The duct...

The mounts....

The install...

The results...temps are 48 ambient, 33 CPU, 65 GPU. Fans being automatically controlled via Rivatuner which runs at 85% if temperatures exceeds 60degrees, and 40% if temps are below 55 degrees.

skudmunky · Post by **skudmunky** » Wed Nov 14, 2007 6:53 am

yeah, the stock cooler on the 8800GT is nowhere near as good as the stock cooler on the GTS. Amazing card though. Nice rig!

Good old P180 VGA airvents..airduct for 8800gt installed!

Good old P180 VGA airvents..airduct for 8800gt installed!

thought i'd try something out...