Antec Mini P180 - Dustproof - Updated 2008-10-12

LongJan · Post by **LongJan** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 1:43 pm

2008-10-12 Update posted: War lost - Big Boy back in business.

Summer goes to an end and with fall comes this irresistible desire to build a new computer.

The main goals this time:
- The last battle against dust wasn't a total success, so I will give it a new try, using positive airpressure.
- Silence of course, but it don't have to be completely inaudible, dustproof has higher priority.
- Escape as much heat as possible from the GPU, without having it to travel all over the case.

It wasn't easy to find a suitable case. I finally picked Antec Mini P180, mainly because it has a huge number of fan
options letting you play around with different configurations. And it is equipped with dust filters and practical cable management.

I know, the powersupply is serious overkill, but it was a matter of detachable cables and availability. However, the VX450 had been
a wiser choice. It's cheaper, at this load it has 3-4% higher efficiency and you can easily hide the spare cables in the lower DVD cage.

More pictures, Noise, Temps and other details -- Click here

average_joe · Post by **average_joe** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 2:13 pm

Nice work

Well done!

Elijah86 · Post by **Elijah86** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 11:12 am

now that is a nice clean build! good job.

HammerSandwich · Post by **HammerSandwich** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 8:02 am

+1 on a clean build, but that's A LOT of fans.

LongJan · Post by **LongJan** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 1:27 pm

Yea, I kind of like fans

Besides, the double dustfilters are very restrictive, I have to compensate for that.
I will give this configuration a few months, to see if it can keep dust out. If so, I am happy to pay a couple of db:s for a computer free of dust.

However, I am afraid that dust, in the end, will win the war. In that case I will do a reconfiguration with priority on silence and easy cleaning.

Davideo2006 · Post by **Davideo2006** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 7:55 am

First off, I love your approach to the heat and dust issue and how clean your build is. Great cable management, and you picked a great case, Antec cases are some of my favourite.

I appreciate that you like fans and cooling is important, but for the love of silence, perhaps you can rethink the air flow, have less fans, and still keep the dust at bay.

Here is a basket of suggestions:

That Antec case comes with a huge 200mm fan that pulls the air heat out the top and runs practically silent. I think it could be this case's best friend. Why not pull the air from only from the front and then move it out the top? You could seal off the back intake and elinimate that fan; I imagine it woud not impact the heat too much.

Another experiment is to consider mounting that cute 2.5" HDD next to the front bottom intake fan, eliminate the top front intake fan, and have the air flow two ways: over the HDD and the video card (leave those back slots open like you did next to the video card so the GPU hot air goes out the back). I would even consider eliminating the extra GPU fan (unless you are overclocking the Video card).
The second airflow path would be in from the front bottom fan, over the CPU and out the top. It think there will be plenty of air to move past your CPU.

Since heat rises, you can use that to your advantage with this Antec case.

Another radical thought: build an enclosure that fits around the top of the CPU cooling radiator and then flares out to the size of the top opening, then you can use 200mm fan to cool your CPU. Test the temperature numbers and see if this will all work.

If it does work it would eliminate 2-3 noise generating fans and you will still have good air flow.

So many options with Antec...

Davideo

p.s. I imagine that bottom intake next to the PSU collects a lot of dust, is that so?

Calgarian · Post by **Calgarian** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 4:40 pm

I agree, very nice!

Any thoughts on using a second fan on the Noctua cooler? And, as suggested, perhaps sealing the back?

...or if it's not too silly to suggest, a fan almost in the middle of the case, say attached to the end of the shelf the SpinPoint is sitting on...to help support the front intakes and keep the air moving. (or at the same level of the bottom front intake fan)

If incoming airflow is very restricted I would probably keep both front intakes.

Excluding the psu, you could have three fans in the front half of the case moving air in and towards the back matched by three (or four) fans in the back of the case moving air up and out.
(for the person who likes fans)

From where your computer is sitting, will the back intake actually pull in much fresh, cool air? I'm also wondering how the spoiler on the top will affect the outflow of warm air.

And finally, the shelf your computer is sitting on, did it come with the desk?

LongJan · Post by **LongJan** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 1:59 pm

Davideo2006:

Thanks for all your suggestions.

As you say, so many options. I did consider many of them, but finally, I decided to try positive airpressure, and I doubt that's possible with the big fan acting as exhaust. It's a great pity, but the Big Boy is disqualified, for the moment. However, I will probably try some other configuration in the future.

The computer is not standing directly on the floor and the bottom intake is equipped with an Antec filter, but since I have replaced the PSU fan with a slower one, I don't dare to mount an extra filter, so I suppose some dust will sneak in that way. However, I can easily lift out the PSU for cleaning.

LongJan · Post by **LongJan** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 2:10 pm

Calgarian:

Thanks.

Actually, I have considered to move the VGA fan to the position you are suggesting. Perhaps, I will give it a try, in the future.

You are quite right, the back fan is questionable. It doesn't add much to cooling, but the filter in front of it does add noise.

The shelf is made of some left overs from discarded furnitures. I want the floor free, when vacuum cleaning.

LongJan · Post by **LongJan** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 2:01 pm

Postscript - War lost - Big Boy back in business

I had to open the case after two months, in order to replace a broken DVD burner. And what did I find? Dust!
Still not that much, but enough to make the expression dustproof disused. So, I have, more or less, given up that silly war against dust.

Because of that, I could also give up that positive airpressure, that wasn't very effective, and besides, made the fans sounding a bit strained.

Changes:
- Turned the back fan around, now working as exhaust.
- Put the original Antec BigBoy back, as top exhaust.
- Removed CPU fan and upper front intake fan.
- Taped all openings in the backpanel.
- I left the VGA fan blowing downwards, to avoid that heat is directly submitted to CPU cooler and Northbridge.
- For the moment I will keep the extra dustfilters and the filterdoors.

Result:
- Noise level is down by two or three decibels and the sound is smoother.
- Temperatures is a bit lower too. Especially, for the GPU, that went down about 5C.

ACook · Post by **ACook** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 4:22 pm

It looks very nice and clean

why the obsessio with dust?

LongJan · Post by **LongJan** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 6:21 pm

ACook wrote:why the obsessio with dust?

I have a sort of fine, sticky dust, coming in from the street.
It can't just be sucked or blown away, must be brushed or wiped.
And it is very visible on that black paint.

Davideo2006 · Post by **Davideo2006** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 8:11 am

Good adjustments, LongJan. I think the best philosophy is "Dust Happens" but you can always control the noise. It looks like you have done that.
I applaud your mod!

It's interesting that your GPU temp went down 5 degrees with the new configuration; there is so much to learn about air flow.

Thanks for posting the update, it helps us all learn.

Davideo