REAL Antec P180 Door Fix

jermaink · Post by **jermaink** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 8:19 pm

Here are the pics of the replacement door I got on my P180, after dealing with my retailer who got one through the local Antec distributer.

It has magnets in the centre, and the power button is magnetic (and no longer has that 'power' symbol).

http://www.freewebs.com/jermaink/IMG_4327.jpg

http://www.freewebs.com/jermaink/IMG_4322.jpg

computergeek22 · Post by **computergeek22** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 8:32 pm

Weird. I got my p180 already and it came fitted w/ this "revised" front door. I bought it ~2 weeks ago on newegg.

JazzJackRabbit · Post by **JazzJackRabbit** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 8:18 am

Damn, this looks nice. I'm going to contact Antec directly, see if they can send me a new door.

PS I'm tired of poorly designed and/or plain faulty products and misleading PR. IME the number of times I had to RMA something or just "learn to live with it" because it did not live up to manufacturer claims is amazing.

jermaink · Post by **jermaink** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 8:32 am

computergeek22 wrote:Weird. I got my p180 already and it came fitted w/ this "revised" front door. I bought it ~2 weeks ago on newegg.

So they may be using it for all new P180's. That's good to hear, but there are a LOT of people (hundreds, maybe thousands) who probably have a warped door.

I wonder if people who have warped doors will be able to get this replacement (maybe they hope that not too many people ask).

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 8:40 am

I'm tired of poorly designed and/or plain faulty products and misleading PR. IME the number of times I had to RMA something or just "learn to live with it" because it did not live up to manufacturer claims is amazing.

Which is exactly why you're on SPCR. We all hate it when we splash out $ (or £ in my case) on something and the marketing turns out to be a pack of lies, so that makes the impartial and independent review process on SPCR all the more essential; it's the only way we (the consumer and silent PC enthusiast) can find out what a product is really like without having to buy it and go through the hassle and inconvenience of returning it and/or living with an inferior product.

nici · Post by **nici** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 9:13 am

So you get a whole new front panel and not just the door? Im thinking this because the powerbutton is now magnetic. Do i need to send my old panel to Antec?

Ackelind · Post by **Ackelind** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 1:15 pm

Errr oh crap. A month ago I recieved a full new front from Antec since the old was warped, but I only used the door from it and didn't even bother to check if the power button or something else was different. Guess I'll have to take a closer look then..

jermaink · Post by **jermaink** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 6:22 pm

nici wrote:So you get a whole new front panel and not just the door? Im thinking this because the powerbutton is now magnetic. Do i need to send my old panel to Antec?

Possibly. I think my retailer went to a bit of effort to get me the door, so it'll depend on how they are with customer service.

The power button/magnet thing is pretty easy to see. No power symbol, extra metal bit. Zero warping, and a bit of magnetic cling on a closed door.

acaurora · Post by **acaurora** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 6:53 pm

Okay thats it i'm emailing Antec!!!

Gordoco · Post by **Gordoco** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 6:56 pm

I got my P180 from newegg about 3 weeks ago and it has this door with the center magnet and metal power button. I didn't realize it was a "new" door until I saw this post. I've been having the warped door problem on-and-off since the first day, and the magnet isn't always strong enough to counteract the warping.

I haven't been paying close attention to when it warps, but as others have said it's probably temperature dependent. As I type this the door is completely closed but my home's thermostat is set warm (evening) and I just finished an hour gaming session that heated up the case interior. When I've been at the computer during the day this week, there's been an approx. 2 mm warp near the power switch that the magnet is unable to hold closed, and my home thermostat is cooler during the day.

Edit: just a minute after submitting this post, there is now a 1 mm gap. The magnet can't hold it shut, yet it was fine just a minute ago.

JazzJackRabbit · Post by **JazzJackRabbit** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 8:32 pm

offtopic rant

jaganath wrote:Which is exactly why you're on SPCR. We all hate it when we splash out $ (or £ in my case) on something and the marketing turns out to be a pack of lies, so that makes the impartial and independent review process on SPCR all the more essential; it's the only way we (the consumer and silent PC enthusiast) can find out what a product is really like without having to buy it and go through the hassle and inconvenience of returning it and/or living with an inferior product.

It's not just SPCR related products, it's everything. I've had to RMA nearly half a dozen hard drives because they failed. I have to RMA my dell monitor for the second time now because there are constantly some problems with it. And as for reading reviews, they are not always reliable either. For example SPCR failed to mention P180 door bulge, it also failed to mention that Arctic Silencer 5 start to click after a few months, which is not really SPCR fault, but it just shows, that you can't completely rely on reviews either. Even if the review is dead on there is always some variance in the samples, for example PSU coil whine, a review may find nothing wrong with PSU, but my first Noisetaker PSU had a significant coil whine under 12V load. That's why I am so frustrated, no matter how much you research, there is always a chance of getting a substandard product. What is even more frustrating is that most often than not it's a manufacturer's fault because they rushed the product on the market without proper testing (for example Antec with their P180 bulging door and Neo-HE PSU) or because the bastards went cheap and used the cheapest components available with questionable quality (for example maxtor and dell with their supposedly "high-end" monitors). So manufacturer is at fault, and yet I have to spend my time figuring out why it doesn't work and if I can fix the problem and then, ultimately, often pay for the shipping back out of my pocket.

/offtopic rant

vine-au · Post by **vine-au** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 9:33 pm

Do we contact Antec directly? If so what process do you use - RMA, fault ticket etc...? Or the retailer we bought it from?

Steve_Y · Post by **Steve_Y** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 10:11 pm

My recently purchased P180 has a centre magnet and metal power switch so presumably has the revised door. Unfortunately the door is still warped most of the time, right now there's almost a 1cm gap between the magnet and power button. If the room is warmer (i.e. immediately after my heating has been running for a while) then it isn't so bad, but there's usually still a bulge of around 5mm.

If I push on the door then I can feel it make contact with the magnet, but it isn't strong enough to hold it flat. I imagine the extra magnet is enough to fix a few mm of bulge, but more than that and the door is so warped that it easily overcomes the magnetism. Maybe if I glued on one of the magnets I pulled out of an old 5.25" SCSI hard disk that would do the trick...

It would have been nice if they had fixed the cause of the warping rather than just sticking on another magnet. Surely there's some way of attaching the aluminium panel to the door without it causing the door to warp when it expands and contracts due to temperature? Maybe simply making the door thicker and more robust (like the side panels) would do the trick, if nothing else it would make the door feel higher quality.

It's a minor point when compared with the rest of the case, but I really think Antec should have a good look at the P180's door and consider completely redesigning it. It's the one thing on this fairly expensive case that feels cheap and badly thought out.

JazzJackRabbit · Post by **JazzJackRabbit** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 10:48 pm

Steve_Y wrote:Maybe simply making the door thicker and more robust (like the side panels) would do the trick, if nothing else it would make the door feel higher quality.

I've posted it somewhere else already but it seems that combination of aluminum and plastic is not really working because my side panels also bulge. It's not as bad as the front panel but noticable and since the sidepanel is much thicker it's nearly impossible to bend it back. So while making the front door thicker might help buldge, no magnet will be able to hold it in place.

I think the problem with the front panel is the way the aluminum panel is attached to the door. It's way too tight, if they allowed more clearance it would have probably been fine.

darthan · Post by **darthan** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 11:19 pm

It seems to me more and more that the problem we are experiencing with our P180 doors is due to the nature of metals vs plastics. Namely, aluminum expands when it heats and contracts when it cools but plastic doesn't do so nearly as much. The aluminum is tightly attached to the plastic (as it should be, no vibrations that way) but when it cools and contracts it tightens on the plastic and causes it to bulge. This even explains the relatively rapid changes Gordoco experienced because a thin sheet of aluminum will cool quickly. The solution might be to build the door out of thicker stronger plastic but I suspect the plastic would have to be quite thick to make a difference and plastics are just inherently flexible.

Gojira-X · Post by **Gojira-X** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:38 am

I dont have problems with a warping door, though i do have a Tt Xaser V Wingo, which has a plastic front double door (on the downside, it does not take kindly to 72mm TMD fans/7200 rpm hdds).

Antec could fix the door problem by interlacing the thin Aluminium with soft plastic filler to allow for expansion and making each section thicker.

4-way split doors at the front of a P180 anyone?

The disadvantage of this would be the changed overall stiffness of the door and a significant change in its vibration profile.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 3:31 am

It seems to me more and more that the problem we are experiencing with our P180 doors is due to the nature of metals vs plastics. Namely, aluminum expands when it heats and contracts when it cools but plastic doesn't do so nearly as much. The aluminum is tightly attached to the plastic (as it should be, no vibrations that way) but when it cools and contracts it tightens on the plastic and causes it to bulge. This even explains the relatively rapid changes Gordoco experienced because a thin sheet of aluminum will cool quickly. The solution might be to build the door out of thicker stronger plastic but I suspect the plastic would have to be quite thick to make a difference and plastics are just inherently flexible.

So you're saying it's bad design? I agree. Putting a metal and a plastic in direct thermal contact around a heat-generating component (a PC) was always bound to cause these kinds of problems.

@JazzJackRabbit:

I've had to RMA nearly half a dozen hard drives because they failed.

Wow, that is a high failure rate. Do you run your hard drives at high temps? I've never had a hard drive fail on me (touch wood), but then I haven't used very many.

I have to RMA my dell monitor for the second time now because there are constantly some problems with it.

I personally would never buy anything from Dell. They are generally overpriced for what they are, and they try and lock you into proprietary everything.

for example maxtor and dell with their supposedly "high-end" monitors

I have had very good experiences with Iiyama monitors.

Unfortunately, the incentive for manufacturers to cut corners and costs in manufacturing eventually leads to poor quality products, at which point (most) customers revolt and switch to to a higher-quality competitor.

JazzJackRabbit · Post by **JazzJackRabbit** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 7:14 am

jaganath wrote:Wow, that is a high failure rate. Do you run your hard drives at high temps? I've never had a hard drive fail on me (touch wood), but then I haven't used very many.

No, all drives had at least some airflow over them. Most of them never got over 40C. However that number is out of ~30 drives that either I, my dad, or ppl I've installed drives to own. 3 maxtors, 3 seagates, one Hitachi. Still 20% overall failure rate is not encouraging.

jaganath wrote:I personally would never buy anything from Dell. They are generally overpriced for what they are, and they try and lock you into proprietary everything.

Their $400 desktops are a good value and they are very quiet for a machine that cheap. Their 20-24" monitors are also a very good value, however they got many problems with those as I have discovered myself.

jaganath wrote:I have had very good experiences with Iiyama monitors.

Now this is an overpriced brand. Besides you should have read all the bad reviews of iiyama crt monitors 4 or so years ago, apparently they've started cutting corners themselves.

acaurora · Post by **acaurora** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 8:15 am

I emailed / asked Antec, and they basically said:

As of now, parts for the P180 are on back order. Once we receive them we can send them out to you. Please follow these procedures:

We can send you the front panel of that case if you can provide us with the invoice or receipt. Please reply with your shipping address through this ticket you created. You will need to e-mail a copy of your invoice or receipt to [email protected] or fax it to 510-770-1288 Attn Don at Customer Support and also include the TicketID.

Looks like a lotta ppl want 'em

JazzJackRabbit · Post by **JazzJackRabbit** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 12:17 pm

I wonder how long it will take them to get those in stock. Although if Gordoco is correct even the new door revision is a hit and miss.

BTW I examined my front panel more closely and it appears to be some sort of hybrid of old and new version. I have all three magnets and there is no power symbol on the power button, but the button itself is not magnetic. So it appears that Antec is continualy making revisions to the front panel, although as Gordoco indicated they still haven't solved the warping problem completely.

nivek7 · Post by **nivek7** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 7:49 pm

I have the same problem, even after I got a replacement door from my retailer. How did you guys contact Antec? I used the "trouble tickets" and am still waiting for a reply.

nonstop · Post by **nonstop** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 3:31 am

I'm a newbie here.

Here are the pics of the newest door.

Perhaps, the left is the present one which you are talking about. The right is the newest one marketed here in Japan two days ago. It was reinforced with an aluminum back panel. I bought two P180 Black, hehe.

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/akiba/ho ... sp184.html
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/akiba/ho ... sp183.html
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/akiba/ho ... sp181.html

Steve_Y · Post by **Steve_Y** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 2:04 pm

nonstop wrote:I'm a newbie here.

Here are the pics of the newest door.

Perhaps, the left is the present one which you are talking about. The right is the newest one marketed here in Japan two days ago. It was reinforced with an aluminum back panel. I bought two P180 Black, hehe.

That's very interesting, mine was purchased very recently but does not have that back panel. I wonder if that actually solves the problem, if so I'd definitely like one.

nonstop · Post by **nonstop** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 5:03 pm

I'm sure it solves the problem. That's why I bought two cases at a time. I think making new panels just started since my cases' serial numbers are 134 and 142.

<added>
By the way, here are other pics. Go http://day8ge.blog15.fc2.com/ first since the server doesn't allow direct links. Then copy&paste URLs.

blog15.fc2.com/d/day8ge/file/DSC01470.jpg
blog15.fc2.com/d/day8ge/file/DSC01472.jpg
blog15.fc2.com/d/day8ge/file/DSC01479.jpg

He reinforced his by using an aluminum angle. It was very very effective. Everyone can solve the problem by this way.
</added>

computergeek22 · Post by **computergeek22** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 6:21 pm

Gordoco wrote:I got my P180 from newegg about 3 weeks ago and it has this door with the center magnet and metal power button. I didn't realize it was a "new" door until I saw this post. I've been having the warped door problem on-and-off since the first day, and the magnet isn't always strong enough to counteract the warping.

I haven't been paying close attention to when it warps, but as others have said it's probably temperature dependent. As I type this the door is completely closed but my home's thermostat is set warm (evening) and I just finished an hour gaming session that heated up the case interior. When I've been at the computer during the day this week, there's been an approx. 2 mm warp near the power switch that the magnet is unable to hold closed, and my home thermostat is cooler during the day.

Edit: just a minute after submitting this post, there is now a 1 mm gap. The magnet can't hold it shut, yet it was fine just a minute ago.

Hey man, are you sure temperature has to do with the warping? I ask this because I have installed nothing in my case and my case has been just sitting for the past few weeks waiting for my other parts. There has been no warping so I'm wondering because I have the same door as you and I can feel the pull of the magnet which is on the power button on the door when the door gets ~2cm close. I'm getting scared I guess the supposedly "revised" door isn't that fail-proof either.

McBanjo · Post by **McBanjo** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 8:53 pm

computergeek22 wrote:Hey man, are you sure temperature has to do with the warping? I ask this because I have installed nothing in my case and my case has been just sitting for the past few weeks waiting for my other parts. There has been no warping so I'm wondering because I have the same door as you and I can feel the pull of the magnet which is on the power button on the door when the door gets ~2cm close. I'm getting scared I guess the supposedly "revised" door isn't that fail-proof either.

Metal and all material reacts to temperatures. Seems to me that most cases that has the problem has been out in the cold for a long time and the metal decresses then.
If you doesn't have any warping now I doubt you'll get any by installing a computer in it. Not enought heat for the door to expand then.
That's unless you throw it in the snow or fridge for a couple of hours

Might be wrong on this specific problem but thats atleast how material and temperatures works

nici · Post by **nici** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 9:10 am

I e-mailed Antec about this yesterday, hope i get an answer by monday.. Just hoping i get a new front panel too, since i managed to break off a corner from the current front panel..

That aluminium profile thing looks like it would work, i would paint it black though.

Infidel · Post by **Infidel** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 1:30 am

nonstop wrote:<added>
By the way, here are other pics. Go http://day8ge.blog15.fc2.com/ first since the server doesn't allow direct links. Then copy&paste URLs.

blog15.fc2.com/d/day8ge/file/DSC01470.jpg
blog15.fc2.com/d/day8ge/file/DSC01472.jpg
blog15.fc2.com/d/day8ge/file/DSC01479.jpg

He reinforced his by using an aluminum angle. It was very very effective. Everyone can solve the problem by this way.
</added>

Maybe someone should point that out to Antecrep. I'm sure they would like to know such a cheap and simple solution.

SebRad · Post by **SebRad** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 2:42 am

Hi, I just skimmed through this thread so apologies if I missed it but, if it's the same problem, I didn't see any mention of this "official Antec" fix for the original door.
Instructions
Some may not find it acceptable but, if it works, some may think it's better than the whole process of getting a new door.
Seb

gbeichho · Post by **gbeichho** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 8:20 pm

Hi, I just skimmed through this thread so apologies if I missed it but, if it's the same problem, I didn't see any mention of this "official Antec" fix for the original door.

Interesting, but not the same problem.

Maybe someone should point that out to Antecrep. I'm sure they would like to know such a cheap and simple solution.

You might be surprised at how much that piece of aluminum costs compared to the parts for the rest of the case.

He reinforced his by using an aluminum angle. It was very very effective. Everyone can solve the problem by this way.

That aside, I happen to have some of these aluminum pieces hanging around my junk pile. My only concern is that the right angle part might interfere with the airflow from the side vents. It will certainly interfere with Fan controllers that stick out a bit. Perhaps a flat piece would be sufficient (I have one of those too).

It doesn't bother me enough to RMA anything. How did he glue it?