Antec p183: Mount PSU upside down or not?

ssmith2k3 · Post by **ssmith2k3** » Fri May 28, 2010 4:41 am

Hi everyone,

I have a Nexus Value 430 that has a downward-facing fan. As you all know, the Antec P183 has its mount for the PSU on the bottom. There are two slightly elevated silicon lined rails on which the power supply is perched with about 3/4 of an inch of space from the bottom of the case to the bottom side of the power supply (the fan-side if placed normally). From the top of the power-supply to the metal compartment liner (that separates the PSU chamber from the MOBO chamber) there is a couple of inches or so.

Basically, there hasn't been any consensus on whether to invert the PSU or not that I've seen on google so I thought I would check here.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

fwiffo · Post by **fwiffo** » Fri May 28, 2010 5:27 am

I have the same PSU in a Mini P180. 120mm fan PSUs are supposed to be mounted upside-down, at least according to the case manual.

Wibla · Post by **Wibla** » Fri May 28, 2010 2:03 pm

In the P18x you can safely mount the psu with the fan facing down, that way you also gain a few centimeters of cable lenght, which is rather nice (the 4/8pin is usually a stretch if you want to put it behind the mobo tray)

ssmith2k3 · Post by **ssmith2k3** » Fri May 28, 2010 3:51 pm

Very interesting...

The Mini P180 manual says this:

With the case upright, install the power supply into the case.
Note: You can mount the power supply either side up. If you have a power
supply with a large fan, the fan should be on top once the unit is installed.

On the other hand, lots of people state that PSU orientation on the p183 and p182 doesn't matter. One person even claimed that Antec customer support told him that either orientation was fine.

I guess I'll put it fan facing down as that helps with cable management.

Last but not least, one poster on some forum opined that something could fall into a top-facing fan psu! Although that would be pretty unlikely.

danimal · Post by **danimal** » Fri May 28, 2010 5:30 pm

you can drill out the rivets that hold those two rail mount pieces... if you do it right, you won't even damage the rivet holes in the case.

135mm fan will be overlapped by the rails, if the power supply is mounted upside down, so the airflow would be restricted.

Olle P · Post by **Olle P** » Wed Jun 16, 2010 12:19 am

ssmith2k3 wrote:I guess I'll put it fan facing down as that helps with cable management.

That's a matter of definition.
It does help getting some extra reach of the cables in use, but what do you do with all unused cables?

With the fan facing up I got two advantages:
1) More than 1" clearance between the air intake and the divider plate above, as opposed to the ~Â½" clearance below the PSU.
2) Unused cables can be safely tucked underneath the PSU or, as in my case, simply left in front of the PSU where they would impede the air intake if the fan was facing down. (Hiding them behind the motherboard plate isn't an option since the path going there is already crowded.)
With the fan facing down the unused cables should be secured on top of the PSU, where they might transfer vibrations from the PSU to the divider.

A picture of my interior, with the nice cable salad at the bottom...

Cheers
Olle