Antec P180 Watercooling Questions

LennyC · Post by **LennyC** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 10:01 pm

I have been thinking about buying an Antec P180 for my move from noisy to silent computing. Before I buy the case, however, I want to be sure that my pump will be able to run in there silently.

The pump I need to mount is an AquaXtreme 50Z, and so far it has been loud in my Lian-Li PC60. I suspect that this is because I mounted it only on a foam pad on the bottom of the case, which is made of aluminum.

I was thinking of suspending it and undervolting it so it would run quieter. What do you guys think? Do you have any pictures of water cooling systems in Antec P180s? I have been browsing the forums for a week now and haven't spotted any.

Thanks!

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 11:35 pm

Your handle seemed strangely familiar...

Here's one WC P180 I found

And welcome to SPCR Forums!

LennyC · Post by **LennyC** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 12:25 pm

Oh cool, thanks!

What do you guys think about suspending it and undervolting it for making it even quieter? Should I just buy an Eheim 1048?

alex7575 · Post by **alex7575** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 9:14 pm

What are your goals?

Performance or quietness?

LennyC · Post by **LennyC** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 9:24 pm

I basically want to make my computer as inaudible as possible while using water cooling. I would just buy air cooling or something, but I would feel stupid getting rid of my six month old 200 dollar water cooling.

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 10:17 pm

Just curious, what is your reason for choosing the P180? To me, it has always represented the ultimate air-cooling case. So I could never understand why somebody would want to use it for watercooling.

Radiator placement would be tricky at best, and would surely require modding, unless you have a very small radiator.

IMO, there are better cases for watercooling out there.

cotdt · Post by **cotdt** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 10:20 pm

You might be interested in a new article:

http://overclockers.com/tips1211/

The guy has no pump and passive radiator and got good temps. The idea is to use a weak peltier so that the radiator gets very hot and by convection no pump is needed and as a bonus heat is easily dissipated by the huge temperature delta.

alex7575 · Post by **alex7575** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 11:48 pm

cotdt wrote:You might be interested in a new article:

http://overclockers.com/tips1211/

The guy has no pump and passive radiator and got good temps. The idea is to use a weak peltier so that the radiator gets very hot and by convection no pump is needed and as a bonus heat is easily dissipated by the huge temperature delta.

From the very little I know about peltiers, wouldn't that require a lot of wattage? And also, the delta wouldn't be "huge" since one side of the peltier is frosty and the other would be hot.

alex7575 · Post by **alex7575** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 11:59 pm

LennyC wrote:I basically want to make my computer as inaudible as possible while using water cooling. I would just buy air cooling or something, but I would feel stupid getting rid of my six month old 200 dollar water cooling.

I did a little research on those Eheim pumps, and they seem to be the way to go. Unfortunately I have never seen one of those working, so can't tell you much besides what I gathered.

frostedflakes,

Actualy, IMHO the P180 is an excellent candidate for watercooling. How many cases out there have the main chamber with as much space as the P180? Most cases have the PSU on top and no space left on the bottom, so rad placement would be best inside a P180 than in any other case. I have a Thermaltake BigWater system in my P180 cooling off my cpu and my gpu (P4 3.0 prescott + X800XL) and the "only" noticeable sound coming from the WC system is the 120mm fan for the rad which I have running at 5V. I'm pretty sure my WC setup is much quieter than an air solution.

If you look at the link that lenny posted, you'll see that I was able to fit it all inside the case.

LennyC · Post by **LennyC** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 6:47 am

alex7575 wrote:
LennyC wrote:I basically want to make my computer as inaudible as possible while using water cooling. I would just buy air cooling or something, but I would feel stupid getting rid of my six month old 200 dollar water cooling.
I did a little research on those Eheim pumps, and they seem to be the way to go. Unfortunately I have never seen one of those working, so can't tell you much besides what I gathered.

frostedflakes,

Actualy, IMHO the P180 is an excellent candidate for watercooling. How many cases out there have the main chamber with as much space as the P180? Most cases have the PSU on top and no space left on the bottom, so rad placement would be best inside a P180 than in any other case. I have a Thermaltake BigWater system in my P180 cooling off my cpu and my gpu (P4 3.0 prescott + X800XL) and the "only" noticeable sound coming from the WC system is the 120mm fan for the rad which I have running at 5V. I'm pretty sure my WC setup is much quieter than an air solution.

If you look at the link that lenny posted, you'll see that I was able to fit it all inside the case.

How is your pump mounted? Mine makes a ton of noise when it's mounted on foam with screws.

alex7575 · Post by **alex7575** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 7:16 am

It's hardmounted with a screw through the side vent holes.

It sounds like vibration transfer through the case is not your issue here.

Hold the pump on your hand and if it's noisy that way, then it'll be noisy no matter how you mount it.