seasonic s12 PSU in a p180 case, how can that work?

ljmeijer · Post by **ljmeijer** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 4:04 pm

Hey,

I see people on the forums having a p180 case, with a s12 seasonic psu.
Those psu's have a 12cm fan that blows "vertically"...

I would figure that in a p180 case, you'd want a psu that blows air out the back.

Am I missing something? I'm trying to figure out what would be a good PSU to put in my virgin p180 and am surprised to see peopel talking about "up-blowing" psu's..

Bye, Lucas

PS open to suggestions on a decent psu choice (p180, E6600 Asus p5w dh deluxe, 6700gs, skythe ninja, 2 160gb spinpoint drives)

Post by **Rusty075** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 4:08 pm

All 120mm fanned PSU's, including the s12's, still blow out the back of the PSU. The 120mm fan pushes air into the PSU.

oakdad · Post by **oakdad** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 3:10 pm

Has anyone done a P180 mod where they replaced the feet on this case so it is taller and cut a hole out of the bottom of the case and ducting it so the PSU gets room temp air from the bottom and out the back.

Mr. B · Post by **Mr. B** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 9:01 pm

^^ Yes I have seen that somewhere on this forum.

continuum · Post by **continuum** » Wed Nov 15, 2006 1:44 pm

I just built a S12-600 rev1 (or was it rev2) inside a P180... it works just fine!

wndrdub · Post by **wndrdub** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 4:06 pm

Hi,
I've just put together a system with an S12 and P180. I have the PSU fan pointing downwards. The case fans have a slow-medium-high switch. I've got the 2 upper chamber fans set on low and the bottom fan (near the power supply) set on medium. It seems that the PSU fan is running quite fast, however, and the system is not terribly quiet.

Any suggestions?
(1) should the PSU fan face upwards?
(2) better to do something with the case fans so their speed is dependent on case temperature (I'm using an Intel D975XBX - there must be some fan control on this - no?)

Thanks!

Jeff

AZBrandon · Post by **AZBrandon** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 10:31 pm

wndrdub wrote:Hi,
I've just put together a system with an S12 and P180. I have the PSU fan pointing downwards. The case fans have a slow-medium-high switch. I've got the 2 upper chamber fans set on low and the bottom fan (near the power supply) set on medium. It seems that the PSU fan is running quite fast, however, and the system is not terribly quiet.

#1 There is no reason to run the gigantic 120x38mm fan in the middle of the lower chamber unless you have 4 VERY hot hard drives down there. I am running 4 SATA2 hard drives in the lower chamber of my P180, no lower chamber fan and they stay plenty cool.

#2 Plug the S12's blue and black cable into a case fan header on your motherboard. That will allow it to report the power supply fan RPM. Mine runs at 780rpm for any load from idle to 170 watts A/C. I suspect all the noise you're hearing is from the lower chamber fan you have set to medium and can remove entirely if you want to.

lutorm · Post by **lutorm** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 10:49 am

oakdad wrote:Has anyone done a P180 mod where they replaced the feet on this case so it is taller and cut a hole out of the bottom of the case and ducting it so the PSU gets room temp air from the bottom and out the back.

It doesn't seem that would be an advantage since then you will remove the PSU-driven air flow over the hard drives, so you'll be forced to run a lower bay fan. Besides, one or two hard drives will hardly heat up the intake air much above room temp before it gets to the PSU anyway.

nycdan · Post by **nycdan** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 9:32 am

I think the question here is about the bottom-facing intake fan. In the p180, the PSU is on the bottom of the case, so the fan is drawing air along a small gap between iteself and the case bottom. Does this restrict airflow in possibly affecting noise and/or efficiency?

Would a rear-facing intake like on the Antec Neo be better suited for the p180?

montaro · Post by **montaro** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 12:09 am

nycdan wrote:I think the question here is about the bottom-facing intake fan. In the p180, the PSU is on the bottom of the case, so the fan is drawing air along a small gap between iteself and the case bottom. Does this restrict airflow in possibly affecting noise and/or efficiency?

Would a rear-facing intake like on the Antec Neo be better suited for the p180?

Yeah... would it? Im about to buy a P180 and have until now figured the Antec NEO HE as my only choise. Although here in Sweden these psu are hard to find for some reason. A seasonic S12 would be much easier to buy for me. But the question remains, is it really a good solution to use the S12 in a case like the P180? To me it looks like it was designed for ordinary cases and would be a bad choice...

I really need your thoughts on this one! Help

snq · Post by **snq** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 6:29 am

montaro wrote:Yeah... would it? Im about to buy a P180 and have until now figured the Antec NEO HE as my only choise. Although here in Sweden these psu are hard to find for some reason. A seasonic S12 would be much easier to buy for me. But the question remains, is it really a good solution to use the S12 in a case like the P180? To me it looks like it was designed for ordinary cases and would be a bad choice...

I really need your thoughts on this one! Help

Hard to find?

Amongst others Datorbutiken.com has the NEO HE.
For more stores check http://www.prisjakt.se/produkt.php?p=72675

montaro · Post by **montaro** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 10:38 pm

snq wrote:
montaro wrote:Yeah... would it? Im about to buy a P180 and have until now figured the Antec NEO HE as my only choise. Although here in Sweden these psu are hard to find for some reason. A seasonic S12 would be much easier to buy for me. But the question remains, is it really a good solution to use the S12 in a case like the P180? To me it looks like it was designed for ordinary cases and would be a bad choice...

I really need your thoughts on this one! Help
Hard to find? Amongst others Datorbutiken.com has the NEO HE.
For more stores check http://www.prisjakt.se/produkt.php?p=72675

Yeah, true my friend... Its strange, when i checked last time i couldnt remember i found anything.

But even though its buyable within sweden, the question if wether i should buy it since people still seem to get faulty units, even with the newest revisions.

So if i buy a seasonic S12 430, would i just have to attach it to the p180 and be ready to go, or do i need to modify anything because of the PSU design?

Kremmit · Post by **Kremmit** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 11:51 pm

I just finished a P180 build, and I chose a NeoHE specifically for the straight-through airflow. I know plenty of people are using a bottom-feeder PSU in the P180 with good results, but a straight-through unit sure seems like a better airflow arrangement for that bottom chamber.

At any rate, I'm currently spinning three drives down there, and I haven't heard the PSU yet, so it must be working.

theFan · Post by **theFan** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 4:12 am

Whats the final verdict on this topic?

It seems to me that the most obvious choice is the NEO for a p180 cos air goes straight through.

kater · Post by **kater** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 4:18 am

About 90% of P180/P182 owners use PSU's with 120mm fan in the belly. S12, BQ, Topower, Corsair, Antec TP, FSP, you name it. Some do have Tagans with push&pull fans, some have Antecs NeoHE & EA. I never read about any problems connected with running such (120mm belly fan) PSU's in this case. Most users will also remove the fan located in the middle of the tunnel and will only rely on the PSU to move air thru the bottom chamber, where they also have 1-2 HDD's.

Redzo · Post by **Redzo** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 6:36 am

montaro wrote:
snq wrote:
montaro wrote:Yeah... would it? Im about to buy a P180 and have until now figured the Antec NEO HE as my only choise. Although here in Sweden these psu are hard to find for some reason. A seasonic S12 would be much easier to buy for me. But the question remains, is it really a good solution to use the S12 in a case like the P180? To me it looks like it was designed for ordinary cases and would be a bad choice...

I really need your thoughts on this one! Help
Hard to find? Amongst others Datorbutiken.com has the NEO HE.
For more stores check http://www.prisjakt.se/produkt.php?p=72675
Yeah, true my friend... Its strange, when i checked last time i couldnt remember i found anything.

But even though its buyable within sweden, the question if wether i should buy it since people still seem to get faulty units, even with the newest revisions.

So if i buy a seasonic S12 430, would i just have to attach it to the p180 and be ready to go, or do i need to modify anything because of the PSU design?

No need to modify anything. I have P182 and Corsair HX620 (rebadged Seasonic) and it works flawlesly

raziell · Post by **raziell** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 6:52 am

what the problem?
the psu suck air from the gap he sit on and blow it out side the case.
look at the pictures with the arrows.
after that think a Little bit and ask again if you still having a hard time to understand.

theFan · Post by **theFan** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 4:12 am

Please bear in mind that im in the research stage for buying a new case and fan so have seen most of the gear in photos only...

By restricting the airflow the fan has to work harder (spin faster) to shift the same amount of air.

By looking at raziells picture, the air must be pulled from the gap between the PSU and the bottom of the case AND from 90 degrees from the actual direction of the fan. I think this would have a lot more air resistance than a NEO pulling the air from a straight angle, allthough with a smaller fan.

Has anyone done a fan speed comparison using the same rig, just swapping a NEO 430 with say a seasonic S12 430?

Das_Saunamies · Post by **Das_Saunamies** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 5:52 am

A fan speed comparison would be better if said PSUs were first tested in a top-PSU arrangement to see if there was a noticeable difference in RPM. Also relevant would be the temperature changes in components that benefit from the cooling effect -- my CPU and mobo need less cooling(RPM) with a bottom-intake PSU.

My Sonata II doesn't have the best of arrangements for airflow, mainly because of a restricted intake with all trays in place. When I still had two optical drives and a control panel blocking the 5.25" bays, the fan RPM in my push-pull Smartpower would go up a notch when the door was closed, usually reported as 30-100 RPM by Asus Probe v.2. Case fans reacted in a similar fashion, and my Noctua 1200 would whine if the RPMs went over 1200, as reported by the controller, with the door closed. This was the only case where I have observed and studied said conditions.

So in my experience, a restricted intake does make the RPM of a given fan go up when compared to a free intake. Judging by this thread, possible RPM and sound increases have been a non-issue and HDD temperatures won't take a terrible hit. I would like to see actual numbers instead of "plenty cool" though.

Dustiness is also worth a note. My apartment is extremely dusty for some reason(1 week and there's a coating on top of the piano finish case, GRR!) and it accumulates on the filter and case floor. Could be that a bottom-intake PSU in a P18x would be more prone to gathering dust?

theFan · Post by **theFan** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 2:27 am

im still having a hard time to understand raziell, are you going to explain why sucking air from a small gap from beneath the S12 is more efficient than a straight-through design?

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 3:04 am

AZBrandon wrote:
wndrdub wrote:Hi,
I've just put together a system with an S12 and P180. I have the PSU fan pointing downwards. The case fans have a slow-medium-high switch. I've got the 2 upper chamber fans set on low and the bottom fan (near the power supply) set on medium. It seems that the PSU fan is running quite fast, however, and the system is not terribly quiet.
#1 There is no reason to run the gigantic 120x38mm fan in the middle of the lower chamber unless you have 4 VERY hot hard drives down there. I am running 4 SATA2 hard drives in the lower chamber of my P180, no lower chamber fan and they stay plenty cool.

Unless you have sucky whiner like my gaming rigs TruePower II 550W. Without that fan, the PSU heats and starts whine. When I use middle chamber fan on low, the whine wanishes and PSU gets cooler. I probably need to change to better PSU soon.

theFan · Post by **theFan** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 4:33 am

I think the conclusion to this topic is that the straight through (eg Neo 430) is probably better in theory.

In practice when the psu has only to dissipate its own heat and a small amount of hdd heat then there is no significant difference.

Note that the silentpcreview machine, the one with p150, uses a neo 430. Maybe to save money cos it comes with the p150 case, but they also do the sectioning off thing so that the psu is getting air from the front drive bay, kind of mimicing the p180. I doubt this would be at all effective if they used s12 cos not enough space.

Jason W · Post by **Jason W** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 7:36 am

I am using a P182 case for my next build. I already have the case at the house, but without anything to put in it yet.

This has given me the time to think about the lower chamber. Here is my $.02.

At the front of the P182 (it's exactly the same for the P180 and P180b) there is a filtered air intake for the lower chamber. So whether you use the 120mm fan in the middle of the lower chamber, or rely solely on the PSU's fan for airflow in the lower chamber, the air will flow from the front intake, across any installed hard drives, and out the back of the case.

From a quiet perspective, I plan on using a Nexus fan in the lower chamber, and running it slowly (probably around 7V). This should make the fan inaudible, as well as do a better job of drawing air through the intake and across the 2-3 hard drives I will have in the lower chamber drive cage. It will also blow that air over the PSU, and assuming the PSU fan's on/off point and rotating speed can be controlled based on temperature, then I should have a quiet-running PSU.

Make sense? If my logic and assumptions are all botched up, someone please set me straight!

Regards.

Jason

AZBrandon · Post by **AZBrandon** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 9:16 am

theFan wrote:im still having a hard time to understand raziell, are you going to explain why sucking air from a small gap from beneath the S12 is more efficient than a straight-through design?

Because air is a gas and not a solid? There is plenty of room. Air doesn't care if it has to "change directions" when it's traveling at an airspeed of maybe 1 inch per second in the first place. We're not talking aircraft aerodynamics here. It's a proven design in the real world. When theory and reality conflict, reality wins. Reality is that the P180 keeps power supplies cooler than any other case design.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 10:08 am

in my present crappy case there is a sound card blocking maybe 65% of the intake area of a Yate Loon D12SL-12; there is about 1cm between fan and card. despite this airflow doesn't seem to be much affected, some fans are very sensitive to blockages at the inlet but not the YL, it seems. the key is as brandon said, air is a fluid, it can flow round obstacles relatively easily.

Das_Saunamies · Post by **Das_Saunamies** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 2:50 am

What we refer to as "air" is a compound gas. But yes, it's very good at gettig around, in and out of places.

seasonic s12 PSU in a p180 case, how can that work?

seasonic s12 PSU in a p180 case, how can that work?

Question about Seasonic S12, Antec P180 and case fans

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Re: seasonic s12 PSU in a p180 case, how can that work?

Re: Question about Seasonic S12, Antec P180 and case fans