Antec P180 case: Advice on air-flow and noise levels needed.

[McPudd]

For maximum cooling and good air flow, I?m thinking of configuring the case
this way:

Lower Chamber:
Sealed closed as much as possible (duct taping if needed).
2 500GB SATA2 HDDs and Antec TP-II 550 PSU (120mm fan).
Supplied 120mm x 38MM fan in between set on LOW.

Upper Chamber:
Extra front mounted Antec 120mm TriCool fan drawing air in and set to MEDIUM.
- no drives mounted in the upper cage.
Supplied top and upper back 120mm fans set to LOW.
VGA duct removed and opening duct taped over to close it.

Gear involved with heat and noise:
Asus A8N-SLi PREMIUM nForce4 w/Asus AI Cool-pipe (no chipset fan)
2 x 1GB OCZ PC-3200 400MHz Dual Channel EL DDR Titanium
AMD 64 X2 4800+ PIB
BFG GeForce 7800 GTX OC 256MB PCIe

There will be a sound card in the lowest PCI slot, a floppy in the exposed 3.5? bay and a DVD burner in the 5.25? bay area but they shouldn?t bother airflow.

I have no plans to overclock.
I?m looking for quietness, stability and performance in that order.

How noisy is AMD?s stock CPU fan?
I?m reluctant to fool with thermal paste and 3rd party heatsinks.
If easily done, I suppose I could swap CPU fans. (120MM?)

How noisy is this box likely to be?

Any advice/suggestions?

TIA,

 

[Bona Fide]

I would suggest moving the top duct fan to the front. It will create a nice wind tunnel effect. Seal off the top as well. And you'll also save the money you would've wasted on a new fan. There's no point for double exhaust with a single intake. Single exhaust will do it just as well.

 

[entropy1982]

Originally posted by: Bona Fide
I would suggest moving the top duct fan to the front. It will create a nice wind tunnel effect. Seal off the top as well. And you'll also save the money you would've wasted on a new fan. There's no point for double exhaust with a single intake. Single exhaust will do it just as well.

Bona i see you suggesting this to a lot of people. It's an ok idea but making the top fan an intake fan as opposed to sealing it off will give you 3 or more degrees on ur cpu temps

 

[linjy2]

stock amd heatsink is to noisy for my taste, around 47dba? but i ghetto rigged a 80mm panaflo l1a and temps held at 39C and 45C load. with the stock fan i remember i was around 35C.

 

[Bona Fide]

Originally posted by: entropy1982

Originally posted by: Bona Fide
I would suggest moving the top duct fan to the front. It will create a nice wind tunnel effect. Seal off the top as well. And you'll also save the money you would've wasted on a new fan. There's no point for double exhaust with a single intake. Single exhaust will do it just as well.

Bona i see you suggesting this to a lot of people. It's an ok idea but making the top fan an intake fan as opposed to sealing it off will give you 3 or more degrees on ur cpu temps

Well that works too. Anything to NOT use that top fan as exhaust. A friend of mine got this and he left settings at stock. When he checked the fans to see how they were doing, the top fan was moving NO air out of the case. It was just sitting there, chilling. So he removed it.

You could flip it around if you want. I guess it'll work.

 

[JBDan]

Was at Frys yesterday and went for the p180. Was about to plop down $400 on watercooling and decided to get the Antec. I'm still gonna go water eventually and now I have a nice, super-quiet case to install it in. For now I'm sticking with air since I hit a 2.55GHz wall with my winnie. I really like the p180. After many hours of optimizing airflow and especially noise I went with this->> Rear exhaust=Tricool on low >> HSF (xp120) w/ 120mm ADDA fan @ 900rpm controlled w/ SpeedFan maxes @ 2000 rpm (I max it out @ 1600) >> upper chamber front intake w/ 120mm ADDA fan @ 900rpm controlled w/ SpeedFan maxes @ 2000 rpm (again my max is 1600)>> bottem chamber 120mm Cooler Master @ 900rpm with resistor >> psu is a PCP&C 425 Deluxe w/ modded ADDA 80mm fan w/ resistor. If it wasn't for the lower chamber wind tunnel (whoosh) effect (which gives awesome cooling) my pc is near impossible to hear. With 23C room temp my temps are ->> CPU=36C idle / 45C load >> 6800GT@432/1170 (NV5 also controlled with SpeedFan)=53C idle / 65C load >> case temp= within 1-2C above room temp >> Raptor=31C-33C. Rear vga duct removed and sealed. Top vent sealed. All these temps are with my 3500+ @ 2.4 Vcore is 1.47. I am very satisfied with the silence of this case. Compared to my Tsunami? Not even close. I can barely hear my raptor anymore during seeks/reads When not under loads for extended periods, this pc is IMO dead silent. IMO the Tricools set on medium are too loud. I even found the bottem 120x38 too loud for my tastes. Not motor noise, but rather too much air (whoosh) in the tunnel. So many different configurations, but this was what I came up with. I am a silence freak so if your seeking "super-quiet," this configuration was a score for me. Enjoy your system and the p180!
EDIT: I ended up 7-volting my rear exhaust tricool and setting the switch to MED. Gives me about 1000rpm instead of the rated 1200 and its quieter. Temps remained the same.

 

[Polish3d]

Originally posted by: McPudd
For maximum cooling and good air flow, I?m thinking of configuring the case
this way:

Lower Chamber:
Sealed closed as much as possible (duct taping if needed).
2 500GB SATA2 HDDs and Antec TP-II 550 PSU (120mm fan).
Supplied 120mm x 38MM fan in between set on LOW.

Why? Isn't the lower chamber fan setup supposed to make for passive cooling over the GPU?

 

[linjy2]

i dont see how the lower chamber fan cools the gpu, maybe you can draw a pic.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Curently on my set up I have 2 lower 80 mm fans blowing air over my 2 harddrives.....with a side and upper exhaust fan as well as a 120 mm rear exhaust fan!!
I have a fan blowing directly on my Memory--I fabricated a side brace for that fan!!

I also have the zalman Cooling my vidcard as well as zalman cooling my CPU as well as 2 antec 80mm hooked together blowing air upwards into my videocard.......

My case temps are very low!!!

I have tried alot of different configurations and its my opinion you can never have too many exhaust fans!!

Also I have 6 of my fans hooked to the Zalman ZM-MFC1 multi fan speed controller!!
So I have a few speed options based on what I am doing!!

 

[linjy2]

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda
Curently on my set up I have 2 lower 80 mm fans blowing air over my 2 harddrives.....with a side and upper exhaust fan as well as a 120 mm rear exhaust fan!!
I have a fan blowing directly on my Memory--I fabricated a side brace for that fan!!

I also have the zalman Cooling my vidcard as well as zalman cooling my COU as well as 2 antec 80mm hooked together blowing air upwards into my videocard.......

My case temps are very low!!!

I have tried alot of different configurations and its my opinion you can never have too many exhaust fans!!

Also I have 6 of my fans hooked to the Zalman ZM-MFC1 multi fan speed controller!!
So I have a few speed options based on what I am doing!!

i sort of did the same thing you did. i have a 80mm fan pointing at my northbrigdge and my temps are now 31C for the motherboard, back then i couldnt understand why it was always in the 40C.

 

[Spike]

Originally posted by: JBDan
Was at Frys yesterday and went for the p180. Was about to plop down $400 on watercooling and decided to get the Antec. I'm still gonna go water eventually and now I have a nice, super-quiet case to install it in. For now I'm sticking with air since I hit a 2.55GHz wall with my winnie. I really like the p180. After many hours of optimizing airflow and especially noise I went with this->> Rear exhaust=Tricool on low >> HSF (xp120) w/ 120mm ADDA fan @ 900rpm controlled w/ SpeedFan maxes @ 2000 rpm (I max it out @ 1600) >> upper chamber front intake w/ 120mm ADDA fan @ 900rpm controlled w/ SpeedFan maxes @ 2000 rpm (again my max is 1600)>> bottem chamber 120mm Cooler Master @ 900rpm with resistor >> psu is a PCP&C 425 Deluxe w/ modded ADDA 80mm fan w/ resistor. If it wasn't for the lower chamber wind tunnel (whoosh) effect (which gives awesome cooling) my pc is near impossible to hear. With 23C room temp my temps are ->> CPU=36C idle / 45C load >> 6800GT@432/1170 (NV5)=53C idle / 65C load >> case temp= within 1-2C above room temp >> Raptor=31C-33C. Rear vga duct removed and sealed. Top vent sealed. All these temps are with my 3500+ @ 2.4 Vcore is 1.47. I am very satisfied with the silence of this case. Compared to my Tsunami? Not even close. I can barely hear my raptor anymore during seeks/reads When not under loads for extended periods, this pc is IMO dead silent. IMO the Tricools set on medium are too loud. I even found the bottem 120x38 too loud for my tastes. Not motor noise, but rather too much air (whoosh) in the tunnel. So many different configurations, but this was what I came up with. I am a silence freak so if your seeking "super-quiet," this configuration was a score for me. Enjoy your system and the p180!

Dude, paragraphs are your friend!

After figuring out what you said, I decided I liked your setup. I will try that when I get my P180 setup, though that might not be for a while.

-spike

 

[entropy1982]

Originally posted by: linjy2

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda
Curently on my set up I have 2 lower 80 mm fans blowing air over my 2 harddrives.....with a side and upper exhaust fan as well as a 120 mm rear exhaust fan!!
I have a fan blowing directly on my Memory--I fabricated a side brace for that fan!!

I also have the zalman Cooling my vidcard as well as zalman cooling my COU as well as 2 antec 80mm hooked together blowing air upwards into my videocard.......

My case temps are very low!!!

I have tried alot of different configurations and its my opinion you can never have too many exhaust fans!!

Also I have 6 of my fans hooked to the Zalman ZM-MFC1 multi fan speed controller!!
So I have a few speed options based on what I am doing!!

i sort of did the same thing you did. i have a 80mm fan pointing at my northbrigdge and my temps are now 31C for the motherboard, back then i couldnt understand why it was always in the 40C.

How do you get 2 80mm fans to blow at your vid card and how do you get a fan to blow at the northbridge

 

[linjy2]

i dont use the harddrive cage in the upper chamber just yet. so i have a 80mm fan with double sided tape stuck pointing to the northbridge where the hard drive cage is suppose to be.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: entropy1982

Originally posted by: linjy2

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda
Curently on my set up I have 2 lower 80 mm fans blowing air over my 2 harddrives.....with a side and upper exhaust fan as well as a 120 mm rear exhaust fan!!
I have a fan blowing directly on my Memory--I fabricated a side brace for that fan!!

I also have the zalman Cooling my vidcard as well as zalman cooling my COU as well as 2 antec 80mm hooked together blowing air upwards into my videocard.......

My case temps are very low!!!

I have tried alot of different configurations and its my opinion you can never have too many exhaust fans.


Also I have 6 of my fans hooked to the Zalman ZM-MFC1 multi fan speed controller!!
So I have a few speed options based on what I am doing!!

i sort of did the same thing you did. i have a 80mm fan pointing at my northbrigdge and my temps are now 31C for the motherboard, back then i couldnt understand why it was always in the 40C.

How do you get 2 80mm fans to blow at your vid card and how do you get a fan to blow at the northbridge

I bought a vantec spectrum PCI fan cardf that I mounted facing upwards at my video card!! technically 70x70x15!

That dropped my video card temps by around 7-10 c...then after I replaced the stock fan with the zalman VF700 Cu my video card temps dropped through the floor...I am running anywhere from 33c -- 40c depending on the ambient outside temperatures!!

Then I fabricated a aluminum piece to hold my other fan blowing on my memory!!

Its my personal opinion you don`t need a fan blowing on your northbridge chip!!
MY fan is blowing on my DDR 3500 rams which along with my CPU both are o/c`d!!

p4--3.0 o/c`d to 3.6!! I have had it o/c`d as high as 4.0.......

 

[linjy2]

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda
Its my personal opinion you don`t need a fan blowing on your northbridge chip!!
MY fan is blowing on my DDR 3500 rams which along with my CPU both are o/c`d!!

not if you have a NF4, anyways my temp dont lie. dropped 10C, its doing something. i dunno what. haha

 

[JEDIYoda]

never said I was using a nf4....

Also a good heatsink with good ventilation will do the same thing that little noisy fan will do!!

 

[JBDan]

Originally posted by: Spike

Originally posted by: JBDan
Was at Frys yesterday and went for the p180. Was about to plop down $400 on watercooling and decided to get the Antec. I'm still gonna go water eventually and now I have a nice, super-quiet case to install it in. For now I'm sticking with air since I hit a 2.55GHz wall with my winnie. I really like the p180. After many hours of optimizing airflow and especially noise I went with this->> Rear exhaust=Tricool on low >> HSF (xp120) w/ 120mm ADDA fan @ 900rpm controlled w/ SpeedFan maxes @ 2000 rpm (I max it out @ 1600) >> upper chamber front intake w/ 120mm ADDA fan @ 900rpm controlled w/ SpeedFan maxes @ 2000 rpm (again my max is 1600)>> bottem chamber 120mm Cooler Master @ 900rpm with resistor >> psu is a PCP&C 425 Deluxe w/ modded ADDA 80mm fan w/ resistor. If it wasn't for the lower chamber wind tunnel (whoosh) effect (which gives awesome cooling) my pc is near impossible to hear. With 23C room temp my temps are ->> CPU=36C idle / 45C load >> 6800GT@432/1170 (NV5)=53C idle / 65C load >> case temp= within 1-2C above room temp >> Raptor=31C-33C. Rear vga duct removed and sealed. Top vent sealed. All these temps are with my 3500+ @ 2.4 Vcore is 1.47. I am very satisfied with the silence of this case. Compared to my Tsunami? Not even close. I can barely hear my raptor anymore during seeks/reads When not under loads for extended periods, this pc is IMO dead silent. IMO the Tricools set on medium are too loud. I even found the bottem 120x38 too loud for my tastes. Not motor noise, but rather too much air (whoosh) in the tunnel. So many different configurations, but this was what I came up with. I am a silence freak so if your seeking "super-quiet," this configuration was a score for me. Enjoy your system and the p180!

Dude, paragraphs are your friend!

After figuring out what you said, I decided I liked your setup. I will try that when I get my P180 setup, though that might not be for a while.

-spike

lol english (obviously) was not my strong point. I am a math whiz though!! ENjoy your p180....it is sweet.