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Antec P180 initial impressions (Haven't installed anything yet)

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Originally posted by: Shadowknight
Originally posted by: Zebo
You sure do talk a lot, Michelle.😛

P180 is the ultimate case but has it's issues. Silent. Cool. Big and all steal. Built like a tank, just like your 1080's.
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You STOLE yours? :Q 😛 Also, it's Plastic, steel, and aluminum composites.

Problem form my view point is I hate doors. I open and close my DVD's 10x a day with ripping and gaming doors are a PITA. I also don't like having to open door to turn on power.
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You can remove the door fairly easily if you don't like it, also, it's double-hinged so you can have it completely out of the way.

No comment on aluminum cases but steel is better from and acoustic (barrier loading) and durablity standpoint.
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If someone like Lian Li would just include a built in hard drive suspension, it wouldn't be such a big deal. While I'm happy with my P180, some of their new "quiet" cases are VERY tempting, and I've thought LLs have been overrated pieces of crap for years.
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Taking doors off defeats a lot of sound barrier, Also For me ultimate aluminum cases are not overated LL but Coolermaster and Silverstone. Both are thicker seem better built. My favorite case is the classic wavemaster even though it has a half door (power is still outside), 80mm fan instead of 120mm like modern cases, and no HDD suspension. It's just sexy and has like 3mm think aliminum in most places. Yea you're right about plastic. The double hinged door of P180 feels plastically and cheap. Bad move ther but the sub structure is the ultimate in P180..like most antec cases. Anyway I have alomst every case discused in this forum, P180 is definity top 5.
 
Between work and the fiancee, I don't have time to do a darn thing! :roll:

I finally received the AC Freezer 7; so now I can get the install done...I'm shooting for Friday. I'd say there's a better than 90% chance I'll get it done Friday.

I've spent enough time just staring at the P180's innards, planning things out, so I alrady know where I'm putting everything.

I've already routed the fan wires neatly thru the case, using zip ties/bases to the area behind the upper drive cage. That's going to be "wiring central."

Yes; there will be pics of my wanna-be-neat install.

Wow! Can't you just FEEL the excitement? 😉
 
I'm putting my system in the p180 now and I couldn't run any under the mobo.. I could run the power cables for the optical drives and fans and sata cables from the lower hdd cage along the backside of the chassis and then put the side door back on though and I'm about to zip tie and mount everything to the side of the top hdd cage where the toolbox was..

I got a P5B dlx and the Corsair hx520W and the 6 pin connector is really short cable and it has to go all the way to the top of the mobo.. it's gonna be to short or ugly right across everything in my case though =(

edit I also used a lot of clear tape besides zip ties too
 
looking good guys. I love the photos, and the wire management & cooling ideas. 🙂

90% of the components for my new system just shipped from Newegg
I ended up going with the Lian Li PC-A10A, simply due to my personal preference for a. lighter weight b. mobo tray c. style. The P-180 was a very close 2nd though.

I'll try and document my build so that folks deciding between the PC-A10 and the P-180 will have something to compare all these great P-180 builds to.
 
Thanks, Crydee and ShockewaveVT. 🙂

I decided not to run anything under the MB either. I put my old MB in the case last night, just sitting on top of the standoffs and even running fan wires under there was a tight fit. The wires were snagging on all the sharp points on the underside of the board.

But, I found other ways to run the fan wires and you don't see them, so that's good.

I think I'm going to be in the same boat as you're in CRYDEE with the 4-pin cable. The connector is at the top of my board (DS3) as well. :roll: I am not sure if the cable will reach; it probably will in a straight line going OVER the videocard...it's gonna really mess up my neat case! I highly doubt it will be long enough to run up the right side of the MB, next to the HD cages, then over to connect. And buying an extension cable means waiting 10-14 days for it to get here. :|
 
Thanks, Crydee and ShockewaveVT. 🙂

I decided not to run anything under the MB either. I put my old MB in the case last night, just sitting on top of the standoffs and even running fan wires under there was a tight fit. The wires were snagging on all the sharp points on the underside of the board.

But, I found other ways to run the fan wires and you don't see them, so that's good.

I think I'm going to be in the same boat as you're in CRYDEE with the 4-pin cable. The connector is at the top of my board (DS3) as well. :roll: I am not sure if the cable will reach; it probably will in a straight line going OVER the videocard...it's gonna really mess up my neat case! I highly doubt it will be long enough to run up the right side of the MB, next to the HD cages, then over to connect. And buying an extension cable means waiting 10-14 days for it to get here. :|
 
Ok before I got to serious into cable management I had to boot up my system, turned on first try gotta love that, anyways, my 6 pin connector worked fine I ran it along side the back of the case and under the x1950 pro there was a cut out in the board where its not connected. I'll try to put some pics up tonight after my last class and dinner.

I am having troubles installing though does anyone know if you're not supposed to bend the ribbon cables that come with your motherboard?
 
Originally posted by: crydee
Ok before I got to serious into cable management I had to boot up my system, turned on first try gotta love that, anyways, my 6 pin connector worked fine I ran it along side the back of the case and under the x1950 pro there was a cut out in the board where its not connected. I'll try to put some pics up tonight after my last class and dinner.

I am having troubles installing though does anyone know if you're not supposed to bend the ribbon cables that come with your motherboard?
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Thanks for the tip; I'll check that out.

Do you mean the IDE and floppy cables that come with the board? Sure, you can bend those all you want; I fold them oragami-style at 45-degree angles all the time. Why? What's wrong?
 
I have two xp install cds and I got like 100 .dll and .sys that wouldn't copy no matter which CD I tried. If I was installing to a 7200.10 should I of left the jumper in that made it run in 1.5Gbps?

I folded the IDE cable hot dog bun style if you know what I mean to get it to fit with the other cables behind the top hdd cage.
 
The jumper on the SATA drive doesn't really matter. It wouldn't result in you getting any .dll errors while loading from a CD.

I would try another IDE cable on your CD rom that you're trying to install from.
 

WOOHOO, I got my Arctic Silver 5, Thermal Surface Cleaner and Purifier this morning, and I only ordered at 4pm last night! Serious rapid service! (if any of you need to clean a thermal compound... use the Arctic Silver purpose built cleaner... its the best thing Ive ever experienced!)

So Ive taken everything out and put the AS5 on the stock heatsinks on the Northbridge and Southbridge and removed the protective caps (my motherboard was in some serious need of additional cooling, this should do the trick!) , and on the katana scythe cpu heatsink/fan... super cool, ready for at least a 3.2ghz overclock I would say 🙂

This was also the time I would endeavour to manage some of those blasted messy cables!

I dont really have much stuff to have to be honest so Ive just had to work as best I can just using the parts that came as stock... this is my first build afterall, I'm not gonna be too adventurous yet!

To be honest with myself, I'm reasonably happy with this as a first build. There isn't a window on the side of this case so it doesnt matter if it isnt the neatest thing in the world. However I have made it neat enough to ensure maximum airflow inside the case.
 
Sounds great! Take some pics and post them. In reality, a good cabling job is more about airflow and easy serviceability than aesthetics.

My case doesn't have a window either and I'm going for "as neat as possible without drilling additional holes in the MB tray or the case."
 

I have to agree with you Michael, although it would be nice to do a job as neat as Nate and Shiatan's! I don't actually have a camera at the moment as I lent mine to my girlfriend as she has gone to Thailand for a while and wanted to take some pictures, I considered taking one with my phone but the camera is awful. I'll try and borrow a camera later, living with 7 other people surely that shouldnt be a hue problem?
 

Here are the pics!


Side view - top half

Side view - bottom half

Internal view of rear

Internal view of front

The most underrated piece of a system builders kit!

Its certainly not the neatest job ever, but its a darn sight better than what it was before. On top of that I think it is pretty functional too!

One little note, the bottom HD cage isnt finished yet as Im waiting for another drive to come so I thought I would wait.


(had to edit this one as I originally hosted on geocities... the bandwidth was used up in less than an hour!)
 
Yep... if you look closely you can also see the new high tech thermal compound that is soon to be released as "White Powder"
 

Nice job!

One niggle about the case that I'm surprised you didn't mention... the cables going to the lower HD cage can easily knock in to the fan as they arent protected at all! This was by far the toughest part of my installation. A thin grille of some sort would have eradicated this problem and not decreased airflow at all.

Originally posted by: MichaelD
In order to install my PS, I had to cannibalize the screws from the PCI slots in my old case. I used the four real case screws that formerly held the cage in, to secure the PS to the rear of the case
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Yeah, what was that all about! I went for a few days without my psu cage attached before I finally took my old psu off my old case just to nick the screws!

Originally posted by: MichaelD
5. Why did you put the HD activity LED BEHIND the door? DUH. I know the Power LED is outside...as it should be, but the HD activity light should be too.
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I actually quite like this, I find the HD activity lights can be a little annoying, but I do want them installed. You can still see the HD light through the vents, just not quite as well.

it really looked good inside until I started running the power cables. LOL!
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bah, it still looks good 😛

Did you do any "stuffing" other than behind the top HD cage?, I carefully folded a couple of PSU cables in next to the floppy drive, there is a little space on either side of it just big in enough for 1 cable
 
The spec for the height is 21.3 inches. Does this height account for the fan cover on the top or is the height to the top of the case?

Thanks,
 
Here ended up being mine and a screenie of my overclock and temps after 4 and a half hours of orthos blended

only case pic is a crappy phone camera one no digi cam around atm!


I have a scythe ninja rev. b with a thermal take cpu fan ziptied to the side of it because the wirebrackets that came with the ninja sucked and it's got a neat little panel for the back you can control rpm with a knob

6 120mm case fans total in my p180b still nearly silent

e6400 3.2ghz 800x400 1.4v idle like 23-25C , load 45-48C in core temp , asus probe reports a little higher sometimes but only by 1-2C
crucial 10th anniversary ddr2-1000 5-5-5-12 2.25v (divider is 4:5)
x1950pro 627mgz core 709mhz memory 32C idle 48 load

super cool, quiet, and stable

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p140/crydee_photos/oc.jpg
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p140/crydee_photos/11-17-06_1624.jpg
 
Dakotadp: I measured roughly 22 inches to the top of fan cover/spoiler vent thing.

NL mkII: Thanks for the compliment. Though I think it's kind of messy-looking, the airflow is good and that's what it's really about. 🙂 I stuffed the floppy cable directly under the floppy cage; there's a space about 3/4" high that was perfect for it. The IDE cable didn't have enough slack left over after connecting both drives and stretching to the MB to do anything else with it but put a single 45-degree bend at the bottom. Which of course, you can't see now b/c of the power wires. 😛

I will probably get used to the HD LED behind the door. And you're right; you can see it sort of through the side vents.

Keeping the wires out of the PSU chamber fan was indeed a major PITA! Though I didn't state that directly in my edited OP, I hinted at it in #3 of my "niggles" area. I have since edited my OP's edit to be more specific. 🙂


crydee Right now, your temps are way better than mine; though we do have different setups. I've been Priming for about 5 hours now and TAT (core temp) reports 55C. I'm hoping this is b/c I haven't thermal cycled the AS5 yet. I'll let it Prime for another 6 hours or so, then shut it down for 24 hours (I won't be here anyway) and hopefully in a few days, the temp gets better. The AC Freezer 7 was a bit of a PITA to mount, so I really don't want to take it off to reapply anything "just to test."
 
My temp is probably a lot better because it's 62-65F in my house. The wiring was pretty bad but not as bad as I thought. It wasn't as neat as I hoped but I got them all out of the way with just shoving them behind the top hdd cage. I ziptied my 24pin cable to the side of the case behind hdd cage so only the connector is sticking out. Yours look good. It seems to be pretty hard to mess up with the AS and installing the HS. I thought I messed mine up and I even pulled it up once because the caps on the p5b barley clear it and my temps are so good I'm leaving it.

I ran orthos blended for 12 hours and the cpu stress for 4-5 hours. I play all games fine I'm not gonna do any more testing unless something happens when I game. I like shutting the door and blocking out the ide light because it's pretty bright and you can still see it on the mesh sides of the p180.

I like the finish so much on the p180 I havn't even pulled off the side sticky things that came with the case to mar it with fingerprints yet 😉

I agree with the 2" thing.. so much that I may remove the bottom fan seems a pain to get it out and see if I can get a skinny 120mm to stick in the very front of the hdd cage on the bottom? Might be a case mod thing but there might be something you can do for that.
 
Figured I'd chime in with my 'finished' (besides one stick of memory that had to be RMA'd :\ ) build, in a P180b... I've been following this thread for a while now, and I love the case 🙂.

Top compartment
Bottom compartment

I went with the NeoHE 550, and the ability to detach unused cables was a nice addition. Really the only issue I had was with the 6-pin motherboard connector, that (naturally) had to be directed all the way to the top of the case. I had to run this over the video card, and there's some tension on it, but it's there and not really obstructing anything. Other than that, all the wires were fairly easy to route. As far as noise is concerned, I can run the case with all the fans on low, but the 8800GTX acts as a furnace in there... I really need the airflow to get that heat out (if anyone has any alternate ideas for this, let me know - I've considered buying a Yate Loon for the front and rear in the top compartment, but I'm not sure it's entirely necessary). Really, this is a personal decision; I know it's safe to have the thing idling at 65-70C, but I don't feel that comfortable with it :x. So, atm, I have both the front and rear fans at medium.
 
I put two yateloons on the top compartment in the hdd cage so it acts as a wind tunnel right over my x1950pro w/ accerlo x2 the card stays really cool. I'd recommend it. The Yates are quiter then the tri cool fans especially if you put a tri cool on medium speed to get it to push the same cfm as a yateloon
 
Originally posted by: crydee
I put two yateloons on the top compartment in the hdd cage so it acts as a wind tunnel right over my x1950pro w/ accerlo x2 the card stays really cool. I'd recommend it. The Yates are quiter then the tri cool fans especially if you put a tri cool on medium speed to get it to push the same cfm as a yateloon
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Alright, I'll probably try ordering a couple of them (for the price, what have I got to lose)... Although I can't use the fan brackets that attach to the extra HD cage, as my video card is a bit too long 😱.
 
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