Antec P180 Mini w/Asus Rampage Extreme II Gene?

[aln688]

Just curious if anyone out there has an Antec P180 Mini with an Asus Rampage Extreme II Gene motherboard? If possible I'd like to see photographs showing the inside of the system, drives, PSU area, etc.

I'm thinking of building a system using these parts but unsure if I'll have enough space for all my drives and Prolimatech Megahalems heatsink and so on. I researched this online and didn't find too many links with these parts.

If anyone could provide some photographs, it would help me out by giving me an idea of how it all fits together.

Thanks.

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Evening Mr. ALN688,

I have just that build sitting on my work bench right now. I built the unit for a friend of mine and it's just about completed. The parts list goes like this:

Antec P180 Mini case
ASUS Rampage II Gene motherboard (809 BIOS)
6 x 2GB G.Skill DDR3-1600 F3-12800CL8TU-6GBPI memory sticks
Intel Core 7i 920
Zalman 9700, with 1366 adapter
Sapphire HD 4770 video card
ThermalTake Toughpower 750 modular
VisionTek ATI-650 TV Tuner PICe
1 x LG Blu-Ray Burner GGW-H20L
1 x LG Blu-Ray DVD/RW CH08LS10
Rosewill 74 card reader
1 x VelociRaptor 300GB
2 x WD1002FBYS 1TB - RAID 1
1 x WD 1001FALS 1TB
Vista 64 Ultimate, w/SP-2

It all fits very nicely in the P180 case, and is a real speed burner. If you want to push the OC to the limit, then invest in some faster G.Skill memory sticks (F3-12800CL8T-6GBPI-B). Otherwise, this combination will run the pants off anything you throw at it, and it's very quiet and stable. Hope that helps your curiosity.

Best regards to everyone. TheBeagle :beer:

 

[aln688]

Amazing, it sounds awesome. Could I please trouble you for some photographs?

To be honest I like the setup I'm just worried my Prolimatech heatsink won't fit, and also I'd like to use Panaflo 120x120x38 fans front and rear, when I say front I mean by removing the lower hard-drive bay. I'm looking for a small and powerful system, this sounds like it is it.

Oh, also, I read problems with the Northbridge (NB) heating up a lot on the Rampage Extreme II Gene, do you actively cool this with a fan?

Thanks.

 

[ilkhan]

does the mini P180 support full length (GTX280 sized) cards? (with fewer HDDs?)

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Morning Mr. ALN688 & Mr. Ilkhan,

Mr. ALN688: I am unfamiliar with the sizing and attachment mechanisms of the Prolimatech heat sink that you referenced, so I can't offer any advice on that item. However, the Zalman CNPS9700NT works just fine, and it has a 4-wire PWM connector which synchronizes quite nicely with the ASUS board pinout. Also, I see that Zalman has just released a new super-cooler, the CNPS10X Extreme, which looks awesome! I'm very likely to give that new model a try in an upcoming build.

As far as the extra case fans go, you really won't probably need them. Between the 200mm top fan and the 120mm rear fan (both of which have 3-step speed control), there's quite a bit of air flow through that case. And with the dual-chamber design that keeps the PSU and lower drives isolated, all that heat stays out of the upper motherboard chamber. However, if you do decide to install additional case fans in either or both of the upper chamber locations which are capable of mounting them, you will lose the ability to mount hard drives in that location. With regard to the NB heat issue, a horizontal fan over the NB might do the trick if that becomes a problem.

Mr. Ilkhan: Yes, you can mount a full length card, but you'll have to forego using the middle hard drive cage, since the card length will intrude into that space.

If I get a chance, I'll snap a few pictures of this build before I give it to my friend to load all his software. Hope that helps a bit more.

Best regards to everyone. TheBeagle :beer: