Should I replace Antec p180?

[nodilis]

Hello everyone,

i have a dillema. I recently bulit a new pc with following components:
Asus z-97 Deluxe MB
i4790K
Radeon r9 285 Asus strix
Nh-nd15
Antec 750w PS
16 GB Mushkin 2400 MHZ.

The system is biult in Antec p180 case (very old but I like it) and I have put fron Noctua NF-s12b and rear noctua nf-s12b. fans
.
The temps seem ok.
Proc - 32 idle 55-60 load(celsius)
r9 285 43 idle and about 80-83 load.

I would like to know should I also buy a new case (was thinking Fractal design Define r5) and would I get better overall cooling of components (was worried aboutGraphics temps).

 

[lehtv]

The R9 285 is running surprisingly hot. Have you overclocked the R9 285, and how are you putting load on it, in a game or in Furmark or something?

I wouldn't expect to have any cooling problems with your fan setup, even though it is an old case.

 

[nodilis]

It is asus strix 285 that is slightly overclocked by Asus at 954 mhz.
Other than that nothing. What worries me is also the temperature of voltage regulators. Sometimes while gaming it goes up to 90 c.
I am not shure will i get better cooling of graphics card with Define r5 and do i need it.
I know that p180 is quite an old case but i like it and ratio noise/cooling is quite good for me.

 

[lehtv]

It may have to do with insufficient intake air, i.e. despite two fans pushing air out, the card is being choked. Still, seems quite unusual. In KitGuru's review, the Asus card only goes up to 63C while gaming (gpu temp).

Does it help your temps if you take the side panels off? If not, I'm thinking the cooler isn't properly seated, and since reseating the cooler yourself voids the warranty, you might want to contact Asus and ask if those temperatures might indicate that the card is faulty.

 

[Cerb]

Are you looking for an excuse for a new case? If so, yes, the Define R5 should be very good. It's what the P180 series should have become, had Antec not gotten lazy.

If not, do you have the motherboard-side drive cage installed, and do you have a fan in front of that position? If not, removing that cage, putting drives in the PSU-side cage, and adding a fan in front of where the motherboard-side cage goes, should help some. With a good low-vibration fan, you should be able to remove the muffling doors in front of the filters, too, for better airflow at lower RPM and dBA, as well, to no practical detriment.

If you are using both the rear and top exhausts, try blocking off the top exhaust (tape some paper over it, for testing), and just move that fan to the drive cage position I mentioned; or do the same to the rear exhaust. This is in case air isn't going out the rear of the video card's space due to lack of pressure. If it makes no difference, revert the change.

Finally, you can try removing expansion slot covers just below the video card. It's now common for those to be vented, for better positive pressure air flow through the case, but the original P180 lacked that.

 

[ElFenix]

If so, yes, the Define R5 should be very good. It's what the P180 series should have become, had Antec not gotten lazy.

unless they significantly upgraded the build quality and changed the side panels on the R5, no, it's not. the side panels aren't as dead, the steel gauge isn't very high, and on one of my R4s the screw holes weren't tapped right. the major improvements are the big fans and the 240 rad support. that said, it's much better than pretty much anything else at the price point (easily well below $100 on sale).

edit: ooo hinged and latched side panels


anyway, OP is your front fan in the mid-position? do you have the top blow hole open or blocked? if it's open, air can short cut to the rear fan so all the rear fan isn't doing all that much.

 

[Cerb]

Video card heat issues are not new for the P18x, and were never really resolved (mainly, the drive cages and partitioning implementation), just lightly improved with open expansion slot covers. The follow-on P280 isn't terrible, but it's not great for the money, either (the R4's side panels are sure not flimsy in comparison to those!). Neither are a $200 case, no, but c'est la vie. Corsair, NZXT, and Silverstone have some excellent cases up there, if you want, but in terms of reduced dBA, or temps, you won't get anything, at least not with a single GPU--most will be aesthetics, often at the cost of usability. The P180 came out when CPUs could go over 150W, but video cards didn't yet, and now we have <100W near-5GHz OCed CPUs, and 250W stock video cards; we've also gotten big efficient coolers, that made the excess focus on CPU-area cooling unneeded (decent delta-T doesn't need 2-3 big fans around the heatsink, anymore). The P193 was a bit too minor of a set of changes.

Screw taps not being right is a return for replacement (no restocking free, no paying for shipping) offense. Side panels shouldn't be doing anything to need added deadening, though, unless you fill it with a bunch of mid-00s Seagates, or have really bad fans...unless something else was also wrong with it.

I suspect the OP just needs to revisit how the cool air is coming in, being warmed up, and then being removed, though. An R9 285 is not cool running, but it's far from a factory-OC R9 290X...

 

[fleshconsumed]

P18X was and still is one of the quietest cases on the market. However, that does come with certain drawbacks, such as somewhat restrictive airflow. When I ran P18X (still do for my fileserver) I always removed the middle 2 x HDD cage, and I also removed the washable filters in front of both the mid and lower HDD cages. That helped with the airflow somewhat. Some people also took exacto knife to the black swinging door to cut away strips of plastic to make it even less restrictive. I didn't go that far as I did not think it was necessary, but it is an option. Another idea is to put a low speed fan where the mid HDD cage is. Basically as long as you like the case, try to take the obvious steps at reducing any restrictions to the airflow, that alone might solve your problem.

I still miss that case. I have P280 for my main rig and P280 is not built nearly as solid as P18x. Shame on Antec I suppose...

 

[ElFenix]

Video card heat issues are not new for the P18x, and were never really resolved (mainly, the drive cages and partitioning implementation)

i'm decidedly not a fan of the partition, with gold power supplies that's simply not a major heat source anymore.

it also makes wiring the bottom hard drive cage a pain, especially in the P180 with the fan between the drives and the power supply. and that fan is necessary because soft-grommet mounted drives get pretty darn warm.

Screw taps not being right is a return for replacement (no restocking free, no paying for shipping) offense.

i think i'd already broken the USB 3 cable by the time i discovered the tap problem. why would all that stuff on top be mounted to the (far too easy to pop off) front panel instead of the frame?

 

[bshole]

Hello everyone,


I would like to know should I also buy a new case (was thinking Fractal design Define r5) and would I get better overall cooling of components (was worried aboutGraphics temps).

I have this case and love it to death.

 

[creed3020]

Still rocking my P180 as a Windows Server mostly for virtualization.

Running an Intel Core i7 920, ASUS Mobo, 24GB DDR3, 5 WD Raptors, 1 Seagate 250GB for backups, Enermax 650W PSU, and a random Geforce 8600GT for display. Fan in the PSU compartment (high rpm and static pressure to cool the raptors), and fans in the front middle, top and back for a total of 4 120MM fans. The cooling took some tweaking but I was very happy with it.

Love that case, it's still performing the same as day one it was purchased.

 

[feelingshorter]

The nice thing about the P180 is that it is silent. If you go to another case that cools better, remember that trade off or make sure the new case is just as silent. I went from P180 V2 (which is basically p190 but the color of a p180), to a Lian Li aluminum microatx case. Never looked back. I imagine you'd want to upgrade just for the USB 3 connection ports on the front which can be worth it.

 

[clayton006]

I love my 900D (of course, it is huge), but I do miss the silent nature of the P180 I had years ago. It is hard to balance those two qualities, but I managed to do both with watercooling in the 900D.
I'm partial to the Corsair cases myself. I would stick with their equivalent mid-tower.

 

[bigboxes]

I have the original P180 working as my file server. I have a P182 that houses my wifes new build. My main rig is a P183. You'll never get max o/c in this line of cases. I bought it for sound (lack thereof), not o/c. Only you can decide if it serves your purposes. I'm always function over form. Ask yourself what is more important, noise or o/c?