Antec P180 - First Impressions (with update)

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 5:55 am

lenny wrote:
That strange brown paper was in the replacement case as well.

It's called "Vapor Phase Inhibitor", or " Volatile Corrosion Inhibitor". It's saturated with a chemical that slowly vaporizes and releases a corrosion inhibiting compound*. It's designed to prevent corrosion (rust, in this case [no pun intended]). It's extremely common to see products packaged with a sheet of this stuff. I'd say it's a good idea, since these cases are shipped to the US on a slow boat from Taiwan.

*A quick Googling should bring up plenty of info.

K_R · Post by **K_R** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 7:10 am

Devonavar wrote: It won't? what is your PSU? I can't think of anything longer than the Antec Phantom 500 (which I know fits). The fanless Thermaltake might be longer, but most of that length is outside the case.

I have the 550W Tagan. It's 175-180mm long, which is just the case, add in another 10-20mm for the mass of cables... bleh.

shtef · Post by **shtef** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 8:27 am

art4242 wrote: Another thing to watch for - the 24-pin ATX power cable just barely reached from my S12-500, but the 4-pin ATX power cable was short (this is to an A8N-SLI). Could be a problem with other motherboards as well.

-Art

Its too bad that it wont reach since I have same MB and planned to buy S12-600 and P180 soon.

How much of cable is required to reach?
Have you tried to untwist the 4-pin ATX cable - it should give you an inch or two.

MonsterMac · Post by **MonsterMac** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 2:16 pm

does anyone know where they sell 4pin and 24pin ATX extenders for the PSU's. it seems like alot of us are going to have trouble reaching from our PSU.

shtef · Post by **shtef** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 2:28 pm

MonsterMac wrote:does anyone know where they sell 4pin and 24pin ATX extenders for the PSU's. it seems like alot of us are going to have trouble reaching from our PSU.

I found some at https://www2.computeruniverse.net/default.asp
They sell 24pin and 4pin extenders for about 2.5 euros. They are in germany. They also sell P180EU european version (preorders)

Btw. does anyone know what are differences between P180 and P180EU? Mike you should have this info?

bobov · Post by **bobov** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 8:07 pm

MonsterMac wrote:does anyone know where they sell 4pin and 24pin ATX extenders for the PSU's. it seems like alot of us are going to have trouble reaching from our PSU.

www.performance-pcs.com

EDIT BY ADMIN: Embed Long URLs! Corrected for you here. Last warning; future posts of bare long URLs will be deleted.

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 2:50 am

Ralf Hutter wrote:It's called "Vapor Phase Inhibitor", or " Volatile Corrosion Inhibitor". It's saturated with a chemical that slowly vaporizes and releases a corrosion inhibiting compound.

Thanks for the info. Never had something with that included before, actually. I guess it's cheaper than a pack of silica gel.

Someone was asking about buying the grommets and shoulder bolts from an owner of the P180. There's only 2 extra grommets and 1 extra shoulder bolt (in addition to the 6 sets, of course). The grommets are very soft, much softer than the EAR or Sonata grommets.

AntecRep · Post by **AntecRep** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 7:22 am

P180EU is just the EU boxed version of the P180.

AntecRep

shtef · Post by **shtef** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 7:55 am

AntecRep wrote:P180EU is just the EU boxed version of the P180.

AntecRep

Thanks for clearing that out.
It's nice to see this kind of feedback from computer hardware companies.

The Instigator · Post by **The Instigator** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 8:28 am

shtef wrote:
art4242 wrote: Another thing to watch for - the 24-pin ATX power cable just barely reached from my S12-500, but the 4-pin ATX power cable was short (this is to an A8N-SLI). Could be a problem with other motherboards as well.

-Art
Its too bad that it wont reach since I have same MB and planned to buy S12-600 and P180 soon. How much of cable is required to reach?
Have you tried to untwist the 4-pin ATX cable - it should give you an inch or two.

Im building a system with the A8N-SLI with S12-600 and all the wires did reach. Its right on the edge of being too short but we got em going with no problems

idiot · Post by **idiot** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 11:44 am

The black case on the side is a Compucase LX-6A19. This is meant as a size comparison, since it’s a pretty well known design.
On the left is the P180.

Mumrik · Post by **Mumrik** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 1:55 pm

So, how do you like it compared to the modded Compucase LX-6A19?

idiot · Post by **idiot** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 2:14 pm

I haven't installed a system in it yet, and I probably won't have time until after finals are over, on Monday. However, tapping on the panels produces the same dead muffle in both cases. I've applied a 40mil-thick layer of asphalt-based sound dampening to the sides of the Compucase, and the P180 seems to produce the same effect without modification. Not bad, I would say.

Other than that, I'll have to wait until I get a system installed. But first impressions are definitely positive.

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 11:07 pm

OK, finally installed a system. Some more impressions:

1. Cabling is a nightmare. But that depends on your MB and PSU.

2. Why oh why can't I run my HDD power from PSU to lower HDD cage without going into the MB compartment first?

3. It does not seem possible to run cables along the back.

4. I posted a picture of the screws and where to use them. Read idiot's thread regarding his P180 disaster if you have any doubts.

5. I'm running without the lower fan for now. The HDD reached 41C degrees before I panicked. I opened the front door and lower filter door, and removed the filter. The temperature is now 34C. Closed filter door, filter removed, front door open - 35C.

6. The power LED is visible with door closed. HDD activity is only visible with door open unless you bend down and look into the side of the front bezel. There are two HDD activity connectors and no speakers. I used this to get the POST beeps in case of trouble.

7. Getting the rails in the right position is a little trial and error. For both floppy and optical, use the hole on the rail that will place the front of the rail as close to the front of the device as possible. For optical drives, use the upper of the two rows of holes. If these instructions sound too cryptic, don't worry, just try it out.

8. Bend-to-break plates on the external bays are not great. But at least they break off very cleanly - no jagged edges I could detect. Requires a fair amount of bending back and forth though. No way to re-attach.

johanca · Post by **johanca** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 12:41 am

is it quiet?

Spod · Post by **Spod** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 5:31 am

Those "bend to break" plates - aren't they just supposed to bend 90°, and then the drive sits on top of them? Assuming they're like my 3700 BQE.

idiot · Post by **idiot** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 5:35 am

lenny wrote:OK, finally installed a system. Some more impressions:

1. Cabling is a nightmare. But that depends on your MB and PSU.

2. Why oh why can't I run my HDD power from PSU to lower HDD cage without going into the MB compartment first?

3. It does not seem possible to run cables along the back.

Agreed. Running cables in this case is not fun at all, unfortunately.

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 6:34 pm

Is it quiet? Well, I'll say it has potential. I plan to soft mount the fans and perhaps replace the XP-120 with the Ninja to take advantage of the two exhausts. It's quiet, but by no means silent. The HDD grommets are much better than the Sonata's. I replaced my Sonata's grommets with the ones from the top cage which I'm not using.

Spod : really? I've always broken them off. Hmm, went to check the manual. Instructions said to "remove the metal plate". Looking at the plates, it wouldn't work with the 5 1/4" bay since the tab is on both sides, in the middle. Bending it 90 degrees will result in it blocking the center of the bay. It should work for the 3.5" external bay though since the tabs are along the bottom of the plate.

idiot : didn't realize I'm so obsessed with the cabling

I'd like to see how the SPCR Review unit has its cables routed. I can really use a tip or two.

Freelancer77 · Post by **Freelancer77** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 1:52 pm

8. The grommets for the drives, when viewed edgewise, has one side thicker and one side thinner. I'd imagine that having the thicker side between drive and drive cage will be more effective. However, in the lower cage, the top has the thicker edge between drive and cage, and the bottom has the thinner edge between drive and cage.

In the manual it says to be sure the thicker side of the grommet goes to the drive. Someone wasn't paying attention when they placed the upper ones in that cage. Drives fit nice and snug between the grommets placed thick side in, but there isn't a noticable amount of play if one side is reversed.

I wish they had included a power extension as well, but for the price and the things that are included I can't complain.

The cabling will be a challenge, but not drastic. There will still be quite enough air-flow space.

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 4:10 pm

Freelancer77 wrote:In the manual it says to be sure the thicker side of the grommet goes to the drive.

I wish they had included a power extension as well, but for the price and the things that are included I can't complain.

The cabling will be a challenge, but not drastic. There will still be quite enough air-flow space.

You helped me catch a mistake with my description (since corrected), thanks. But my manual says, for the lower cage, to have the thicker side facing up, which was how it came installed.

The 4 pin ATX12V extension should be an optional accessory at least. I didn't realize they're so hard to find.

The cabling does not block airflow. I removed the upper cage since I'm not using them for anything, so it is very roomy. It's just that I cannot achieve anything close to Ralf Hutter's builds. And I did a pretty good job with cablegami this time, I thought.

Off topic : I guess oricable doesn't sound as catchy as cablegami, though it is technically the correct term. cablegami = cable paper.

Freelancer77 · Post by **Freelancer77** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 10:08 pm

Off topic : I guess oricable doesn't sound as catchy as cablegami, though it is technically more orrect. cablegami = cable paper.

Ahh yes, origami means folded paper, so oricable would be folded cables, and that's what you're trying to say, no?

Back on topic. Is there a high-performance Athlon64 HS that will fit in this case with the VGA duct/manifold/shroud/thingie in place? I understand that the fan placement is meant to encompass the tops of two PCIe graphics cards, but there is still no value in the one inch worth of plastic "above" the fan (meaning toward the top of the case).

I am now just the heatsink away from building this A64 machine up. I was considering the XP120 early on, because of the lower profile (less cantilever pressure), but the Scythe Ninja seems a perfect fit between the P180s big case fans, and the Arctic Cooling Freezer is impressive as well. But unless someone tells me otherwise, I don't think either will allow that VGA box to remain in place unmodded.

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 3:05 pm

Update on lower cage HDD temps without mid case fan:

Drive temp crept up to 46C with door closed. No heavy activity on the HDD.

Opening the front and filter door and removing the filter dropped temperature down to 35C.

Devonavar suggested in one of the threads to close the holes around the PSU. Did that with clear packing tape (top and bottom holes). Did not close the holes along the left and right of the PSU. Temperature is now 39C with door closed.

By the way, I have a question regarding SpeedFan. I have a Hitachi 7K250 SATA and Seagate 7200.8 SATA (250 GB and 300 GB respectively) installed. The temps reported are always identical for the two drives. They go up and down together in lockstep. Now, this could be a fantastic coincidence, but common sense says I'm more likely to strike the state lottery without buying any tickets. I've re-installed SpeedFan to the latest version. Can someone help me out with this?

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 5:36 am

lenny wrote: By the way, I have a question regarding SpeedFan. I have a Hitachi 7K250 SATA and Seagate 7200.8 SATA (250 GB and 300 GB respectively) installed. The temps reported are always identical for the two drives. They go up and down together in lockstep. Now, this could be a fantastic coincidence, but common sense says I'm more likely to strike the state lottery without buying any tickets. I've re-installed SpeedFan to the latest version. Can someone help me out with this?

Maybe Speedfan has problems supporting more than one HDD.

Try Dtemp, it works fine with multiple drives.

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 9:27 am

Ralf Hutter wrote:Maybe Speedfan has problems supporting more than one HDD.

Try Dtemp, it works fine with multiple drives.

Thanks. Last time I tried, it didn't detect SATA drives. I'll give it another try...

sundevil_1997 · Post by **sundevil_1997** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 9:30 am

lenny wrote: By the way, I have a question regarding SpeedFan. I have a Hitachi 7K250 SATA and Seagate 7200.8 SATA (250 GB and 300 GB respectively) installed. The temps reported are always identical for the two drives. They go up and down together in lockstep. Now, this could be a fantastic coincidence, but common sense says I'm more likely to strike the state lottery without buying any tickets. I've re-installed SpeedFan to the latest version. Can someone help me out with this?

I have a strange problem with speedfan. When it starts up, it shows that it detected SMART on both my hard drives. However, for actual temps, it only ever shows just one of them. There's only an HD0 on the temp tab. On the sensor/chipset tab, I can select the HD1 SMART from the dropdown menu, but there is no information there, it's blank. Selecting HD0 shows some info.

Any idea why I can't get two temps out for these HD's? They're both IDE, and on Primary. (Brand/model info for these hard drives doesn't seem to be pertinent, as this happens on all of my computers, and they all have 2 HD's, of varying brands)

dodecahedron · Post by **dodecahedron** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 11:47 am

@lenny, sundevil_1997:
sorry, too tired now to re-type.
for a possible explanation, read these topics:
http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=19953
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview ... id=1618695

BTW DTemp appears not to have been updated since Aug 2002.

Devonavar · Post by **Devonavar** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 11:48 am

sundevil_1997 wrote:I have a strange problem with speedfan. When it starts up, it shows that it detected SMART on both my hard drives. However, for actual temps, it only ever shows just one of them. There's only an HD0 on the temp tab. On the sensor/chipset tab, I can select the HD1 SMART from the dropdown menu, but there is no information there, it's blank. Selecting HD0 shows some info.

Any idea why I can't get two temps out for these HD's? They're both IDE, and on Primary. (Brand/model info for these hard drives doesn't seem to be pertinent, as this happens on all of my computers, and they all have 2 HD's, of varying brands)

No, Brand/Model (and revision) are pertinent. Just because a HDD supports SMART (almost all), doesn't mean it reports temperatures. I believe temperature is considered an "optional" parameter to be reported. Most modern drives do seem to report temperatures, but I did have an old WD1200JB that didn't report temperature. On most drives, temperature isn't one of the variables that can trigger a SMART warning; it's just reported for the sake of being informative. IIRC, the combination of variables considered "relevant" to predicting a failure is set by the manufacturer, so this may also vary from drive to drive.

sundevil_1997 · Post by **sundevil_1997** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 11:52 am

Devonavar wrote:No, Brand/Model (and revision) are pertinent. Just because a HDD supports SMART (almost all), doesn't mean it reports .

Well, that would certainly be an explanation. I've got some Western Digitals, some Maxtors, and some Seagates. Hehe. So, I'll have to find out what they actually are.

The thing is, I think that I've seen that when I have just one HD, it reports the temp. Then, I added a 2nd drive, and it started only reporting the 2nd drive's temp. Again, it's just an impression I had...I'll have to go recheck things.

xarope · Post by **xarope** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 8:49 pm

here's a lucky person in Singapore who just got his hands on one:

http://forums.hardwarezone.com/showthread.php?t=1046660

don't mind the english, we call it singlish...!

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 9:35 pm

According to Yahoo foreign currency converter, it costs about US$150 in Singapore. Not too bad. Sim Lim Square is not exactly famous for great customer service.

I wonder at his comment "lots of dampening material". Not unless he's referring to the packing foam

Just for the heck of it I set the blowhole fan to high to see what effect that has on temperatures. My CPU temp dropped 2C at idle. If I remove the front filter, it dropped another 1C. And it's doing a great imitation of an idling passenger jet.