Antec P180 - First Impressions (with update)

Freelancer77 · Post by **Freelancer77** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 9:49 pm

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

Perhaps he means the grommets, contact strips for the side panels, the gel strips for the PSU cage, etc. Not all dampening is foam.

Still waiting for mine to fire up for real. Graphics card and PSU on the way. I'm seriously thinking of mounting dust-filter foam in the grilles of the door bezel and the bottom hole, and leaving the front intakes totally naked (no grille doors, no filters). The total area for air to be drawn in through that filtering foam shouldn't impede flow, and certainly won't make as much noise as airflow through the grilles in the front intakes.

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 10:17 pm

Freelancer77 wrote:
lenny wrote:I wonder at his comment "lots of dampening material". Not unless he's referring to the packing foam
Perhaps he means the grommets, contact strips for the side panels, the gel strips for the PSU cage, etc. Not all dampening is foam.

He probably is. I'm also a little surprised at some of his observations:

On to sound level. Many will be very pleased to note that on Low and Medium settings, the fans are almost completely silent. Sitting about 18cm away from the fan on medium and I can barely hear it unless I strain my ears. On high, there is a slight whirring sound, but not overly irritating. And the dampening works real well. I am sitting next to it right now and I hear absolutely nothing...w00t!!!

Suffice to say I totally disagree with his assessment on noise. I just had to jiggle the rear fan a little to stop it from rattling.

Freelancer77 wrote:Still waiting for mine to fire up for real. Graphics card and PSU on the way. I'm seriously thinking of mounting dust-filter foam in the grilles of the door bezel and the bottom hole, and leaving the front intakes totally naked (no grille doors, no filters). The total area for air to be drawn in through that filtering foam shouldn't impede flow, and certainly won't make as much noise as airflow through the grilles in the front intakes.

Not sure if that's worth the effort. You can have the filter door removed and the filter will stay in place with clips. Though there's a fairly large hole around the USB / FW / audio ports where air can enter unfiltered, so some filtering material (or sealing the hole) may be necessary.

xarope · Post by **xarope** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 10:48 pm

sin22 is more of an overclocker than an SPCR kind-of guy, I think he looks at the case more as a well ventilated, well built case as opposed to a pure silence system. Although it does look like he is using some sort of scythe (kamikari?) monster CPU HS. So yes, I'd say his (and my) opinion of "silence" probably differs from SPCR's. I aim for mostly silent as opposed to "I can hear that darn nexus at 700rpm) mode...

SLS ain't that bad, suffice to say if you aren't a local, go with a local friend and hide when he's asking for prices...! I've gone to SLS to buy cameras etc for colleagues who stayed back at the office, and got them deals they simply couldn't believe (and when I was haggling, I heard a salesman quote for a camera at $100 more than what was given to me for my initial quote...

).

Now pondering if I should go and get one myself... sigh... still using an MSI K8T Neo with a AMD64 3200 socket 754. Been waiting for prices to drop on the socket 939s

PPGMD · Post by **PPGMD** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 7:41 am

Ralf Hutter wrote:
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.

Yep, thats in every single Antec case that I have received.

Spod · Post by **Spod** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 11:02 pm

xarope wrote:Now pondering if I should go and get one myself... sigh... still using an MSI K8T Neo with a AMD64 3200 socket 754. Been waiting for prices to drop on the socket 939s

OT - it's probably not worth it unless you want to get an X2 or a 7800GTX to go with the new motherboard. Otherwise, your current system isn't all that slow, compared to reasonably priced 939 offerings.

zan5hin · Post by **zan5hin** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 7:46 am

I'm considering getting one of these cases.

I have an AGP Gigabyte N64128DH passively cooled 6800nu.

A decent picture of it is here:
http://img.neoseeker.com/v_image.php?ar ... 34&image=7
http://img.neoseeker.com/v_image.php?ar ... 34&image=6

Can those who have this case tell me if they reckon it will fit under the VGA duct, seeming it has big-ass heat pipes on top?

Freelancer77 · Post by **Freelancer77** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 8:41 am

zan5hin wrote:I'm considering getting one of these cases.

I have an AGP Gigabyte N64128DH passively cooled 6800nu.

A decent picture of it is here:
http://img.neoseeker.com/v_image.php?ar ... 34&image=7
http://img.neoseeker.com/v_image.php?ar ... 34&image=6

Can those who have this case tell me if they reckon it will fit under the VGA duct, seeming it has big-ass heat pipes on top?

I can tell you this. The distance from the card hold-downs on the back panel to the VGA duct surface is ~15mm. If your card has any parts that rise >15mm from the hold-down screw, it won't fit without additional tweaking.

xarope · Post by **xarope** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 7:58 pm

FYI, I have just fitted the following into the P180 (sorry Spod, I couldn't resist!):
MSI Neo4 Platinum (non SLI) w/AMD64 3200+ (venice)
CNPS 7700 AL-CU (the pure CU seems way too heavy)
Samsung 120GB PATA
Sapphire Toxic X850Pro
Enermax Noisetaker 470W

First Impressions:

- This sucker's heavy (although still manageable), I'm used to being able to pick up a case with both hands just squeezing the sides; to carry the P180 properly without fear of dropping I had to open the front door and use that ledge and the ledge at the back of the case to carry it.
- The Neo4 came with a backplate already glued on, but the CNPS came with a set of long silver screws as well as the normal short bronze ones, so instead of trying to rip the backplate on (and apply the Zalman supplied one), I applied some AS3, replaced the normal silver (and shorter) screws in the mounting plate with these long ones (left the black plastic frame there) and mounted the CNPS7700. Seems to work, CPU temp when left running in BIOS for about 20 mins (so I assume CnQ is not running) is about 39-43'C. That's opposed to my 3200+ clawhammer (MSI K8T)which is about 38-44'C when idle at 800MhZ. Ambient temp is about 30'C (Singapore is not a cool country!). I only just installed WinXP so I haven't had time to install everything else yet (MBM etc) due to the amount of time I spent... more on this below...
- Note to self: in future, fit the DIMMS before you put the CNPS7700 on!
- Fitting the Enermax Noisetaker 470W. This is where the case shows its true colours (and this is not a compliment!)... took me about an hour to just pull the power cables through that slot separating the power supply compartment and the MB compartment, thread stuff through, poke one power cable to the lower HDD compartment to get to the samsung P120, thread the MB cables up (they are braided too, so nice and chunky); the main MB power cable is ok, but the 4pin one had to stretch around the CNPS7700 on the right handside, above the DIMMS, and BAREly reaches the 4pin socket. I hope I don't ever smell melting plastic coz this power cable is just flush against the CNPS7700!
- I took off the 120mm from the top, and mounted it in slow mode on the front upper HDD comparment. So I have the rear and front upper in low speed mode, and left the front (mid?) lower in middle mode.
- the X850 is the loudest thing in the case! Arctic Silencer or VF700 here I come... I hope they fit, I wanted an X800 pro but could not find a PCI express version. The X850 ended up also being a VIVO version, so I hope I will be able to fit the silencer or the VF700 on...

Post by **MikeC** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 8:20 pm

xarope --

Congrats on your successful install. You might be interested to know that Ralf Hutter, SPCR's master of neat & tidy system builds, spends as much as 4-5 hours in getting system wiring just right. It's always the most lengthy part of his build before software installation.

BTW, this is relevant to any P180 user who is using a fan-cooled PSU and wants the lowest noise and good cooling for the HDDs:

Remove the 120mm fan and SEAL OFF the vent holes around the PSU on the back panel.

They are only useful when a fanless PSU like the Antec Phantom is used aloing with the 120mm fan in the lower section. If you are using a fan-cooled PSU, especially one with a bottom mounted fan (92, 120, 140mm), wheat will happen if those additional vent holes are not closed up is that the fans will pull in air from the back side, which means the HDDs don;t get any cooling airflow, and the PSU may suck back in its own hot exhaust. By blocking those extra vent holes, you force the PSU fan to draw the air in from the front of the case, thereby also cooling any HDDs mounted in the 4-bay cage. This is a key feature of the design, and not blocking the extra vent holes makes it useless.

FWY, the 120x38mm fan in the PSU chamber is noisier than the 120x25mm fans in the upper chamber. I personally would not use it in this case at all & if using the fan in the PSU chamber, substitute it for one of the 120x25mm fans (only on low) or a Nexus 120.

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 8:37 pm

MikeC wrote:Remove the 120mm fan and SEAL OFF the vent holes around the PSU on the back panel.

I did that. There is a 5-6 C difference in HDD temperature between having the vents open and taped shut (no mid case fan).

Incidentally, opening the case and filter door, and removing the filter, dropped the HDD temperature by another 2 C. So if your HDD is getting toasty when you're defragmenting, this is something to consider.

The advantage of not having the fan includes not having to route the HDD power cable up to main chamber and back down again.

Freelancer77 · Post by **Freelancer77** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 8:39 pm

xarope wrote:FYI, I have just fitted the following into the P180 (sorry Spod, I couldn't resist!):

...

First Impressions:

...

- Fitting the Enermax Noisetaker 470W. This is where the case shows its true colours (and this is not a compliment!)... took me about an hour to just pull the power cables through that slot separating the power supply compartment and the MB compartment, thread stuff through, poke one power cable to the lower HDD compartment to get to the samsung P120, thread the MB cables up (they are braided too, so nice and chunky); the main MB power cable is ok, but the 4pin one had to stretch around the CNPS7700 on the right handside, above the DIMMS, and BAREly reaches the 4pin socket. I hope I don't ever smell melting plastic coz this power cable is just flush against the CNPS7700!

Nice stuff, pardon the pun!

Don't worry about the 4-pin cable. PSU wire insulation can handle over 175 degrees without coming close to melting, and that's the last thing you'll be upset about if the HS gets to 175. If you think it's necessary, Silverstone makes an extender set for 24-pin ATX and 4-PIN 12v cables, available at Performance-PCs.com

Previously in this thread (or maybe another, hard to keep track), it was mentioned that the bulkhead in the lower chamber that holds the 120mm fan has gaps that might accomodate running the HDD power lines rather than routing over the fan housing.

Potential cable routing location

My case will take a small amount of material removal there to accomplish this, but someone else said their's had room to slip one wire at a time through. Hopefully I'll know if everything will work for me by Tuesday. Come on, Fedex!

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 9:03 pm

Freelancer77 wrote:Previously in this thread (or maybe another, hard to keep track), it was mentioned that the bulkhead in the lower chamber that holds the 120mm fan has gaps that might accomodate running the HDD power lines rather than routing over the fan housing.

I tried that, the gap between the partition (bulkhead) and the "lip" at the bottom of the case is too small to pass individual wires through, and the opening is too small to pass the SATA power connector through (although it is big enough for 4 wires, and then some). I'd say you probably need to attack it with a file, nibbler or dremel.

Alternatively, if you're using 4 pin molex, to power the HDD, you might be able to remove the pins from the nylon housing. thread them through the opening, and re-insert them back into the housing.

xarope · Post by **xarope** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 9:51 pm

MikeC/Lenny, is that a drop of 5-6'C with the vent holes sealed off (and no mid-case fan)? If so, then I'll definitely try that, and it would help with the routing of the power cables to the HDDs. In fact, I'd already noticed the first time I powered it on, that the mid-case fan did not start up as the 2nd connector on the power cable had jammed in there (no damage), so I had to pull the cable back up to the MB compartment to take up the slack (which means I have to feed it back through, everytime I want to pull the lower drive cage out - which I will have to, since I have another samsung 160GB to put in there as backup device+swap file).

Freelancer77, glad to hear that the power cable will take the "heat" (hah hah ... erk). If nothing else, it makes one less cable to try to tidy out of the way since I don't have a choice!

What do you guys reckon, flat cable or braided is better to handle the cabling in the P180? I still need to stick in a floppy drive, another HDD, and re-work the cabling to the DVD (which is using flat for now)

Freelancer77 · Post by **Freelancer77** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 6:58 am

lenny wrote:
Freelancer77 wrote:Previously in this thread (or maybe another, hard to keep track), it was mentioned that the bulkhead in the lower chamber that holds the 120mm fan has gaps that might accomodate running the HDD power lines rather than routing over the fan housing.
I tried that, the gap between the partition (bulkhead) and the "lip" at the bottom of the case is too small to pass individual wires through, and the opening is too small to pass the SATA power connector through (although it is big enough for 4 wires, and then some). I'd say you probably need to attack it with a file, nibbler or dremel.

Alternatively, if you're using 4 pin molex, to power the HDD, you might be able to remove the pins from the nylon housing. thread them through the opening, and re-insert them back into the housing.

Here's a few minutes' work with a blending file, 220 grit and then 600 grit...

Almost there.

Maybe?

Sweet. And notice, that's the "back" side, so the SATA power cables will be close to invisible whether I leave the 38mm fan in place or not.

ereinion · Post by **ereinion** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 7:22 am

Nice work freelancer77, Dremel work??

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 10:17 am

xarope wrote:MikeC/Lenny, is that a drop of 5-6'C with the vent holes sealed off (and no mid-case fan)?

Don't know about MikeC's experience, but my configuration and temps, with drives idle (other than random Windows accesses) :

With vent holes open, no mid case fan : HDD 44 - 45C (Hitachi 7K250 SATA)

With vent holes sealed (all 4 sides), no mid case fan and some tape to seal off the gap for the HDD cables from main compartment to lower cage - probably negligible, but I had the tape out anyway : HDD 38 - 39C.

With vent holes sealed, front door open, filter door open and filter removed : 36 - 37C.

I have a Seagate 7200.8 mounted beside it for all the measurements. There is a gap of 1 drive space between the two drives.

Not much difference in ambient temperature - both taken at night, thermostat says 73F but it's not exactly a precise measuring tool. PSU is a Seasonic S12-430 unmodded with fan facing up. I wish I can tell you the temperature of the Seagate, but somehow it seems to be invisible to SMART.

Freelancer77 · Post by **Freelancer77** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 12:23 am

ereinion wrote:Nice work freelancer77, Dremel work??

Umm, no. Check my text.

Here's a few minutes' work with a blending file, 220 grit and then 600 grit...

I considered doing it the fast way with the face of a cutoff wheel, but did not wish to mar the lower lip surface.

More pics on the way as I prepare for the build. Lots of great ideas/facts/information being spread around about this case, can't wait for the performance review to go along with Ralf's silent build.

Freelancer77 · Post by **Freelancer77** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 7:14 am

Okay, here goes. I decided that the steel poking out from behind the front bezel if the filter doors are open, and to the sides of the 5.25 drive blank-off panels needed a little help...

Masked off

Three coats of Rustoleum hammered black

unmasked

Much nicer that way

While I was at it, after reading Ralf's awesome silent review and seeing his attention to detail, I decided to do a test-build of a few things...

Some wiring detail and fit checking

Tight squeeze on the 6600GT, WITHOUT a fan in the duct

Antec, can you consider an alternate design please?

The VGA duct with an Evercool thin fan would just clear the card (~1mm), but in SLI would only blow on the back of the second vid card. They should hang the drive rails somewhere else and reshape this puppy.

And for anyone who's interested, that Zalman NB47J NB sink will fit fine between two EN6600GT cards. Not much chance with two 6800U's, but then are you really concerned with quiet if you go that route?

I'm more convinced than ever that I'm going to be very happy with this case for a long time.

JerryT · Post by **JerryT** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 9:50 am

Well I have mine up and running.

I have :
DFI NForce 4 Ultra-D
AMD64 3500+ Stock heat sink
Leadtek 6600gt
1gb Corsair ram
Creative Audigy 2ZS
Samsung 160gb (SATA)and Hitachi 125gb (IDE)hard drives
Seasonic S-12 500w PSU

Well, as has been pointd out before, this is a heavy and well built case. I actually prefer the silver/black over the all black unit now that I have it.

Everything on the top side installed easily and presented no problems.

Power supply mounting is very secure with the bracket supplied. As most have pointed out though, the real fun begins when you have to route the cables into the upper area. I would have liked to see a bigger opening on both sides of the mid mounted fan. It gets very tight especially if you are trying to use rounded cables. I finally switched back to regular flat cables to make it easier. The Seasonic S-12 500w unit only has a 16" ATX cable. It was close, and there is no slack to route it other than straight to the connector, but it will work without an extender.

I oeiginally ran the upper area 120 fans both on low, and the lower area fan on medium. I found that after running MS flight simulator, my CPU temp was 38c, system temp 47c, and my GPU was up to 54c.

I then switched the upper fans to medium speed. Now I get 35c on the CPU, 44c system temp, and max 48c on the GPU.

Both hard drives stay right around 35c.

I am not using the supplied video card duct, and have taped up the holes in back for it. The system temp seems to be higher than it was in my ol' 1040 case, but I forgot to take temp readings before I moved everything over to the 180.

Now is it quiet? It definately beats my old 1040 with 4 80mm fans in it. It isn't completely silent, but I wasn't really concerned to get it that way, I just wanted a quieter system. I can now actually hear the chipset/GPU fan over the case fans. With my ceiling fan running on high, I can't hear the computer at all. So overall, I am very happy with the results.

A couple of things I would have liked to see different.
As mentioned in the review, the empty slot covers are very loose, but I have no vibration problems with them.
You also can't see the HDD activity light with the door closed.
Other than that, I really have no other nit picks with the case.

Freelancer77 · Post by **Freelancer77** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 6:36 am

I just posted a stack of pics in a new thread on P180 Modding. No, I'm not going to alter this case, I wouldn't dream of it. It just looked like a nice place to post my buildup.

bobalooza · Post by **bobalooza** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 9:25 am

zan5hin wrote:I'm considering getting one of these cases.

I have an AGP Gigabyte N64128DH passively cooled 6800nu. ... Can those who have this case tell me if they reckon it will fit under the VGA duct, seeming it has big-ass heat pipes on top?

I have Gigabyte's X800XL and I do believe that the pipes interfere with the fit of the VGA duct. I'm sure our pipes are not in exactly the same place, but I wouldn't count on it working. I had always planned on just taping off that inlet anyway, so no biggy for me.

gesundheit · Post by **gesundheit** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 12:11 am

Can someone with this case kindly do a couple measurements for me? I've seen the official specs (included in MikeC's initial tour and Ralf's review) for total height and width, but to squeeze it into the space I'm considering, I need to know the height with the feet off, and the height of the case not including the blowhole vent cover. I'd also like to know the distance from the (left) side of the case to the side of the vent cover, to see if the case can slip alongside my desk (into an 8 1/2 inch gap between furniture that cannot be enlarged, sitting on top of my subwoofer turned on it's side) under the overhanging rim while the vent sticks up beside my desktop. Hopefully it's set in close to an inch. The P180 is just so huge! I thought my G5 mac was big and heavy til now.

Thanks!

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 4:45 am

gesundheit wrote:I need to know the height with the feet off

Height with feet off and top fan guard off: 20 3/16"

Height with feet off and top fan guard on: 21 3/16"

gesundheit wrote:and the height of the case not including the blowhole vent cover.

I assume this means the total height, including the feet. If so: 20 1/2"

gesundheit wrote:I'd also like to know the distance from the (left) side of the case to the side of the vent cover

1 1/8"

gesundheit · Post by **gesundheit** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 8:59 am

Thanks Ralf, exactly what I needed to know. Looks like it will squeeze into that space with about 1/32 inch to spare!

moritz · Post by **moritz** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 1:50 pm

If anybody in Germany/the EU is interested, Frozen Silicon now takes pre-orders for the P180. 159 Euros, though, ow. Didn't want to create a thread for it so I'm just posting this here.