Antec P180 and WD Raptor - Recommended Setup

[SoopahMan]

I'm using an Antec P180 and 2 Western Digital Raptors. Raptors are rightly known for their heat relative to typical desktop hard drives, so I chose the P180 on what appeared to be a great wind tunnel solution.

Well it is!

I'm using an Antec Phantom 350 (fanless) in the recommended slot, and 2 Raptors in that lower bay, sitting on the grommets. The drives stay quite cool - never above 35C in my few days of using the case so far. This is compared to my previous case where 2 Raptors easily reached 55C each sitting in a relatively dead air area of the case (yes those 2 Raptors are now dead).

So, I've seen a lot of original solutions here, but the way the sealed-off lower fan forces air in from the hard drives and out the PSU really works excellently as designed. A non-fanless PSU might also work OK but I recommend never disabling or removing that middle fan - it's hard to hear it because of its smart placement anyway, and its placement does a good job of encouraging air across the hard drives.

In particular, counting on a PSU fan alone would probably really reduce the air passing over my Raptors. I've seen this idea a lot on this forum - removing that middle fan and counting on the PSU - and I highly recommend against that, this section of the case is one of the best-designed parts.

[Freelancer77]

I'm in complete agreement with you on all counts.

The "conventional" wisdom among those dedicated to silencing their machines is to let the PSU fan do the work in the lower chamber and remove the 120mm TriCool.

There are two arguments against this. One, with the big fan running in there, my PSU fan doesn't even spin most of the time. Two, the result is there's only one fan turning either way, and better it's one cheaper to replace than the PSU.

I've turned my machine on with every other fan disabled, and you can't hear anything from the lower chamber, so that's a done deal in my mind.

The lower chamber with straight-through airflow does indeed keep the HD cage quite comfortable. With four Raptors in mine, I'm very pleased.

Now, if someone is using a pair of drives less prone to heat, or no drives at all in the lower bay, then by all means let the PSU cool itself and remove the 120. Otherwise, for insurance if nothing else, I recommend keeping it (or a quieter replacement if you feel the need) in place.

[SoopahMan]

Exactly! And even if you do have cooler drives you may as well get a fanless PSU in the first place - the placement of that middle fan is really excellent on sound. It's probably quieter for the same amount of airflow than a PSU fan would be.

For the Antec P180 the real challenge is the graphics card, and possibly the RAM. Really in every case the loudest most challenging part today to cool is the graphics card, especially in AMD systems. It annoys me that every case now, especially SFF cases, are designed around keeping the CPU cool - AMD chips already run very cool! The video card is desperate for attention. So there's the place Silent PCers really can step up to the plate right now.

[Andreos]

I'm using an Antec P180 and 2 Western Digital
In particular, counting on a PSU fan alone would probably really reduce the air passing over my Raptors. I've seen this idea a lot on this forum - removing that middle fan and counting on the PSU - and I highly recommend against that, this section of the case is one of the best-designed parts.

I can verify this directly. I have a Seasonic S12-430 and a 74GB Raptor and 300GB Maxline III in the lower drive chamber. Without the fan in the lower chamber the Raptor runs at 40C and the Maxline at 44C. Turning the lower chamber fan on low drops those temps to 35C/39C, and the increase in noise is barley noticeable. Medium speed shaves anothe 2C off those temps, but the noise from the lower chamber fan is objectionable at that speed.

(Temps mentioned are with the ambient room temp about 28C and disks in use, not just idling).

BTW I was surprised to see the Maxline III runs consistently 4C hgher than the Raptor at all times.

[SoopahMan]

On the MaxLine III - yeah I was surprised (disappointed) to see how hot Maxtor's latest set of drives ran too. But they are reaching Raptor speeds, especially in tests where data density matters, so I guess it's a trade... .