Antec P180 Design Suggestions

acaurora · Post by **acaurora** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 2:48 pm

I don't know what else to call this - I have had a very hard time in cleaning up the cable mess in my P180 and it didn't really help. One thing I want to know is why there is the metal plate seperating the bottom from the rest - I understand the objective is to create an isolated airflow down there for the PSU, but they seriously need to rethink the way they allow cables to go, because it was extremely hard for me, and it still looks horrible. So, I'll start:

1. Enlarge the openings on the seperator metal plate to give more slack / room for cables to go through. It is NOT fun trying to fit the ATX 24 pin connector and all the other connectors in through a tiny 3 x 1 inch slot -.-;;

2. Create some sort of diagonal divider in the lower chamber so that wires will not get near the fan, or just use a fan grille for the lower 38mm fan. My PSU wires come VERY close to the fan, and I am still worried it'll damage it somehow.

3. Fix the bulging issue with the front door - I've had the door locked for a week straight now with little improvement.

Those are my only gripes - proof:

Don't get me wrong, I love my P180 in its design, it's just that there are a few flaws that really bother me.

vertigo · Post by **vertigo** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 2:43 am

That can't be the best you can do with the wiring...

acaurora · Post by **acaurora** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 8:23 am

Well what do you suggest?

Gxcad · Post by **Gxcad** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 9:31 am

zip ties, electrical tape, organization, tuck cable slack behind things, get them out of the path of airflow as much as possible. To be aesthetically pleasing, tuck them in the back (looking in from the left side of the case). See gallary section for inspiration (as I did). Mine is not great but its not that bad either.

-Ken

BlueCan · Post by **BlueCan** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 9:48 am

acaurora wrote:Well what do you suggest?

Here's some ideas to try...

You can probably route the main power underneath the MOBO.
If you've got to run drives in the upper section, put your PATA drives there and your SATA's in the lower. Otherwise all in the lower
Pull the fan in the lower section. You might not need it. If you *do*, try using your dremel so you can still route power to your drives AROUND the fan.
Route the power to the (lower bay) drives through the (now open or cut) hole(s).
Get rid of your "round cable" and put a flat one in there.
Route your (remaining 2) fan power cables together to a single 4-pin molex, and under the MOBO (it looks like they've got sufficient length...).
Run the "daughtercard" cable under the MOBO to the same molex you used for the fans.
For anything that has to run across the MOBO, run it flat against the MOBO, if possible. Then route once it's crossed the MOBO.
You might try flipping the PSU over and see if that makes anything easier.
Pull the "extra" heatblock out of your H2O loop (Yeah, I know, you don't want to do that).

I'm assuming that you've taped over the holes around the PSU in the back--to ensure that all the air in that chamber is coming over the drives...
-Patrick

Pgh · Post by **Pgh** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 10:38 am

acaurora wrote:Well what do you suggest?

One thing you could do is to get rid of the Antec plastic fan mount thing and mount a Nexus/Yate Loon directly to the case without the plastic thing. That will give you about an additional half inch of clearance between the fan blades and the PSU wires.

nici · Post by **nici** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 11:05 am

Heres a pic of my P180, wich i think i´ve done a pretty good at cable management. Granted i dont have hdds in the upper chamber, and only one optical drive and a Zalman fan controller in the drive-bays.

Clicky! Clicky! (image too big to post directly.)

Aleksi · Post by **Aleksi** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 11:37 am

Nice and clean job Nici!

Where did you buy those Coolermaster fans from? (I'm a cheap ass in hope of a cheap source)

Pgh · Post by **Pgh** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 11:43 am

What is that little fan and how is it attached to the northbridge heatsink? Is it really needed?

There's a loose screw in the bottom by the PSU.

BillyBuerger · Post by **BillyBuerger** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 1:02 pm

Nici, nice action photo of the Nexus.

nici · Post by **nici** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 1:45 pm

Aleksi wrote:Nice and clean job Nici!

Where did you buy those Coolermaster fans from? (I'm a cheap ass in hope of a cheap source)

Thanks

I bought them from www.only4pro.com for 14.80€, i usually pick my orders up at the warehouse(they are just an online store with no actual shop) but the orders i´ve had delivered thru mail were shipped the same day i ordered them

Very nice fans i might add, no motor or bearing noise to speak of.

Phg wrote:What is that little fan and how is it attached to the northbridge heatsink? Is it really needed?

The little fan is a tiny TITAN 50x10mm fan rated for 7,7CFM and 27dBA at 12V, i run it at 5V when its completely inaudible even from close range and it dropped chipset temps during load from 65c to 50c

Currently its just attached with some double sided tape, ill attach it more firmly soon. I just put it there to see what effect it might have, and mind you it was quite significant even though its probably pushing just 2-3CFM.

So yes in my setup it is really needed, maybe because the passively cooled overclocked x800XL warms up the air just under the chipset. The temp. drop during load speaks for itself. Chipset idles at 47c, and only rises to 51c max. If i crank it up to 12V idle temp is 36c.

Phg wrote: There's a loose screw in the bottom by the PSU.

Oh, thanks for spotting that screw, i lost it while installing the cpu heatsink but didnt find it then

acaurora · Post by **acaurora** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 2:53 pm

nici wrote:Heres a pic of my P180, wich i think i´ve done a pretty good at cable management. Granted i dont have hdds in the upper chamber, and only one optical drive and a Zalman fan controller in the drive-bays.

Clicky! Clicky! (image too big to post directly.)

Again, I don't really see how that helps me, as I have 2 PATA Drives, 2 SATA drives, a DVD burner, a floppy drive, and... that's pretty much it. However comments about routing it behind the mobo tray might work.

EDIT: So I took my computer off, and messed around with the idea of routing behind the mobo tray... well because there are no spaces behind the tray without preventing the right side panel from being put back on, I simply tried rerouting the cables towards my PATA HDDs (now in the upper chamber instead of the lower chamber), and then straight up. It looks neater, really. I routed the fan / EXOS Control board cables along the edges and to the top, instead of routing to the bottom because it would create more of a mess. All in all, it definately is cleaner, especially by the bottom chamber.

Any more thoughts (other than removing the hanging waterblock)? It concerns me that I will have fresh air coming in through the back open PCI slot, pushed out by the 7800 GTX only to mix in with the air warmed up by the Nexus in front pushing air in between my two raptors. Hopefully the three(!!! 1 on back, 1 top, 1 PSU) 120mm fans set to exhaust are helping in some way...

vine-au · Post by **vine-au** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 5:21 pm

damn nice job on the wiring nici

(apart from those ugly green fans and UV cabling

)
and acaurora - you SURELY must be able to clean up your cabling more than that - looks like spagetti in there! a bit of planning and forethought and you wont have such a mess to deal with. as far as your gripes with the case go - the door bulge seems to be a common issue but if you lock the door when you're not using the pc it will straighten up quite a lot.

acaurora · Post by **acaurora** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 9:02 pm

My door has been locked for about a week straight - it still bulges.

The PSU sleeving kit that came with my S12 I probably could use, but I don't think it would help by much.

Ackelind · Post by **Ackelind** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 10:05 pm

I belive some people over at a swedish forum found a solution to the bulging problem. Send antec a mail with a scan of your invoice, and you should recieve a new front panel! Obviously it was a problem with the first cases shipped but it is supposted to be fixed now.

acaurora · Post by **acaurora** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 10:17 pm

Bleh I give up. Since my CPU is watercooled, and everything else runs within normal temps, I'm fine, and i don't care. Now it looks DECENTLY neat, and that's all that matters, LOL!

Lubb · Post by **Lubb** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 1:14 pm

I got the Nexus fans in today, and the P180 is even quieter with them in than the stock tri-cools.
------
And my wiring is still a mess too. I tried to see what could be helped, but found nothing. I don't think it can be cleaned up, with the lengths of what I have and all, the dual-ended power cables. There's just no way--you can't run the wiring "to" anywhere, behind anything, it ain't long enough. And you can't straighten it out, because of the different things it has to power and the fact that there's two power plugs on each power cable. And I need all the power cables as it is.
~

vine-au · Post by **vine-au** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 3:40 pm

i got a sleeving kit too (black), and a PSU connector kit (black) but i cbf'd pulling the whole system apart again right now (too tedious in the P180) until i upgrade again in a few months.
i do find it a bit odd that i would spend so much time (and $) pimping out the internals of this case considering it doesnt have a window

but then it's the tweaking that I love, not the end result.

Burner27 · Post by **Burner27** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 6:55 am

What is the rated CFMs of the 2 x 120mm x 25mm tricool fans and the 120mm x 38mm fan down below?

Thanks

acaurora · Post by **acaurora** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 2:59 pm

I don't know - I'm sure that the information you're looking for can be found in the P180 review or on Antec's website.

blunden · Post by **blunden** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 1:25 am

Ackelind wrote:I belive some people over at a swedish forum found a solution to the bulging problem. Send antec a mail with a scan of your invoice, and you should recieve a new front panel! Obviously it was a problem with the first cases shipped but it is supposted to be fixed now.

That was me. My top fan rattled (now it doesn't anymore after going to and from a LAN) so I mailed Antec and thought that I may ask about the front door as well. They told me that it is actualy covered by warrenty. Just scan your invoce and we will send it to you. I just hope the new ones doesn't bulge.

Bar81 · Post by **Bar81** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 6:37 am

You don't even need to scan your invoice. I got off the phone with a rep yesterday and they're shipping me a new door just because I asked.