P180- top or bottom harddrive cage? And where to put PSU fan

PoL4RiZ · Post by **PoL4RiZ** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 5:47 am

Should I use the top or bottom harddrive cage for my harddrive?

Also- the PSU cooler is unnecessary for me, since I have a great PSU that cools itself. So where do I put it? Or do I not use it at all?

Also.. I noticed there are no intake fans on this case. Isn't that bad? For instance the Hard drives have no fans to cool them, which might decrease their life expectancy.

GrayBeard · Post by **GrayBeard** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 7:17 am

I mounted 3 drives in the lower bay. I found that the fan in my power supply was running so slow (Seasonic S12 430w) that I didn't have sufficient air flow over the drives without using the fan in the lower bay. With that fan in place with reduced speed, the HDD temps stay in the 30's C.

I also mounted a fan on the back of the upper cage so that it blows on my Northbridge, Video card and TV tuners, all of which are passively cooled. Finally, I use only one exhaust fan on the top of the case to exhaust the heat from my CPU (stays between 39-45C). I closed up the back fan hole with tape.

By replacing the fans with Nexus 120's, my system is barely audible. The only slightly noisy fan is on my CPU and that will be replaced with a nexus fan soon.

dexton · Post by **dexton** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 7:45 am

PoL4RiZ wrote:Should I use the top or bottom harddrive cage for my harddrive?

I have the best experience with the lower cage, it seems sturdier to me.

PoL4RiZ wrote: Also- the PSU cooler is unnecessary for me, since I have a great PSU that cools itself. So where do I put it? Or do I not use it at all?

If you have a PSU with a very slow fan, then the passive airflow wont be enough to cool the harddrives (when placed in the lower cage). I have a Yate Loon at lowest starting voltage down there and my drives stay below 40C.
If you want to try with PSU fan only, then tape up the intake holes on the back, so that the air will only be drawn in from the front (and over the HDDs).

PoL4RiZ wrote: Also.. I noticed there are no intake fans on this case. Isn't that bad? For instance the Hard drives have no fans to cool them, which might decrease their life expectancy.

In the upper chamber there is a fan holder in front of the harddrive cage. In the lower cage there is what you call "PSU cooler", which is partly a PSU cooler (for passively cooled PSUs) but also to increase air speed/amount moving through the bottom chamber, for cooling the HDDs.

BTW, all my original Antec fans (quite average performance) are replaced by Yate Loons.

Johan

PoL4RiZ · Post by **PoL4RiZ** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 8:56 am

by the way my PSU is also a seasonic S12.

Dirty-Harry · Post by **Dirty-Harry** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 5:23 pm

I have a single Hard drive in the lower chamber. I found the Seasonic did not draw enough air in to cool my drive as did GrayBeard. I put a 5v 120mm fan and all is quiet and cool.

marcosv · Post by **marcosv** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 11:22 pm

PoL4RiZ wrote:Should I use the top or bottom harddrive cage for my harddrive?

Also- the PSU cooler is unnecessary for me, since I have a great PSU that cools itself. So where do I put it? Or do I not use it at all?

Also.. I noticed there are no intake fans on this case. Isn't that bad? For instance the Hard drives have no fans to cool them, which might decrease their life expectancy.

I would put the HDs in the lower cage, isolating it from the upper area. If you end up using the lower fan, you might need to put a finger guard in front of it to prevent the cables attached to the lower cage hard drives from interfering with the fan when you slide the cage back into the case. I had to use SATA cables with those newer locking clips to prevent the cables from coming out of the drives, since you need quite a bit of slack in order to slide the HD cage out. It might have helped if I didn't have six SATA drives in my case.

As for intake, the lower fan gets the job done --- the air fliter in front of that lower duct traps quite a bit of dust. Ditto for the upper drive cage fan position.

AntecRep · Post by **AntecRep** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 8:32 am

I put my 4 HD's in the lower chamber, and use the stock fan (low I think, possibly medium) along with my Trio 650. So far HD's are in the mid 30's C.

Remove the upper hd cage and you'll see a fan bracket that holds a 120mm. If you don't install hd's into the upper cage, you can use the wire bracket to install another 120mm which typically lines up to the graphics card. Just be careful as longer cards restrict how much space you have (my 7950's PCIE connector is pretty close to that fan).

TaeOH · Post by **TaeOH** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 11:07 am

I was wondering if people replaced the stock fans or not. On high they are loud.

Do you guys recommend the Yate Loons over the Nexus 120's?

Also, are you saying the optional fan install in front of the upper HDD cage and not behind it toward the front of the case? If that is so it will probably mess up my plans. My HIS IceQ3 X1900XT is the length of the motherboard.

metalmorphasis · Post by **metalmorphasis** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 4:00 pm

I heard the Yates are the way to go, directly into the motherboard would be logical..
I myself am considering any 120mm fan(s) So long as it has three wires and plugs into the mobo headers.

metalmorphasis · Post by **metalmorphasis** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 4:10 pm

Yeah, The Loons are good for the $, no question.

http://www.coolerguys.com/840556021537.html

stromgald · Post by **stromgald** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 6:31 pm

Nexus fans are basically Yate Loon fans with an added resistor so that it runs slower. They may have tweaked the electronics a little elsewhere too, but its essentially the same fan. You can find cheap Yate Loon fans at Jab-tech.com

TaeOH · Post by **TaeOH** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 8:25 am

I went ahead an ordered three Yate Loons.

I am wondering if the bottom fan is really needed in my P180 too? I have a Seasonic S12 600w and 3 HDD's in the lower cage and it would be a lot easier to manage the wires if I can get rid of the lower cage fan.

What do you use to monitor temps on the HDD"s? I am thinking they would be the only reason to have the fan, I am pretty sure my PSU could cool itself.

I am also going to look at moving the fan to in front of the HDD's.

P180- top or bottom harddrive cage? And where to put PSU fan

P180- top or bottom harddrive cage? And where to put PSU fan

Re: P180- top or bottom harddrive cage? And where to put PSU

Re: P180- top or bottom harddrive cage? And where to put PSU