Would upgrading to a P180 be a significant improvement?

[PzyMazter]

Well I'm doing my hardest to quiet my PC that I've had for a couple of years because I got spoiled from using a nice centrino laptop that was dead quiet 90% of the time.

My current setup:
Case is a Lian-Li 6070 non-plus with the metal grates still in place
ASUS K8V Deluxe (not second edition)
Socket 754 A64 Clawhammer 3200+ 2.0ghz
(with cool & quiet it's often nowhere near that speed)
Seasonic 600 watt PSU
Visiontek X850XT PE w/ Zalman VF700-CU
Crappy stock cpu cooler fan
3 crappy generic 80mm fans, trying to figure out how to effectively and efficiently underclock them with little success thus far

I was on the verge of buying some new Nexus 80mm case fans to replace the old ones and devise some form of voltage control so as to run them at 7v (or 5v if 7v is really that dangerous to the PSU), but I realized that my case sucks. It's not quiet, it's scratched up, and I like everything about it but the fact that it only uses 80mm fans. Perhaps getting a new case would do a world of good for my quiet situation? Would this be better than buying new case fans, perhaps?

I think I'll need a new CPU cooler of some sort regardless of what I do, as right now I just have what looks like an 80mm fan mounted on it and it's loud and inefficient. I don't have any idea what to look for, and some of this stuff is going on a christmas wishlist . So the sooner I can decide the better it is for everyone. Would a P180 be a great improvement, or would it be better to actually get quiet components and to just live with my nice Lian Li case?

[Shadowknight]

1. Replace the heatsink with a Scythe Ninja cause frankly? I'm not aware of a single stock heatsink that's remotely quiet. You can run it passive or mount the 120mm fan of your choice.
2. You can try cutting out the grills on the Lian Li. The older models have some of the most restrictive grills you can find, inhibiting airfkow around 50%, making it harder to cool, and increasing turbulence noise. If you choose to stick with your current case, cut out the grills and put in Nexus if price isn't a problem, Panaflos if you're looking for quiet, yet cheap, fans.
3. Get a fan controller for sure. Practically required when making a quiet computer. By the way, it's undervolt, not underclock.
4. In any quiet PC - decouple the drives through foam or elastic suspension and get some rubber/silicon fan isolators. Aluminum vibrates a lot, but even with steel cases you need to do the above to minimize/eliminate resonance.

Anyway, at least decouple the drives/fans, buy the Ninja, get a fan controller, and cut out the fan grills. From there, you can decide whether it's quiet enough or if you might want to upgrade the case. By doing the above first you don't yet need to worry about buying a bunch of 120mm fans if you later go to the P180, where you then might consider replacing the stock fans with Nexus 120mms.

[PzyMazter]

The real question is would buying a P180 be as helpful as anything else I could do?

If my case is loud and it will always be loud, perhaps I'm not looking at the right solution by replacing fans and trying to custom mod it.

[swaction]

forget about justifying it - just buy one =)

(they rock)

[Gordoco]

I think the P180 will help a bit, but it's probably not the holy grail to quietness. Replacing fans and heatsinks would be cheaper than replacing the case, and probably have more impact (except for the visual impact of the P180). Best thing would be to find out which component is the noisiest and replace or mod it. Repeat until it's quiet enough or you've run out of money.

I can provide a comparison. I recently replaced my Enlight case with a P180. I consider my current PC to be moderately noisy. The video card fan is my loudest component, followed by the CPU fan. I'll be building an entirely new "quieter" PC in a couple of months but I went ahead and bought the P180 since it was on sale last month. The P180 will eventually host the new PC. Meanwhile, I transplanted my current system to the P180. Everything is the same expect the P180 and the case fans (two 80mm Panaflos in the old case).

I can subjectively say that the P180 seems slightly quieter than the old case. But more importantly, the character of the noise is better. Specifically, the whine of the video card fan is less objectionable. I can still hear it but the P180 muffles it somewhat. Also, I was pleasantly surprised that the seek noise from my hard drives is less pronounced now, either due to the silicon rubber mounts or the overall muffling effect of the case. I didn't really consider the seek noise to be a problem before, but it's nice that it's now less noticable.

If I were serious about making this system quiet, I would replace the video fan and CPU heatsink/fan, but since I'm building a new system in a couple of months I don't want to spend money on this one. The P180 made a slight difference, but not enough by itself to turn this moderately noisy PC into a quiet one. But it looks soooo nice.

[Shadowknight]

The real question is would buying a P180 be as helpful as anything else I could do?

If my case is loud and it will always be loud, perhaps I'm not looking at the right solution by replacing fans and trying to custom mod it.

Well, my suggestions are things you should do anyway in making a quiet computer. The parts I recommended can be reused if you transfer over the P180 at a later date. Replacing the 80mm fans might be a waste, if you decide to switch over the P180 later down the road, while you will always be able to use the fan controller, new CPU heatsink, new VGA sink, etc. It's always a good idea to have metal snips, and cutting out crappy grills can help a lot. If you like your current case, replacing it should be your last step. As the other poster said, the case will only help so much in reducing acoustic noise from currently loud components. It will mostly help with vibrational noise and comes with quiet CASE fans. Everything else is up to you.

[PzyMazter]

Well I'm thinking I should go ahead and get it, anyone advise against wasting my money?

[dddibley]

Shame to replace it.. it's a nice looking case. My recent experience (RaidMax 5x80mm to Sonata II) was rather interesting. I've realized the most important sound control item is the PSU. If that's OK then build a simple fan controller for the 80s. Luckily, the front fan holes are as good as it's going to get.

From what I gather the rear is actually an intake/CPU duct on the 'Plus' model.. which includes a blower out the back for exhaust. If yours isn't the Plus.. there's a serious exhaust issue here. Lose the mesh on your current exhaust. How about a low speed 120mm blow hole up top.. or a 92mm on the floor ? Maybe mod it to a Plus model. That sounds like fun to.

Your VGA card looks good, which leaves the CPU HSF. Been looking at the Scythe Ninja myself.. it's awesome. Lots of control options there.

I'd definitely keep the Lian Li. You can do a lot of modding for the price of a P180 case.

ddd

[Thomas]

As others said: The CPU cooler and fan controller are mandatory, regardless of the case. So start with them, and see (listen) if thats satisfying. Zalman fanmates are cheap, and seem to be popular.

EDIT: Several of the P180 fans, are TriCool, which could mean that fan controllers aint needed.

At this point, I think an important question is: Do you like spending time on DIY ?

A few quickies:

Decoupling the current case fans is pretty easy and cheap, so I would try that also. Decouplers can be re-used for other fans later.

A simple mod, seems to be suspending the HDD in the current HDD cage with elastics.

But if you want to get a solution, which is pretty quiet from the beginning, I believe you shold aim for the P180.

Thing about modding, is that you might end up with a solution, which you aint sastified with. If you've spent much time and money, it might be a dissapointment. Especially, if you cut in that good-looking Lian Li case, you probably cant get much for it, if you sell it.

That said, I think that this case looks good and have several nice options for modding. The front bezel also seems good: No direct sound paths, yet a relatively open air intake at the buttom.

If you're able to cut an extra hole in the rear, so you can have TWO 80 mm fans, it gets real interesting. Because two 80 mm moves the same air as one 120, but with less noise.

Then cutting the grills.

Since it's aluminium, you might want some acoustipack also. But even with some nice new 80 mm fans and acoustipack and some elastic and fan decouplers, the budget should be much lower than a P180.

It seems to me, that some people do DIY in the P180, with elastic suspension of the HDD's. But that will depends on your noise sensitivity AND your HDD(s).

Look, touch 'n' feel, and taste is personal; To me, that Lian Li thing looks way better than a P180.

[conceptsurfer]

Well I'm doing my hardest to quiet my PC that I've had for a couple of years because I got spoiled from using a nice centrino laptop that was dead quiet 90% of the time.

My current setup:
Case is a Lian-Li 6070 non-plus with the metal grates still in place
ASUS K8V Deluxe (not second edition)
Socket 754 A64 Clawhammer 3200+ 2.0ghz
(with cool & quiet it's often nowhere near that speed)
Seasonic 600 watt PSU
Visiontek X850XT PE w/ Zalman VF700-CU
Crappy stock cpu cooler fan
3 crappy generic 80mm fans, trying to figure out how to effectively and efficiently underclock them with little success thus far

I was on the verge of buying some new Nexus 80mm case fans to replace the old ones and devise some form of voltage control so as to run them at 7v (or 5v if 7v is really that dangerous to the PSU), but I realized that my case sucks. It's not quiet, it's scratched up, and I like everything about it but the fact that it only uses 80mm fans. Perhaps getting a new case would do a world of good for my quiet situation? Would this be better than buying new case fans, perhaps?

I think I'll need a new CPU cooler of some sort regardless of what I do, as right now I just have what looks like an 80mm fan mounted on it and it's loud and inefficient. I don't have any idea what to look for, and some of this stuff is going on a christmas wishlist . So the sooner I can decide the better it is for everyone. Would a P180 be a great improvement, or would it be better to actually get quiet components and to just live with my nice Lian Li case?

There comes a time to leave the world of thin aluminum cases and poor air flow behind. Lian-Li mostly makes cases that look better than they work. And to be candid, it is not worth fixing these old cases. If you have 3 drives or less, the Antec P150 (not P180) would be a good choice. You can suspend your drives which is something you cannot do on the P180 without mucking around with DIY stuff. Add a good heat sink like a Ninja and a front intake fan -- Nexus 92mm or other quiet fan -- and you're set. Do all the right things and soft-mount the fans including the Antec rear case fan. Or maybe replace the rear case fan with a soft-mounted 7v Nexus 120mm and place another 7v Nexus 120mm on the heatsink. You'll have a very quiet system.

The P180 was a breakthrough design. But the lack of suspended drives and other issues (see the list at the beginning of the SPCR P150 review) really shows it age. These P180s are being blown out as it is likely Antec is readying a replacement. The P150 is really the best case you can buy today for small systems that do not generate mega heat. The P180 is better at exhausting heat due to the large number of 120mm fans. But you should not have that problem.

Good luck.