Antec case and 8800 GTX?

dUcKy

dUcKy

dUcKy

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Joined
10 Oct 2004
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Location
UK, London
Hey guys, time for my next upgrade, and here the specs are. I'm not buying it just yet, but will do in the near future ( next month perhaps ).

Basket listing:
basketss3.jpg



This is a good system I know, but feel free to comment. Main points I am not sure over are:

  • Will the 8800gtx fit in the antec case?
  • Will 620 Watts be enough?
  • Will the power connector for the mobo be long enough to reach? ( The p180 advanced has the PSU placed at the bottom of the case)
  • Will the ram and motherboard combination be condusive for a good overclock?
  • finally, what is a decent air cooler? I've heard the thermalright ultra 120...


Thanks guys.
 
dUcKy said:
  • Will the 8800gtx fit in the antec case?
  • Will 620 Watts be enough?
  • Will the power connector for the mobo be long enough to reach? ( The p180 advanced has the PSU placed at the bottom of the case)
  • Will the ram and motherboard combination be condusive for a good overclock?
  • finally, what is a decent air cooler? I've heard the thermalright ultra 120...


Thanks guys.
Click to expand...

1. Not sure.
2. Yes, easy.
3. Not sure.
4. The RAM guarantees a good overclock as it's very high speed RAM. The motherboard is expensive though. Probably a little too expensive. The Gigabyte P35 boards are popular here and are great overclockers. Look into one of those and save yourself £70.
5. Tuniq Tower, Ultra-120 Extreme, Noctua are popular coolers.
 
Well I can't answer all of your questions, but I do know that the card will fit in that case, however you MAY need to remove the top hard drive bay for it to be a good clean fit.
 
I wouldnt put a tuniq tower on the 680i EVGA board as i think it interderes with some resistors on the back of the board
 
thanks for the input, would it be pushing it to as whether my current 480W tagan would be enough to power it all?
 
P182 is the updated p180. It has much better cable management. Really is a nice case and good air flow
Plus Antec have a great rma.
Mine had a noisy fan and needed a replacement, I received it in 4 days ;)
 
dUcKy said:
  • Will the 8800gtx fit in the antec case?
  • Will 620 Watts be enough?
  • Will the power connector for the mobo be long enough to reach? ( The p180 advanced has the PSU placed at the bottom of the case)
  • Will the ram and motherboard combination be condusive for a good overclock?
  • finally, what is a decent air cooler? I've heard the thermalright ultra 120...
Click to expand...

1. Yes, but you will need to remove the front hard drive bay. The card is too long for the hard drive bay to stay in the machine, so you'll have to use the lower cage instead. Just make sure you mount a fan in the bottom area, otherwise your hard drives will overheat. The lower cage will fit 2 hard drives in total, but you can use a section of the 5.25" bays to hold 2 more if you position then right (just in case you have more than 2 hard drives).
2. Yes, definetly.
3. You will have a little bit difficulty with the motherboard 12v connector. The 12v can be a major issue and you might want to invest in an extender for it. The main motherboard power lead however is fine, you'll have enough length to reach the board.
4. Yes, but I wouldn't bother with a 680i if you only plan to run one card. I'd just get the 650i.

Might I also suggest getting another 120mm high performance case fan for intake purposes. The default layout of the P180 fans tends to be 2 extracts (one at the top of the case and one at the back) and one to cool the lower hard drive bay and PSU, therefore there is no intake but you do get a holder to place one in there.
 
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well I have 4 HDD's, 3 of which are IDE :S one has to go.

Been doing more reading, and I'm thinking that it would be wise to wait until some DX10 games are released in order to gauge what type of performance these initial DX10 cards (8800 / 2900) will offer.

The link did not work?

I will check out the p182 - thank you.

Would it be correct to assume that a cpu such as the E6600 will be enough to run most games for years to come? ( in tandem with an Uber gfx card). If that is the case, what is everyones thoughts on buying a stop-gap gfx card in anticipation of the Nvidia ( October ? ) release of next-gen cards?

Another thing DDR3... is this new RAM format going to have a longer lifecycle than DDR2? I have no idea as to AMD's plans concerning memory support; perhaps they are planning to go DDR3 with their new architecture?

Too many questions, too much money, too short a lifespan.

**EDIT**
for the 12V extender, is it the 8-pin?

thanks guys.
 
  • Will the 8800gtx fit in the antec case?
  • Will 620 Watts be enough?
  • Will the power connector for the mobo be long enough to reach? ( The p180 advanced has the PSU placed at the bottom of the case)
  • Will the ram and motherboard combination be condusive for a good overclock?
  • finally, what is a decent air cooler? I've heard the thermalright ultra 120...

I've got a EVGA 8800GTX it does fit but you will need to remove the upper hdd bays (they arent needed unless you have more than 4 drives)

Yes... A corsair HX 620w is a very very good PSU as I own one... it can easily run more than your spec'd machine.

Power connector reaches fine... as mentioned already go for a P182... it has much better cable management... I'm able to run my cables at the back giving much better airflow inside my case.

I haven't tried the ram you've mentioned but I would recommend some Crucial ram as I'm using some myself now and it really is great!

I'm using a Tuniq tower on my EVGA 680i board... it has issues with fitting on the older revision but with the newer revision it fits fine... It's highly unlikely anywhere sells the old revision. The Tuniq tower is a great cooler... but if I was to change my cooler I'd probably get a Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme(Note I said extreme ;)... as it does knock of a bit more off the temps)... as it's probably the best air cooler out there right now.

If you have any other questions don't hesitate to ask... as I've got a system which is very similar to the one your building...

Here's a pic of my insides :p

http://tsjhangra.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/pictures/h.jpg

That was when I was using a Arctic Freezer 7 Pro (I wouldn't recommend this if you plan to overclock)... As you can see I've removed the upper HDD bay and fitted my GTX... I've also now got three drives in the lower bay :)
 
Oh I forgot to mention that there is only 1 IDE port on the motherboard (This is the case with most boards now)... meaning you will only be able to use two of your IDE drives... I'd make the switch to SATA now if I was you ;)

SATA DVDrw can be picked up for £20 and a I'd recommend a pair of WD AAKS drives in RAID 0 ;)
 
killer_uk said:
You can fit 4 hard drives at the bottom? Also, I couldn't fit the lower chamber fan in with all the cables, but my hard drives stay at a safe temperature. :)
Click to expand...
I can only get 2 of them in, if I try to get another one in, they hit each other and scrape together. Without that fan at the bottom middle, my hard drives can hit 45 - 50c and it causes BSODs.
 
killer_uk said:
Very strange. There's plenty of room. :confused:

Click to expand...

Unless your putting them in the wrong way... four should fit fine... i've got three installed.
 
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