Antec Mini P180 Question

Jay85 · 6 Jun 2010 at 22:48

A quick question as im gettin my new case tomorrow and need to make sure of this!

Do i need to remove the drive bays to install 2 optional 120mm fans at the front of the case?

Also is there any pre-cautions i need to take before and while doing the transfer of my components from my old case?

It will be a big help if someone can answer this for me please, thanks! :rolleyes:

CraigN · 6 Jun 2010 at 23:04

yes you do need to remove them both if you want to run fans.

here is how I have mine.

I just removed the lower cage to fit the long 5870 also.

Jay85 · 6 Jun 2010 at 23:17

Dang thats beautiful! I'm running a similiar setup but i'll be gettin the cheaper 5850 instead and the corsair 650 pro modular. Is it easy to work in then this case? I'm abit :S right now about the changeover from my old case... dont wanna damage components so trying to gather as much info and advice as i can.

Hotwired · 6 Jun 2010 at 23:26

I found it pretty simple.

Gets a bit cramped when:

Routing cables between the back of the mobo area and the side door.
Putting something in the bottom two 5.25" bays - squashes up with the psu cables if they're too deep.
Aaaand putting the wires in for the switches and lights on the case but those wossits are always fiddly.

But you're not doing it every day, once its over with it's fine.

If you want to add two 120mm fans you cannot have any of the slots from the HDD cages so it's just the three 5.25" bays left. I personally have two HDD in the bottom two and an optical in the top, it's enough for me.

Jay85 · 6 Jun 2010 at 23:36

I only have 1 hdd at the moment and probably will invest in another at some point. If i do get another fan, i'll need a fan controller of some sort which will take up one of the 5.25" bays... hmmm! I spose the extra fan will have to have a switch on it built in.

CraigN · 7 Jun 2010 at 00:26

i run 2 normal hard disks in the top and i have an SSD in one of the bottom bays in a tray.

I personally dont think you need a 120mm fan in the top bay.

My graphics card temps drop a lot with the lower 120mm fan in there i also use an antec spot cool to route air over my chipset and mosfets as the radiator and its fans sort of blocks air flow there.

Temp wise its 200% better than the Lian Li V351 i was using before.

Hotwired · 7 Jun 2010 at 01:00

Depends what your mobo can do, some (like mine) can control the fan speed in the BIOS.

If you can do that you don't need any fan controller.

Jay85 · 7 Jun 2010 at 01:59

Is the option called Q-Fan or something like that?

Jay85 · 7 Jun 2010 at 02:00

Craig i think i'll go with your setup but i'll use 2 x Sharkoon SE 120mm fans and replace the stock one aswel and keep it as a spare.

Visitor101 · 7 Jun 2010 at 02:49

I have read this to get some insight.

Do I understand correctly that the additional 120mm front fans if used mean you sacrifice one of the HDD cages!!!! I really like to keep my HDDs cool ~ in my current Lian Li I have the HDD cage with two 80mm fans (original preinstalled ones) blowing over them - if the P180 will not do that this would be a downer

Can you mount say an 80mm and still use HDD cage???

Hotwired · 7 Jun 2010 at 04:28

Visitor101 said:
I have read this to get some insight.

Do I understand correctly that the additional 120mm front fans if used mean you sacrifice one of the HDD cages!!!! I really like to keep my HDDs cool ~ in my current Lian Li I have the HDD cage with two 80mm fans (original preinstalled ones) blowing over them - if the P180 will not do that this would be a downer

Can you mount say an 80mm and still use HDD cage???

You can mount two 120mm fans.

But each fan spot blocks a HDD cage. So if you want two in then you need to remove both HDD cages.

I don't think there's even space for a slim fan of any reasonable description when there's a HDD cage in.

If you really want HDD cooling then you could stick them in the bottom 5.25" bays with fans.