Antec Mini P180 *Rebuild*

[Blackhawk47]

Hey guys,

So here is basically a short review of the case and then me doing a rebuild.

Enjoy

So first off what I got and the package:

With the case out of the box you can see that it looks the part but as far as quality is concerned, it is also top notch, the pictures dont do the justic as anyone with a p182 will understand.

 

[Blackhawk47]

The internals have a very good layout, similar to the p180/p182 expect the top chamber which has one 5.25" drive bay, top hard drive cage (3 hdds), bottom (2 hdds). The bottom chamber houses the power supply and two 5.25" drive bays. Included is two fans both antec tricool, a rear 120mm exhaust fan and a massive 200mm exhaust fan on the top.

The 200mm fan is fantastic as it has high airflow and low noise, even the speed control can be accessed from the back panel. It also acts as good cooling for CPU but also RAM as it basically covers the whole top portion of the motherboard.

Internals:
two removeable hard drive cages, and if removed you can put in two 120mm fans in, ideally the top 120mm fan to be intake for the cpu, and the bottom for gpu.

 

[Blackhawk47]

Right hand side panel removed reveals where cable management can be done:

Along with case is a small white box with the normal screws for installing the motherboard aswell as screws for installing drives, drive rails, 3.5" bay adapter, 4 extra cable ties and more:

Behind the front door: as you can see there is room for two 120mm fans and behind the each fan door is a removeable dust filter.

 

[Blackhawk47]

Right hand side panel removed reveals where cable management can be done:

Along with case is a small white box with the normal screws for installing the motherboard aswell as screws for installing drives, drive rails, 3.5" bay adapter, 4 extra cable ties and more:

Behind the front door: as you can see there is room for two 120mm fans and behind the each fan door is a removeable dust filter.

Internal photo before i start building:

 

[Blackhawk47]

old case - antec 300:

new case - antec mini p180

Motherboard, cpu, ram, graphics card in:

PSU in:

Hard drive in and rear 120mm sharkoon silent eagle

USB, esata, and more case connectors:

 

[Blackhawk47]

Now after connecting everything up i got blue screens when loading windows, a "quick" chkdsk solved that
All finished so now some desk shots:

Internal:

Feel free to comment or ask any questions

EDIT: as for the dvd drive, my old one broke so i will be ordering a new one soon as possible

Cheers

Blackhawk

 

[Blackhawk47]

Good looking case, and seems well built.

I'll stick with my PC-A05 .

The A05 was my first choice to begin with but this case more than suited my needs and in my opinion has some good features, but each to their own i suppose

 

[Blackhawk47]

Upgrade options for me might be this motherboard and then a quad core cpu/new graphics card. There really is plenty of options considering it is a matx motherboard:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-049-DF&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=326

Crossfire? on a matx motherboard ... cool

 

[Blackhawk47]

nice pics and build mate

though i would have cleaned that GTX abit before putting it in your lovely shiny new case

tell me about it, im off out this weekend to get a big can of compressed air though its only a gts 640mb not gtx - though gtx would fit easy enough

EDIT: if anyone is interested, temps have gone up a tiny bit on the gpu from the antec 300. not really noticeable or a concern. cpu is same.

I have 1 rear 120mm sharkoon silent eagle, 1 front intake 120mm sharkoon silent eagle, and the massive 200mm antec fan on top set to low. And the sharkoon fans are the 2000 ones, i have them set to 700rpm using the scythe kaze master fan controller.

the result: the hard drive nearly silent (on its own was very very loud before), the fans simply cannot be heard. With the left side panel off/on you can really tell what the antec sound dampening material does.

New samsung sata dvd drive in the post (cheers ocuk).

Fantastic

 

[Blackhawk47]

http://vr-zone.com/articles/dfi-lp-jr-x58-t3h6-microatx-board-details/6299.html?doc=6299




weep....

Great find mate and thanks for the comments guys

At the moment the 24/4 pin power connector from the psu isnt really getting in the way of airflow, so its good enough for now but that new mobo looks

That motherboard linked above looks really promising. Looks brilliant.

Have you got any pics of your build? I am interested how cable management looks with the better located power connections and so on.

 

[Blackhawk47]

*double post* deleted

 

[Blackhawk47]

Just debating a side panel window at the moment... Difficult to make it look good as the panels are metal-plastic-metal sandwhiches.

I have been curious about putting a side panel window on too, but the acrylic would have to be mounted inside/use black edge moulding, rather than rivetted to the outside of the case. Shame i dont have the tools or the know-how

A little tease for you mate

Also my youtube video of my antec mini p180 - like the music?

 

[Blackhawk47]

hahaha, i actually saw your video before i knew you were here! then i found it here and just laughed out loud.

HOLY SHIZZLES! check that watercooling! daaaamn thats a tight fit!!
look at the reservoir. its a tiny slight angle!!

and is that TISSUE i see?!?!




ok..you know what...i think im gonna give watercooling a miss!! and here i was dreaming of cooling the NB and SB too!!!! MADNESS!!!

looks like he went back to air cooling after that...though i dont see why you couldnt mount a rad on the bottom front 120mm fan, and have a rad at the rear 120mm fan. Or maybe even put it next to the psu in the bottom chamber.

Think i will stick with air cooling for now

 

[Blackhawk47]

I had planned to do something like this with a plexi bracket...

It'll allow the top rad to be mounted to the read fan mount and also to the top fan, probably needed as a heater core isn't lightweight...

I'll take some pics tomorrow.. still mods in progress at the moment.

Good work so far

 

[Blackhawk47]

If it's anything like the P182 (which I expect it will be) then it should be a nice case. I just hate that top top panel

in my opinion the top panel looks much better in person, as it is nice and flush with the case

 

[Blackhawk47]

Sounds good guys, but at the moment i am trying to work out why antec added the 6 vents/holes on the front door of the case. I much prefer the standard antec p182 look, where its just a plain door. Antecs answer is that the mini p180 cannot get as much ventilation through the vents on the side of the door because it is smaller in height when compared with the p182. But it still puzzles me a little.

Also the power led is a bit of a bright white beacon, would you guys bother having it plugged in? I have the hdd light plugged in because its not so "in your face" as it is covered by the door.

 

[Blackhawk47]

Well look forward to your pics of a modded mini p180.

 

[Blackhawk47]

what i also like is there is plenty of room behind the door for fan controllers. I must have nearly 1.5 inches of room at the moment between the dials on my kaze master and the door.

 

[Blackhawk47]

my p180 mini is doing the job well. got the scythe s-flex fans in too so its great. here are some pics, case is big for a micro atx setup. fits the tuniq tower 120 in it easy peasy:


id say this case is deffo worth its 45 quid price tag.

Nice one mate, looks first class

Your 24pin power connection is in a rubbish place, same with mine

 

[Blackhawk47]

Well more than a week has gone by since i have been using this case so i thought id just let you know my thoughts so far.

Its a very quiet case, and everyday i seem to notice how much quieter it is compared with my previous cases (apeiva, antec, etc). A window would be nice one day, but still thinking about it as i dont want to ruin its sleek looks.

Temps:

CPU: 30c HDD: 32c (Bios/Speed Fan)
GPU: 50c (gpuz)

So temps arent to bad and this is with the 200mm top antec exhaust fan on low, 120mm sharkoon intake at 700rpm, and 120mm sharkoon exhaust at 700rpm.

If i turn the sharkoons up to 2000rpm (max) and the 200mm top fan to high i get the following temps:

CPU: 27c
GPU: 45c

All in all its doing great and i really like this case.

EDIT: and i only have currently the 2 120mm sharkoons attached to the fan controller and havent attached any temp probes yet (i wanted to reduce cable clutter) so unsure whether i will bother.