Antec P180 & choice of PSU

[Shackley]

Hi

I am thinking of using an Antec P180 case in a graphical / analysis workstation I am building (not used for games). I understand that this case has possible problems with PSUs for two reasons related to the PSU being in a separate compartment :
a) the cooling fan should be at the back rather than on top.
b) the cables need to be unusually long to reach the motherboard and peripherals such as a DVD writer

I plan to use :
o Asus AM2 nForce 590 SLI motherboard
o AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000
o 4 x 1Gb PC6400 DDR2 RAM
o 4 x SATA HDDs
o two 7900GT 256Mb graphics cards to support 3 x 19" flat panels

I do know that the new Intel chips are faster and will probably be cheaper than the AMD AM2 series - but they aren't generally available yet.

Does anyone have any experience of this case?
What PSU have you used?

Any help / feedback would be much appreciated.

 

[samcat]

Hiper type-r PSU.
As you can see it has a fan on top of it.. you can orientate it with the fan pointing up or down, the way it mounts leaves room around it for the fan to work correctly.
The important thing is the COMBO of the motherboard and psu.. some boards have the 24 pin and 4 pin connectors in the most awkward of places.

On mine you can see the 24pin isnt a problem(top right), but the 4 pin is in the very top left, I had to solder an extension onto it!

Cya,
Sam C

 

[Shackley]

As you can see it has a fan on top of it.. you can orientate it with the fan pointing up or down, the way it mounts leaves room around it for the fan to work correctly.
The important thing is the COMBO of the motherboard and psu.. some boards have the 24 pin and 4 pin connectors in the most awkward of places.

On mine you can see the 24pin isnt a problem(top right), but the 4 pin is in the very top left, I had to solder an extension onto it!

Many thanks for this - a beautifully laid out case. I am really impressed that you have even gone to the trouble of taping-up around the disk caddies, very tidy!

I understand about orienting the PSU with the 120mm fan at the top, but won't this cause problems as a result of the narrow gap that the air has to use to get to the fan and aren't you logically drawing hot air 'down' through the PSU rather than up through it?

I get the impression that you have abandoned the additional (Antec) 120mm fan in the PSU/Disk area - is that right?

Highly recommended though this case is, I do get the impression that Antec didn't entirely think through air flow in the region of the PSU.

 

[samcat]

Many thanks for this - a beautifully laid out case. I am really impressed that you have even gone to the trouble of taping-up around the disk caddies, very tidy!

Lots of dynamat to reduce noise, taped the pull out hoops down as one was loose and felt like it might rattle sometime...

I understand about orienting the PSU with the 120mm fan at the top, but won't this cause problems as a result of the narrow gap that the air has to use to get to the fan and aren't you logically drawing hot air 'down' through the PSU rather than up through it?

Nope, as the PSU area is seperated from the rest of the case, its just drawing in air from above the psu, ultimatly it pulls it in from the bottom front of the case. Its not a problem, the psus fan doesnt even ramp up its speeds.

I get the impression that you have abandoned the additional (Antec) 120mm fan in the PSU/Disk area - is that right?

Yes, it didnt offer any benefit to me (no HDD's in the lower chamber) and got in the way of the wiring (makes it a REAL fiddle to wire with that there)

Highly recommended though this case is, I do get the impression that Antec didn't entirely think through air flow in the region of the PSU.

Its fairly well thought out, as the psu doesnt interfere with the motherboards airflow, and the main components dont heat the psu up causing it to speed up its fans... I am MORE than happy with the case, only issue is the psu->motherboard wiring... Length can be an issue.

Cheers,
SaM C

 

[Shakey_Jake33]

In my opinion, the P180 reqlly *requires* modular and a long power cable. I have a Seasonic S12 currently which fails both of these... non-modular is a real pain in the ass with this case being such a tight fit with the PSU wires and wherre to put them, and the power cable pulls tight on the GPU.

For the new machine I'm building, I'm going Enermax Liberty.

It's a brilliant case though, well worth the few hurdles.

 

[samcat]

Sam cat, can i ask what temps your running?

Cpu is currently at 45oC (just exited a game).
I never believe the onboard sensors, they just give a good relative indication of if your pc is hot or cold... useless for comparisons to other peoples pc's.
Its stable, and the heatsink is just warm to the touch.

Cya,
Sam C