*Official* Antec P182 Case's,Builds,Modifications & FAQ's

Sadly that wont work if your case is butted up against a wall on your left! :D

I'm not a fan of doors on cases but I couldn't find a doorless case that I wanted to build with :o

Apart from the door and the fact the motherboard sits about 1/2" too low, the P182 is a great case! :cool:
 
and don't forget once a GTX is in the case, you no longer can utilise the wind-tunnel.

so, p185 can be more improved version, with 3cm taller allow for higher motherboard, and 4cm more depth front to back, to allow for a bigger graphics card while still using the hard disk drive holder.
 
mrk said:
Then you can simply open the door and fold it round to the side, instant doorlessness :p
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Didn't realise it could fold! Thanks. :) Still, I would have to slide the case forward to do it as my table would stop it from folding completely.
 
Is there anyway to remove the door completely? I could open it fully but the underside of the door isn't the prettiest thing :p
 
Big.Wayne said:
I just had a good look and a measure up and I would say with a little skill you could make a nice 120mm fan mod in the lower divide roof. . t SU and cage would have to be out for the fan to fit in and then there is the whole issue of how this affects the cases *two thermal chamber* design?

If I had two GPU's in that case and I had all the tools needed I would do that mod in a flash. Apart from that I can't see a better way to improve the cooling to the lower card in a two card setup.
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You might get some inspiration out of my case, which is an el obscuro variation of the P180 design probably made by Antec for an OEM called Panrix (which I found out went bust in 2002, so this case has been knocking about for years now!:p)

Inside the case when I first opened it, screwed onto the plastic divider separating the top and bottom thermal chambers, I found a weird plastic contraption (which may well be part of the standard Antec design, but I haven't seen it in any of the pictures you guys posted in this thread!), which at the time seemed to me to have no use except to hold the 5.25" drive rails:



I naturally removed it and stuffed it in a cupboard because it would block the bottom three PCI slots, plus you'd have one extra thing to unscrew every time you wanted to change something in the case. When I got it out of the case and turned it around, I noticed that the underside of it had what seems suspiciously like an 80mm fan holder:



My guess is, the position in which this thing was intended to be used wasn't the position it was in when I first got the case, but was rather meant to be fixed onto the divider at right angles to it, suspended in parallel over the motherboard like this:



What the pics don't show is that one side of this thing is open and the other closed, so I'm guessing the open side was meant to face the grille at the back of the case (well, at the back of MY case, I have no idea if the standard designs that you lot all have also have this... it seems a bit weird to me for a case to have soundproofed side panels and a grille at the back of it to let all the noise out!:o). It'd be drawing cool air from outside the case and blowing it onto the graphics cards, sort of like a mutant test-tube baby grown from the cells of a Zalman bracket and a PCI fan extractor.

wuyanxu said:
and don't forget once a GTX is in the case, you no longer can utilise the wind-tunnel.

so, p185 can be more improved version, with 3cm taller allow for higher motherboard, and 4cm more depth front to back, to allow for a bigger graphics card while still using the hard disk drive holder.
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Hang on, you mean the top drive cage is intended to create a wind tunnel effect? I actually went and removed it! (only got 2 drives so thought I'd use the bottom one, to keep all their heat in the bottom compartment and because the drives and cage got in the way of graphics card installation)
 
the top drive bay CAN BE used to create a windtunnel by placing fans at each ends of it.

it cooled my GTS 320MB very well (max 70), but since i can't do that for GTX anymore, GTX goes as high as 85 :(
 
My third picture was a bit confusing, the way it's orientated is the big silver thing on the left is my CPU heatsink, and the power supply is on the left. You can just about see the edge of my graphics card (and the PCI-E cable poking out from it) under the second drive rail from the left, so you can tell it would be right under the 80mm fan. Could be used to extract rather than blow air onto it too I guess.
 
I am considering this for my new build. Are there any other alternatives that I should consider?

I doubt there are many cases with three-layer side panels, seperate PSU compartment at the bottom, HDD vibration dampening, all 120mm fans like the P182 but without a front door (preferably aluminium front like my Lian-Li PC-7A Plus)?

I am looking to build a quiet 45nm based system. This case is top of my list at the moment.

Previous to this I have owned a Lian-Li PC-7A Plus and Coolermaster ATC 201 (2 of them).
 
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tutu said:
Anybody using a Enermax Liberty PSU with this case? Enough length to reach? (specifically mobo power)
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I've got a 500w, and the cable fits fine - the way I've routed them anyway?

I think the extension cables are only a few quid anyway, so it might be an idea to add them to your order? Just to be on the safe side ;)

SW.
 
Big.Wayne said:
Yup, if the front fascia is removed the USB port headers are screwed into place, I'm sure ANTEC may be able to help you out further.

Btw how did you mess the USB headers up?
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Due to the size of the case it sticks out a fair bit at the fron under my desk. I forgot I had my iPod shuffle plugged in and walked right through it. It "pinged" out bringing most of the usb socket with it.

Not to worry though, I found a supplier that has a couple of old P180 assemblies lying around, they said that they would drop one in with my next order.
 
Ok I posted a few weeks back stating that I was going to try and get dual water loops into this rather restrictive case and I have been successful here are the specs,

Antec P182
Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3
Q6600 @ 3500
2GB 1066 memory
320 gig hard drive
corsair 620w psu
8800 GTX

The loops comprise of:

Loop 1: swiftech H20 220 extreme water cooling kit with additional cooling for northbridge and two yate loon fans

Loop 2: XSPC dual bay res and pump combo, D-tek Fuzion GFX block, Thermochill PA120.1 rad and a lovely yate loon fan

a whole load of tubing with sleeves and some feser goodness

am currently getting about 55 degrees on the cpu loop at full load I could push this a bit more but my chip seems to be thirsty for volts to go to and above 3500 but I don’t mind as this setup is near silent, and idle temps 37 on my GTX with load of around 43 degrees which I am more than happy with have only just installed this so i have not clocked the card yet I will have to get back to you on that one.

Anyway I am sure that you want to see some pics so here you are:


http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/6636/img1128up2.jpg



http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/9748/img1130bb9.jpg

sorry about the length of some of the pipe work but I was previously using a HR-03 Plus cooler on the GTX and had to route the tubing around that beast I suppose I could have drained the system and tidied it up but to be honest I couldn’t be bothered and wanted to get the system up and running.

I hope this gives you some inspiration guys and happy modding.
 
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chezney said:
I hope this gives you some inspiration.

chezneytx4.jpg
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That looks like a nice & tidy window you added there, I would be interested to know more about the process of adding this?
 
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