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Antec P180/900, worth it?

C

Captain Slow

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 18, 2006
Messages
280
Right now, I have a TT Tsunami which I've modified by cutting out the stamped fan grilles and fitting some Panaflo fans. This gives me a 3c case temperature improvement.

What I'm wondering is if it's worth getting a newer, bigger case such as the P180 or 900. The Tsunami has plenty of room for all my kit, but I would like to be able to upgrade to C2D and a big tower cooler, which won't fit in it. How much of a cooling improvement would be likely? As it is now the Tsunami is about 5c over ambient.

Should I buy a new case now, or wait a bit and see what else pops up? I'm stuck in a rut with the Tsunami, it's too small to fit a desirable CPU cooler, thus blocking off any upgrades for me. I'm open to other similar case suggestions, as well. I would like to keep the price under $200, though.

Thanks in advance for your help. :cool:
 
The P180 and the 900 both have bigger fans than that Lian-Li. Lian-Lis are pretty, but they've never impressed me in the cooling department.

I run my X2 passively in my P180. I <3 the thing.
 
The P180 and 900 are both excellent cases, and you should see improvements over a Tsunami, but the statement about the Lian-Li having smaller fans is just not true. The P180 has one fan that is a thick model, and the 900 all has standard 120mm fans. So, they all have 3x 120mm fans.

The 900 fails to isolate the hard drives from the CPU/motherboard cooling area. The P180 does this, so simply on those grounds it would be a superior choice. Both of these are also steel, so they will be quieter with more powerful fans, but they won't benefit from superior heat dissipation from a fully aluminum chassis. The Lian-Li is also extremely well venelated with all the holes punched in it's chassis.

Out of the two you seem to be interested in I would be inclined to choose the P180 over the 900.
 
IMO the p180 is simply the sharpest looking noise to performance ratio case out there.. for the price, that is. It can be had for $100 if you look around hardcore.
 
for cooling reference ...

I have two AMD Opteron 265's, a GeForce 7900GS, 4 hard drives, 2 DVDRW's, and 3 PCI cards running off of a Tyan Tiger K8WE inside of an antec P180 case with a Neo HE 550 PSU.

I'm only running the stock 120mm fans (3 of them) on their lowest setting, and I have two older SilentBoost K8 heatsinks with 80mm fans running @ 5V, and I run my video card fan @ 20% speed.

Idle case temp is about 40C, processors are 44C idle, 55 under load.

The system is nearly dead silent ... and it looks good too!

so the short of it is I highly recommend the P180.
 
LstOfTheBrunnenG said:
Last I checked, teh 900 has a giant 150mm fan on the top.
Click to expand...

actually, it's 200mm

my personal take on the choice is that you've chosen two very well built, well respected, and good performing enclosures. you won't lose, either way. I've built 4 systems with the Antec 900, my personal gaming rig, included. I've built one using the P180. I find them to be targeted to very different crowds, and here's why:

900:
Basically, a mesh front. If you max it out, with all fans in all available slots, you end up with 5x120mm, and a 200mm fan, just for the case. This does not include aftermarket CPU/Video card cooling, or power supply fans. It moves a lot of air, even with all Antec Tri-Cool fans on low, and thusly, draws a lot of dust in. You have to dust it about once a month with compressed air. Also, thereby having lots of fans, it can also be loud. I can tell you for certain that with Klipsch ProMedia v2 4.1, 400w speakers all round my head, I don't care about the case noise, because I can drown it out with my speakers. I run all of the fans on high, to keep the overvolted and overclocked parts at reasonable temperatures. in a lot of ways, with the removable HDD cages, the 2x120mm fan tunnel on the middle HDD cage, and the 200mm fan...this is a performance case, without the frills. There's no silicon grommets like on most Antec cases I have owned. This is a beast of a case, meant to keep high amounts of air flow going, and show off your hardware. It is not particularly well insulated, from vibration or noise. It should not be on your short list, of noise and vibration are a concern.

P180:
The thing that struck me most about this case wasn't the sound dampened, heavy ass side panels, or the well designed magnet front hinged door, which covers all but USB2 and Firewire ports (nice touch)...what struck me about this case was the level to which the noise/vibration dampening was taken. I have owned exclusively Antec cases (I have bought others, but never used them myself) for about 10 years now. I noticed a trend that really started with the Sonata series. The case not only had rails for the drives, both optical and HDD, but the HDD's that produce a lot of vibration. The Antec 900 was a departure from this developing train of thought. The P180 took it a complete 180 (no pun intended) degrees from the 900 in this regard. Not only are the drives insulated from the case, but so is the power supply. The PSU has a u-shaped bracket that goes over the top of the PSU, with 8 strips of silicon padding the PSU from the metal of the cage that encloses it. The HDD cages that have grommeting rails for the drives...are also fitted with soft plastic rail systems themselves...again, to absorb noise and vibration. The HDD cages and PSU are separated from the rest of the case, not only to keep HDD heat from RAID arrays out of the rest of the case, but also visa versa. It is easy to work with, but because it is compartmentalized, you may have issues with cable routing, unless you bust out the Dremel and the files. You can work around it, but it requires careful planning to execute, without actual case modification. I really enjoyed building in this case, and I can attest the the effectiveness of the design intent that went into this enclosure. Compared to the Antec 900, with all the fans on at full speed, the P180 at full speed still isn't nearly as loud. Just as a test, I took the P180 side panel off, and set all of the installed Tri-Cool fans on low...the only thing I could hear was the HDD crunching data...none of the fans were audible at about 10" from the open side of the case...and I really was trying to detect the whisper of fan noise, but couldn't.

IMO, if you want balls to the wall, low-frills, tons of air movement, and very accessible interior, which will be much easier to work with, if you're planning on installing a lot of hardware. If you want quiet, compartmentalized, and sleek, get the P180. They're targeted at a different need, but the same audience...the enthusiast. I keep missing the sales on the P180, as I would really think it perfect for a file server build. I like the flash and turbo-jet sound of the 900 for my gaming rig, personally.
 
I was also choosing between the 900 and the P180 before and chose the 900 coz I was more interested in cooling since I'll be Ocing my machine. I placed the DVDRW on the bottom part of the case so the HDD Cages with fan on them are on the top and middle part so the airflow is not blocked by any wires.

Pros:
Price. I got mine on sale, I think it was 60 after rebate.
Cooling. 2x120 front fan, 1x120 side fan, 1x120 rear exhaust and 1x200mm top exhaust
Very quiet fans and still great cooling on low setting. I recommend having a fan controller or change them to those quiet fans like Yate Loons or Scythe for more flexibility.
My version is watercooling friendly, it has the "hose entry" thing at the back for watercooling use (not that I'll be watercooling).

Cons:
You will hear the HDD everytime it reads so could be annoying.
DUST. if you don't want to clean it up monthly put filters on the intake fans
Doesn't use any quick release type of locks for HDD/DVD drives (not an issue if you don't change parts often)
Mobo tray is not removable so if you change stuff often it could be an issue.
Could be hard to hide wires esp if your PS is not modular. The only way around it is to dremel the tray to get wires through them. (only an issue of you're a neat freak)

Good luck on your choice.
 
Thanks for the replies chaps, that's a lot of info to take in. :)

I seem to be gravitating towards the 900, I like the cooling of it most of all. Stock fans will likely be changed out for 120mm Deltas on my Hardcano 13. I'll be cutting out that rear stamped grille and fitting some filters to it, as well.

The 900 seems really tough and and practical, with the organiser tray on the top. I like its chunky combat styling, as well.

However, the verdict on the P180 isn't out just yet, the attention to detail on the silencing is astonishing. I'm certainly still considering it. Delta fans could still be fitted in it, to go towards a performance bias on the cooling slightly.
 
P180
the divided section is the smartest thing to happen to cases since...cases.

The big advantage of the P180 over the 900 is filtration. The 900 has loads of vents, but IMHO, vents are nothing but places for dust to get in and disrupt the air path.
The 180 brings air in...clean air, from one location, and races it through a direct path.
The 900's big fan is great, but Im sure it draws alot of air from the vents without passing the air over the components.
The 180, clean air, in low, passed up over the parts and out.

Both are top cases. They look good and you cant go wrong with either.
 
Now I've been looking at the P182 today, it seems much more clean and sophisticated, and since I'm a gentleman, I'll have it. The grey colour seems to fit my slightly eccentric taste, as well. I've found it with a window for just under my budget (by $0.05 :D)

Now I just need to sell off what's left of my old kit and order the new case. Anyone fancy me old A64? ;)
 
I have the P180 and I love it :D, it is very sharp looking especially with the door closed. It's so sleek and plain looking that it actually grabs attention. It is a very very quiet case that offers amazing cooling. I am running an S939 X2 4200 (stock) with a Zalman CNPS9500 which hovers around 30C, I am also running a BFG 7900GT (stock) with a Zalman VF900-Cu which is usually around 28C, and the system temp usually stays around 30C.

Here's a list of the other parts running in this case for heat creation purposes.
Asus A8N SLi-Premium
X2 4200
2GB OCZ Platinum
BFG 7900GTOC
Audigy2 ZS
Maxtor 200GB HDD
Western Digital 320GB HDD
620watt OCZ modstream PSU
dvd burner
dvd player
2 fan contolers

Fans:
1 Intake fan in the front (replaced with 120mm Sunon)
1 Mid case bottom fan (original 120mm)
1 Rear exhaust fan (120mm replaced with 120mm Sunon)
1 Top exhaust fan (not incuded, bought 120mm Antec blue led fan)

So all that running and it stays at around 30C. Maxed out and after playing games for a couple hours the temp goes up to 34C with the v-card getting up to 36C.

So it's all great right :D... well... pretty much ;)

Cons:
1st off the included fans suck and not air :p. 2 have already died hence the replacement comment.

2nd... well the rest you should know by researching it before you buy it ;), but here it is.

These are not cons but things to know before buying it. It is a big HEAVY case that does a hell of a job with cooling and is NOT meant to be dragged around to lans. It's weight is listed under it's description on Antec's site. Another thing to note is that since the PSU is located at the bottom of the case the PSU you add might be a bit short in the cable department. I had to buy a 24pin to 24pin extension and a 4pin 12V extension in order to hook the PSU to the motherboard, combined these items come to less than $5 SVC (compucycle) so no big deal there. These are just a couple things to note and are not distractors just things to work around.

All in all this case is amazing, great cooling, great sound dampening, and great price. I was a bit torn between getting this and a LianLi PC70 and I am very happy with my P180 choice.

If you have any other P180 questions let me know or PM me :).
 
28C for the gpu? That's amazing.:eek: I don't know what the average temp for a 7900gt is but a lot of people don't go that low even with water on an X1900XT. What speeds are you running the fans at and how cold is your room?
 
The real test for the P182 will be if it can keep my X1950XTX under 70c load, quietly. Tsunami barely manages it, the fan needs to be at 69%, so it's loud. :eek:
 
p180 !!! checking in. I'm jealous of p182 owners, theres some nice fixes on those cases.

take out your front/middle HD cage, that will help with airflow onto the gpu.

Also, the lower/front fan mod helps a lot if you want extra airflow for your HDs.
 
I saw the sale on the P180 and trying to decide if I want to spend more money ($50 after rebate) on my new system. Currently have a full tower Super Micro SC750 (huge) but tons of room and it's white.
Looking at the p180 case and was wondering your thoughts on staying with my old case or upgrading.
I'm waiting for my items to build my new system and should arrive this week:

Corsair 620w PS
Abit AB9 QuadGT
E6600
AC Freezer Pro
Corsair 2G 8500 w/fan
XFX 8600 GTS
2x - Seagate 320G 7200.10 HD's

Any thoughts would be appreciated.......especially heat issues.
Thx
 
Love my P180B so far, got one of the ones from Newegg with the P182 features (call it the P180 "refresh" if you like)

Reasonably quiet, though I can still hear fans... but then again, I leave all but 1 on high, so that'd be my own fault. Trying to keep those HDDs cool, you know.

My 8800GTX is stupid-hot, but reading up I don't believe that's the case's fault, they just run hot. ~56C idle after forcing 80% fan in Rivatuner, which is what my CPU is at OCd after hours at full load running Orthos and other stuff.

CPU idles around 30C with a 50% OC, but it is on water (Thermaltake SilentWater hardly counts as "water", a Tuniq Tower or Thermalright 120 Extreme could do the same job, likely)

Never checked with the stock cooler, so I'm no help there. Around 28C idle without the OC on the same cooling, though.

I'm tempted to turn all the fans down and see what the real temp difference is. If it's only a couple degrees C on everything I'll likely stick with that, as it is very quiet with the fans on low to mid.

I'd also suggest replacing the Antec fans -- they don't seem to move much air, and are noisy on high. You can get 3 Yate Loons for about $10 though, so that's no big deal.

machine-open.jpg

Still waiting on my SATA DVDRWs...
setup-closed.jpg
 
Niice setup! Looks like you have one of those "newer" p180s...I'm still stuck with the old one. I was just wondering if you could post a picture of the back-panel side so I could see how the wiremanagement is done.
 
P180a? Not familiar with that. You mean the first revision of the case, without the P182 improvements, maybe? I have one of the "refresh" cases and they have 2 dust filters on front (under cool little spring-loaded doors behind the front panel)

Antec.com says the P180 has dust filters and their pictures don't show the revisions in my case, so I'd have to guess "yes".

That said, the $30 or so extra for the newer version of the case via Newegg really is worthwhile if you care about cable routing... makes life much easier.
 
I will use it with Corasir HX 620 PSU, and what I've heard is that there is less wiring in this PSU. In P180s the PSU is fixed on the bottom instead of top. So do you think that I need to extension wires??
 
javisaman said:
Niice setup! Looks like you have one of those "newer" p180s...I'm still stuck with the old one. I was just wondering if you could post a picture of the back-panel side so I could see how the wiremanagement is done.
Click to expand...

Pic of the other side panel open as requested:
machine-back-open.jpg


Bundle of wires is from the 3pin motherboard to 3pin (1 wire) fan speed monitor and 4 pin molex fan power leech converter/adapter thing for the SilentWater kit, tons of slack there and I didn't know what else to do with it. Need to tape things down in general, and I will once everything is sleeved and finalized. The pair of red and black wires running 'through' it is from the top-mounted TriCool fan. Black rubbery looking cables are front panel connectors and I need to tape them down so they aren't such eyesores when the case is closed. The ribbon cable (god I hate ribbon cables...) is for HDD activity LED/power switch/reset switch/power on LED.

Oddly, Antec seems to think that power LEDs should have 3 pins and get power from the 2 outermost, when they /always/ in my experience have 2... so needless to say I have no little blue light on the front of my case when the power is on. HDD activity (though connected) doesn't work either. I have a really hard time caring about it, as everything else (USB/Firewire ports and audio headers) does work. Front panel audio connections won't work with the X-Fi, but if I enable the onboard HD-audio they will. That's a pleasant surprise as it's the opposite of how things worked with my Sonata I. With it the USB/Firewire/Audio headers were useless and didn't match up with any of the 3 boards I had in it over the course of several years (MSI, Gigabyte, and abit), but the activity lights worked just fine and had 'normal' pin-out.


As you have the older version of the case, I'd suggest a drill, a Dremel tool (cutting and polishing wheels) and some rubber edging. It'd be a pain, but if you pull out all your stuff (don't want to punch through and hit it or get little metal filings in it and short it out!) and take the time to do it right, you could end up with a cleaner look than even the newer cases, as your holes don't have to be any bigger than they need to be to pass the wires you need.

You may notice my PSU is upside down... this is a side-effect of the very nearly too short cable to the 8pin CPU power connector on the motherboard due to the PSU being relocated to the bottom of the case without the motherboard rotated. In order to make it reach I had to do this, though I may turn it back over once my 8pin cable extension comes in the mail and I can route it behind the motherboard tray with everything else.
 
maverick786us said:
I will use it with Corasir HX 620 PSU, and what I've heard is that there is less wiring in this PSU. In P180s the PSU is fixed on the bottom instead of top. So do you think that I need to extension wires??
Click to expand...

If the Corsair has shorter cables than most then yes, you may very well need an extender for you 8pin and 24pin motherboard connectors, but this shouldn't be more than $12 or so. I found I only need the 8 pin extension -- you can see in my pic of the internals on the first page that it is the only one running over the front of the board (and it is -tight-, if it were a few mm shorter I'd be out of luck, leaving my PSU 'floating on top of a book or something until I got the extender), so I don't really need it, but I'll be getting it just cause I don't like leaving it stretched like that and it looks messy when I spent ~3 hours getting everything nice and clean. Also going to sleeve all the unsleeved parts of my power cables and install Yate Loons in place of the Antec TriCools.
 
silent-circuit said:
If the Corsair has shorter cables than most then yes, you may very well need an extender for you 8pin and 24pin motherboard connectors, but this shouldn't be more than $12 or so. I found I only need the 8 pin extension -- you can see in my pic of the internals on the first page that it is the only one running over the front of the board (and it is -tight-, if it were a few mm shorter I'd be out of luck, leaving my PSU 'floating on top of a book or something until I got the extender), so I don't really need it, but I'll be getting it just cause I don't like leaving it stretched like that and it looks messy when I spent ~3 hours getting everything nice and clean. Also going to sleeve all the unsleeved parts of my power cables and install Yate Loons in place of the Antec TriCools.
Click to expand...

OK you are using water cooling it looks impressive. But P180s comes up with 3 fans. The extra fan that you have fixed right in front of PSU, is it helping in blocking the heat that is generated from the PSU??
 
maverick786us said:
OK you are using water cooling it looks impressive. But P180s comes up with 3 fans. The extra fan that you have fixed right in front of PSU, is it helping in blocking the heat that is generated from the PSU??
Click to expand...

The fan in the lower section is pulling air from the front and forcing it through the PSU, which is also pushing air out the back, helping to keep the hard drives cooler. I've considered turning the fan around and having it push the hot air from the hard drives out the front of the case instead, as that might improve the PSUs temps and increase its lifetime somewhat, but for the moment it seems to be working fine.

There is actually a fan in that mount when you get the case, so it's not extra. The "extra" fan is higher up, on the front panel below the optical drive bays. I moved it from the back as it was replaced by the fan on the radiator for the waterblock.
 
maverick786us said:
I will use it with Corasir HX 620 PSU, and what I've heard is that there is less wiring in this PSU. In P180s the PSU is fixed on the bottom instead of top. So do you think that I need to extension wires??
Click to expand...

I have a Corsair 620 HX PSU in a p180b case and I haven't had the need for cable extension. Granted the 4pin 12V is a tight fit with Asus boards but it worked. I have routed some of the cables behind the MB tray also, I just had to cut my own holes...
 
Darth Bobo said:
I have a Corsair 620 HX PSU in a p180b case and I haven't had the need for cable extension. Granted the 4pin 12V is a tight fit with Asus boards but it worked. I have routed some of the cables behind the MB tray also, I just had to cut my own holes...
Click to expand...

Is if possiboe for you post the snap of your case from inside??
 
Holy crap they really did a nice job on the refresh. The way they raised the motherboard tray is a Godsend - there's no room to route anything thick as an ATX cable under mine.
 
Darth Bobo said:
I'm in the middle of moving at the moment, so I won't be taking many pictures right now, in a week or so I can get some pictures for you if you like if that's ok. :)
Click to expand...

Yes ls do it if you get time. My configuration will be almost the same as yours. So i need an idea before configuring it.

Thanks in Advance
 
I got my p180 case from Newegg, and it looks to be the new revision too.

I used a Seasonic S12 550HT and a DS3 mobo in mine. The cables are just long enough for the 24 pin and 4 pin power, snaked through the back and out the top "window". The rest of the unused cables are just crammed in the space right next to the psu.

My 8800GTS runs about 60 C deg idle, 70 C when playing STALKER as it sits right now.. I have the two top fans on med, and the bottom fan on low.. nothing in the middle, the empty drive bay is still there.. and still have the filters in place..

My stock clocked e6600 with retail intel cooler idles at 28C!
 
silent-circuit said:
That said, the $30 or so extra for the newer version of the case via Newegg really is worthwhile if you care about cable routing... makes life much easier.
Click to expand...

This is the newer version, correct? I'm assuming so because it's the only Newegg P180, but I want to be sure :)

Does anyone know when (if they have at all) Newegg last had a deal on this? What was the deal?
 
I've ordered a P182 with a window from PPCs now. Looking forward to getting it set up and working, should be an enjoyable case to work with.

Thanks for your advice, chaps. I'll probably have more questions about the fan configuration once I get it. ;)
 
I like the 180s more. The 182 has some nice upgrades.

Then 900 is a nice case, but I think it's extreme aesthetic design will get a little old after a while and wear out it's welcome. The 180/182 just sits around and looks classy.

My vote is for the 180/2.
 
I just bought a Antec 900 this week.

So far i like it much more than my modded Lian-Li PC7B. It simply has hands down sick airflow and cooling. Cut a wiring hole or two and you also have great wiring that looks very, very clean. The 200mm fan is a nice touch because of the air it pushes, while still being nearly inaudible. The case is very quiet even with a mesh front and the gaping 200mm hole on the top. It looks very sleek and isn't nearly as huge or heavy as the P180.I really do love the case already and my temperatures are better from my old case even though it has been much hotter outside and the central air hasnt been turned on yet. My friend even commented how much he liked the 900 (Hes a P180B owner). He said if it had been around when he bought his p180, he probably would have bought the 900 for all the afore mentioned reasons in addition to him saying "I like the P180 as a case, but it looks like a refrigerator".

Both are wonderful cases though, just find out which one has the features that you are more interested in, but you will be happy with either one.
 
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