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Antec P180 vs. CM Stacker!

E

equalme

Gawd
Joined
Sep 15, 2005
Messages
955
Right now i have a p180...i'm about to watercool but that thing cramped up. Doesn't give me much room to work with and i'll also be using a hang on radiator.

i've been checking out the CM stacker and noticed that some people were able to get a heatercore radi in the front. How many of ya'll would perfer a stacker over the p180?
 
yeah your definatly have more room in the stacker, but you loose on the sound issue, it just depends on what your lookoing for in a case, if you take out the bottom HD cage you can fit a 120 rad in the P180. the Stacker is HUGE too.
 
Seeings how I hate Coolermasters cases and that I don't water cool, I love my quiet P180 case.
 
I've built machines in both cases. The P180 has a cheap feeling front door. Looks good, although the fan grill at the top of the case is goofy. Biggest problem with that case, is it is too small to work in. Installtion of components sucks inside it. Wiring things up inside it is a chore due to the cramped interior, and it isn't worth a crap for watercooling due to the lack of space.

The CM Stacker is a great case, although the stock side panel is pretty ugly. Although very functional. Exterior looks, just as with any case are subjective. Inside it though, she's a beuty. Open, easy to work on, plenty of room for components and dual PSU's if need be.

Overall the CM Stacker is the easiest case to work in and has room for everything. It's layout and airflow are near perfect. It supports every type of motherboard there is. There's also a single PSU, non-BTX convertible variant of the case, that replaces the second PSU mount in the rear, with an extra 120mm fan. It's worth checking out.
 
I say P180.

I've had a million Antec cases and this one from reviews and detailed pix looks simply amazing :).
 
awesome replies!

i have the p180...but with the best clean wiring job i can do with it...it still is all cramped up. My ocz powerstream 520w barely fits, and putting that psu in there meant that i had to take out the bottom chamber fan that cooled the psu. And it doesn't give you much choices of routing the atx cable.

so i'm about 80% sure of returning the p180 and getting the stacker.
 
anthongy817 said:
awesome replies!

i have the p180...but with the best clean wiring job i can do with it...it still is all cramped up. My ocz powerstream 520w barely fits, and putting that psu in there meant that i had to take out the bottom chamber fan that cooled the psu. And it doesn't give you much choices of routing the atx cable.

so i'm about 80% sure of returning the p180 and getting the stacker.
Click to expand...

On the outside, the P180 is near perfect. Personally I feel like the front door is cheesy, and it is simply too cramped for certain uses. Otherwise its a great case. I might have considered switching to it, if it supported E-ATX motherboards. I really like the looks and the quality of the case overall. Stacker is excellent in that reguard too. But it is a fair bit noisier.

The Stacker's biggest disadvantage is it's size and weight. That's also why it is so great to work with inside. Lots of room. Fully equipped it can house two EPS 12v PSU's as large as the PC Power and Cooling 850 EPS 12v SSI PSU, as well as a dual CPU motherboard, and 12 HDD's along with one or two optical drives. The cooling on it is second to none.
 
anthongy817 said:
awesome replies!

i have the p180...but with the best clean wiring job i can do with it...it still is all cramped up. My ocz powerstream 520w barely fits, and putting that psu in there meant that i had to take out the bottom chamber fan that cooled the psu. And it doesn't give you much choices of routing the atx cable.

so i'm about 80% sure of returning the p180 and getting the stacker.
Click to expand...

If you wanted to do Watercooling in the first place, the P180 isn't for you.
 
If you want to watercool, you shouldn't have bought a p180 in the first place, imho. Get the stacker, and I'm telling you this as a happy p180 owner.

The split cooling zone nature of the p180 puts a couple of anti-watercooling roadblocks in your way.

1. Power supply on the bottom of the case. In a perfect world, there will never every be any water dripping in your case, much less pooling deep enough to mess with the power supply. On the other hand, we don't live in a perfect world, and all you need is 1 leak to drip onto one of your power cables, then follow its way into your power supply.

2. It is very cramped in the top of the case.

On top of all that, the case was designed to be the last word in quiet aircooling, not as a mod-friendly case for the water-cooling community. The thing is a royal pain to setup a normal rig in, I feel sorry for anybody who tries for a mostly or completely internal water-cooling setup.
 
well i bought the p180 first...after getting everything rigged up into it...i looked into watercooling and found otu how much space it requires if you want everything to be mounted inside.
 
Just a thought...what about a koolance exos or exos 2 ...let's you keep your case and still watercool. I'll admit it isn't as great as many DIY kits, but it still does a fine job of keepings temps down. It's external and very very easy to install
 
dtess17 said:
Just a thought...what about a koolance exos or exos 2 ...let's you keep your case and still watercool. I'll admit it isn't as great as many DIY kits, but it still does a fine job of keepings temps down. It's external and very very easy to install
Click to expand...

the reason i went with the p180 was for its sleek look. Adding that big ol thing on top of it i would've just used my chieftec dragon case that i have laying on the floor now. Plus it's way over priced and i don't believe it comes with a gpu block.

my current setup that i'm planning on purchasing:

-swiftech storm- $76
-DD Low pro maze4- $45
-DD double heatercore w/ shroud- $49
-DD D5- $76

Total of $246..shipping would be like another $20......so $266.

Tubing/fittings/etc. Would be like another $20-30. So basically around $300 for that awesome setup. If i were to get something plain and easy that would be the swiftech h20-apex...but for the same price you can get a much better radiator.
 
the new stacker looks really sweet, ive used the first version of the stacker for a wile and i liked it a lot because it had so much room. only down side is its huge and hard to move around
 
If I go with a p-180 will a OCZ Powerstream PSU reach to the power spot on the DFI SLI-DR?
 
mokkapoop said:
If I go with a p-180 will a OCZ Powerstream PSU reach to the power spot on the DFI SLI-DR?
Click to expand...

yup a powerstream will reach...but not the modstream.
 
][V][AGIC said:
the new stacker looks really sweet, ive used the first version of the stacker for a wile and i liked it a lot because it had so much room. only down side is its huge and hard to move around
Click to expand...


That's why they included wheel casters, bro !! Wheel over to work area. pick up, work on/in it. Put back on floor, wheel back over to computer desk.

I love my Stacker! Got a Bonneville heatercore up front with 2 120mm Panaflo's.
 
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