Antec P180

We have lots of pets :(

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Any specific areas I should focus on? I wired it at 2am the other night, so it's not very pretty.
 
Hmmm looks good. I'll be taking out that bottom fan for sure, as my Antec Neo moves enough air itself and the HDD's. Sucks I don't have SATA though....

Any unusual vibrations of any kind? How well does the door swing all the way open?. Any nit and picks you wish Antec woulda considered? Im dying to know before mine arrives Monday.

Oh, and any rust? One guy at SPCR had some and he was PISSED.
 
There have been absolutely NO vibrations from this thing. I can barely even hear the seeks from my Raptor now that I have this case. The door was a little bit sticky initially, but after maybe 5-10 times opening it all the way, it works like a charm now. I don't understand people saying you have to push on it a special way, you really don't need to. The biggest beef I have with the case is how difficult it was to get the PSU in. I'm really not looking forward to replacing my PSU fan with something quieter. No rust that I can see.
 
How's the intial airflow and temps been? I plan on moving my drives to the bottom, removing the upper HDD tray to allow maximum airflow into the main chamber, then use the duct in conjenction with the blowhole fan as I feel the two combined may cause to much of a "negative" pressure in the case, plus its one less fan making noise.

Is the top fan secured well? Does it have any insulation to reduce vibration? Sorry, im getting giddy over here looking at your pics.

oh, and I bet the dust filters are gonna help you alot.
 
Ungood said:
There have been absolutely NO vibrations from this thing. I can barely even hear the seeks from my Raptor now that I have this case. The door was a little bit sticky initially, but after maybe 5-10 times opening it all the way, it works like a charm now. I don't understand people saying you have to push on it a special way, you really don't need to. The biggest beef I have with the case is how difficult it was to get the PSU in. I'm really not looking forward to replacing my PSU fan with something quieter. No rust that I can see.
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Apparently to open the door the full 270 degrees you need to "release" the second hinge by pressing on the top and bottom of the door. I cant tell you out of experience since I have not recieved my P180 yet, but that is what SPCR said.
 
Erasmus354 said:
Apparently to open the door the full 270 degrees you need to "release" the second hinge by pressing on the top and bottom of the door. I cant tell you out of experience since I have not recieved my P180 yet, but that is what SPCR said.
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According to Ungood, it doesn't sound like it. I'll wait till mine arrives to verify this.
 
I haven't really played around with temperature monitoring much, so I can't give a super accurate reading on that. Idle is 33c on a Venice 3200+ cooled by a Freezer 64. The top fan is screwed directly into the case with two screws. The other two mounting positions are with small metal brackets that the fan slides into.
You'll want to be gentle with the door, as I just noticed I broke the top two retaining tabs for the side door. Thankfully, I work at the store I bought it at, so I can get a replacement easily enough. They're plastic, so they're not super strong.

IceWind said:
How's the intial airflow and temps been? I plan on moving my drives to the bottom, removing the upper HDD tray to allow maximum airflow into the main chamber, then use the duct in conjenction with the blowhole fan as I feel the two combined may cause to much of a "negative" pressure in the case, plus its one less fan making noise.

Is the top fan secured well? Does it have any insulation to reduce vibration? Sorry, im getting giddy over here looking at your pics.

oh, and I bet the dust filters are gonna help you alot.
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Ungood said:
I haven't really played around with temperature monitoring much, so I can't give a super accurate reading on that. Idle is 33c on a Venice 3200+ cooled by a Freezer 64. The top fan is screwed directly into the case with two screws. The other two mounting positions are with small metal brackets that the fan slides into.
You'll want to be gentle with the door, as I just noticed I broke the top two retaining tabs for the side door. Thankfully, I work at the store I bought it at, so I can get a replacement easily enough. They're plastic, so they're not super strong.
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Huh? Already? How? Which tabs? Can you post a picture? That REALLY worries me.
 
I assume I didn't have the side of the case put in all the way before I tightened the thumbscrews. The krazy glue seems to have worked, though.
 
I'm not too worried about it-- a little extra attention would have kept them unbroken (no offense meant Ungood!-- I'm just saying to everyone that they need to make sure they have everything lined up before tightening down)

:)
 
Got mine today. Haven't done anything but take it out of the box and look at it. Should have the rest of my system Sat and will put everything together Sun.
 
Maybe a newbish question, but is it possible to have HD1 only blink with my primary hard drive and HD2 blink with the slave? Like, to connect them directly to the hard drive or something?
 
Screwz Luse said:
Maybe a newbish question, but is it possible to have HD1 only blink with my primary hard drive and HD2 blink with the slave? Like, to connect them directly to the hard drive or something?
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Usually the HDD lights are controlled by the MB. I'd check the manual.
 
True, I was just trying to see if there was a way to control the second HD LED that the case comes with as I don't believe, after looking at my manual, that my DFI LanParty SLI board supports the second LED.
 
Ungood said:
The "spoiler" is low key enough to not really ruin the lines of the case, in my opinion. I'm a huge fan of clean lines and understatement when it comes to computer cases, and this doesn't bug me at all.
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Yeah, i just don't like inefficiency, but i guess it must be beneficial in some way, or they wouldn't have done it. it just seems to me a bit like:

p180binsidedevd2sq.jpg


Heh, i do love photoshop. That was fun
 
Sheesh wally, you done bashing the case? The idea behind MUTIPLE fan units was to allow maximum airflow as well as customization of case layout so people DON"T NEED TO modify the case. Here is an excerpt from the SilentPC Preview

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article249-page1.html

The P180 is far from perfect. Given the wide range of applications, there can be no single perfect case. As befits a product of a life-long experimenter, the P180 allows for a huge range of configurations without any modifications. The P180 was designed to be quiet and cool right out of the box even if used to house a system of very hot components. It is a distillation of my knowledge about computer thermal and noise management combined with Antec's professional and commercial expertise in the fabrication of PC cases, circa late-2004.
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The cooling concept is simple: Use either exhaust fan or both fans as needed, at the appropriate speed setting. Because there are no other vent holes, outside air will be pulled in through the front main vent. At the low speed, the Tri Cool fan is quiet, and when set to this speed, even both fans running do not make much noise. Together, the two fans can pull a great of air through the main chamber, even set to low speed. With the option for the third front intake fan, there are many possible airflow options. This is a deliberate part of the design, to allow for many options without any modification
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And the lower drive cage is for more HDD"s smart ass :rolleyes:

The juxtaposition of the power supply and the 4-bay hard drive cage in the separate bottom compartment is a key aspect of the P180's design. There is a fan mounting spot — and a supplied 120 x 38 mm 3-speed fan — but the fan generally needs to be used only with a fanless power supply. In normal use, virtually any normal or quiet fan-cooled PSU should draw enough air from the front vent of the bottom chamber to keep the hard drives cool. It should also have no trouble keeping itself cool without ramping up in speed.
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shaky said:
And how old are you? Are you bitter because your mom won't buy you the P180? :rolleyes:
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No, silly-- he just doesn't like inefficiency.

;)





:D


Would you guys believe that after all these months of drooling over this case that I am actually suddenly too broke to buy it? Emergency expense issue just hit me like a truck-- I'm glad I couldn't find it the day I was going to order it-- long story and unimportant-- irrelevant...but I am ecstatic to see you guys opening them up and getting them rolling.

Please keep me full with updates so I can kick myself a little harder over my bad luck....
 
shaky said:
And how old are you? Are you bitter because your mom won't buy you the P180? :rolleyes:
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OMG, read my other posts, i love this case and want one now. I'm just a bit surprised i'm alone in thinking that two 120mm fans right next to each other aren't as good as maybe an intake on the front to avoid negative air pressure, which means less efficient cooling of components
 
Wally said:
OMG, read my other posts, i love this case and want one now. I'm just a bit surprised i'm alone in thinking that two 120mm fans right next to each other aren't as good as maybe an intake on the front to avoid negative air pressure, which means less efficient cooling of components
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Hence why the case is FLEXIBLE in your cooling options. Hence why their is an air duct behind the case to prevent negastive pressure. Antec along with Mike C from SPCR desighing this case im sure they thought about all the possiblities.
 
The 2 upper 120mm's give us a better chance to have the P180 be Intel TAC compliant (currently in testing, so it's not TAC yet).

And yes flexibility was the idea overall.

AntecRep
 
AntecRep said:
The 2 upper 120mm's give us a better chance to have the P180 be Intel TAC compliant (currently in testing, so it's not TAC yet).

And yes flexibility was the idea overall.

AntecRep
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Cause we all know how hot those darn pressys are, im surprised intel doesn't require phase change in the case in order to make it compliant ;)
 
a couple quick pics:





I love how solid the side panels feel when you knock on them and the sound is like you're knocking a piece of wood or something - no rattles. :D
 
Damn you.....I can't wait to get mine. Anything wrong with it? Perfect shape? Where you get it from? Some shots of the inside maybe?
 
Two questions:

The case door; how much clearance is behind it? Would a fan controller which protrudes 1/4" or slightly less allow it to still close?

Reaching the P4 mobo cable to the top of the board, any issues since the PSU is on the bottom? Can you route it (and other wires) behind the motherboard tray, is it long enough with your PSUs?
 
P.S.
Those of you worried about having two 120mm rear fans close together, use one and make a duct to suck air off your HSF exclusively and have the other one as case ventillation. :p
 
If a fan was mounted in the optional 'front' position, would it be useful for actively cooling RAM? (plan to get some Mushkin Redlines which need 3.5-3.5 volts).

And also, where can you buy Antec Tricool fans (in Australia)? Are they good/quiet?
 
DieLate said:
I don't think it would work too well without some sort of duct, as it seems they would go below where the RAM is. It looks to be about horizontally even with the top PCI-E cards.
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Can anyone affirm this?

Also also, are the Tricool fans supplied clear and translucent like the other tricool fans?

Edit: I've had a fair look on the net, and I don't think that Tricool fans are available anywhere in Australia, which is a bit insane considering that the P180 is now widely available, and Tricool fans come standard with it.

Also, any comment about hard drive noise in the P180 (I have Raptor seek noise in mind). Do the rubber grommets do anything?
 
DieLate said:
The case door; how much clearance is behind it? Would a fan controller which protrudes 1/4" or slightly less allow it to still close?
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After a rough measurement, the door has about 3/4" clearance between the door and the drive bays. I would think there would be plenty of room.

As for routing cables behind the motherboard try. If you're talking about power cables, I would say no as the door's designed to sit extremely tight around the outside, seperating the bottom PSU bay with the upper motherboard section. I did find routing cables pretty tough in this case.. If I can get my camera back from a friend, I'll show my rough wiring job.

I personally can't hear my hard drives at all. I hear my stock Athlon 64 bit HSF and that's about it. My hard drives aren't very loud in the first place, though so I don't want to promise anything.
 
You know the cable I'm referring to though, right? The 4-pin one that usually plugs into the top of most motherboards. With the PSU below the mobo, it might have to stretch a long ways up there. I'm just wondering if that caused a problem for any of you, and how you routed it up there.

And for those that already have the case: More internal photos please. :D
 
Sorry guys but I gotta vent. I pre-ordered this case at FrontierPC.com (200 CAD) and shipping was scheduled for mid-June. It's now been pushed to mid-JULY without even so much as a fucking e-mail to let their own customers know. Pretty unprofessional in my book. If there's something I hate about online retailers is that they often let their customers in the dark.

So now here we are, some people are already posting pics of their new shiny P180. I'm very close to cancelling my order with FrontierPC, not at all impressed.

/rant
 
shaky said:
Sorry guys but I gotta vent. I pre-ordered this case at FrontierPC.com (200 CAD) and shipping was scheduled for mid-June. It's now been pushed to mid-JULY without even so much as a fucking e-mail to let their own customers know. Pretty unprofessional in my book. If there's something I hate about online retailers is that they often let their customers in the dark.

So now here we are, some people are already posting pics of their new shiny P180. I'm very close to cancelling my order with FrontierPC, not at all impressed.

/rant
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I agree, EndPcNoise have been assholes about informing customers about the black edition, they dont' even freaking have it listed on the front of their site! First they were taking money reserveations, then they changed it to email only and now they won't be available till mid July!??? I simply couldn't want that long so I cancelled my preordered and ordered one from ZipzoomFly. I"ll paint the panels in the future to give it a custom look anyway.
 
Too bad it is too small a case to house my PC. I do like the look of it. I am sure the quality is everything Antec usually puts out.
 
I guess it's kind of a blessing that I have to wait on buying mine-- gives me a chance to let you all take the hits and learn the tricks :)

By the time I can afford mine in a few weeks, all the supply issues should be solved and any issues with the case will be known by then.

This is the justification I make to feel better about not having the thing under my desk right now, anyway...:(
 
mdlestat said:
This is the justification I make to feel better about not having the thing under my desk right now, anyway...:(
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Your in a state of denial, and you know it.;) BTW: I'll have mine this afternoon, woo hoo!
 
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