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p180 antec - wiring tips?

K

kandor

Gawd
Joined
Aug 24, 2005
Messages
632
Hi,

I have an antec p180 case for my main system. The thing is packed full - suffice to say - there are wires everywhere. I could post a pic but it would be a bit embaressing. I have done some crude hacks to keep cooling happening but I need some tips for hiding all the wires.

I have:
p5b wifi deluxe
q6600 with a zalman cooler.
evga8800gts640
7 hard drives (4 in the lower horizontal chimney) 2 in the middle, and one in the lower 5.5 bay.

Because the psu is in the bottom and all of those wires have to come up throught that gap in the middle I end up with a rat's nest of wires below and to the right side of my vid card. Also on the p5b motherboard that is the same area where 6 of the drive cables plugs in.

Thanks for any advice!
 
I cut out a few places on my mobo tray, and other areas
p180axw1.jpg

in the lower chamber, you'll have to take out the fan bracket that the fan's attached to, and there's some screw holes that you can screw the fan into on that deviding wall.

p180bgt5.jpg

Where the wires come from for the front panel, I cut a little hole there, and shoved them thru. They will come out by the 3.5" external drive spot.

When you cut out those spots it'll take a wahile, but make sue you cut them big enough to fit all your wires.too tight, and you'll have issues getting them to run smothly. I'll finally upload pix later... I just hate taking my rig apart. :D

**disclaimer**
I used the wc'd version because it had shots of the back of the mobo tray.
 
I didnt need to cut anything out... though i only have 3 hard drives, not 7...
6c8nrz6.jpg

6b9mqt1.jpg
 
Not Cutting needed in the new version. This case rules for cable management.


 
wow, youve got a lot of wires there dontcha? Id suggest since you have so much space above your 250 on the top that you coil together all the power cords to the drives and zip tie them together and secure to the side of the bays. regardless youve got a lot of work ahead of you. though i had fun making mine neat.good luck!:p
 
I'm thinking it would almost be worth picking up a new case (I can use them as I have 4 systems here) - and then just transfer things piece by piece.

If I did that, is there a case more suited to the amount of stuff I have in there - or is the new p180 with the better wire routing built in the way to go?
 
im confident that with a little time you can get all your wires hidden away behind the mb tray. you really have to take everything out of the case and start over piece by piece. theres also plenty of room above the power supply where you can coil excess cords. with enough zip ties anything is possible ;o
 
It doesn't look like you have the new version, so you'll probably need to make some cuts in the mobo tray to make it neat.
 
When I tried to re-wire my P180 I tried to put cables behind the motherboard and ended up just bending out my side panel and breaking off a few of those plastic clips :(. Yes, I did make a few cuts in attempt to alleviate the bending, but it didn't help enough. I eventually gave up and did things the old way.
 
yea doesn't look like you have the new version.

Does your version have any space between the PSU and both sides of the panel? I think i it does. I stuff all my unused power connectors in there on the sides of the PSU to avoid that mess.

PS, don't you think you are going a little overboard with all those front fans? What are your temps, especially on your vid card?
 
;) It's a bit overboard, but I had a lot of extra fans from another system, and the air flow with this setup is great. The top fan supplies fresh air to the cpu area, middle fan cools the 2 upper drives and the northbridge cooler. The lower fan cools the 4 hdd down below.

It's ugly but functional.

There is space beside my psu - but I'm pretty sure that I'm using connectors from every harness - so they all have to pass through to the upper area.

I'm going to have a go at cleaning it up and I'll post a before and after - thanks for the tips everyone!
 
I hope this helps you







notice how the cables run across the deviding wall, up behind the 3.5" drive bay and to their proper spot. If you need room for 7 SATA cables, make the cuts bigger. Same thing for power cables.
 
Yes, thanks! It's so clean looking... It's inspiring me to get this sorted out.
 
I would mod it for you if you were close to where I am. :D

I enjoy cutting up my case to make it look better.

Also, I just thought I'd let you know I modded my PSU to eliminate some of the wires I'm not using.

You can take the little SATA power adaptors, and make them fit in different legnths. I did that on mine. over at xtremesystems.com I believe there is a 'how to' on that.
 
how heavy is the p180 or p182? I'm wondering if I would be better off getting like a V1200 instead for something lightweight.
 
Kaldskryke said:
When I tried to re-wire my P180 I tried to put cables behind the motherboard and ended up just bending out my side panel and breaking off a few of those plastic clips :(. Yes, I did make a few cuts in attempt to alleviate the bending, but it didn't help enough. I eventually gave up and did things the old way.
Click to expand...
Don't worry man I had the same thing happen to me. I was like this is bad ass wiring,then I tried putting on the side panel and I was like crap. I did manage to get it on and it's staying their.
I broke a plastic clip too,but I don't think I'll be taking off that side panel for awhile.

I recently upgraded from a slk3700amb to this and the room is awesome.


How are you guys mounting the powersupplies with 120mm fan like the corsair?
Would I see any difference if I mounted with the fan pointing up?
 
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