just finished rebuilding my system...
1) cut hole in the divider between the upper and lower chambers
the thought here being that i couldnt fit 2x 3-slot video cards in the P180B or the P182 or P190 for that matter... so i had 2 options... either make a new set of standoffs that were 20mm higher on the tray, then cut a slot for the i/o tray to slide up and match the motherboard position... or i could cut the hole in the divider and slide a fan in there...
2) put 120mm s-flex e fan in new hole
i did this by putting rubber tubing along the edge of the hole then basically forcing it in there... its such a tight fit that i would probaby have to cut it out if i needed to remove the fan... but that was the idea...
3) added accelero 1 rev2's on both video cards
-added 120mm s-flex e fan to top card and the one in the divider cools the bottom card
-cut slot in the edge of the cooler on the top card to slide the crossfire bridge through
-also had to shorten the voltage regulator heatsink on the cards to make the accelero compatible with this version of the card...
4) painted case gunmetal gray
5) replaced power supply with Antec TruePower Quattro 1000W
6) removed unneeded cables from front panel(for ide leds)
7) replaced RAM with PC8500 Crucial Ballistix Tracer
and there were a few other little things...
here are some pictures...
took the stock cooler off the 3870
cleaned the chips off with isopropyl alcohol
shortened the heatsink to fit under the accelero and reused the old thermal pads from the memory chips(off the stock cooler)
1x 3870 w/accelero
2x 3870 w/accelero
cut slot for the crossfire bridge
just to show the the fan fits... next step was to put the old antec fan in a box to most likely be used as a spare part in case of emergency...
got the top card in only to realize the only way i could get the bottom fan jammed in the hole was to take everything out and put some weight into it...
everything together... wires tucked and hidden...
bottom view of the bottom fan...
shiny new RAM...
1) cut hole in the divider between the upper and lower chambers
the thought here being that i couldnt fit 2x 3-slot video cards in the P180B or the P182 or P190 for that matter... so i had 2 options... either make a new set of standoffs that were 20mm higher on the tray, then cut a slot for the i/o tray to slide up and match the motherboard position... or i could cut the hole in the divider and slide a fan in there...
2) put 120mm s-flex e fan in new hole
i did this by putting rubber tubing along the edge of the hole then basically forcing it in there... its such a tight fit that i would probaby have to cut it out if i needed to remove the fan... but that was the idea...
3) added accelero 1 rev2's on both video cards
-added 120mm s-flex e fan to top card and the one in the divider cools the bottom card
-cut slot in the edge of the cooler on the top card to slide the crossfire bridge through
-also had to shorten the voltage regulator heatsink on the cards to make the accelero compatible with this version of the card...
4) painted case gunmetal gray
5) replaced power supply with Antec TruePower Quattro 1000W
6) removed unneeded cables from front panel(for ide leds)
7) replaced RAM with PC8500 Crucial Ballistix Tracer
and there were a few other little things...
here are some pictures...
took the stock cooler off the 3870
cleaned the chips off with isopropyl alcohol
shortened the heatsink to fit under the accelero and reused the old thermal pads from the memory chips(off the stock cooler)
1x 3870 w/accelero
2x 3870 w/accelero
cut slot for the crossfire bridge
just to show the the fan fits... next step was to put the old antec fan in a box to most likely be used as a spare part in case of emergency...
got the top card in only to realize the only way i could get the bottom fan jammed in the hole was to take everything out and put some weight into it...
everything together... wires tucked and hidden...
bottom view of the bottom fan...
shiny new RAM...