Antec P180...dual 120's in the front...proof!!! (pics)

SarverSystems

Supreme [H]ardness
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After lots of posts about not being able to mount a 120mm fan in the lower chamber of the Antec P180 case, I decided to buy the case and attempt it.

Tools required: A drill and drill bit.

What to do: Remove the front cover by bending the tabs that hold it in place. Drill out 5 rivets that hold a metal bracket in the way.

Here's the bracket you are removing:
AntecP180-002.jpg


Once the bracket is removed, you'll need to get 2 small washers and place them over 2 fan screws. Only the 2 bottom fan screws are needed to hold the fan in place, but if you wanted all 4, just drill out to holes where the top 2 fan holes would line up.

You can see the 2 screws here:
AntecP180-005.jpg


AntecP180-004.jpg


On the inside of the case, in the lower chamber, if your fan is too thick, you'll never get the hard drive cage to slide back in. Mine is a VERRRRRRY tight fit, but it DOES slide back in place. I opted to leave it out to conserve weight and access the fan easier. My hard drive is mounted in the fan controller anyways, so no need for the lower cage.
AntecP180-008.jpg


This show also shows the Thermalright XP-120 with aluminum fan mounted in the case.
AntecP180-007.jpg


And one final shot showing the power supply. This will be great for LANs where outlets are scarce. Now I don't need to bring a power strip with me!!!
AntecP180-010.jpg
 
Wow very nice, now prove to all of us how easy/difficult it is to cut these sandwich style side/top panels! I am very eager to know how easy it would be to mod a dual or triple rad into the top of the case.
 
Aint gonna fit.

Remember, since the PSU is mounted on the bottom, that puts the motherboard at the very top of the case, putting your CPU at the very top as well.

There wont be any clearance between the motherboard ands the top of the case for a rad. You might able to fit a single 120mm rad in there.
 
nice, i knew it could be done, was planning on attempting it this weekend.
but i might dremel the metal bracket, because i need it to hold the hd enclosure in place.
 
SarverSystems said:
No need for the bracket.

The hard drive cage still slides in and out just find.
yea but it slides out if tilted sideways without the door on. but then it only happens when im working on the case, shouldnt matter when its just sitting there. i have 4 hd down there.
 
Good point. The way my fan is, it's such a tight fit that the fan holds the cage in place.
 
just looking at your idea i went and slapped a 92mm zalman fan in there. my hd temps dropped 2 degree C. so now i have a 92mm intake and a 120mm mid fan.

can you still fit your grill on the bottom? i cut up some ac filter and slapped it in there since the original grill doesnt work anymore.
 
Nice work! yeah, you're looking at a Koolance Exos II or some sort of external H2O setup.. bought or home brew... I saw the Exos II @ Fry's tonight.. $399! lol.
 
Yup, both grills fit on perfectly, although... believe it or not... the upper grill, when pushing the tabs in a bit (as if you were trying to remove the grill) rubs on the fan blades just a tiny bit. It's wierd that the upper grill would do that since it is designed to have a fan behind it.

AntecP180-003.jpg
 
The black plastic vent pieces in front of the fans on the front panel is click-open?!?! Damn I feel stupid because I took off the front panel every time I wanted to clean the dust filter .......... or was it a mod that you did? I think I tried to push on it here and there but it didn't open for me. Ouch how embarrassing for me ............ :(
 
sakurakana1003 said:
The black plastic vent pieces in front of the fans on the front panel is click-open?!?! Damn I feel stupid because I took off the front panel every time I wanted to clean the dust filter .......... or was it a mod that you did? I think I tried to push on it here and there but it didn't open for me. Ouch how embarrassing for me ............ :(


noob91it.jpg
 
Mwahahahahaha.

Yeah, push to open, push to close. If you look closely, you can see where it latches.
 
Wow, thanks for posting this. I was very curious about this mod. I don't even know why Antec designed the case without allowing you to fit a 120mm intake at the bottom anyway. Having 4 HD's at the bottom certainly you would need a fan blowing air on them otherwise it would be extremely hot.

Anyway I have a request, and a question. First off, can you take some pics with the HDD cage installed and the fan mounted? I want to see exactly how close the fan is to the HDD cage, cause I assumed the cage wouldn't fit at all. And even if the cage fits, would you even be able to mount hard drives instead the cage, considering how close it comes to the fan?

And now for my question. If you don't have any HDD's installed in your lower cage, why would you even need a intake fan if you already have a 120mm fan installed behind the power supply? Did you just attempt it to prove it can be done?
 
Just curious, why do you have a filter over the 120mm fan on your XP-120? That would create more noise and reduce airflow. Have you removed the front-mounted filters altogether?
 
The filter makes abosuletly no difference in sound, I powred the fan up with the fan on, and with the filter off. I can't hear a difference.

As for airflow, I doubt there is a measurable decrease in airflow. Even if there was a 5% decrease, it's worth it to me. Cleaning the filter is a hell of a lot easier than cleaning the entire heatsink. The motherboard would need to be removed in order to get the heatsink off. Needless t say, removing 4 small screws is easier than removing the entire motherboard.

I understand your concern, and I checked into before mounting it permanently.
 
OMG, I forgot to look at the PSU.

But yeah, that's the same one, froma different place and in a different color. Price sounds about right though.
 
do you have more pics of the psu

how about a guide as to how you made it?

i really like that psu you have :)
 
Read the words (instead of just looking at the pictures) next time you post a question. No offense, but it has been mentioned 3 times now where to get it, and that it is not homemade.


jtobrien said:
do you have more pics of the psu

how about a guide as to how you made it?

i really like that psu you have :)
 
Well I did this mod today but now I can't use either the bottom hdd rack or the fan filter. The things that hold the filter in place hit my fan blades and there's no room for the lower hdd rack.
 
I am able to use the filter just fine on the top and bottom. If I push on the top filter just a tiny bit, it hits the blades though. No big deal, the door protects it from that.

The fan will make a very very tight fit on the lower drive cage. I was able to get mine all the way on with some persuasion, but I took it back out since I don't need it.
 
mine hd cage fits with the lower fan, filter doesnt really fit, but i made it fit.

i think its cause different fans have different blade thickness.
 
Isnt that powersupply kinda chinsy?
Seems pretty cheap and unreliable for 650w or whatever...

Sorry this thread is old but its really remarkable with the dual 120s and I am a p180 lover I think.
 
Ya know, it's funny you should mention that. The reason I say that is because I am having random lockups, and also predictable lockups.

Sometimes it'll lock up in Windows for no apparent reason. It never locks up when playing HALO or HL2. It locked up when installing Riddick. And it almost always locks up sometime during the day while I am at work, with the screensaver on.

I've tried a new motherboard, CPU, RAM, and disconnected all the extra drives and stuff. It still locks up. I don't have another video card to throw in it, so I can't test that. And since it is a Maxtor SATA hard drive, there is no way to test it. That pretty much leaves the PSU. Luckily I have a few laying around I can toss in to see if that is the problem. I will keep everyone posted.
 
I was just browsing my way through the post and looked at that PSU - thinking that while it's a good idea, it doesn't leave too much room on the back for venting! I'm wondering if it's the heat causing the PSU to go a bit flakey on you?

A shame there's a fan filling the back of my case directly below the PSU, I had almost starting thinking about adding a couple of sockets in the back myself if there had been room.
 
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