StalkerZER0
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2005
- Messages
- 1,207
I got the antec p180 (black version) the day before Thanksgiving but I didn't get time to work on the case upgrade til this past friday.
The PC Power n Cooling silencer 750 psu arrived the same day too.
Pics below....and I don't want to hear nuthin bout bad cable management because I struggled with the best arrangement I could make with that silencer 750. The power supply is BIG and NOT modular.
Anyway take a look cause I've got questions for you all......................
I kinda like the plain black look. Its very sleek in my opinion. And as far as asthetics is concern its a good thing my optical drives were already a matching black.
Now don't laugh but take a look at the upper and lower sections and the cable management. Trust me....its the best arrangement I could come up with.
The upper section first.....................
Routing the cables from the silencer 750 was a PAINNNN!!! It took me hours to install the psu why? I'll tell you in a bit. But once installed I had to route the cables so that it would reach all the components. Look at the left side at the 4 pin atx power cable. Notice how stretched it is as it is snaked along the left side under the video card and up over the cpu to where it plugs in. And notice the right side....as advised I chose not to install the hard drives there and put what was the lower tricool fan in the upper front section instead.
Look at the lower section and the power supply set up.............
The silencer 750 is longer than the average power supply so I had to remove the 120mm tricool an that would have been to the right of the power supply to pull more air away from the lower hard drive tray to the right.
Why did it take me 6 hours to install the psu? Because I didn't want to accept the reality of having to remove the lower fan because I wanted that extra air flow for the hard drives. So I screwed and unscrewed multiple times two other fan brackets to try to get it to fit. But in the end the reality was that there is no room for a fan down there and the cables at the same time.
Question:
The 4 hard drives (two ide drives toward the left panel + two SATA drives close to the right panel) are feeling a little warm after I opened the case and touched them. But I guess there isn't anything I can do about that right?
The pic below shows the area just above the lower power supply area with that large black plastic bracket which is supposed to slide out of the way for the cables.......
In the above pic near the right side by the two red sata cables the hole there......I left it like that for a little bit of the hot air from the lower hard drives to vent. The only venting for the hard drives then is the psu's own fan pulling air, the air from the upper fan...and that is it really. Also on the left side is a closer view of that 4 pin atx cable that is really stretched over barely making it to the slot above the cpu. And if you notice to the lower right side of the pic I didn't bother to install the floppy. I'm trying to shove some some wires there out of view.
For people who are familiar with the p180 the lower front section in front of the lower hard drive tray seems to have a space....for a small fan maybe? Do you think a 92mm fan could fit there?......Maybe??
Look at the 2 pics below..........
These pics are a closer look at the upper section near the upper empty hard drive cage area. If you notice, I decided to route the hard drive cable against the back to where the left side door panel is almost touching the cable flat. Its technically not in the body of the case at that section.
I had to do that for two reasons:
1. So that I would be able to easily reach the ide drives on the bottom.
2. And more importantly because inside the case it was blocking that upper fan there and I wanted to create a better air flow inside the case.
It seems to be working too. And here are my average tempertures:
The only fans I have working to reach those temperatures are the rear case fan, the psu fan and the upper front fan.
I have decided not to run the fan all the way on top of the case to conserve on noise.
Cpu and mobo temperatures seem pretty stable.
On the issue of noise.......
I find that even without the new cpu fan I'm waiting on the noise signature on a whole is noticeably smaller. Remember though I'm not using the top case fan.
Ah, the dreaded panaflo cpu fan!
The panaflo is a good high speed but simply makes more noise than it should in my opinion. I hope to be receiving the nexus silent case fan soon. And if I'm not satisfied then perhaps I will get a fanless cpu heatsink and rely on the case fans for cooling.
For those familiar with these tricool fans I have all of them on low.
Any questions? Any suggestions? Please let me know!
Oh, one final pic. The top of the case I put a piece of a postcard to cover the hole. The spoiler is just there for looks.
The PC Power n Cooling silencer 750 psu arrived the same day too.
Pics below....and I don't want to hear nuthin bout bad cable management because I struggled with the best arrangement I could make with that silencer 750. The power supply is BIG and NOT modular.
Anyway take a look cause I've got questions for you all......................
I kinda like the plain black look. Its very sleek in my opinion. And as far as asthetics is concern its a good thing my optical drives were already a matching black.
Now don't laugh but take a look at the upper and lower sections and the cable management. Trust me....its the best arrangement I could come up with.
The upper section first.....................
Routing the cables from the silencer 750 was a PAINNNN!!! It took me hours to install the psu why? I'll tell you in a bit. But once installed I had to route the cables so that it would reach all the components. Look at the left side at the 4 pin atx power cable. Notice how stretched it is as it is snaked along the left side under the video card and up over the cpu to where it plugs in. And notice the right side....as advised I chose not to install the hard drives there and put what was the lower tricool fan in the upper front section instead.
Look at the lower section and the power supply set up.............
The silencer 750 is longer than the average power supply so I had to remove the 120mm tricool an that would have been to the right of the power supply to pull more air away from the lower hard drive tray to the right.
Why did it take me 6 hours to install the psu? Because I didn't want to accept the reality of having to remove the lower fan because I wanted that extra air flow for the hard drives. So I screwed and unscrewed multiple times two other fan brackets to try to get it to fit. But in the end the reality was that there is no room for a fan down there and the cables at the same time.
Question:
The 4 hard drives (two ide drives toward the left panel + two SATA drives close to the right panel) are feeling a little warm after I opened the case and touched them. But I guess there isn't anything I can do about that right?
The pic below shows the area just above the lower power supply area with that large black plastic bracket which is supposed to slide out of the way for the cables.......
In the above pic near the right side by the two red sata cables the hole there......I left it like that for a little bit of the hot air from the lower hard drives to vent. The only venting for the hard drives then is the psu's own fan pulling air, the air from the upper fan...and that is it really. Also on the left side is a closer view of that 4 pin atx cable that is really stretched over barely making it to the slot above the cpu. And if you notice to the lower right side of the pic I didn't bother to install the floppy. I'm trying to shove some some wires there out of view.
For people who are familiar with the p180 the lower front section in front of the lower hard drive tray seems to have a space....for a small fan maybe? Do you think a 92mm fan could fit there?......Maybe??
Look at the 2 pics below..........
These pics are a closer look at the upper section near the upper empty hard drive cage area. If you notice, I decided to route the hard drive cable against the back to where the left side door panel is almost touching the cable flat. Its technically not in the body of the case at that section.
I had to do that for two reasons:
1. So that I would be able to easily reach the ide drives on the bottom.
2. And more importantly because inside the case it was blocking that upper fan there and I wanted to create a better air flow inside the case.
It seems to be working too. And here are my average tempertures:
The only fans I have working to reach those temperatures are the rear case fan, the psu fan and the upper front fan.
I have decided not to run the fan all the way on top of the case to conserve on noise.
Cpu and mobo temperatures seem pretty stable.
On the issue of noise.......
I find that even without the new cpu fan I'm waiting on the noise signature on a whole is noticeably smaller. Remember though I'm not using the top case fan.
Ah, the dreaded panaflo cpu fan!
The panaflo is a good high speed but simply makes more noise than it should in my opinion. I hope to be receiving the nexus silent case fan soon. And if I'm not satisfied then perhaps I will get a fanless cpu heatsink and rely on the case fans for cooling.
For those familiar with these tricool fans I have all of them on low.
Any questions? Any suggestions? Please let me know!
Oh, one final pic. The top of the case I put a piece of a postcard to cover the hole. The spoiler is just there for looks.