Who has an Antec Mini P180 case?

you should have 6.

Thanks Vengance_01, I must have misplaced it with all the junk laying on the floor.

dja2k

Do you think that the air flow will be ok using the back as intake, the top as out, but that's it? I think I might want four drives in there for later in the future, but only if that air flow is okay. The top fan seems to move enough air and probably suck in air too from the front vents because of all the air suction that 200mm fan does. What do you think?

dja2k

I would say yes as long as your ambient are in decent.

Anyone have any suggestions on a good cpu hsf? I just got my case in today and I am trying to get an idea of how big I can go with a hsf. I was thinking about a Zalman 9500A, it looks like it will fit... I hope.

Vengance_01 mentioned that the Sunbeam COre Contact fits in this case... so you can choose damn near any cooler you like and it should fit with no problem (maybe with the exception of the CoolerMaster V10 lol).

As for actually choosing a heatsink, check the Cooling section, there are alot of good performing coolers at different price points available.

true


9700nt

Size vs Noise vs Performance -- what a mess!

Hi, first time poster, recently discovered this forum! It's awesome!

After squeezing the life out of my last custom built system (circa 2003 - [email protected] + Radeon 9500 Pro 128MB), it's time to finally bite the bullet, and upgrade. LOL

My wife complains about noise of my current rig (fans sound like they're being tortured to death every time I turn it on) and she digs the look of the HP Slimline series. So I found the P180 Mini and thought it killed two birds with one stone: mATX plus built to be quiet(er).

However, I'm a game and performance enthusiast who's had to give up his passion for the last 3 years due to becoming a dad. Now that my girl is a little older and doesn't need quite as much attention, I'm hoping to get back to gaming.

Here's what I'd *like* to cram into this case.

Case:
Antec P180 Mini

CPU:
Core I7 920 OC to 4.0GHz

Cooler: ???? air (not liquid please)

Motherboard:
MSI X58M
OR
ASUS ROG Rampage II Gene X58

PSU:
Corsair HX 1000W OR HX 850W or TX 950W or TX 850W
OR
Antec Signature 850W

RAM:
6GB Corsair XMS DDR3 1600
OR
6GB OCZ3G1600LV6GK DDR3 1600

HDD:
2X WD Caviar Black 1TB in RAID-0 (apps, data, pagefile, etc)
AND
SSD vertex 30gb (X2 ??) (for OS)
OR
SSD x-25 G2 80gb (for OS)

GPU:
2X 5850 Crossfire (or the 5850X2 if it really exists)
OR
2X 5870 Crossfire (or the 5870X2 when it comes out)

Optical:
Some DVD RW Lightscribe (any suggestions?)

-----------

Here are my questions:

1) What cooler fits in this case with this configuration that would let me OC to 4.0? cheapest and quietest!

2) will all this FIT and work in this case? and if so, will i still see any noise advantage by using the case or have i defeated the purpose of this case for having a quieter system? Will the two 120mm fans plus one 200mm fan that come with the case be sufficient for cooling all this?

3) for any components that I've listed more than one option, do you have any suggestions?

4) is there any advantage to striping SSDs? they're so fast already, do they gain anything significant by configuring in RAID-0?

5) have I made some horrible mistake? LOL

Thanks!

nice build, - i think a 1000w would be abit overkill- 850w would be perfect.
+1 for the ocz vertex, but i dont think its worth raid - 0 - just maby go up to a 60gb

graphics card seem abit overkill :/

when i was shopping for a case for my i7 rig i was about to go for the p180 mini, it looks awsome, and its a very good price, but i have no idea if two highend graphics card + an overclocked i7 will do in there, as they both throw out tonns of heat

mabye go for the full p180/1/2/3/
or possibly something more 'gaming' like....CM scout/storm

antipesto93 said:

nice build, - i think a 1000w would be abit overkill- 850w would be perfect.

Click to expand...

Thanks! It's a relief to hear I haven't totally botched it up. I thought 1k was overkill but wasn't sure. Good to know.

antipesto93 said:

+1 for the ocz vertex, but i dont think its worth raid - 0 - just maby go up to a 60gb

Click to expand...

Yeah the price difference btwn 30GB and 60GB is negligible and I didn't think I'd get much more out of striping two together.

antipesto93 said:

graphics card seem abit overkill :/

Click to expand...

You're right, for now it's way more than I need, but you're talking to the guy who is still hanging onto a 128MB GPU 6 years later. When I buy something, I want to make it as future proof as possible. I only invest once, so I'm trying to buy more than I need so as time goes on, I'll have enough horsepower in reserve to compensate for the actually faster and more efficient cards of tomorrow without limiting (right away anyway) my ability to play newer games. But yeah I know what you mean.

antipesto93 said:

when i was shopping for a case for my i7 rig i was about to go for the p180 mini, it looks awsome, and its a very good price, but i have no idea if two highend graphics card + an overclocked i7 will do in there, as they both throw out tonns of heat

Click to expand...

That's my biggest concern. Will it all fit in there and will I be able to cool everything. I'd like it to be as quiet as reasonably possible too. Grrr. Did you have any recommendations in terms of a good air cooler for tight spaces that will let me OC to 4.0GHz?

antipesto93 said:

mabye go for the full p180/1/2/3/
or possibly something more 'gaming' like....CM scout/storm

Click to expand...

Again, since my wife prefers a smaller form factor and something more refined, the CM Scout is totally out of the question. LOL I'll take a look at the P180s though to see if that's doable. I was just trying to please everyone: my wife for looks and noise, and myself for performance and speed.

Thanks very much for your inputs!

LOVE IT!

wow- i had no idea a p180 mini could even fit a full size graphics card

anyone know if a megahelms will go in there?

antipesto93 said:

wow- i had no idea a p180 mini could even fit a full size graphics card

anyone know if a megahelms will go in there?

Click to expand...

You could fit dual gtx 295 without any issues, just leave out the lower hard drive cage and your gold.

Thanks for the info! I'm still debating a couple things for this case. If anyone has any additional thoughts, I'd happily take them.

What air cooler (<$100) do you recommend to OC to 4.0GHz that will definitely fit in this case?

Mobo: ASUS ROG Rampage II Gene X58 vs Evga mATX X58 vs MSI
I'm leaning towards ASUS but...???

How many HDs fit in top cage and can you fit HDs anywhere else in the case if you lose the middle cage due to the two GPUs and case fan?

Can you use the lowest cage (by the PSU) for anything other than as 5.25/3.5 expansion bays?

I've heard the stock TriCool fans on this case are ok, but not the best in terms of noise. Anyone have any recommendations on really quiet but cool fans? I'm OC'ing the CPU quite a bit and I'm going to have two GPUs and 3 storage drives, so the box needs adequate air flow but I want to keep it as quiet as possible.

Thanks!

Will this case fit a TRUE in it? Don't see why not, just want to make sure for my own curiosity.

JonSimonzi said:

Will this case fit a TRUE in it? Don't see why not, just want to make sure for my own curiosity.

Click to expand...

It will, this case is wide because of the large fan on the top. I got xigmatek 1283 with half inch to spare.

Wow its been a year already since that setup! I really do miss that case. If newegg has it on sale again, I think I might move back to it.

Ok, Here's white edition

So the case itself doesn't come with the window panel? On Newegg, some pictures show it with the window panel, some without.

JonSimonzi said:

So the case itself doesn't come with the window panel? On Newegg, some pictures show it with the window panel, some without.

Click to expand...

It is not a window. You probably are looking at inside of panel. The panel has different color so for a second looks like a window. The case is similar to 182. It should have solid which serve for noise isolation.