Antec P180 owners, please measue this for me

[prdfy49]

http://img351.imageshack.us/my.php?...sidetop18aq.jpg

I need to know how many inches of clearance there is between the top fan and the rear exhaust fan. Vertical distance, not at an angle.

I would like to mount a 120mm radiator inside the case, but I'm afraid that the hoses won't have enough clearance due to the top fan. I tried Vantec support, but they said that since I need specific measurements, I should go to a local distrubitor and do it there. One problem, the closest distrubitor is 900 miles away.

http://img286.imageshack.us/my.php?...idefront0cw.jpg
How big is the bay for the upper hard drive rack? (LxWxH)

Does it look like the black rails that the hard drive rack slides on can be removed?

 

[emogoch]

I just got my P180.

I'm not gettign anything from your links, you'll need to edit them. use {url=<link location}link name{/url}, replacing the {} with [ and ].

Looking in my case, I'm looking at about a 1.5" gap between the two fans in both the vertical and horizontal direction:

. . . 1.5"
_| . . . . . |__________________

1.5"
_
|
|
|

Will need to find a tape measure for more precise measurements.

As for the removal of the black rails, are you talking about what the HDDs slide into on the drive racks, or what the drive racks slide into on the case?

 

[prdfy49]

Sorry about the images. These should work.

http://tinyurl.com/b57al -- fans
http://tinyurl.com/buorq -- drive cage

Thanks for taking the time to do this. I'm looking forward to your precise measurements.

Removal of the black rails -- What I mean by that is black plastic (?) form that the upper hard drive rack slides on.

Thanks again.

 

[prdfy49]

Wusy,

I know most people would mount a radiator externally, but I was going to reverse the top mounted fan from exhaust to intake. Since the air stream would be blowing almost directly infront of the radiator, I thought that it would get more cool air that way than using the warm/hot air coming air out of the back of the case.

http://tinyurl.com/b57al
Top fan -- intake
Rear fan -- exhaust

What do you think?

 

[prdfy49]

If I mount the radiator on the rear exhaust fan, the air will be sucked out. I just thought that by using the top fan as an intake, it would keep the radiator supplied with cool air and I'd have everything inside the case.

If I do mount it on top as you suggest, would that additional hose length pose a problem for the water cooler pump? I will be using the Swiftech H20-120 3a kit.

 

[prdfy49]

Sorry to drag this out, but I will be using a VGA water block as well. The hard drives and PS are in the lower chamber, so their heat won't be an issue. The only source of air-cooled heat in the motherboard chamber will be the chipset fan.

I won't know which way I'm going to go with this until I get all my parts and see everything firsthand, but I appreciate your responses.

I've pretty much decided on the P180, but I'll wait for emogoch's measurements to be sure.

Thanks again

 

[emogoch]

Got to go to class now. I'll try to take the measurements at the end of the day.

As for flipping the top exhaust fan, I did the same thing, and I'm glad that I did. I'm using the OCZ PC4000 Gold VX RAM (which I'm still having a hell of a time getting this system to OC with), and before I flipped it, was finding that it was pretty hot to touch. Now the stuff if running ice cold. That, and my CPU runs in the 35 to 40 degree range on just straight air.

 

[emogoch]

The upper drive bay is 5" x 4.5" x 4.75"

The distance between the fans is closer to about 1" (don't have anything accurate to measure that distance with me, sorry), and yes, the plastic rails to slide the drive bay into are removable (though they might require a bit of coaxing to do so).

 

[prdfy49]

Thank you for taking the time to do that. Even Antec support wouldn't provide measurements.

One inch of clearence might be cutting it close, but it should work. If it doesn't I can always mount the radiator on the top fan or outside if it comes to that. My P180 is on the way. $119 + $10 shipping at ebuyer.com.

Thanks again.