Antec P180 and Modular Power Supply comments

[mikeyg83]

i just finished building my c2d computer (except for the c2d part) using a p4 for the time being. i have an Antec P180 case, which i must say is awesome both in looks and working with. And i got an Antec Smartpower 2.0 500W Modular PSU. I am simply posting this for future builds and configs...
using this case, you do not need a modular power supply, it does not help in any way really. the case has a separate psu chamber which you can see in pics (like on newegg). this chamber has ample room to hold extra cables, meaning they won't get in the way of airflow. so if you were debating about psu's and are using a P180 case, think about this post...
also, it seems to me like the P180 has amazing airflow capabilities for the CPU. There is a top fan and a back fan that come with the case. I flipped the Top fan around to be an intake, it blows right on the the heatsink/fan, and then the back fan sucks it right out. furthermore, the front of the case has designated room for TWO! more fans to pull are in (or out) to cool the VGA (and inside of the case in general), but you need to supply those fans yourself. the third supplied fan with this case can go into the bottom chamber and cool the lower hard drive chamber. i really like this case, but sort of regret the modular power supply because i feel like the money could have gone into a better PSU. just my 2 cents. mike

 

[ornryactor]

I'm building a rig right now, and was planning on using a modular PSU with that same Antec P180. It's pretty clear that the PSU chamber has lots of room for cable storage, but would a wad of cables down there get in the way of airflow through the bottom chambers? It seemed to me like it would, but maybe I'm wrong.

The only complaint I hear about that case is PSU cables being too short. How is cable length on your Smartpower?

 

[mikeyg83]

I'm building a rig right now, and was planning on using a modular PSU with that same Antec P180. It's pretty clear that the PSU chamber has lots of room for cable storage, but would a wad of cables down there get in the way of airflow through the bottom chambers? It seemed to me like it would, but maybe I'm wrong.

The only complaint I hear about that case is PSU cables being too short. How is cable length on your Smartpower?

The cable length for the smartpower was more than enough for me. It got from the bottom chamber all the way up to the top 5.25 drive bay without stretching. And the cable itself has 3 4-pin molex connectors (as opposed to 2 connectors like i'm used to). actually it's a good thing that it has 3 connectors per cable because if i remember correctly you can only connect 4 cables to the PSU at a time (meaning I could do a PCI-E cable, a SATA cable, and 2 molex cables). However, I only connected 3 cables to it (1 PCI-E, 1 SATA, and 1 Molex).
Using a non-modular PSU could get a little clustered down in the bottom if you decide to use the lower hard drive cage. however, if you use the upper hard drive cage, then there would be plenty of room to space out the extra cable with no problem. Let me know if there's anything else I can help with.