Antec P180 - Cable Management 101

[skyguy]

Due to popular request, I've decided to finally get around to posting some pics of my P180 cabling job. The following is geared to anyone who's either considering getting a P180 and is curious about how it functions, what it looks like with everything installed, and/or how to cable it.....or someone who already owns one and may be looking to improve their cabling job. This isn't a step-by-step; rather, it is a selection of photos to show some options for cabling. I don't claim to have the best cabling job in a P180, but I think I've done a respectable job in my opinion, and simply offer this as a tool to help others


Some system specs:
-Antec P180B
-120mm Noctua fans @ 1200 rpm (17dba @ 63cfm)
-Core2Duo E6300 OC'd to 3.2ghz (case is by furnace vent, so limited by heat concerns)
-Zalman 9500 (modded by me......replaced stock fan with an Antec Tri-Cool 92mm fan)
-Gigabtye 965P-DS3 Rev.2.0
-4 x 1024 OCZ Special Ops PC2 7200
-Thermaltake Extreme Spirit II Northbridge heatsink
-Seasonic Energy Plus 650w PSU
-Seagate Barracudas and Western Digital Caviars, 4x250 gb
-Dual DVD/RW opticals....Samsung and LG
-EVGA 8800GTS 640mb
-Zalman fan controller
-Dual Samsung 22" LCDs
-Logitech G15, MX518 laser

That about covers it. Cabling took FOREVER. Drilling, dremmelling, sawing, sanding, tons of zip ties, and lots of Diet Coke to keep me going.......managed to completely bypass the upper/lower chamber cable transfer area....talk about a bi^ch to do that In any event, patience is key, especially with the P180. But I think it pays off......

Now onto the pics:

FRONT:
Removable air filters, fan controller...


5.25" drive bay drawer for tools, CD's, whatever....


Sexy minimalist front...



INSIDE:
Overall...


Drive cage drawer pulled out (sorry blurry)...



OUTSIDE:
How to bypass the chamber isolation flange...





LOWER CHAMBER:



UPPER CHAMBER:
Modded Zalman, Northbridge HSF, Noctuas...



And there you have it....my baby. Highly overclocked and QUIET. I wanted a system that had kickA$$ performance but was quiet, sleek, and clean. The Antec P180 is a very quiet case and has amazing features, but the cable management is definitely challenging. This whole thing is HEAVY.....don't wanna move it too often Took forever to cable it but I'm happy with the results....everything except the crappy IDE cable....I'm disappointed with that.....oh well, next setup I'll get SATA opticals

Show and tell is now over class

 

[stefx]

Awesome! You are a master at routing cables. Your case looks ten times better than mine.

Regarding the IDE cable....
I was also pretty disapointed to see that flat wide cable in there. I went to the computer store and bought a "round" IDE cable... it`s much better now.

Nice setup, very similar to mine.
I also bought Noctua 120mm fans after reading about them on silentpcreview.com. I'll have four of them in the upper portion of the P180 (rear, exhaust, upper drive cage, middle drive cage)

 

[graysky]

Drilling? Damn, you'd think a $130 case would have the holes in there from the factory. I wonder if the P182 which hasn't been released yet has these or similar from the factory. Nice job on your case.

Looks like the only drill hole I see in near the top behind the MB? Any others?

 

[skyguy]

Stef: I actually have a round IDE cable. I'm still debating whether to use it or not. It's a bling-bling UV one from my previous system LOL, and I'm not entirely convinced it looks better. I'll think about it. Like I said, I'm disappointed with the IDE cable....wish I had SATA opticals. And the DS3 mobo has the header at the bottom...which really sucks......other mobos that have the header on the upper right side will be laughing....just tuck it right behind the cage and you're done! No such luck with the DS3 layout...that's my only criticism of the board layout really.

And yes, Noctua are THE BEST fans, period.


Gray: I did create one full hole behind the mobo to connect the 4-pin ATX cable. Other than that, believe it or not I just used an ordinary one-handed hacksaw to cut through most of the cage areas....and alot of elbow grease It was particularly useful for fitting through all the power cables along the backside, then notching out the area behind the upper HDD cage......and that little saw cost about $5 at the hardware store!

If I had better tools or more "handiness" with them I probably would have done a couple things differently. But overall I'm pleased. Shame about the IDE header location though on my mobo

And yes, that is probably my biggest criticism of this case.....that it doesn't come with some pre-cut notches or holes. Soooo close to darn perfect but they missed on that one thing.

 

[tool_462]

Can always do something like this:

 

[Drez143]

The back cover fits into place after the 24 pin from the PSU kinda bulges out? It seems to stick out past where the white padding is. Other than that, it looks amazing, I think im gonna do something like that when I upgrade whats in my 180.

 

[stefx]

Stef: I actually have a round IDE cable. I'm still debating whether to use it or not. It's a bling-bling UV one from my previous system LOL, and I'm not entirely convinced it looks better. I'll think about it. Like I said, I'm disappointed with the IDE cable....wish I had SATA opticals. And the DS3 mobo has the header at the bottom...which really sucks......other mobos that have the header on the upper right side will be laughing....just tuck it right behind the cage and you're done! No such luck with the DS3 layout...that's my only criticism of the board layout really.
.

My mobo P5B deluxe has the SATA headers at the bottom right.

In the upper right are the memory slots

 

[qwazzy]

Yeah, the P5B kicks ass.

 

[Lionhardt]

skyguy, i guess that you and Tacos, possibly me (*lol*), and others who own the case could form the ultimate stick thread for the popular p180 encompassing everything


ur ub3r 1337 with the case.

 

[skyguy]

Tool: I would LOVE to do something like that with the IDE cable....except my IDE header is at the bottom of the motherboard, and therefore the cable isn't long enough.....it's barely long enough to reach the opticals at all If I had a longer cable......or a different mobo

Drez: To fit the 24-pin cable, I notched out the bottom metal flange where the wind fan is with the one-hand hacksaw. Took some work to get it started because of the awkward angle, but got it. So that bypassed the white pad areas. But then to get the cables to the frontside and plugged into the mobo, I had to again cut a deep notch into the gap between the top/bottom chambers, where the hard drive cage stops. The rear pic shows it. To keep it all in place I taped them tight to the back of the mobo/cage so they don't "pop out". It's a tight fit, but possible.

 

[Lionhardt]

Oh btw I have a few Q's about your setup:

-what is that thing in the top 3.5 inch( ? ) bay? where di you get it?

-do all fan controllers fit in this case, because of the door? and ive heard that the included stock fans dont work with it.

-how would the scythe ninja fit in that case, with that board? would it mess up any of the transistors around it?

 

[skyguy]

1) It's a 5.25" drive bay not 3.5", and it's a drawer to hold stuff It's this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811999142

2) Most fan controller should fit.....there is some good clearance between the door and the panels. This fan controller had a hard time fitting in another case, but fits easily in the 180 with room to spare.

3) A Ninja will fit no problem in this case. The designers actually used a Ninja as the HSF during the design and testing of the case. However, whether the Ninja will interfere with the capacitors, NB, etc depends on your motherboard, not the case. It fits in the case, but each motherboard is different. So you'll have to check the Ninja against the mobo pics.

 

[Drez143]

Wow, I am trully impressed. I don't think I could ever cut up my case like that though, I think its too beauitful as it is. What gave you the idea to start a hacking at it?

 

[skyguy]

It is a beautiful case, no doubt. And I was also very hesitant to do anything to it as well. Mind you, I was careful to not "hack it up" too much.....I tried hard to get everything squared off, symmetrical, etc. I'm so anal about that LOL. The reason I started was: 1) I needed something to do; 2) I saw some other examples and thought it was a great idea to pursue; 3) I was planning on changing motherboards and going with 2 graphics cards, and the cables coming up through the bottom would have interfered with the 2nd graphics card at the bottom......the cables wouldn't have allowed anywhere near enough space for a 2nd card (in the end I didn't go with a dual PCI-e mobo, but oh well).

I was careful to plan things out in advance and take my time so I wouldn't end up with a mess or mistakes Nothing worse than that.

To be honest, I don't know WHY a company hasn't released a case yet that specifically has purposeful slots/conduits/holes/etc behind and below the mobo tray, and to the rear and bottom of the case to wire your computer. Honestly, if they offered such a case, why would anyone bother wiring through the front anymore???

I mean, it's not that hard. It's a paradigm shift I know, but come on....in this day and age.....companies can't put some extra holes and slots as though cables should be routed out of the way? It's not like it uses more metal and would be more expensive. Frankly, I'm shocked nobody's done it yet. Man, I'm a designer in real life.....if I had more time I'd CAD up plans and shop them around to the case manufacturers.....

 

[pumpkin-soup]

Hey thats a pretty darn impressive cable setup there..


i have a P180b myself with 2x6800gs..

you cabling is way better than mine(i didnt do the whole drilling jig..)

that thing with the IDE cables does work pretty well. and if you have a long enough IDE cable it is fine. but can be hard to get.. that probably the only thing i can say about it...

one thing i did on my P180 is with the lower hdd cage you can actually route up to 4 SATA cables through the back hole where the cage slides in.. that is..

on the track where the cage slides there is a hole where a little metal flap stops the cage going back and halts the track..

if your careful you can stuff the SATA cables in there and go straight to the SATA ports.. it can make the cables more hidden.. it also means you dont need to use the plastic slide/flap that covers the lower cage(where ur meant to put the power/sata cables through)
although you seem to have some chunky ass sata cables and im not sure they will fit.. the yellow one are the same but those grey ones are monstrous..

also im using all of the stock fans on mine plus one thin one infront of the lower cage and one on my Tt BigTyphoon.. which means i have heaps of little cables that are way too long.. so what you can do if you have something similar is route them through the little loop that runs along the edge of 5.25" bays, then behind the little bit that says AntecDesign and there is another little hole that is at the start of the lower hd cage track.. and you can route it straight to the PSU..(i also use these for my volt mod wire that goes round to the front of the case...)

the only problem with that last one is that you need to have the cage in its final position before you start that..

oh yeah the sata cable that go round the back of the cage can make it hard to close. but you just have to have them in the right orientation and they will fit.. and the thumbscrew will fit in..

 

[skyguy]

Some great suggestions there Pump! I know what you're talking about, I tried a couple of those options when I was initially laying it all out.

My SATA cables...the 2 gray/white ones are the 90-degree ones from Silverstone....extra thick, but I needed the 90-degree....it helps with the the lower cage alot so no bending wires hard, etc.

There are those small slots to fit tiny wires too.....I just bundled mine together and tucked them into the bay behind my fan controller....there's lot of room in there and keeps them out of the way and tightly wrapped.

The one big limitation on the P180 is the lack of slots/holes in sensible, logical places........it would make this case perfect. So instead, I had to create my own slots/holes LOL.

But with careful cabling, the airflow on this case can be great, with all the spots to put fans. And the quietness of the P180 is simply amazing. For those looking for a quiet case with alot of features and attention to detail, it's awesome. But it does require patience. Myself, I enjoyed spending time on it.......was almost therapeutic LOL. Now I need a new project.......

 

[pumpkin-soup]

yeah i did the same thing with my extra cables that i didnt use(but didnt want to remove)
such as the audio cables. also if your 12v ATX cable is not long enough to go the big behind route you can (at least on my board) fit it just along where the PCIe ports meet the chipset.

well i tried to do a ASCII diagram but the forum fuggered up the layout.. screw that lets hope you know hwat i meant..



also my m/b has a 4pin power connector for the PCIe slots and you can fit that in there aswell its just a bit tighter. and also makes it a bit hard to get to the chipset fan connector on my board..

another thing i forgot to mention..

the lower cage can also get one Modular(at least on my PSU. Antec SP-500,pretty much a pcie sized pwr plug) cable through a small square hole in the front bottom corner where the middle fan goes.. if you can attach 4power connectors for ur hdds. it gets them out of the way and you dont have to worry that the cable is too short when you rip out the hdd cage and forgot you set the cables through neat and short coz it comes through there anyway..

there is also one other loop hingey bit you can stick cables down..(well you can also do it on the back edge of the 5.25" bays..) on the very front of the case right near the hinge is a metal hinge.. you can actually fit a couple of cables through there. but you need to cut holes for the wires to come out or something to pull the wire to the bottom if your going that far down..

 

[Lionhardt]

how will the scythe do with the ds3 that you own, and i might get?>

 

[skyguy]

3) A Ninja will fit no problem in this case. The designers actually used a Ninja as the HSF during the design and testing of the case. However, whether the Ninja will interfere with the capacitors, NB, etc depends on your motherboard, not the case. It fits in the case, but each motherboard is different. So you'll have to check the Ninja against the mobo pics.

Ninja should do just fine....but I can't use one because it'll interfere with my Northbridge heatsink. The Zalman 9500 fits, but it's not my first choice (or second, or third) for a cooler.

If you keep the NB stock, then the Scythe should do just fine. Post in the mobo or cooler section and see if anyone has that combo, I'm sure someone does.

 

[mekender]

well ive got a zalman 9700 in it and it fits with plenty of room to spare so i cant imagine that any other cooler is that big

 

[Lionhardt]

i see.

 

[Putter]

In this one, where you run the cables outside the main sections and into I guess it's the extra drive bay; you didn't need any special mods for that one.
http://img411.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1005384ra5.jpg

I'm not talking about the one that goes all the way up and there's a little hole, just the ones that go into the drive cage. Anyone could do that right?

 

[skyguy]

Well, actually I did.......a simple cut though. For the upper drive cage area and mobo (power cable, etc) I just notched out a simple square slot where the HDD cage meets the mobo area at the back.....so the big power cable and the molex cables could fit through.....just to the right of the coiled wires on the left side of the photo. That's the back of the hdd cage....made a cut there inward and removed that metal slot I cut, then the wires could fit inside. Otherwise the case wouldn't close.......near the white padding...

For the lower HDD cage, it's a simple cut beside the wind fan...in the metal divider. Then feed the power and SATA cables in. Done. That one was pretty simple.

 

[Lazarus7]

Excellent post.

Time to get busy

 

[skyguy]

Bumped by request.