[ryanlogic]

Antec mini P180 case

I need some suggestions, I am going to get the Corsair H70,and a An SSD, along with a new 2 TB HDD. And I want to completely overhaul my case with new fans. I am not anal about noise levels but I'm not looking to make my case sound like a jet engine....or a hairdryer.

So, please tell me what you would replace the stock fans on the H70 with, along with a good selection for the other two 120mm case fans. Im looking for a good CFM-Decibel ratio. I prefer fans without leds. I want good quality fans, and I don't want to mess with a fan controller. unless someone can point me towards an elegant solution. price isn't really an issue, I just want to get it done right the first time.

thanks in advance.

 

[nckid4u]

medium speed yate loons with a fan controller will let you dial them in to the desired cfm/noise ratio. cheap too. rheobus extreme is a good fc.

 

[ryanlogic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nckid4u medium speed yate loons with a fan controller will let you dial them in to the desired cfm/noise ratio. cheap too. rheobus extreme is a good fc.

thanks, but I would not want that fan controller. plastic knobs

maybe I'm just picky, but it would need to be flush, with either pop-out/retractable knobs preferably made of metal. or some kind of touchscreen. everything I see with a touchscreen looks like it belongs on a steam punk style build or in a cockpit or something. Im trying to be low key here. (not that your suggestion wasn't, persay)

plus my case has a big door on the front covering all the drive bays, I don't wanna deal with clearance issues.

 

[ryanlogic]

no other suggestions?

 

[ehume]

[rant] I personally would consider getting another case. After my experience with an Antec NSK 4480II it will be a long time before I will consider another Antec case. I would not buy your case. Rather than buy another Antec case I got a dirt-cheap NZXT and am far happier with it. [/rant]

I always recommend going with the stock fans first, and get a feel for how they do.

I have your mb (first rig; now my daughter's), so I know you can go into your BIOS, select PC Health on your first screen, then set Smartfan to Enabled, and set fan control mode to Voltage (NOT Auto). You can then get a Y-cable and plug your fans into the CPU_FAN header. Remember to cut one of the yellow wires on the Y-cable so you don't have both fans reporting their rpm's to the mb. The fan header can handle 1 Amp, so if your fans add up to 1A or less you can put them both on there.

Of course, if your stock fans are PWM fans, set your control mode to PWM in BIOS and use the same Y-cable. It will control either voltage-regulated fans or pwm-regulated fans.

Later you can get a pair of GT's, either AP-14's (my favorite) or AP-15's (better performance while still relatively quiet). A cheaper approach is a pair of Yate Loon D12SH-12's.

 

[ryanlogic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ehume [rant] I personally would consider getting another case. After my experience with an Antec NSK 4480II it will be a long time before I will consider another Antec case. I would not buy your case. Rather than buy another case I got a dirt-cheap NZXT and am far happier with it. [/rant] I always recommend going with the stock fans first, and get a feel for how they do. I have your mb (first rig; now my daughter's), so I know you can go into your BIOS, select PC Health on your first screen, then set Smartfan to Enabled, and set fan control mode to Voltage (NOT Auto). You can then get a Y-cable and plug your fans into the CPU_FAN header. Remember to cut one of the yellow wires on the Y-cable so you don't have both fans reporting their rpm's to the mb. The fan header can handle 1 Amp, so if your fnas add up to 1A or less you can put them both on there. Of course, if your stock fans are PWM fans, set your control mode to PWM in BIOS and use the same Y-cable. It will control either voltage-regulated fans or pwm-regulated fans. Later you can get a pair of GT's, either AP-14's (my favorite) or AP-15's (better performance while still relatively quiet). A cheaper approach is a pair of Yate Loon D12SH-12's.

awesome advice, Ive already had the case for about a year...and some of the fans in there are left over from my old antec 900 build from 2007. so Im long overdue for a complete overhaul, and your suggestions are greatly appreciated.I do have a few questions though, so hopefully you guys will forgive my noobishness:

were you suggesting to use the MB fan controller for the case fans or the fans I intend to use for the H70? I think you meant for the case, but I'm not sure.And should I get four of the same fan? two for the H70 and two for the case?

In all honesty, I cant say a whole lot of bad things about the mini P180. I am leaning towards something different in the future... If you want check out this thread, it catalogs the discussion leading up to this question, and the decision to keep my current case....for now anyway. I have a habit of staring at Lian Li's website for hours so its really only a matter of time.

 

[ehume]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ryanlogic were you suggesting to use the MB fan controller for the case fans or the fans I intend to use for the H70?

The H70. But when my rig is fully together I have a D14 with three fans and top intake fan feeding it fresh air. Because I use GT AP-14's for two of the fans I can and do have all four of those fans hooked to the cpu fan header. So it's both case and cpu.

 

[ryanlogic]

for some reason I feel like it would make sense to run the case fans off the MB and leave the H70 on full blast. but maybe im just stupid.

 

[ehume]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ryanlogic for some reason I feel like it would make sense to run the case fans off the MB and leave the H70 on full blast. but maybe im just stupid.

Nah. Just not sure.

Try it both ways.

Or - depending on your fans - try it with H70 and case fans all on that header. Just be sure the Amps sum to 1A or less.

 

[ryanlogic]

gotcha,so if i am looking at the right information, the GT ap-15's run at 0.083 amps......so 4 X 0.083 = 0.332 amps right? as long as I didn't overlook some sort of rule that needs to be applied to adding device amperage I shouldn't have any problems running 4 at once. newegg and a few other places are out of the GT Ap-15's where else can I find them? and if I cant, what else should I be looking at?

 

[ehume]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ryanlogic gotcha,so if i am looking at the right information, the GT ap-15's run at 0.083 amps......so 4 X 0.083 = 0.332 amps right? as long as I didn't overlook some sort of rule that needs to be applied to adding device amperage I shouldn't have any problems running 4 at once. newegg and a few other places are out of the GT Ap-15's where else can I find them? and if I cant, what else should I be looking at?

You might have to settle for CM R4's or YL D12SH-12's until vendors have the AP-15's back in stock. There's a world-wide shortage ATM.

 

[ryanlogic]

that stinks, i was all hyped up about them lol

 

[ryanlogic]

are the "slipstream" fans any good?

 

[ehume]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ryanlogic are the "slipstream" fans any good?

For case fans they're great. The 1200 rpm version is quiet. The 1600 rpm sounds less loud than its SPL measurement would indicate. The 1900 rpm is just loud.

 

[ryanlogic]

so for the case I could deal with two of those and wait until the Gentle typhoons are available for use on the H70?

 

[ehume]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ryanlogic so for the case I could deal with two of those and wait until the Gentle typhoons are available for use on the H70?

Yup. Cheaper than the Magma, which is also very nice.

 

[ryanlogic]

was that a hint?

 

[ehume]

The Magma is one of those fans I enjoyed listening to. But when Koolertek is selling SS's for $6.89, it's hard to recommend when it's nearly double the price.

Edit: I just looked at my Mega study. Looking at them from low to high noise, the D12SL-12 LED I got from Petra's Tech Shop was about the best low noise fan in there, better than the SS-1200. But look at the blade shape in this post. I'd recommend calling PTS to make sure you get that blade shape if you go with these.

 

[ryanlogic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ehume The Magma is one of those fans I enjoyed listening to. But when Koolertek is selling SS's for $6.89, it's hard to recommend when it's nearly double the price. Edit: I just looked at my Mega study. Looking at them from low to high noise, the D12SL-12 LED I got from Petra's Tech Shop was about the best low noise fan in there, better than the SS-1200. But look at the blade shape in this post. I'd recommend calling PTS to make sure you get that blade shape if you go with these.

I'm not worried about price really. I just want to get the h70 and some good quality fans in place so I can use the lower speed on my huge top mount exhaust fan. which is actually not that load but it does have a constant droning whoosh effect. If that makes sense.

Im definitely gonna look into those magmas.