Antec p180 airflow

[jinsean]

I was going to mount a MCR-320 on the top of a p180 with the fans above the rad pulling air out of the case. I'm planning to use Yate Loons 120mm @ 800 rpm. There's also the rear exhaust YL @ 800 also.

My question: Will the intake fan (yate loon @ 800) in the front be enough to not restrict the airflow into the case? I'm wondering if with all those fans exhausting air OUT of the case, that there might be a problem with creating too much a vacuum effect?? So I was wondering if I might need to increase the RPM on the front intake fan or get one that moves more CFM per RPM perhaps.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

[AND_YOU_ARE]

I own the P180B, and run my case completely on negative pressure. One thing you have to consider is the holes Antec built in the rear of the case. The holes next to the PCI slots, as well as the holes in the PCI brackets. I replaced my brackets with ones that dont have holes, and covered the holes up next to the PCI slots as well as the holes around the PSU. This was to ensure front to rear airflow with the negative pressure.

Even if you have three fans exhausting at 800rpm, and one intake at 800rpm, the air will find other ways into the case. Air will come through the slots between the 5.25" bays, and the 3.5" bay. Because you have two more fans on exhaust than on intake you will probably see more dust in your case since air has bypassed the filtered intake fan.

I would suggest completely removing the front intake fan. This way the incoming air is not regulated by the fan speed. This is my suggestion, how ever I would also suggest that you test it both ways my monitoring your temps at load and idle. If you feel you need the front fan, I would remove the black plastic on the divider, and have the three exhaust fans suck air in from in front of the lower hard drive bays.

For my set up, I have only the top and rear fan installed. My PSU cools the four Sata drives in the lower compartment. I have also covered up the holes in the dividing plate to separate airflow.

[jinsean]

I own the P180B, and run my case completely on negative pressure. One thing you have to consider is the holes Antec built in the rear of the case. The holes next to the PCI slots, as well as the holes in the PCI brackets. I replaced my brackets with ones that dont have holes, and covered the holes up next to the PCI slots as well as the holes around the PSU. This was to ensure front to rear airflow with the negative pressure.

Even if you have three fans exhausting at 800rpm, and one intake at 800rpm, the air will find other ways into the case. Air will come through the slots between the 5.25" bays, and the 3.5" bay. Because you have two more fans on exhaust than on intake you will probably see more dust in your case since air has bypassed the filtered intake fan.

I would suggest completely removing the front intake fan. This way the incoming air is not regulated by the fan speed. This is my suggestion, how ever I would also suggest that you test it both ways my monitoring your temps at load and idle. If you feel you need the front fan, I would remove the black plastic on the divider, and have the three exhaust fans suck air in from in front of the lower hard drive bays.

For my set up, I have only the top and rear fan installed. My PSU cools the four Sata drives in the lower compartment. I have also covered up the holes in the dividing plate to separate airflow.

Interesting... yeah, that's the one big beef I have about the p180 and the Sonata I & II, the 5.25 bays are very prone to bringing in unwanted dust. Maybe I'll try to work on some mod to lessen this.

Thanks for your feedback.

[AND_YOU_ARE]

The filters that are included with the case work very well, and even with the holes around the drive bays, there isn't much dust in my case. My P180B is on the floor in a very dusty environment. The idea is to clean the filters often, so they are not clogged, thus causing the air to be sucked in through the drive bay cracks. I built my pc back in October, it runs 24/7 and I have yet to clean my CPU heatsink, and GPU heatsink. The front filters are cleaned about once a week or once every other week. This is with two 120mm tricools on low, with more fans or on higher settings you will see more dust.