Upgrading to Antec P280

Ethereal_Dragon

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I put in a few orders at the Egg today.....

Got my wife a birthday present for next month (http://www.techist.com/forums/f64/samsung-galaxy-note-10-1-a-261942/#post1998081), got myself a bunch of extra internal power cable extensions, and fan splitter cables, and SATA cables with the right angle connector. Had a code good for 20% off cables which I had to use by today, so that caused me to pull the trigger.

I couldn't get JUST cables, I saw that a case I REALLY LIKE had an instant $40 off, and a $20 MIR, so I jumped on that too. I will be replacing my Antec 900 with anAntec P280. I used one of these in my brothers computer build a few months back. I wanted to build his computer in the Antec 900 I have and kept the P280, but that wouldn't have been cool... LOL. I would NEVER do that anyways.

So, I got one for myself. I was SOLD on the fact that it has removable fan filters, something that is an ABSOLUTE MUST in my house with the pets. I HAD filters in my 900, but the fact that it took 30+ minutes to disassemble the case and get them out to clean was too frustrating, so I removed them for good. Also, while I thought the LED fans were cool back when I got it a few years ago, it doesn't allow for stealth running, the wife can easily see it's on with the blue LED's at night. Also, the case door is TOO CLOSE to the motherboard tray. In the P280, there is a HUGE amount of space behind the mobo tray, so that was a near instant sell as well, as are the easily removable HDD trays.


So I might be putting my 900 up for sale sometime soon, as I don't forsee myself re-using the case. Anyone interested? FYI, it is the PRE USB 3.0 case. This is version 1.01 of this case, 1.0 from the factory, and modded a bit by me, painted it black, made some cut outs on the mobo tray as well, and on the HDD trays so I could mount the drives backwards and hide the cables.
 
Well, over the weekend, I was able to migrate my desktop out of the Antec 900, and into the Antec P280. I still have a few quirks to iron out, such as messing up the motherboard headers (Reset switch is the power switch and vice versa), and the standard boot drive (SSD) isn't showing up for some reason. I think it probably got unplugged when I was putting the other drives in, but I'm not sure.

Sorry for the HORRIBLE lighting in my office. I worked on this during my lunch breaks, over a few days, and I couldn't have it sitting on a well lit table downstairs where my pets, 1 year old, or wife have access to it.


Here is the old Antec 900. The wiring looks HORRIBLE. This is because it got to be SUCH a PAIN in the REAR to get the drives installed, that I finally stopped. The case is set up so that the connectors for the drives face INTO the case. I set it up so that the connectors face the FRONT of the case, and were hidden from view, but this made it 3 times harder to change out a cable or a drive. It was a real PITA. I got so lazy that you can see my applications drive sitting on the PSU, the SDD is..... somewhere...? And you can see a drive on a 45* angle sitting in the drive bay next to the GPU. This is a 2TB backup drive backing up my NAS.
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Here was my biggest GRIPE with the Antec 900. With the back panel on, there was BARELY enough room for the motherboard 8 ping power connector, let alone the 24 pin MAIN power connector which bent the door a little bit. Then throw in all of the HDD power and data cables, front panel cables, etc. etc. This thing is TERRIBLE for that...... In the photo, it is sort of blocked out by shadow, but I had to mod the power cable. I needed an 8" extension in order to make it to the power connector on my GA-X38-DQ6 which is at the very farthest corner of the board. With the extension connector behind the motherboard, the side panel would NOT fit on. I could force it on, but it would barely stay on as it was bent pretty good. So I ditched the connectors, soldered (I think, maybe I just twisted and taped them together... this was a while ago) them together, then used heat shrink tubing on each connector to keep them insulated. It didn't block the back panel as bad, but I still wasn't happy with the lack of space.

In the BOTTOM shot, you will see the same angle on the P280. LOADS of space there!! I could park my CAR in there. Ok, maybe not, but still, that is a HUGE difference from the 900. There is no trick photography at work there.
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Here is the P280 in all of its Glory. This thing looks SHARP! I have to say, back in the day, I thought that the side windows and LED fans, and Cold Cathode lights were pretty cool. Well, these days, not so much. The LED's and lights just get to be annoying, especially if you leave the system on to complete something, like a large download, etc. etc. The windows pretty much are just a means to show someone exactly how long it has been since you last CLEANED the computer, and how your bad your cable management looks. LOL. :omg:
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The P280 towers over the 900. Looks so much nicer too... Bigger in nearly every dimension...
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Hooray for tool-less optical installation, and easy to use drive sleds (not pictured, they are on a table out of view). Also 2 nice SSD mounting spots as well.
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Here is the front all ready to go. I have the top plate knocked out for my DVD burner (Blu Ray one of these years maybe). Also, the fan filter is removed. WHOOPS!! Forgot to order intake fans. Guess that will be on the list for my next order.
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All of the front panel connectors routed nice and neatly behind the motherboard tray, and out of view. Also, no USB 3.0 native on this motherboard. I don't need it right now, as I have no complaint devices that I know of, but maybe I will order a USB3.0 PCI Express x1 card with the front panel port on it. If nothing else, it will give me 2 more USB2.0 front ports.
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I LOVE these drive trays. They are perfect for 3.5 inch drives. Each tray has 4 rubber standoffs to isolate the drives, and 4 screws per drive. I think they gave 1 extra rubber standoff and some extra screws too. Each tray also has mounting for SSD's too.
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The PSU has found his new home!! Not pictured just UNDER the PSU are holes in the bottom of the case for intake/exhaust, as well as a fan filter. I would assume this is an intake, but I think my PSU is upsidedown, so I guess it is blowing air OUT of the case. whatever. Don't really care to be honest.
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This is the only GRIPE I have with the case right now. The SSD bays have little metal tabs so that you can only push the drive in so far. There is then a screw hole on the side to secure the drive in place. When the drive is installed, it sits only fractions of an inch from the side panel door when it is closed. My opinion is that it would LOOK better if it lined up with the other drives when installed. But, as I don't have or like side windows anymore, not really an issue, so Gripe negated.
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The motherboard in her (I guess?) new home. This full size ATX board looks like a BABY in this case!! (And a pic with TERRIBLE focus.) Plenty of room though, and PERFECT cutouts on top and side for hidden cable routing.
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Here is a close-up of the 8 pin power connector I was talking about earlier. Notice how close it is to the back plate, and the corner of the board? There is a cut out JUST above that for cables. Also, you will notice that between the top PCI Express x1 port and the rear audio port is the hookup for the front audio port. HORRIBLE place to have a cable to connect to. In the 900, I SOMEHOW was able to route that cable under the motherboard, so that the cable was sandwiched between the motherboard and the tray, next to the standoffs. Not willing to do that again, because I ended up pulling a wire or 2 out of the header, I routed that cable between the motherboard, the rear panel outputs, and the chipset heatpipe & heatsink. This was fun to get that cable through there.... yeah, fun.
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Obligatory GPU shots.... Given how dirty and dusty the inside of the 900 was, I fought internally on whether or not to tear the card down to clean it. I gave my better judgement the finger, and took it apart anyway. The last time I did this, was with an ATI 9800 All-In-Wonder, and the card NEVER ran right after that. I think the STUPID mounting system with the plastic clip holders was to blame, and me too. Anyways, it was pretty clean anyways, but oh well. Put some MX-2 on there, hopefully it will run well.
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[/PARTONE]
 
GAH!!! Foiled by the 20 image limit. GO FIGURE, I narrowed down from about 50 shots (I take multiple shots so that I try to AVOID blurry or out of focus shots, but it doesn't always work) to 21, not realizing there was a 20 image limit per post... Oh well...



Here is a shot of the completed (well, as completed as it is for now without the USB3.0 card, or front intake fans) build. I think it looks really nice, and the cables look great. At some point, I am going to get some sleeving, and clean up the cables a bit more, but that is down the road yet.
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Wow, that case looks great! Who cares about the extra 20+ pictures, i was sold with the one showing it from the front!
I have the cheaper, less roomy Antec One, and if i had the money to get a new case right now, it would probably be this. I am loving Antec right now.
 
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