P180 Resurrection

[Highlander89]

Hello all! Lately my fingers have been itching like crazy, and I first meant to cut out the mobo tray and essentials from my old P180 case and build a wooden case, but I haven't got the heart to do that. Way too sentimental, and it's a pretty decent case, so I thought that I'd resurrect it instead. Make it the best it can be.

The hardware:

CPU: AMD Opteron 165 1,8 Ghz
Mobo: Asus A8N32 SLI-Deluxe
GPU: Geforce 7600 GT (may change to a 8800GT)
RAM: Kingston ValueRAM 2GB
Case: Antec P180
PSU: Aspire 520W
Soundcard: Soundblaster Audigy
CPU Fan: Thermaltake Big Typhoon
GPU Fan: Zalman CNPS 7000B CU

This was the oldie 7 months ago.

This is from yesterday.

I just loooove the cable management in this case.

Looks like I have around 8mm behind the mobo tray to work with.

So I started to change the GPU cooler, since it was pretty nasty looking, and I had a better one laying around from my old 7900GT, that got fried after around 2 years of use (I blame the shitty PSU). I got the 7600GT from a friend with this cooler installed, can't remember the name.

Dat dust <3
Old cooler removed.

My other cooler is a Zalman CNPS 7000B full copper

Some proper thermal grease

Had to use a plastic washer of a different thickness since I lost one of the other, hopefully no one notices

Screws tightened

Looks pretty badass, If I can say so myself

Next up, deconstruction.

Notice the mark from the cooler support bracket lol.

Something needs to be done about this!

Hardware resting safely in a box

The motherboard:
Thinking of painting plastic parts black

Stack Cool 2!

CPU cooler removed

CPU polished. 2001 lol

8 year old thermal paste anyone?

Polished a bit

So the plan I have in mind is basically to turn this into something awesome, at the lowest price possible. I'm gonna remove the 5,25" bays (I've got an external DVD drive, so np) and cut the mobo tray so I get some cable management atleast. Also a hole for the CPU cooler support bracket.

A friend promised me a Geforce 8800 for free, so that's cool. Then there's a EVGA 8800GT with waterblock for 20€ that I'm thinking of getting. Could SLI be possible? That would be awesome. Thing is, the 8800 draws like 100w more power than the 7600GT which would mean that I'd have to get a better PSU (that Aspire is bloody awful), which in turn would mean another 30-50€.

The plan for this build is to make it into a gaming rig for all those awesome old school games. XP would be ideal, but I have no copy, and where to get those copies nowadays... And could also be used as HTPC with Ubuntu and XBMC to get some smooth sailing.

Until next time

 

[JE99]

Had to do a double take when I read the OP... P180, 7600GT! Yep, not a necro...

That was the first case I ever bought new, and after a while I really came to despise the thing with its crazy cable routing at the bottom - IIRC fans, HDDs and modular PSU were all fighting for what little space there was.

Good luck with it, and obviously :rock: for retro ASUS

 

[MadShadow]

Love this, dude. Bring on the pics

 

[remember300]

Very Nice,! something i want to do simular to play alot of those older games ... like original fallout, and pharaoh.

Nice clean out too
That CPU came up nice and clean.
Love the Copper on the GPU.

 

[sheroo]

I also have one of these cases knocking around somewhere, be nice to see what you can do with it.

 

[Feronix]

Ooooh, another old hardware project!

 

[Highlander89]

Had to do a double take when I read the OP... P180, 7600GT! Yep, not a necro...

That was the first case I ever bought new, and after a while I really came to despise the thing with its crazy cable routing at the bottom - IIRC fans, HDDs and modular PSU were all fighting for what little space there was.

Good luck with it, and obviously :rock: for retro ASUS

Awesome retro gear indeed! Yeah the P180 were one of the most popular cases back when I got this rig. The whole thing with separate compartment for the PSU at the floor was just ground-breaking. They could've added an extra cm and some cable routing holes in the mobo tray though. But I hear that Fractal got their ideas from this case.

Love this, dude. Bring on the pics

Cheers, will do!

Very Nice,! something i want to do simular to play alot of those older games ... like original fallout, and pharaoh.

Nice clean out too
That CPU came up nice and clean.
Love the Copper on the GPU.

Yeah, there are many older games that are a hassle to play on newer rigs. Hopefully this one will run those games smoothly. Fallout is awesome, have not even heard of pharaoh . But GTA 3/SA perhaps even 4? Fallout 1-3, civilization, the settlers, Elder scrolls morrowind, oblivion... aaah so many games <3

Was nice with some spring cleaning
there's alot of copper going on here, looks good though.

I also have one of these cases knocking around somewhere, be nice to see what you can do with it.

Not so much yet, I would want to go really mad with the angle grinder and crazy power tools, but problem is I only have access to a dremel and a cheap power drill. Perhaps some madness will happen this summer when I move back home (and get access to pop's garage )

Ooooh, another old hardware project!

Yeah, seeing your woodbox project made me even more itchy ;D


Thanks for all the support!

Small update

Plastic cover on the roof came off pretty easy.

The price of being a noob:
Didn't even know how to drill out rivets Tried first to go all the way through with a small drill, only to discover this

I switched to a thicker drill and only drilled out the head, and voilá

No more nasty looking 5,25" bays.

The mobo tray is loose up in the right corner. Thinking of either cutting the whole thing off, or putting in a screw or something.

And that's pretty much what have happened. That color is pretty awful. Some paint would liven things up. I got a couple of spray cans of matte black. What do you think?


And I've been thinking on the rest of the hardware. Especially hard drives. Current OS is installed on a PATA drive and it's quite slow. So I had a search on our ebay equivalent and found this:

Wouldn't that be ridiculous, 14€, and it could be mine

 

[Highlander89]

UPDATE

So, did some headscratching on the cable management disaster and this is basically how I would like the cables to go.

These are my new SATA3 cables from my new mobo.

Like so on the back

I only need one molex to the mobo. So I hade some party with this one.

Custom sleeved. Yeah baby!

The CPU power connector was too short. So I made it longer.

A perfect day for some light soldering

Finnish ghetto modding!

Done soldering. Beautiful.

I put a sock on it.

Next up was the hole in the mobo tray for the CPU connector. Carefully marked out!

Started with small holes in the corners.

Then some bigger holes. Also drilled some holes where the cable goes.

Dremel time.

I got a jigsaw puzzle piece.

Next this metal floor edge was in the way for the cable management, so I marked up where the cables go...

...and cut them out.

Tadaa, we have cable management!

Suddenly, things look pretty clean.

Even with the side door on!

Until next time.

 

[Wraith]

Nicely done will you be spraying the case or leaving it the classic grey?

 

[Feronix]

Also good weather over there I see!

Nice work so far, looking a lot cleaner than mine!

 

[Highlander89]

Nicely done will you be spraying the case or leaving it the classic grey?

Cheers!
I was thinking about that. Haven't really decided yet but, I'm leaning towards a white/purple theme.

Something like this perhaps. Thoughts?

Also good weather over there I see!

Nice work so far, looking a lot cleaner than mine!

Aye, been shitty weather for months, we hade like one day of sun in february. But then suddenly the sun pops out and decides to stay.

Thanks. There's a lot of room in this one, compared to your ITX build atleast.

 

[JE99]

Cheers!
I was thinking about that. Haven't really decided yet but, I'm leaning towards a white/purple theme.

Have you seen Pandora's Purple Box? Same colour scheme and it's looking great atm. It's a bit out of the ordinary as a scheme, but can look really slick. IMO that's a great combo!

 

[Highlander89]

Have you seen Pandora's Purple Box? Same colour scheme and it's looking great atm. It's a bit out of the ordinary as a scheme, but can look really slick. IMO that's a great combo!

Yeah, it's an awesome build. Taking it to the next level with all the detail work for sure.

I wasn't really gonna take it that serious . But I was thinking of painting basically everything white, chassi, doors etc, with some purple details. Dunno what kind yet but some stripes/tribals or something.

 

[sheroo]

Good job! Cable management was an absolute bitch in that case.

 

[Wraith]

White definitely and some of that Purple Hemi styling to finish off. Noice!

 

[Highlander89]

Good job! Cable management was an absolute bitch in that case.

Cheers mate! Annoying indeed.

White definitely and some of that Purple Hemi styling to finish off. Noice!

Thinking of having the fans painted also. White frame and purple fan. Would look really nice imo.

UPDATE!


Not so much have happened with the old P180 (which needs a name!). Did some progress though. Enjoy:

Large part of the front will be removed. But why?

These annoying supportpieces are in the way for cable management. Corners need to be removed.

Floppy drive cage rivets will be removed.

Open front.

Room for some cables atleast.

Are those 140mm?

Is that enough room for a 280 monsta in push/pull? Sure is! And before you ask. No, I'm not gonna watercool my 8+ year old rig. But in the future with some new hardware in the case, a 280 monsta might be pretty sweet.

Cables conveniently hidden away in the floppy drive apartment.

These are my spare 140 fans from my other case. I'm gonna build a wooden frame and attach it to the case, with the fans attached to the frame.

2x 140 as intake and a single 120 as intake for the HDD's. Will probably be run at 7V. Work needs to be done to the front. I'm gonna remove the second plastic gate completely, and remove all excess plastic, then take a 2mm plexi piece and cut out holes for the two 140mm fans, and glue it to the back of the plastic front.

Cable management for HDD's

Until next time!

 

[crowarth]

Nice to see some old hardware getting this much love

 

[Highlander89]

Nice to see some old hardware getting this much love

Cheers mate . In my opinion, if you are gonna do something and make an effort, then you can do it properly.

UPDATE!

My old PSU was pretty dusty so I opened it up and cleaned it. Quite the fire hazard eh?

I used some compressed air on the PSU and washed the fans under the tap.

Oiled and washed fans, they barely moved before. Now they're like new

I didn't go fiddling with the PSU, some dust still remain, but those capacitors look scary

Almost assembled, the top fan is the wrong way here, but I changed it.

The fan adjuster is handy, the PSU is really quiet when it's turned down a bit.

This is for me being a noob. When trying to screw in the last screw, it snapped right off.

The rest is stuck in the chassi. It can stay there.

Here I'm testing it out, and it still works

This was my salary from building the rig for my father. Quite OP for this rig, but why not

XP is being installed. No problems so far.

But after this is done, it reboots, and then it's just black screen with the prompt blinking up in the right corner. It's probably the BIOS that is too old, so it can't read off the SSD or something. And I need the Mobo CD from home to be able to update the BIOS. So software wise it is on hold until after Easter.

But I have a teaser. I made a cardboard template for the window mod I'm gonna make. Here I also painted the "purple hemi stripes", think it will look nice with the white.

Until next time.

 

[Highlander89]

UPDATE!

Got some work done over Easter.

Tried to update BIOS with Asus Update, which failed. Then tried to format a USB stick in FAT and put the new BIOS and a program called BUpdate on it. This is the result. The DOS mode is run from the Mobo CD.

tried to run the bupdate program, and save the old BIOS, and then I get this:

I wonder if I have to format the USB drive as bootable drive or something. Anyone know anything about this?

Anyway, back to the P180:

Cutout for the side window.

Plexi cut.

The outmost layer of sheet metal, 1cm smaller on all edges to get something to glue the plexi on.

Cut out a floor, wrapped in paper so far, but will be painted white. The old front panel to my Switch 810 came in handy as it was pretty much an exact fit as a cover piece for all the cables from the front.

Will be painted either white or purple. What do you think?

Until next time.

 

[Feronix]

Yeah, you'll definitely need to format it as a bootable disk. There are several software solutions to do it, but personally I always do it the manual way to avoid software errors (and just dodgy programs all together).

Video on how to do that here.

Looking very good mate! Like how you solved the cable management