Benchmarking - Thermal

Describing the cooling equipment that comes with a case just doesn't cut it for us. We need to see how it actually performs to see if it is actually as effective as the manufacturer's say that it is. We have hand-picked a full system that we believe is the current system setup for the average user.

PC Mid-Tower Test Bed

Chaintech VNF3-250
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
OCZ PC3200 DDR x 2
Zalman CNPS7000 Copper
Seagate Barracuda 120GB SATA
ATI 9800XT
OCZ 520W PowerStream



Click to enlarge.

The thermal readings for the key components and points on the motherboard during operation were as follows. The numbers in each square represent the temperature of that particular section of the case in degrees celsius:


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Hold your mouse over to see hardware.


The region under the video card is much cooler than that in Chenbro's Gaming Bomb II that we looked at last week. This is all due to the fan mounted on the left side panel, which takes in air and helps circulate warm air from that region. The current system configuration does not have any exhaust fans, but there are plenty of ventilation areas for air to flow out through the back as well as up through the top of the case.


Click to enlarge.
Hold your mouse over to see hardware.


Temperatures of each key component remains close to the results that we have observed in the past few cases. There are slight variations in temperatures, but very little compared to the variations in ambient air temperatures.

Installation Benchmarking - Sound
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  • k2bordr03 - Tuesday, March 1, 2005 - link

    i must say that your reasoning for discarding this case as it being ugly is based on personal preferences. if you dont like it soooo much why did you bother looking, bought this case and i love it. get compliments like crazy at lan parties and you dont have to like it, but someone else might. you guys are too critical, you probably all own kias.
  • Hunter Viking - Wednesday, January 19, 2005 - link

    I just got mine. I think the case looks cool. All the beige cases or even the new beige,,, black, been looking at them for years. I wanted something a little different then all the same ol same ol. And I am pushing 40 so take that:)
    Thanks Anandtech for reviewing something a little different. I can't stand having everything look plain all of the time. Case is stong enough for my SLI setup and quiet enough to be ignored when I am across the room. The lighting is not too bright without being obnoxious. I even added a UV light to brighten up the plastic.
    The only problem I have, other then the tooless case, is now I have to open the case and clean the dust bunnnies out more often.

    And the blue is more subdued then the red.
  • albinodragon - Tuesday, December 28, 2004 - link

    Personally I had just bought the blue version of the MGE Viper case and it hasn't arrived yet, but I am excited to upgrade my old PC using it!
  • Regs - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link

    I usually don't pay attention to cases such as these. However this one I couldnt help but to laugh at the design. Looks like a power ranger got shrink rapped around the casing.
  • unclebud - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link

    "Why is it most modder cases look like a 14 year old metal head design them?
    Diversity should not mean between a cobra and dragon. All these cases look like album covers from the 1980s."

    laughing really hard...
  • Gatak - Monday, December 20, 2004 - link

    Zak, these cases do sell. Lots of people like this kind of thing. No need to be rude. Better to write and say you would rather like something like the Hush cases to be reviewed. =)
  • Zak - Monday, December 20, 2004 - link

    Why do you people keep reviewing ugly, BUTT UGLY and useless cases??? This is a waste of time and not worth reading. Stick to reviewing the guts: mobos,cards, etc and leave this for someone else. You're obviosuly not getting it right.

    Zak
  • bigpow - Sunday, December 19, 2004 - link

    This will match well with a Pontiac Aztec...
    Woohoo!
  • crimsonson - Sunday, December 19, 2004 - link

    I have to agree,

    Why is it most modder cases look like a 14 year old metal head design them?

    Diversity should not mean betweena cobra and dragon. All these cases look like album covers from the 1980s.
  • Gatak - Sunday, December 19, 2004 - link

    This is what I want! :) http://www.hushtechnologies.net/start.html

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