Temperature Testing

Stress Test

We measure several temperatures and the system noise level across all cases. Every test is performed with the same set of components installed. The out-of-the-box fan setup is used, connected to the motherboard, with it adjusting fan speed automatically. This puts the onus of noise and performance on the case manufacturers and motivates them to actually care about thermal performance instead of simply using active cooling as a marketing bulletin point.

On the software side, the test setup includes Windows 10 Pro with Furmark and Prime95 both running at the same time to put the maximum load on both the processor and the graphics card.

While Real Temp offers excellent and repeatable temperature results, we employ a REED Instruments SD-947 Data Logging Thermometer with four K-Type sensors that have been placed as closely as possible to the benchmarked areas of the CPU, GPU, M.2 SSD, and motherboard chipset. A fifth sensor is used to monitor the room temperature for an accurate delta T result.

We let the chassis sit at idle until temperatures reach equilibrium. Next, our stress-testing load is started, and it continues to run until temperatures are stable. The temperature result for each section of the case is the highest value measured during the test run. All reported temperatures are normalized to 20 °C room temperature.

Gaming Test

To measure how the case and our standard hardware stack up in gaming, we let the system cool down to a reasonable level and then use Doom Eternal with VSync off at 1080P and full details to let the GPU throw everything it can at the system. By turning off VSync and thus eliminating any bottlenecks due to the monitor refresh rate, the GPU renders all the frames it possibly can. Once again, this system is left running for 30 minutes to allow for temperatures to level out. We will include proper comparison bar graphs in the future, once we have more results from other enclosures.

Comparisons

You may notice that we have excluded a comparison table for CPU temperatures below. This is simply because after nearly fifty ATX case reviews, we have taken the cooler off the CPU and re-seated it along with the thermal sensor. Thus, we can't provide a direct comparison to previous cases. We are also in the process of updating the way we test thermals and noise, with a new base system for all case sizes and comparisons across form factors in the future

Noise Testing

Noise levels are recorded with a calibrated REED Instruments R8050 Sound Level Meter, Type 2. It is placed at chassis height on a Manfrotto Tripod. Measurements are taken from a 45° angle towards the case, at a distance of 10 cm to the closest edge of the chassis.