Handle With Care
You need to be careful with the side panel to ensure that the CPU air duct doesn’t interfere with the CPU fan. Another thing that annoyed me was the fitment of the side panels. In order to get them to line up with the 2 slide rails on the top and bottom took a little patience as the panel would bend causing misalignment with the rails. After a bit of messing around, I was able to secure the 2 side panels. Again, I remind myself that this is budget case.
Noise and Temperature
With only one 80mm rear case fan, I was a little bit concerned with temperature of the case. And with the CPU air cooler right in front of the case fan, I wasn’t sure how well the fan would be able to remove the hot air from the rest of the case. But with only one 80mm case fan, I was certain that the case would be fairly quiet rather than sounding like a vacuum cleaner.
Noise Levels
With only one 80mm case fan, a power supply fan, videocard fan, and a CPU heatsink / fan, the system was a bit on the noisy side. It did a decent job of muffling the CPU fan, but the whirring of the other fans are still a bit noticeable. In a quiet room, you can easily tell that the computer is on. If the computer was sitting on top of your desk right beside you, the noise would become annoying rather quickly. I think the culprit is the Thermaltake Volcano 5 CPU heatsink/fan. Swapping this out with something quieter may reduce some of the noise.
| Front | Rear | Left | Right | |
| Idle | 43 dBa | 48 dBa | 44 dBa | 43 dBa |
| Load | 45 dBa | 49 dBa | 46.5 dBa | 45.5 dBa |
Internal Case Temperatures
I measured the case temperature with the room temperature set at ambient (approx. 21C). Idle conditions were collected after 30 minutes while the system was first logged on. The load conditions were set with a continuous loop of 3Dmark06 loop for a 2 hour period to give all of the components a good workout. Let’s see what the deal is…
| CPU | SYSTEM | |
| Idle | 43 C | 46 C |
| Load | 58 C | 60 C |
The single 80mm case fan did do a decent job of keeping temperatures at bay. I would think if we added another 80mm case fan to the front of the case, air flow would increase and temperatures would drop, but at the sacrifice of noise. What would really make a difference would be 120mm case fans front and rear. Not only would they be quieter, but they would move a lot more air.