Featured

The Best Chassis for Steambox/HTPC Style Gaming Systems

Performance


First testing the CPU cooling performance we can obviously see that the Lian Li Test Bench has the best results, this is an open-air chassis and gives us a good base result to compare each chassis with. At load, the CPU clocked in at 60c above ambient which seems a little high, but keep in mind that I’m using a low-profile CPU cooler, not some high-end water cooling unit, as I want to ensure the cooler is compatible with a wide range of chassis’.

As I expected, the Silverstone SG09 dominates the CPU cooling performance, no doubt thanks to that huge air penetrator fan bringing cool air right down onto your hardware. The Thermaltake SD1 Performed really well too, it’s got great airflow and the two 80mm fans in the back are great for getting heat out of the system.

Performance of the Silverstone GD05 and the Corsair 250D is about on par, which is interesting given their very different shape and size.

The Elite 130 performance is a little worse than the others, but keep in mind this is also one of the smallest and cheapest chassis we’ve tested so that’s really a pros and cons scenario. As for the Phenom, things could be better!

The graphics card maxed out at 33c above ambient on our test bench, and to make things nice and easy you’ll notice that the chassis’ ranked in the same order as our CPU benchmarks. The SG09 and SD1 are still doing great, while the Elite 130 and Phenom are noticeably warmer, but still within perfectly acceptable levels.

Things look great in terms of acoustic performance, with the SG09 and the SD1 are once again proving their worth with quiet performance. The Phenom M may not be the coolest, but it’s thick panels and enclosed design does mean it’s pretty quiet and the budget friendly Elite 130 holds up really well too.

Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Peter Donnell

As a child still in my 30's (but not for long), I spend my day combining my love of music and movies with a life-long passion for gaming, from arcade classics and retro consoles to the latest high-end PC and console games. So it's no wonder I write about tech and test the latest hardware while I enjoy my hobbies!

Disqus Comments Loading...

Recent Posts

Asus Radeon RX 7900 XTX TUF OC 24GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card

The AMD RDNA™ 3 Architecture elevated by buffed cooling and power delivery to effortlessly churn…

1 day ago

MSI Pro B760-P WIFI DDR4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 ATX Motherboard

ColourPrimary ColourBlackForm FactorMotherboard formfactorATXMotherboardMotherboard ChipsetIntel B760CPUCPU ManufacturerIntelCPU Socket1700Wi-Fi & LANLAN Ports1x 2.5 Gbit/sMemoryMax. Memory128 GBMemory…

1 day ago

G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo EXPO RGB 64GB (2x32GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit

LightingLightingYesLighting ColourRGBColourPrimary ColourBlackMemoryMemory size (total)64 GBMemory TypeDDR5Memory Form FactorDIMMNumber of modules2Memory Speed6000 MHzMemory latencyCL 30-40-40-96Memory…

1 day ago

Asrock Radeon RX 7900 XTX Phantom Gaming OC 24GB GDDR6 Graphics Card

Clock SpeedsMax. GPU Clock (Base)1900 MHzMax. GPU Clock (Boost)2615 MHzMax. Memory Clock20000 MHzLightingLightingYesLighting ColourRGBLighting CompatibilityASRock…

1 day ago

LG 45″ 3440×1440 OLED 240Hz 0.03ms FreeSync G-Sync Compatible Gaming Monitor 

Its 45-inch 21:9 Ultra-WQHD display gives you a 34% wider view than a standard 16:9…

1 day ago

PowerColor AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT FIGHTER 16GB RDNA3 Graphics Card

Introducing the Fighter Edition, meticulously crafted for the RX 7800 XT series. The Fighter Edition…

1 day ago