Testing
At Tech-Reviews we test cases for a number of different factors: Strength, Noise and Temperatures.
The way in which we test strength is fairly simple. We stand on the top of the case and jump up and down on it – this is quite a fun test and can really show the effectiveness of the construction. A case which is strong should not be damaged from this test at all; whereas a weak case would bend and buckle.
Testing noise is quite difficult as expensive sound equipment is needed which unfortunately, we don’t have access to. Instead, we use out own God given human ears to give you an ‘as accurate as we can get’ explanation on the case’s noise with a comparative conclusion of its noise.
Temperatures are recorded using a mixture of programs. To measure CPU temperature, we take 3 temperature readings at 10 second intervals and then record an average temperature. This test is done with the CPU at idle state. Recordings are measured using the CPU’s own diode and SpeedFan.
The Hard Drive temperature is measured using SpeedFan too at idle states.
To record the environments’ ambient temperature at the time of test, we use a digital thermometer.
Ambient temperature was 21 degrees Celsius.
The Mini P180’s results will be compared to the results from an Antec Sonata 550 Plus with 1x 92mm Noiseblocker at the front and 1x 120mm Noiseblocker fan at the rear. These fans have their voltage set from 12v to 7v for silence.
When testing the Mini P180 we will use the default fans in this configuration: one 200mm top fan and one 120mm rear fan.
The CPU Cooler used throughout the results was a Xigmatek Red Scorpion with Noiseblocker fan fitted and running at 1000rpm (5V speeds).
The temperature results of the Mini P180 were recorded with both fans set to ‘low speed’ on the fan controller. Reasoning for this is because this is the setting most people will use.
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