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Testing and Results

Methodology

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 our 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 both idle and load state. Recordings are measured using the CPU’s own diode and SpeedFan.

The next component to test the temperature of is the chipset. This is measured using SiSoftware Sandra and just like the CPU, is tested at idle and load states with the final recording being the average of 3 temperatures.

The Hard Drive temperature is measured using HD Tune in the same way as the rest of the components.

To record the systems temperature we use a digital thermometer to firstly calculate the environments ambient temperature at the time of the tests and then we measure the systems temperature when at idle and load states. Averages don’t need to be done for this as the temperatures often stay at a fixed point; however we take averages just like the other tests to make the test fair.

Results

Strength

In regards to the strength test, the NZXT Whisper coped fairly well and didn’t really buckle at all. The only area of weakness was the ports module which seems to bend a little and if pushed too hard would most certainly break.

Noise

Noise for the NZXT is particularly quiet and the foam lining on the side panels really helps dampen vibrations and reduce the noise output. However, with the removal of the 80mm system fans the noise drops significantly and at this level it is really very low.

Cooling

In order to test the temperatures and cooling, I put all the fans on low settings as generally this is the most common setting. The results are as follows:

	Hard Drive	CPU	Chipset	Ambient (case)
Idle	27	35	27	32
Load	31	45	31	39

*All temperatures measured in degrees Celsius.

The Hard Drive temperatures show that the intake fan for the bottom chamber is cooling the drives well and doing a good job as the temperatures are fairly low and don’t differ much.

However, the other three components, all in the top chamber, are slightly higher than one would have hoped and this may be due to there being no intake fan like in the bottom chamber and so the airflow is greatly reduced. This is especially reflected in the case temperatures with up at 39 and so I would support the installation of a second intake fan at the front for the top section. Despite this, the overall set of temperatures is not poor at all and in fact is more than satisfactory.

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