AntonyLeathertestsfivemini-ITXcases.Can they stand the heat?
Mighty Minis
LABS TEST
Howwe test
O
ur case testing method is simple – use real, overclocked
hardware in a standard system to see how cases perform in
terms of cooling. Our trusty test gear includes an Intel Core
i5-2500K overclocked to 4.4GHz using a vcore of 1.3V and an Nvidia
GeForce GTX 570 1.3GB with a blower-style cooler. This is installed into an
Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe mini-ITX motherboard with 4GB of Kingston DDR3
memory, a Crucial MX500 SDD and a SilverStone SST-ST45-SF SFX PSU.
The CPU cooler is a low-profile Zalman CNPS 8900, which can fit into
nearly all mini-ITX cases to obtain comparable numbers. We lock the
GPU fan speed at 70 per cent to prevent automatic fan control from
interfering with the results.
We leave each case for 15 minutes, using Prime95 v26.6’s smallfft
test (mersenneforum.org) to load the CPU and Unigine’s Heaven
benchmark (unigine.com/products/heaven) to load the GPU.
Results were taken from CoreTemp (alcpu.com/CoreTemp)
and GPU-Z (techpowerup.com/gpuz) and we subtract the
ambient temperature from the results to give a delta T reading that
we can use to test in normal conditions across several days and
varying temperatures.
We test cases in their standard configuration with only the fans
included with the case. Adding more fans would standardise the test
and improve airflow, but this wouldn’t be a fair reflection of the base
performance of the case at its retail price. Where fan controllers are
included, we test at the highest and lowest fan speed levels to see what
impact the different fan speeds on offer have on cooling. We score each
case using weighted calculations for their cooling, design, features and
value to give an overall score, with mini-ITX cases scoring additional
points on use of space and overall size.Contents
Lian Li PC-Q37WX / p47
Metallic Gear Neo Mini / p48
Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Shift Air / p49
Raijintek Ophion / p50
SilverStone LD03 / p52
Results / p54