Parvum Systems X1.0 Review

Performance Analysis

The X1.0 isn't like most other cases that we've looked at in that it's more of a clean slate to work with as opposed to already having a set design and layout. It's clearly designed with small water-cooling loops and all-in-one liquid coolers in mind, so you can take our air-cooled results with a pinch of salt, but it can definitely be used as an air-cooled case so we thought it important to offer our usual out-of-the-box cooling results.

The included 120mm fan, which proved to be very quiet indeed during testing, can be installed as an intake or exhaust and as the case is otherwise fairly porous, we opted to go for the option likely to lead to the best result with a single fan and to have it exhausting out the front, with a negative-air pressure bias inside the case.


If Parvum had included an 80mm fan too, we'd still likely have the front fan as an exhaust too, as we would if we were using an all-in-one liquid cooler. With the fan at 12V, the CPU delta T was a mediocre 61°C, which is far from the worst result we've seen and actually the same as Corsair's Graphite 380T on its maximum fan speed. Dropping the fan voltage to 7V and 5V using the included adaptors saw this increase to 62°C and 64°C respectively.


With the graphics card's cooler pointing straight at the large opening in the roof, you can't really ask for better cooling and we weren't surprised to see the X1.0 top the chart with a delta T of 44°C - equal to the In-Win 901 (with fans) and just ahead of the SilverStone Raven RVZ01. All in all an excellent result and we'd have no problems installing high end graphics cards into the X1.0. Also not surprising was the fact that the fan speed adaptors made no difference to the GPU temperature, as the graphics card is pretty self-reliant on its own at the top of the case - as such we've omitted these results from the GPU delta T graph to save adding identical results unnecessarily.

Conclusion

The CPU cooling result is average but as we've already said, with 150mm to play with here in terms of CPU cooler height, decent low profile coolers, all-in-one liquid coolers and indeed full-on water cooling are likely to be the order of the day with X1.0 owners so our scores,which are very much based on an air-cooled PC, don't really tell the whole picture. The GPU result, though, is important. Given that you'll only likely fit a full height 120mm radiator in the front fan mount, the scope for water-cooling your GPU is a little limited, especially if you're already dealing with a heavily overclocked CPU. The fact that the X1.0 offers excellent GPU cooling means it's not totally necessary to water-cool your graphics card too.


We do love the case in general too. It's extremely well made and despite a few niggles, a joy to put together as well plus of course it will be difficult to build an ugly system in the X1.0. One major issue, though, is that while the acrylic used didn't attract dust like the usual glossy type, there are no dust filters on the case itself. Therefore we'd definitely recommend sorting something here - there are plenty available, although you may need to resort to glue or velcro for the graphics card intake. There are also few creature comforts but these issues are probably the drawback of working with a case like this as opposed to something a little more mass-manufactured and, dare we say, run-of-the-mill from Corsair or Phanteks.

Overall then, the Parvum X1.0 isn't without its flaws but we have no doubt that given a little extra time and effort, they can be overcome - you definitely need to be aware of them though. Price-wise it's very reasonable and Overclockers UK's current deal with a 600W SFX PSU is particularly sweet if you don't already have a compatible PSU already. The biggest advantage it has over the competition, apart from its miniscule size, is its uniqueness. It will stand out at any LAN party and combined with the various colours already on offer, Parvum Systems is more than willing to customise your case too, for an extra fee of course, and the results of this can regularly be seen in our forum. That's something that no other case manufacturer offers and is another reason why the X1.0, despite its flaws and average scores in some areas, deserves an award.