Cooling Performance

We've been revising our test kit over the last few weeks to refine our hardware to best-fit what you'd likely use in a variety of cases. If a case can house a full-length GPU but only a low-profile CPU cooler, we're paired a GTX 980 with an overclocked Core i5-4670K running at 4GHz with a vcore of 1.15V. We've also increased the CPU cooling power from our super-low profile kit, using a Noctua NH-L9x65. The GPU fan is locked at 70 per cent to give the case the best chance of keeping the GPU temperature below 80°C - as it approaches this it begins to throttle, so any case that reaches this temperature we'll be highlighting.


To measure the temperatures we use Core Temp and GPU-Z, subtracting the ambient temperature to give the delta T. This allows us to present accurate results that are comparable between cases tested on different days where the temperature fluctuates as we don't work in a temperature-controlled lab. We test each case under full load using Unigine Heaven and Prime 95 v25.11 for 15 minutes and record the temperatures.

Test kit:

• Intel core i5-4670K (4GHz/1.15V)
  
• Gigabyte GA-Z97N-WIFI
  
• 4GB G.Skill 1,600MHz DDR3
  
• SilverStone ST45SF PSU
  
• Noctua NH-L9x65 i