Testing & Results

Testing Methodology

The design goal of a case, other than looking good and protecting the equipment contained within, is to help bring cool air in and push hot air out. In testing the Antec P183, we'll look at how well it performs this heat exchange process in comparison to the recently launched Cooler Master CM Storm. To account for the variables experienced in everyday life, we've developed four test scenarios:

For the load tests, all four cores of the processor are maxed out using the Prime95's large FFT setting. Furmark is then started in stability mode to ramp up the load on the video card. In each test, the highest temperatures observed by SpeedFan and the ATI Catalyst Control Center in a one hour period are recorded. All enclosures are tested with the same hardware configuration, which is installed according to manufacturer specifications. Care is taken to ensure cable management and other installation considerations are as identical as possible between all test products.

Test System

• Motherboard: Asus P5Q3 (Intel P45 Chipset) with version 0609 BIOS
• Processor: Intel Q9450 Core 2 Quad 2.66 GHz (Overclocked to 3.2 GHz)
• System Memory: OCZ Platinum 2x2GB DDR3 1600 (7-7-7-24)
• Audio: Integrated Realtek ALC1200
• Video: ASUS EAH4870 DK TOP
• Disk Drive: Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000GLFS 300GB
• Optical Drive: LITE-ON iHAS122-04 DVD/CD-RW
• PSU: Corsair TX850W
• Operating System: Windows XP Professional SP3

Benchmark Applications

• Prime95 v25.9 (4 threads)
• Furmark Stability Test
• SpeedFan

Enclosure Test Products

• Cooler Master Sniper CM Storm Gaming Case
• Antec P183 Mid Tower Case

Results

With air cooling, there is an inherent trade-off between cooling performance and noise. Some cases are designed to be quiet, others are designed for all out performance, but most fall somewhere in the middle. Both of the cases tested today offered variable fan speeds, which allow the end-user to find the compromise that best fits their needs. In the charts below, you'll find results for both low-speed and high-speed fan settings. Keep in mind that the cooling performance you experience will depend on your choice of fan speed, as well as the other cooling components in your system. With that in mind, let's look at our results.

The idle test serves as a baseline for all of the other tests. It offers the least heat output and the lowest temperatures you'd expect to see in a real word environment. Here we can see little variance in the temperatures. The high fan speed setting of the Antec P183 has a slight advantage over the others, but it was also the loudest. In any case, all of the temperatures are within a safe operating range and should not pose any problems.

At 100% system load, the last chart represents the highest temperatures you'd expect to see in a real world environment. Again, the numbers show the Antec P183 in the lead. I have to admit, I was a bit shocked by this. I had expected the larger 200mm fans used by the CM Storm to easily outpace the P183's 120mm fans. However, it looks like Antec's airflow improvements certainly paid off.

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