DeepCool CH510 Mesh Digital: Temperatures right under your nose

Exterior

If you like to monitor the temperatures of your components, we have a tip for you to take your temperature monitoring to the next level. The new CH510 Mesh Digital has a small display on its front to show the current temperature of select hardware. But just monitoring isn’t enough, you also need to take action to lower the temperatures, and in that the case itself falls a little short. Just one pre-installed fan may not be enough.

Basic parameters

Exterior

The box is packed in a cardboard box, which is stuffed with polystyrene. This protects it from damage during transport. The accessories for the case are the essentials you need for mounting hardware. It includes screws, a large number of single-use zip ties and a clear illustrated manual.

Out of the box, at first glance it looks no different from most cases. The glossy parts on the front and the glass side panels are covered with a protective film. While peeling it off, you’ll notice that the front panel face is glass and hides the display in its center. In addition, the case has other minor improvements that you’ll appreciate during use or even during the actual building process.

Tool-less side panel removal is becoming more and more popular, and it is no different with the case under review. The left tempered glass panel is held to the chassis by two strong magnets on top. The bottom is secured by a rail into which you just drop the side panel.

Since the grip for pulling is made at the back, it is necessary to exert a lot of force to pull the side panel from both magnets. I was always almost afraid to pull hard, lest it accidentally slip out of my hands. When transporting, you can secure the side panel with one screw that goes through the handle and into the chassis.

   

The front panel is largely made up of holes. While there is a perforation in the middle with 1.5 mm holes, to sort of trap larger dirt, there are narrow holes on the sides with no obstacles. The main attraction of the case is, of course, its display. This is used for displaying the CPU or GPU temperature. For its proper functioning it is necessary to download an app from the manufacturer’s site, otherwise it will have reduced brightness and the value on it will be constantly zero.

   

Once it’s installed and running, you’ll see one little DeepCool icon in your taskbar, through which you’ll be able to select in which units the temperature will be displayed, and which temperature will be displayed. Either the processor or the graphics card. Of course you can also change the language and set the application to start right after Windows starts. Too bad the designers didn’t use the full potential and it is not possible to set to display the temperature of both components at the same time. Instead, you have a company logo and five cubes that display or not depending on the temperature.

The entire front panel can be removed from the chassis, but care must be taken because of the cable from the display. Its connector is USB type 2.0 and plugs directly into the board, where it is powered and also draws hardware temperature data. Behind the panel there is one more mesh to catch additional particles. Unfortunately it is with the same holes as the front, 1.5mm. It is held to the chasis by magnets. Unfortunately there are no fans mounted in the front, so you have the option of fitting three pieces of 120mm fans or two 140mm fans here. It can handle a liquid cooler radiator as well, up to 360mm.

   

The top of the case offers only average connectivity for the price range. The USB Type-A and Type-C connectors are one apiece, and the 3.5mm jack is a shared, 4-pole jack (for both headphones and microphone). There are also buttons for power on but also for restart. These are also pleasant to press thanks to their larger contact area. As the last part of the I/O panel on the top is the drive activity LED, which blinks brightly and is relatively sharp. The largest part of the top is taken up by the same magnetic filter that is located behind the front panel. Under the ceiling you can fit the same number of fans from inside the case as the front, so three 120 or two 140mm fans. The same goes for the liquid cooler radiator, which you can fit here in a 360mm format.

   

The back of the case has a standard layout. At the top, there is an opening for the motherboard I/O panel aligned with the fan opening. Both 120 mm and 140 mm fan formats can be installed here. Underneath are seven removable covers for PCI Express expansion card slots. There’s also a power supply opening located on the bottom. At the height of the tunnel, there is an irregular perforation on the other side panel. Here, too, the case is protected from larger dust by a filter that is glued from the inside of the side panel.

   

The case is held upright by four elongated legs with anti-slip pads. Under the position of the power supply you can notice a filter for catching larger particles. It is a pity that at least under the power supply, the manufacturer did not use a fine dust filter but the identical perforation as everywhere with 1.5 mm holes. More to the front are the storage compartment mounting holes also with an alternative location 25 mm further forward. At the very top of the front panel there is a handle to pull it out.

If you like to monitor the temperatures of your components, we have a tip for you to take your temperature monitoring to the next level. The new CH510 Mesh Digital has a small display on its front to show the current temperature of select hardware. But just monitoring isn’t enough, you also need to take action to lower the temperatures, and in that the case itself falls a little short. Just one pre-installed fan may not be enough.

Interior

The inside is spacious with plenty of room for your hardware. It can accommodate motherboards in all standardized formats from Mini-ITX to E-ATX. For E-ATX boards, this is regardless of width (even 330mm wide SuperMicro boards will fit and there’s still room for a 75mm thick radiator in the front), but with 275mm PCBs, the wiring grommets are already completely covered.

For CPU cooling, you can use a tower cooler up to 175mm in size, meaning there is more than enough space and you don’t have to limit yourself in your choice. It’s the same with graphics card lengths and you can fit any card. That is, until a new edition comes along that’s more than 380mm long.

The case is factory fitted with a single 120 mm fan, directly behind the CPU tower cooler position for exhausting warm air. Unfortunately, the manufacturer does not have it in their portfolio for more information regarding the performance, the bearings used or its speed.

To help lighten the weight on the motherboard, there’s a support bracket directly on the tray for heavier graphics cards. The bracket can be adjusted both horizontally and vertically to position it precisely. Its contact surface with the card is lined with foam to prevent scratches. Parallel with the holder are two grommets, which are the only ones with rubber hole covers. I must commend the firmness of their mounting to the chassis. With less than 30 mm of space in the grommet, I have never once had the cover slip out when routing cables.

   

Mostly, we’ve had cases with the option to place a 2.5″ storage on top of the tunnel, but here it is different. Combined with the perforation of the tunnel, the supply of cool air through the holes on the side panel, the manufacturer decided to give the option to fit two 120 mm fans. I welcome this move, as this option is often forgotten.

Behind the tunnel is a 75 mm opening for a liquid cooling radiator with fans.

   

On the other side of the tray there isn’t a single Velcro strip for cable management, but with the large number of zip ties in the accessories, you could take that as a minor “offense”. You have up to 15 positions where you can use them. For actual cable management, there is less than 25mm of space at the back.

In addition to the cables, the tray also holds two 2.5″ storage units, which are easy to install. The specially adapted screws from the accessories screw onto the storage and then simply slot into the holes.

   

The thickness of the sheets varies from 0.7 to 0.75 mm, depending on the measuring point. Even though the measured value is decent, they bend more than I would expect, even with a slight touch.

You can fit two 3.5″ HDDs in the tunnel compartment, and you can swap the format for 2.5″ storage in the top position. Behind it you have less than 240 mm of space for the power supply with cables, which was enough for me in the tested configuration. Mainly due to the fact that there is no compartment across the entire height of the tunnel. But if that wasn’t enough, you can move it closer to the front and gain another 25 mm.

   

Hardware installation was very easy and intuitive. There is plenty of room on both sides of the case for manipulation, and the cabling was easy to connect. Using multiple single-use zip ties would have made managing the cabling more appealing to the eye as well, but one was enough for the largest node of cables. There is no pressure on the metal side panel and it is easy to close.

   

If you like to monitor the temperatures of your components, we have a tip for you to take your temperature monitoring to the next level. The new CH510 Mesh Digital has a small display on its front to show the current temperature of select hardware. But just monitoring isn’t enough, you also need to take action to lower the temperatures, and in that the case itself falls a little short. Just one pre-installed fan may not be enough.

Test methodology

Much of the case is perforated, even the bottom of the side panel, for better cool airflow directly from the bottom of the case. But I’m afraid that with only one fan supplied, the case won’t take full advantage of this perforation in tests. The fan in the case alone can produce a maximum noise level of 38.1 dBA at 100% performance, so there will only be two noise levels in the comparison.

Testing is done in a home environment where I strive for the most accurate results possible. In the room during testing, the air temperature in front of the case is 23 degrees Celsius and the minimum noise level I can measure with the Voltcraft SL-100 noise meter is 32.4 dBA. The sensor of the noise meter is aligned to the center of the top of the case at a distance of 10 cm, for the best measurement of the speed difference of the fans, which I change using the motherboard. For easy comparison to other cases, they are always regulated to fixed noise levels.

Individual components are heated for 10 minutes in FurMark synthetic stress tests and with Prime95 (custom settings) at the same time. This time is long enough to allow all components to warm up sufficiently. There are then 15-minute cooling breaks between tests, during which the component temperatures (and the case air temperature as well) are brought back to default.

Noise mode levels:

• 36 dBA
• 38 dBA

If you like to monitor the temperatures of your components, we have a tip for you to take your temperature monitoring to the next level. The new CH510 Mesh Digital has a small display on its front to show the current temperature of select hardware. But just monitoring isn’t enough, you also need to take action to lower the temperatures, and in that the case itself falls a little short. Just one pre-installed fan may not be enough.

CPU and GPU cooling tests

---

Ak radi sledujete teploty svojich komponentov, tak máme pre vás tip, ako posunúť ich stráženie na vyššiu úroveň. Novinka CH510 Mesh Digital má na svojom čele malý displej na zobrazovanie aktuálneho zahrievania vybraného hardvéru. Iba sledovanie ale nestačí, pre zníženie teplôt treba aj konať a v tom samotná skrinka trochu zaostáva. Iba jeden predinštalovaný ventilátor môže byť málo.

Motherboard cooling tests

---

---

If you like to monitor the temperatures of your components, we have a tip for you to take your temperature monitoring to the next level. The new CH510 Mesh Digital has a small display on its front to show the current temperature of select hardware. But just monitoring isn’t enough, you also need to take action to lower the temperatures, and in that the case itself falls a little short. Just one pre-installed fan may not be enough.

SSD cooling tests

---

Temperature under the ceiling

Ak radi sledujete teploty svojich komponentov, tak máme pre vás tip, ako posunúť ich stráženie na vyššiu úroveň. Novinka CH510 Mesh Digital má na svojom čele malý displej na zobrazovanie aktuálneho zahrievania vybraného hardvéru. Iba sledovanie ale nestačí, pre zníženie teplôt treba aj konať a v tom samotná skrinka trochu zaostáva. Iba jeden predinštalovaný ventilátor môže byť málo.

Conclusion

With only one fan fitted, the case didn’t have a fair fighting chance against the competition. And that at a price of 95 euros could be considered a serious sucker punch. Due to the weaker airflow in the case, the CPU temperatures occupied the highest measured values so far. It wasn’t so tragic with the graphics card, leaving behind other cases like the Pop Air from Fractal Design. Apparently the perforations on the side panel combined with the perforated tunnel ceiling helped.

The metal plates of the case are more delicate than I would have expected with their thickness. I was pleasantly surprised by the tool-less opening system for the tempered glass side panel. Thanks to strong magnets, it sticks to the chassis like it’s glued. The front display makes it easy to keep track of temperatures. There are two components to choose from: the processor or the graphics card. However, its display is not designed in a practical way. The top half of the display is taken up by the DeepCool logo instead of being able to display both readings at once. But where the designers did make the effort is the little things inside. The graphics card holder has foam on the contact surface to prevent scratches. Also, the rubber grommet caps are firmly seated in the holes – between the two plates. They didn’t even forget the two positions for fans on the tunnel under the graphics card.

Fitting the hardware into the case was quick and easy. The interior provides plenty of space for handling the hardware and also for plugging in cables. Through the rubber grommet covers, even thicker cables were easy to route, but the main thing is that they stayed firmly in place.

The biggest drawback of the CH510 Mesh Digital is that it only comes with one fan. For better cooling results, it will need to be equipped with additional fans or liquid coolers. There are plenty of positions here for them, though naturally this comes at an extra cost. We did not find any other, more significant shortcomings with the case and it takes away the editorial award “Approved”.

English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš

• Contents
• Exterior
• Interior
• Test methodology
• CPU and GPU cooling tests
• Motherboard cooling tests
• SSD cooling tests and under-ceiling temperature
• Conclusion