Enermax StarryKnight SK30: Not only impressive looks

Martin Bednár

1 year ago

Motherboard cooling tests

Enermax’s latest case strikes a fairly good balance between visual and functional features. The more intense ARGB LED lighting is complemented by as many as four fans. Combined with a decently perforated front panel, the airflow is “taken care of”. On the other hand, there are a few things to complain about in this price range. What is attractive and what is not about the StarryKnight SK30 midi-tower?

Basic parameters


Parameters	Enermax
	StarryKnight SK30

Supported motherboard formats	Mini-ITX, mATX, ATX, E-ATX
Supported PSU format	ATX
CPU cooler	up to 170 mm
Graphics cards	up to 405 mm
Fan	9× 120 mm (1× pre-installed)/5× 140 mm (3× pre-installed)
Supported liquid radiators	2× up to 280/360 mm
2,5" positions	2 + 2 shared
3,5" positions	2 shared
5,25" positions	0
Dimensions [H/D/W] (and volume)	486 × 465 × 220 mm (50 l)
Weight	7,5 kg
Materials	steel + plastic + tempered glass
Connectivity	2× USB 3.2 gen. 1 type A + 1× USB 2.0 type A + 2× 3,5mm jack
Approx. retail price	100 EUR

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Exterior

The case came packed in a cardboard box with polystyrene filling. Fortunately, the latter didn’t crumble much. The accessory box contains only the basic things needed to install the components – screws, single-use zip ties, and fortunately two colored Velcro strips. You’ll find out “how to do it” in the simple illustrated manual.

This case hasn’t avoided the tempered glass trend either, which is here in the left side panel position. The appearance of tempered glass is sleek, unhindered by handles. These are in the form of screws at the back, which, thanks to the longer threaded stem and properly shaped sheet metal, hold even after the side panel has been removed from the case. So you don’t have to think about where to put them away. The screws on the right-hand side panel are designed in the same way.

With the convex large perforation, the effort to accentuate the forehead and chin of the front panel disappears. In these places, the plastic is treated to mimic the surface of brushed aluminium. There are perforations on the sides of the panel which are not protected against dust. You wouldn’t find a dust filter behind the large perforations either. Its holes are 1.5mm in size, and that combined with the uncovered side vents is a recipe for a dusty case interior. But not to just criticize it, after two weeks of use, a thin coating of dust appeared on the perforation. But the same appeared behind it on the fans as well.

When you “tear off” the front panel, you’ll be taken directly to the three second-generation 140mm SquA RGB fans. At first glance, they may catch your eye with the atypical shape of the light guide around the rotor. In addition, the blades are also lighted, so the overall brightness can be really high. Alternatively, the fan positions can also accommodate a liquid cooler radiator, in 280 or 360 mm formats.

The buttons and connectors of the case are on the top – right. Next to the power button there is a reset button, which can also be used to control the lighting of the case. It depends on how you wire this button. The case has five connectors, three of which are USB Type-A (2×3.2 gen.1 and 1×2.0 standard-wise), Type-C is missing, which is perhaps a bit of a shame considering the case’s price range.

The rest of the top is made up of sheet metal and a removable filter. This has magnets around the perimeter to hold it in the trough. The filter protects the perforated part from dust. For more effective heat extraction from the case, you can install three 120 or two 140 mm fans here. The ceiling can also be used for a 280/360 mm liquid cooler radiator.

StarryKnight also earns minus points for the weaker design of the upper part of the structure. The latter does not line up with the front panel due to the recess on the metal partition.

The layout of the back of the case is typical. On the top there is a slot for the motherboard I/O panel and also a position for a 120 mm fan. There is also a SquA RGB fan, but of the first generation. You can position it vertically in a 35 mm range. Disappointing are the PCI Express expansion card slot covers, where only one of the seven is designed for reusability. You have to tear the others off, ideally before the hardware is fitted. Next to them are two more, but this time in a vertical position, so you can make your graphics card more visible through the glass side panel. Once you opt for this mounting, the hole at this position will remain forever due to the use of single-use covers here as well.

Four rectangular feet ensure contact with the ground/desk. There is a thin strip of non-slip rubber in the centre. This holds the case in place quite firmly. As a result, the case remains upright and in place during minor handling inside or, for example, when cleaning it. The power supply is protected against dirt by a filter. This does have finer perforations than elsewhere on the case, but it’s still not as effective as a nylon filter. Further in front are two locking screws, which allow you to remove the storage drawer from the tunnel.

Interior

The spacious interior of the case is also suitable for E-ATX motherboards with a width of 330 mm. The remaining formats such as ATX, mATX and Mini-ITX are standard in the midi-tower class. There’s plenty of room for tower CPU coolers too. Up to a height of 170 mm, you won’t be limited with your choice, so there are plenty to choose from. You have just as much space when fitting a graphics card, which can be up to 405 mm long. This makes the case ready for the next generation of graphics cards, which are getting bigger all the time.

For graphics cards longer than 230 mm, a support on the tray is also available. Thanks to the possibility to adjust its height vertically and a joint ensuring horizontal movement, you can precisely adjust its position under the graphics card. The contact surface is rubberised for gentle support of the card.

None of the openings in the case are fitted with a rubberized grommet for a more cohesive interior appearance. Fortunately, they are ground down and have no sharp edges. The width of the vertical and horizontal holes differ. The vertical ones are 30 mm wide while the horizontal ones are 25 mm wide. Larger widths are good for easier threading of thicker cable bundles.

Two positions for 120 mm fans are located on the ceiling of the tunnel. These are also there thanks to the perforation through which air can be drawn into the fans. Just next to the tray there are three identical holes for cables as there are under the ceiling of the case. Their width is sufficient to allow you to comfortably handle the cables even just below the board. Although not the last, the all the more important tunnel opening is located at the front of the case. This one serves for a liquid cooler radiator with a depth of 65 mm, which can be already tight for the thicker ones. The last hole is in front of the power supply and thanks to it you can look through the tempered glass to see the PSU as well.

From the other side of the tray, you get to the more challenging part of the interior, especially when it comes to cable management. For organizing, you have 21 mm of space from the tray to the side panel. The main bundle of cables is pulled between the four vertical openings, which it also fastens against. You have additional fixing options completely in front, behind the panel and around the perimeter of the motherboard opening. In total, you have the option of attaching cables in 16 different positions.

All four fans have two power connectors. One is a 3-pin and the other is a 4-pin Molex. The latter can be daisy chained together, which can be an advantage on boards with fewer PWM headers.

There’s a controller for the fan lighting, and you can plug up to six devices into it. It is powered directly from the power supply by a SATA cable. You can control the lighting in two ways. Either through the motherboard with the ARGB connector plugged in or with the restart button on the case. With the latter, you have thirteen programmed lighting modes available directly in the controller.

Behind the motherboard, there are also two positions for 2.5″ storage. You remove the brackets from the tray, use the four screws on the side to secure the storage and hang it back into the case. This method of mounting allows for quick and easy handling of the storage even when the case is already fitted with other components.

In the tunnel, there is only a smaller drawer with a pair of hybrid positions for 3.5 or 2.5″ storage. One installs directly on top of its structure and the other into a bracket within it. There is 220 mm of space for the power supply with cables from the drawer to the end of the case. When the drawer is removed, you get an extra 180 mm. You won’t have much reason to pull the drawer out though. With its low height, you can also handle the cabling directly above it.

The installation was relatively easy except for the cable management. There are two connectors on the fan’s power cable, first a Molex with a 5V connection and then a 3-pin. The distance between the two is short, so it was more difficult to fit and hide the Molex connector into the cable management while the 3-pin is connected in the motherboard. Two zip ties from the accessories will be enough for securing and then closing the side panel.

The holes for cabling are large enough to avoid difficulties during routing. Even the hardware itself was easy to fit thanks to the large space inside the case.

Everything is held together by 0.7 mm thick metal sheets, but their stiffness is not quite ideal and they bend slightly even with a light pressure.

Test methodology

Through the large perforated front panel, the three 140mm Squa RGB fans have the ability to draw in large amounts of air to cool the components. There is one 120mm Squa RGB fan in the back for exhausting warm air, but is that enough? For comparison’s sake, let’s mount the bottom 140mm fan directly under the ceiling and compare that at 39 dBA with the original placement.

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
39 dBA


Test setup
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
Motherboard	ASRock X570 Taichi
CPU cooler	Scythe Fuma rev. 2 (single fan)
Thermal compound	Noctua NT-H2
Graphics card	Asus RTX 2060 Super Dual
RAM	Patriot, 2× 8GB, 3600 MHz/CL17
SSD	Western Digital Blue 500GB (2280)
Power supply	Corsair RM750X

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CPU and GPU cooling tests

Motherboard cooling tests

SSD cooling tests

Temperature under the ceiling

Conclusion

Three 140mm and one 120mm fans were able to keep up in tests with cases such as the Irid 505 F or Regnum 400 ARGB. The temperatures of the hottest components, the CPU and graphics card, were almost identical. With the alternative of mounting the bottom 140 mm fan directly under the ceiling, you can bring the temperatures down a notch. The graphics card temperatures also need to be monitored when doing this so that they don’t rise unreasonably high.

The design of the case is its biggest weakness. The front panel is airy but without effective protection against dust, as there is only a filter with larger holes. The case does have three USB connectors, but they are all type A. One of them is even of the slow USB 2.0 standard. There was also a very inaccurate “joint” between the case body and the front panel on the tested case. There is a pronounced dip at the top, which doesn’t look exactly inviting. Especially when you look at it from just the right angle.

But I must praise the holes for cables, whose size is rather above standard. Thanks to this, threading and plugging in the cables was simple and easy. Under larger graphics cards, you have a bracket on the tray. Two 120 mm fans can blow on the graphics cards from underneath, and this option is not very common in cases.

Thanks to the large space inside, you can fit even the largest components such as an E-ATX motherboard into the case. During installation, there were no difficulties that would make fitting hardware into the case uncomfortable. That is, except for one, which is the dual-connector fan power cables. The Molex always had to be hidden somewhere behind the back of the tray, while the 3-pin connector almost didn’t reach into the motherboard header.

The cooling performance of the case is enough to comfortably play games and, of course, do some heavy work on a build in it. But for about a hundred euros, pretty lights aren’t everything. It also has its shortcomings, for which StarryKnight SK 30 deserves the “Approved” award.

English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš


Enermax StarryKnight SK30
+ High cooling performance
+ Four pre-installed fans
+ As many as nine positions for 120 mm fans...
+ ... and two positions directly under the graphics card
+ Graphics card support bracket
+ Free space in the tunnel
- Absence of a fine nylon filter...
- ... and a USB Type-C connector
- Weaker build quality

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Continue: SSD cooling tests and under-ceiling temperature