Fractal Design Terra: 10 litres for high-end GPUs as well

Extra tests, PC cases | | Martin Bednár

Test methodology

Well, here we have something from Fractal Design to test again, something that goes beyond the usual formulas. The Terra case falls into the SFF (small form factor) category, but unlike many similarly sized solutions, there is room for a large graphics card. This makes the Terra an attractive small case for a gaming PC or a workstation reliant on the power of the GPU. But all this is traditionally discussed in more detail.

Test methodology

The case is not equipped with any fan that could help with cooling. But it does have one dedicated position for it. Right under the power supply, on the side where the cables come out of it. But the large vents on the side panels, bottom and top provide ambient air directly to the fans mounted on the coolers. Their disadvantage is that they significantly increase the noise level for fans mounted close to the perforations.

Since it doesn’t have system fans, the noise is measured on the CPU cooler.

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
  • 39 dBA
  • 42 dBA




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