Passive case Akasa Euler MX: 70 W of heat? Go ahead…

Test procedures

Along with low power consumption chips, silent computers are also expanding. The British company Akasa has been specializing in the development of cases optimal for this purpose for the last few years. We have put their most progressive model through editorial hell. After exploring every corner and measuring temperatures in all possible positions, we can say what it can and cannot do. To give you a better idea, we are providing thermal vision too.

Details and assembly

The case is made of anodized aluminum and the design is very simple. The top and side walls are basically just ribs, the front one is grinded. The front panel has only a power button and two USB 3.0 (or more precisely 3.1 Gen 1) ports. It’s a bit of a shame that Akasa decided to not use an internal USB 2.0 header, which every supported board has.

At the bottom, there is a mounting plate for a monitor (or a wall) through VESA 100 × 100 mm. Its dismantling is also the key to the inside where the component listing starts and ends with the console for the installation of two 2.5″ disks, 3.5″ ones are incompatible. They cannot get in, the case would have to be bigger. It weighs 3.5 kg with 293 × 205 × 93 mm sizes. For a better idea, it is seven times smaller than an average midi tower, so it can be definitely considered minimalistic.

An important part of the accessory is a monolithic aluminum block intended for the heat exchange between IHS of a processor and the shell of the case. Its assembly is relatively simple, but you still have to use the manual because you need to know which are the right mounting holes. These vary depending on the board manufacturer. They all have it differently, but the compatibility is relatively narrow anyway (the list is available on the manufacturer’s website). However, after some modifications, you can also install some officially unsupported boards. For example, Gigabyte GA-Z270N Gaming 5 requires removing the aesthetic cover around I/O ports, or removing the rear spacing pillars. But be careful, it might be impossible to reach other boards with a cable from the front panel and so on. The only supported format is Mini-ITX.

The installation was quite fast. Turn the motherboard upside down and screw it standardly. But think twice before you do it because if you do not have all the wiring connected (you forgot something or you want to add some additional SATA cables), it is possible to do so only after dismantling.

Fortunately, disks are not installed on a shared panel with ribs where they were heated rather than cooled, but to an independent sheet metal. The question remains, however, how to handle the powerful NVMe SSDs that have controllers that are heated to high temperatures even in conventional cases with an active system cooling. It seems that Euler MX is not ready for it yet. But alternative models from competition are neither.

Along with low power consumption chips, silent computers are also expanding. The British company Akasa has been specializing in the development of cases optimal for this purpose for the last few years. We have put their most progressive model through editorial hell. After exploring every corner and measuring temperatures in all possible positions, we can say what it can and cannot do. To give you a better idea, we are providing thermal vision too.

Test procedures

We used different levels of heat intensity to test the cooling performance. The processor was set accordingly to make the configuration produce 20, 40, and 70 W of heat. For precise tuning, we used the Extech 380801 power meter and 650W SeaSonic Prime power supply. Of course, we also calculated with the differences that are indicated by the efficiency of the power supply during the load corresponding to the particular modes.

Temperature measurements took 30 minutes, the lowest value (20 watts) were applied in idle state. We simulated other modes in IntelBurnTest. At the end of the each test, we noted down temperatures from the selected components. Specifically from internal CPU, SSD, and RAM sensors. To determine the heating rate of MOSFETs and the chipset, we used thermocouples that were in contact with their heatsinks. These data were sent and processed from properly calibrated UNI-T UT325 thermometer. The intake air temperature was 21 – 21.3 °C, ensured in our air-conditioned lab.

*At 40 W, the processor was adjusted to 3 GHz @ 0.85 V and at 70 W to 4.2 GHz @ 1.12 V

We test passive cases in different positions that are commonly used in practice. In the case of Akasa Euler MX, this means one horizontal and two vertical positions. Vertically in width, ie. with the front panel up, and then two vertically oriented in height. In one of these positions, the processor part is closer to the top of the case (power button on the right) and in the other, it is closer to the bottom (power button on the left).

Along with low power consumption chips, silent computers are also expanding. The British company Akasa has been specializing in the development of cases optimal for this purpose for the last few years. We have put their most progressive model through editorial hell. After exploring every corner and measuring temperatures in all possible positions, we can say what it can and cannot do. To give you a better idea, we are providing thermal vision too.

20 and 40 W

Along with low power consumption chips, silent computers are also expanding. The British company Akasa has been specializing in the development of cases optimal for this purpose for the last few years. We have put their most progressive model through editorial hell. After exploring every corner and measuring temperatures in all possible positions, we can say what it can and cannot do. To give you a better idea, we are providing thermal vision too.

70 W

Thermal vision

In addition to the heat spreading, it is also interesting to watch the hottest places near the processor. In the horizontal position it is 53.6 °C, in vertical 51.3 °C, vertically in height with the processor closer to the bottom 51.1 °C, and vertically in height with the processor closer to the top of the case 54.6 ° C (the highest value).

Along with low power consumption chips, silent computers are also expanding. The British company Akasa has been specializing in the development of cases optimal for this purpose for the last few years. We have put their most progressive model through editorial hell. After exploring every corner and measuring temperatures in all possible positions, we can say what it can and cannot do. To give you a better idea, we are providing thermal vision too.

Conclusion

Since the release of the first Euler (2012), the manufacturer has improved a lot and the model with the addition MX is not suffering from overheating anymore. Its cooling system is solved with a more sensible understanding, making HDDs finally usable in the case. At the maximum thermal load recommended by the manufacturer (ie. with CPU up to 35 W), the power supply cascade and chipset will be more heated than the processor itself in most cases. However, temperatures reaching 60 °C at most are still perfectly fine.

The low TDP is obviously an insurance by the manufacturer, for several reasons (and their combinations). Due to low quality compounds on CPU chips, the inappropriate use of a cheap motherboard without additional cooling, and maybe also because they wanted to prevent instability in an industrial environment where the air temperature is often significantly higher than in normal domestic conditions.

The case could handle even 70 W (while the temperature of the casing at the hottest point only slightly exceeded 50 °C). Although CPU temperatures were a bit higher (78 – 82 °C), they were not critical. By using such strongly heating processor, it was of particular importance that the motherboard was equipped with a properly dimensioned heatsink on the power supply circuit.

The case was most effective vertically in width. Natural heat removal through the length of the ribs is obviously the fastest. It is also optimal for disks because they are no longer in the axis of the rising warm air. The worst cooling performance was measured in vertical position in height and with the processor closer to the top. After the case was turned by 180 degrees, the situation improved. Let it be one way or another (let’s say horizontally on the work table), the differences in heating were relatively small, up to 5 °C at most.

The only thing that made us a bit sad it that the huge potential of the heatsink was only partially exploited. The thermal imager revealed an uneven heating of the ribs. The sides are significantly cooler than the area that is in contact with the processor through the block. With a more sophisticated structure of heatpipes, cooling performance could be better. But thanks to this simple concept and cost savings (on both production and more complicated development), the price is very attractive. Moreover, there is also included a decent picoPSU with an 80-watt adapter. This duo is less than 80% effective only at lower performance levels (below 25%), and at more than 90%, at the limit of its capabilities. It is also important to add that it does not produce any annoying sounds.

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• Contents
• Details and assembly
• Test procedures
• 20 and 40 W
• 70 W + thermal vision
• Conclusion