How will we test?
Probably as early as next month, in September, we will release an analysis of the first case that will go through our new testing methodology. We already have a rough outline of it and we would like to present to you what we are going to do and how and why we are going to do it. This is also to give you a chance to comment on things you might think are missing that we could easily incorporate into the standard concept.
The computer case tests will be partly about giving you a good idea of what a particular model allows you to do in terms of assembly (of PC components) or itself (in the context of situating itself in a space), but also about things that can be compared in charts. Such things that answer the question of what kind of case is (un)suitable for whom in terms of cooling or noise. Cooling performance may be sufficient, but in terms of acoustic properties a given case may already be inadequate. That is, depending on who it is for, everyone can decide for themselves based on the results of the measurements.
„Cooling performance“…
Something we could call cooling performance also tells us whether a given case is more or less suitable for the selected components. Specifically, the air circulation that increases or decreases the cooling performance (of coolers of CPUs, graphics cards, motherboards or SSDs). It depends not only on the use of specific fans in a specific number, but also on the specific layout of the case itself. And we will examine this at different noise levels, as we have done so far. There are a number of fixed noise levels, ranging from very low, through low, medium, higher, to high, which may be of interest to users looking for the highest possible cooling performance, regardless of noise level.
The measurements will be done on a Mini-ITX motherboard. In larger cases this will often look comical, but it’s an opportunity to get a comparison across a wide spectrum of different formats. And that’s the whole point. How much “better” is a large full tower at cooling than a small SFF case? And couldn’t it actually be the other way around, that a smaller case means lower temperatures? It’s said to be nonsense and… well, we’ll see.
In the Asus ROG Strix B760-I Gaming WiFi motherboard, the Intel Core i9-13900K processor will end up set to maintain stable performance under all circumstances (i.e., even with the worst cooling). Only in this way will the temperature results be comparable to each other. In addition to this, of course, what is also required is a fixed setting of the fans speed on the CPU cooler. Or rather coolers, because we will be using two of them. The primary Noctua NH-D12L doesn’t fit into small cases, no matter how “low” it is, and in such situations we reach for the top-flow cooler Noctua NH-L12Sx77. For a while we wondered if we could use it for all the cases, but that probably wouldn’t make much sense. Firstly because of the fan orientation, which would be unnatural for larger tower cases in terms of airflow, and secondly because of its relatively low cooling performance. There will be different levels in this regard as well, a lower CPU performance will be combined with the smaller cooler (NH-L12Sx77) than with the larger one (NH-D12L). Thus, all cooling results will not always be comparable.
To test with the same fans? I don’t think it’s advisable, because you could get very misleading results from such comparisons. This is because while for one case a chosen fan may be optimal, for another it may not be, and with a different fan or multiple fans chosen it could be the other way around.
… and acoustics in detail
The reason we will stick with factory fans only is because we respect that some manufacturers have gone to the trouble of implementing psychoacoustic optimizations. Thus, with the fans used, the sound expression will be the most pleasant. If such fans were to be replaced with other, reference, non-optimized fans, there could be unwanted tonal peaks and always (depending on the choice of specific fans) different ones. Thus, we will only test with the fans that are supplied with the cases. Other situations, with the addition of “custom” fans, will only occur if a case is not supplied with fans, but their mounting is being counted on. So you just have a free hand in the choice.
The PC case tests will also focus on detailed monitoring of the acoustic profile. This will be interpreted in spectrograms and our task will be to eliminate the most extreme tonal peaks. Either by moving a fan further away from an obstacle or by “detuning” them to different speeds. It will be important to get the information to know what you need to do to “improve” the acoustic profile over the factory setting, or rather over controlling all system fans with the same PWM signal.
One of the unusual measurements will be vibration analysis. We will record this with a three-axis vibrometer at various locations and point to the five most intense, potentially weakest points. We may also somehow incorporate measurements with and without an HDD (with seeking heads) fitted. In such a situation (with an HDD), we will mainly investigate the degree to which the case can damp the noise of such a source. We assume that due to the declining interest of mainstream consumers in HDDs, case manufacturers will not be too concerned with such things, but for someone, it may also be one of the added values. Most importantly, it could be a relatively valuable measurement, even if only for a few users who, for whatever reasons, still use HDDs and will continue to use them.
For completeness of the case tests, we also consider it important to have an overview of the USB port speeds. These will be monitored similarly to what we do with motherboards. It is a good idea to check that the claimed bandwidth is being achieved and to know what throughput some connectors are achieving in general. This is not always officially stated.
So, now you know our plan roughly. Is there anything missing in it that would be good to focus on? We can, as long as it doesn’t increase the time commitment significantly. It’s one thing to design a technically perfect methodology, and it’s another thing to be able to implement it. We are looking for some consensus after which a reasonable basis for the evaluation of PC cases can be constructed in a reasonable time.
English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš
- Contents
- How will we test?