Latest from Tom's Hardware in Intel-core-i5-7500

CPU Benchmarks and Hierarchy 2026: CPU Rankings

Jake Roach — Sat, 18 Nov 2023 13:25:13 +0000

CPU Benchmarks Rankings 2026

Tom's Hardware

In the album above, you can see our master charts for gaming, single-threaded, and multi-threaded performance for CPUs. For games, all of our testing was done with an Nvidia RTX 5090 FE, and for applications, our testing was done with an Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti FE. For applications, no compute is actively running on the GPU; it’s a glorified display output that shares a driver with our gaming GPU. You can find a full breakdown of the test benches we used at the end of this article.

Gaming CPU Benchmarks Rankings 2026

Gaming CPU Benchmarks Rankings 2026
CPU / (MSRP)	Street Price	1080p Gaming Score	Architecture	Cores/Threads (P+E)	Base/Boost Clock (GHz)	TDP / Maximum Power
Ryzen 7 9850X3D ($500)	$499	100%	Zen 5 X3D	8 / 16	4.7 / 5.6	120W / 162W
Ryzen 7 9800X3D ($480)	$464	97%	Zen 5 X3D	8 / 16	4.7 / 5.2	120W / 162W
Ryzen 9 9950X3D ($700)	$676	95.7%	Zen 5 X3D	16 / 32	4.3 / 5.7	170W / 230W
Ryzen 9 9900X3D ($600)	$530	86.9%	Zen 5 X3D	12 / 24	4.4 / 5.5	120W / 230W
Ryzen 7 7800X3D ($450)	$399	85.6%	Zen 4 X3D	8 / 16	4.2 / 5	120W / 162W
Ryzen 9 7950X3D ($700)	$650	83.9%	Zen 4 X3D	16 / 32	4.2 / 5.7	120W / 162W
Ryzen 5 7600X3D ($300)	$246	80.6%	Zen 4 X3D	6 / 12	4.1 / 4.7	65W / 88W
Core i9-14900K ($550)	$469	78.2%	Raptor Lake Refresh	24 / 32 (8+16)	3.2 / 6	125W / 253W
Core Ultra 7 270K Plus ($300)	$350	77.5%	Arrow Lake Refresh	24 / 24 (8+16)	3.7 / 5.5	125W / 250W
Ryzen 7 7900X3D ($600)	Out of Stock	77.1%	Zen 4 X3D	12 / 24	4.4 / 5.6	120W / 162W
Ryzen 9 9950X ($650)	$520	76.9%	Zen 5	16 / 32	4.7 / 5/7	170W / 230W
Core i9-13900K ($590)	Out of Stock	76.8%	Raptor Lake	24 / 32 (8+16)	3 / 5.8	125W / 253W
Core i7-14700K ($410)	$340	76.4%	Raptor Lake Refresh	20 / 28 (8+12)	3.4 / 5.6	125W / 253W
Core i7-13700K ($410)	Out of Stock	75.8%	Raptor Lake	16 / 24 (8+8)	3.4 / 5.4	125W / 253W
Ryzen 9 9900X ($500)	$439	73.9%	Zen 5	12 / 24	4.4 / 5.6	120W / 162W
Core Ultra 5 250K Plus ($200)	$220	73.3%	Arrow Lake Refresh	18 / 18 (6+12)	4.2 / 5.3	125W / 159W
Core i5-14600K ($320)	$300	72.8%	Raptor Lake Refresh	14 / 20 (6+8)	3.5 / 5.3	125W / 181W
Ryzen 5 9600X ($280)	$188	72.6%	Zen 5	6 / 12	3.9 / 5.4	65W / 88W
Core Ultra 9 285K ($590)	$557	71.8%	Arrow Lake	24 / 24 (8+16)	3.7 / 5.7	125W / 250W
Ryzen 9 7950X ($700)	Out of Stock	71%	Zen 4	16 / 32	4.5 / 5.7	170W / 230W
Core i5-13600K ($320)	$319	70.9%	Raptor Lake	14 / 20 (6+8)	3.5 / 5.1	125W / 181W
Ryzen 7 7700X ($400)	$249	70.6%	Zen 4	8 / 16	4.5 / 5.4	105W / 142W
Core Ultra 7 265K ($400)	$284	70.3%	Arrow Lake	20 / 20 (8+12)	3.9 / 5.5	125W / 250W
Ryzen 9 7900X ($550)	$299	69.2%	Zen 4	12 / 24	4.7 / 5.6	170W / 230W
Ryzen 5 7600X ($300)	$180	67.3%	Zen 4	6 / 12	4.7 / 5.3	105W / 142W
Core Ultra 5 245K ($320)	$202	67.1%	Arrow Lake	14 / 14 (6+8)	4.2 / 5.2	125W / 159W
Core i7-12700K ($410)	$285	65.8%	Alder Lake	12 / 20 (8+4)	3.6 / 5	125W / 190W
Core Ultra 5 225 ($183)	$180	62.5%	Arrow Lake	10 / 10 (6+4)	3.3 / 4.9	65W / 121W
Core i5-12600K ($290)	$185	60.8%	Alder Lake	10 / 16 (6+4)	3.7 / 4.9	125W / 150W
Core i5-14400 ($220)	$250	58%	Raptor Lake	10 / 16 (6+4)	2.5 / 4.7	65W / 154W

You can see the relative score for AMD and Intel CPUs above, measured against the Ryzen 7 9850X3D, which is the fastest gaming CPU on the market, per our testing. So, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D offers 97.04% of the performance of the Ryzen 7 9850X3D, while the Ryzen 9 7900X offers 69.28% of the performance. You can set any CPU as a baseline for comparison with Bench, which is available in Tom’s Hardware Premium.

All of our gaming tests were run with the RTX 5090 FE at 1080p with a mixture of High and Ultra settings. We run each test multiple times — usually between three and five — and pick the median result. In other words, the results we use are real, recorded runs, not an average of several different runs. This is important as some games, such as Far Cry 6, show great CPU scaling but are otherwise inconsistent run-to-run.

In addition to consistent hardware (test benches at the end of this article), we use a consistent test image between platforms. That means the same GPU driver, the same Windows install, the game version, etc. We also tested with Virtualization-Based Security (VBS) turned off, Resizable BAR turned on, and automatic overclocking features disabled. That includes the Intel Extreme power profile and AMD’s PBO, both of which aren’t covered under standard warranty.

For this refresh, we tested 17 games and then calculated a geometric mean of the results. A simple average would provide skewed results with such a large test pool. A geomean provides a more realistic view of how each CPU compares to the others.

Here are the games that we used for testing:

Counter-Strike 2
The Last of Us Part One
Cyberpunk 2077
Starfield
A Plague Tale: Requiem
Hogwarts Legacy
F1 24
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Baldur’s Gate 3
Monster Hunter: Wilds
Final Fantasy XIV
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024
Doom: The Dark Ages
Oblivion Remastered
Far Cry 6
Hitman 3
Minecraft RTX

We’re constantly evaluating new games to include in our test suite — see our recent stories on Resident Evil Requiem CPU scaling and Crimson Desert CPU scaling — but we maintain a list of tried-and-true benchmarks for our hierarchy rankings. We want to avoid including brand-new titles, which may see many updates, to keep our rankings as true to reality as possible. If you want more about the rationale behind our game choices, see our behind the scenes look at our CPU hierarchy testing.

Single-Threaded CPU Benchmarks Rankings 2026

2026 Single-Threaded CPU Benchmarks
	Single-Threaded App Score	Architecture	Cores/Threads (P+E)	Base/Boost Clock (GHz)	TDP / Maximum Power
Core Ultra 7 270K Plus	100%	Arrow Lake Refresh	24 / 24 (8+16)	3.7 / 5.5	125W / 250W
Core Ultra 9 285K	98.5%	Arrow Lake	24 / 24 (8+16)	3.7 / 5.7	125W / 250W
Core Ultra 7 265K	96.8%	Arrow Lake	20 / 20 (8+12)	3.9 / 5.5	125W / 250W
Core i9-14900K	95.4%	Raptor Lake Refresh	24 / 32 (8+16)	3.2 / 6	125W / 253W
Core Ultra 5 250K Plus	94%	Arrow Lake Refresh	18 / 18 (6+12)	4.2 / 5.3	125W / 159W
Ryzen 9 9950X	93.3%	Zen 5	16 / 32	4.7 / 5/7	170W / 230W
Ryzen 7 9850X3D	93.2%	Zen 5 X3D	8 / 16	4.7 / 5.6	120W / 162W
Ryzen 9 9950X3D	92.8%	Zen 5 X3D	16 / 32	4.3 / 5.7	170W / 230W
Core Ultra 5 245K	92.5%	Arrow Lake	14 / 14 (6+8)	4.2 / 5.2	125W / 159W
Core i9-13900K	92.4%	Raptor Lake	24 / 32 (8+16)	3 / 5.8	125W / 253W
Ryzen 9 9900X	92.2%	Zen 5	12 / 24	4.4 / 5.6	120W / 162W
Ryzen 9 9900X3D	90.8%	Zen 5 X3D	12 / 24	4.4 / 5.5	120W / 230W
Ryzen 9 9700X / 105W TDP	90.6% / 90.5%	Zen 5	8 /16	3.8 / 5.5	65W / 88W
Core i7-14700K	90.1%	Raptor Lake Refresh	20 / 28 (8+12)	3.4 / 5.6	125W / 253W
Ryzen 5 9600X / 105W TDP	89% / 88.9%	Zen 5	6 / 12	3.9 / 5.4	65W / 88W
Ryzen 7 9800X3D	87.6%	Zen 5 X3D	8 / 16	4.7 / 5.2	120W / 162W
Core Ultra 5 225	87.3%	Arrow Lake	10 / 10 (6+4)	3.3 / 4.9	65W / 121W
Core i7-13700K	86.7%	Raptor Lake	16 / 24 (8+8)	3.4 / 5.4	125W / 253W
Core i5-14600K	85.8%	Raptor Lake Refresh	14 / 20 (6+8)	3.5 / 5.3	125W / 181W
Ryzen 9 7950X3D	85.4%	Zen 4 X3D	16 / 32	4.2 / 5.7	120W / 162W
Ryzen 9 7950X	85.2%	Zen 4	16 / 32	4.5 / 5.7	170W / 230W
Ryzen 9 7900X3D	84%	Zen 4 X3D	12 / 24	4.4 / 5.6	120W / 162W
Ryzen 7 7700X	84%	Zen 4	8 / 16	4.5 / 5.4	105W / 142W
Core i5-13600K	82.4%	Raptor Lake	14 / 20 (6+8)	3.5 / 5.1	125W / 181W
Core i7-12700K	79.7%	Alder Lake	12 / 20 (8+4)	3.6 / 5	125W / 190W
Core i5-12600K	78.6%	Alder Lake	10 / 16 (6+4)	3.7 / 4.9	125W / 150W
Ryzen 7 7800X3D	77.3%	Zen 4 X3D	8 / 16	4.2 / 5	120W / 162W
Core i5-14400	75.4%	Raptor Lake	10 / 16 (6+4)	2.5 / 4.7	65W / 154W
Ryzen 5 7600X3D	73.2%	Zen 4 X3D	6 / 12	4.1 / 4.7	65W / 88W
Ryzen 5 7600X	71.5%	Zen 4	6 / 12	4.7 / 5.3	105W / 142W

We run hundreds of tests for each CPU, but only a small subset of those tests factor into our single-threaded rankings. We use the mp3 encoder LAME with a single thread (both standard and extended), Cinebench 2026 and 2024’s single-threaded test, the ray-traced renderer POV-ray, and WebXRT4, which runs a series of browser-based applications written in various languages.

The fastest chip in the pool here is the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, which scores 100%, with every other chip scored relative to it. The Core i9-14900K offers 95.4% of the single-threaded performance of the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, the Ryzen 5 9600X offers 89% of the performance, and so on.

Most real-world workloads aren’t strictly single-threaded, which is why we include it on a subset of the total tests we run. The goal is to see what relative performance looks like in lightly-threaded applications, as well as look into the overall architecture of different CPUs. Single-threaded performance exposes a lot about the architecture in a way that heavily-threaded applications tend to mask.

We’re, of course, looking at performance on a single core, favoring high clock speeds and IPC (instructions per cycle). However, single-threaded performance also says a lot about what’s going on elsewhere inside the CPU, from the speed of the IMC (integrated memory controller) to the fabric/ring speed. That’s why we see things like the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus outperforming the Core Ultra 9 285K, despite the latter sporting higher clock speeds.

Multi-Threaded CPU Benchmarks Rankings 2026

2026 Multi-Threaded CPU Benchmarks
	Single-Threaded App Score	Architecture	Cores/Threads (P+E)	Base/Boost Clock (GHz)	TDP / Maximum Power
Ryzen 9 9950X3D	100%	Zen 5 X3D	16 / 32	4.3 / 5.7	170W / 230W
Ryzen 9 9950X	96.8%	Zen 5	16 / 32	4.7 / 5/7	170W / 230W
Core Ultra 7 270K Plus	95.6%	Arrow Lake Refresh	24 / 24 (8+16)	3.7 / 5.5	125W / 250W
Core Ultra 9 285K	88.7%	Arrow Lake	24 / 24 (8+16)	3.7 / 5.7	125W / 250W
Ryzen 9 7950X	88%	Zen 4	16 / 32	4.5 / 5.7	170W / 230W
Ryzen 9 7950X3D	84.4%	Zen 4 X3D	16 / 32	4.2 / 5.7	120W / 162W
Core i9-14900K	83.9%	Raptor Lake Refresh	24 / 32 (8+16)	3.2 / 6	125W / 253W
Core i9-13900K	81%	Raptor Lake	24 / 32 (8+16)	3 / 5.8	125W / 253W
Core Ultra 7 265K	78.9%	Arrow Lake	20 / 20 (8+12)	3.9 / 5.5	125W / 250W
Ryzen 9 9900X3D	77%	Zen 5 X3D	12 / 24	4.4 / 5.5	120W / 230W
Ryzen 9 9900X	76.7%	Zen 5	12 / 24	4.4 / 5.6	120W / 162W
Core i7-14700K	75.1%	Raptor Lake Refresh	20 / 28 (8+12)	3.4 / 5.6	125W / 253W
Core Ultra 5 250K Plus	70.9%	Arrow Lake Refresh	18 / 18 (6+12)	4.2 / 5.3	125W / 159W
Core i7-13700K	67.1%	Raptor Lake	16 / 24 (8+8)	3.4 / 5.4	125W / 253W
Ryzen 9 7900X3D	63.9%	Zen 4 X3D	12 / 24	4.4 / 5.6	120W / 162W
Ryzen 7 9850X3D	57%	Zen 5 X3D	8 / 16	4.7 / 5.6	120W / 162W
Ryzen 7 9800X3D	56.9%	Zen 5 X3D	8 / 16	4.7 / 5.2	120W / 162W
Core Ultra 5 245K	55.8%	Arrow Lake	14 / 14 (6+8)	4.2 / 5.2	125W / 159W
Core i5-14600K	53.9%	Raptor Lake Refresh	14 / 20 (6+8)	3.5 / 5.3	125W / 181W
Core i7-12700K	51.9%	Alder Lake	12 / 20 (8+4)	3.6 / 5	125W / 190W
Core i5-13600K	50.3%	Raptor Lake	14 / 20 (6+8)	3.5 / 5.1	125W / 181W
Ryzen 7 9700X / 105W TDP	47.2% / 53.2%	Zen 5	8 /16	3.8 / 5.5	65W / 88W
Ryzen 7 7700X	46.8%	Zen 4	8 / 16	4.5 / 5.4	105W / 142W
Ryzen 7 7800X3D	44.5%	Zen 4 X3D	8 / 16	4.2 / 5	120W / 162W
Ryzen 5 9600X / 105W TDP	39.7% / 41.7%	Zen 5	6 / 12	3.9 / 5.4	65W / 88W
Core i5-12600K	39.5%	Alder Lake	10 / 16 (6+4)	3.7 / 4.9	125W / 150W
Core Ultra 5 225	38.5%	Arrow Lake	10 / 10 (6+4)	3.3 / 4.9	65W / 121W
Ryzen 5 7600X3D	33.1%	Zen 4 X3D	6 / 12	4.1 / 4.7	65W / 88W
Core i5-14400	32.7%	Raptor Lake	10 / 16 (6+4)	2.5 / 4.7	65W / 154W
Ryzen 5 7600X	31.3%	Zen 4	6 / 12	4.7 / 5.3	105W / 142W

Similar to single-threaded rankings, we use a subset of the total tests we run for CPU reviews in ranking multithreaded performance. Cinebench and POV-ray show up here again, this time using as many threads as possible, alongside VRay, four Blender tests, and Handbrake using various codecs. Although most applications will leverage multiple threads these days, we’re specifically looking at applications that will take as many threads as possible to maximize compute.

Compared to single-threaded workloads, heavily-threaded tasks are less concerned with clock speed and put a greater emphasis on interconnects and core-to-core latency. Core count is obviously important, as well, though it’s been somewhat undermined by Intel’s hybrid architectures over the last several generations.

Given that we’re spanning multiple nodes, core count alone isn’t indicative of higher multithreaded performance. Yes, higher core counts within the same generation will usually provide higher multithreaded performance, but a slew of other factors can increase performance, as well, from all-core and uncore frequencies to higher transistor density. Because of the wide swath of factors, you can see much more aggressive scaling with our multithreaded rankings compared to single-threaded rankings.

Integrated GPU Gaming CPU Benchmarks Rankings 2026

Tom's Hardware

iGPU Performance relative to Ryzen 7 5700G
	1280x720	1920x1080
Ryzen 7 5700G B550-E	100%	100%
Ryzen 5 5600G	96.3%	96%
Ryzen 7 4750G	92.9%	94.1%
Ryzen 3 5300G	85.8%	87.2%
Ryzen 5 3400G	83.5%	84.1%
Ryzen 3 3200G	77.1%	78.1%
Intel UHD Graphics 750 32 EU (11600K, 11700K)	58.3%	~48.9%
Intel UHD Graphics 730 24 EU (i5-11400)	51.7%	42.9%
Intel UHD Graphics 630 24 EU (10600K)	36.0%	34.4%

Here's our list of gaming performance with integrated graphics on several of the leading APUs available. We've split this into two different price ranges, so be sure to flip through all of the performance charts. For a bit of commentary and analysis of these results, head to our Ryzen 7 5700G, Ryzen 5 5600G, and Ryzen 3 5300G reviews. The most powerful chip gets a 100, and all others are scored relative to it.

How to Benchmark your CPU

It’s important to know how to benchmark your CPU. It gives you a way to compare performance after an overclock or a CPU upgrade, and it allows you to check if you’re getting the full performance out of your system. Maybe a poor CPU cooler mount is limiting your performance, or maybe your BIOS settings aren’t optimal. Using benchmarks to compare your results lets you see where your rig stacks up, not only for leaderboard purposes, but also basic troubleshooting.

The key to benchmarking your CPU is consistency. The only variable that should change is your CPU, be it a new CPU or an overclock/undervolt. Before starting, make sure to close any applications running in the background. That’s not only to net peak performance, but also to avoid any inconsistencies between runs. Background apps can gobble up threads inconsistently, making it difficult to compare your results from run to run.

If you want more consistency, you can optionally run the following command before benchmarking in an elevated command prompt:

Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks

This will force Windows to perform the background tasks it normally does when your PC is idle. It’s not essential, but it’s a good sanity check to make sure there’s nothing interfering with your results.

For applications, you want to test the apps you actually use. If you use the Adobe suite, for example, you can download and use PugetBench for free and compare your results with Puget’s database. A lot of apps don’t have these easy-to-use benchmarking tools and databases, so you need to find a proxy. For instance, Procyon Office measures Microsoft Office performance, but a license costs nearly $1,600 per year. PCMark 10 Basic, which is free, measures open-source office applications. Below, we have some of our favorite free benchmarks for comparing CPU performance.

In games, you can take two approaches: manual or automated. Some modern games include built-in benchmarking tools, such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Doom: The Dark Ages, and although they aren’t perfect, they’re easy to run and highly repeatable. The best way to measure CPU gaming performance, however, is manual benchmarking.

That involves finding a scene where you can go over a specific path repeatedly. That could be starting from a specific checkpoint that you can reload or resorting to a manual save where you start from the exact same position. Regardless, it’s important to avoid randomness in your testing. Keep the path consistent — for example, a walking path through a town — and try not to swing the camera around.

For measuring performance in games, you’ll need a performance monitoring tool. There are simple apps like Nvidia’s FrameView, which logs a ton of information but is a little cumbersome to deal with; it exports data to spreadsheets. CapFrameX is a good alternative, which uses the same backend as FrameView (Intel’s PresentMon), but comes with a user-friendly GUI and extra features like the ability to generate charts right in the app.

After you run your benchmarks, you need a comparison point. Databases like Puget are your best resources on that front. If you’re comparing results to reviews, forum threads, or other systems, keep in mind the variables that can influence performance. It’s not a good idea to compare performance with uncontrolled variables unless you have a wide swath of comparison points.

Best CPU Benchmarks You Can Run

Cinebench 2026 – Cinebench is the quintessential CPU benchmark, used almost universally in reviews, and it’s completely free to download and use.
Geekbench 6 – Geekbench has a number of issues, but it offers a massive database for comparing your system against other similar systems. And it’s free to download and run.
Blender – Blender has a benchmarking utility with a GUI that’s free to download, as well as a large database of results.
PCMark 10 Basic – The main PCMark 10 benchmark is free to use with the Basic edition, allowing you to test productivity performance with open-source office apps, as well as compare your scores with UL’s database.
Handbrake – Handbrake is a powerful, free, and open-source video transcoding tool, and it’s easy to run benchmarks with. Use any video file, make sure your settings are the same, and start a stopwatch to measure the time encoding takes. Lower is better.
WebXPRT 5 – WebXPRT runs a variety of web applications directly in your browser, for free, and with a database to compare results to. It takes a while to run, however.
JetStream 2 – JetStream is a faster browser-based benchmark, though it doesn’t have a database of results.
CPU-Z – CPU-Z isn’t a reliable benchmark for real-world performance, but it includes single- and multithreaded tests, it’s easy to run, and you’ll find results online almost as commonly as Cinebench results.
Y-cruncher – This test calculates Pi with digit extraction, and it’s accelerated with SIMD instructions like AVX. You can only run it from a command line, but it’s relatively straightforward.
PugetBench – Puget includes benchmarks for the biggest apps in the Adobe suite, as well as DaVinci Resolve. The benchmark itself is free, and Puget maintains a large database. You’ll need a license for the applications it tests, however.

2026 CPU Benchmarks Test System and Configuration

2026 CPU Benchmarks Hierarchy Test Setup
Intel LGA 1851 (Arrow Lake and Refresh)
Motherboard	ASRock Z890 Taichi
RAM	2x16GB G.Skill Trident Z Neo RGB DDR5-7200
Intel LGA 1700 (Raptor Lake, Alder Lake)
Motherboard	MSI MPG Z790 Carbon Wi-Fi
RAM	2x16GB G.Skill Trident Z Neo RGB DDR5-7200
AMD AM5 (Zen 5, Zen 4)
Motherboard	MSI MPG X870E Carbon Wi-Fi, Gigabyte Aorus X870E Elite X3D ICE
RAM	2x16GB G.Skill Trident Z Neo RGB DDR5-6000
All Systems
Gaming CPU	Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 Founder’s Edition
Application GPU	Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founder’s Edition
Cooler	Corsair iCue Link H150i RGB
Storage	2TB Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus
PSU	MSI MPG A1000GS, Gigabyte UD1000GM PG5 V2
Other	Arctic MX-4 TIM, Windows 11 Pro, Alamengda open test bench

MORE: Best CPUs for Gaming
MORE: AMD vs Intel
MORE: 13th-Gen Raptor Lake All We Know
MORE: Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 All We Know
MORE: How to Overclock a CPU
MORE: How to check CPU Temperature
MORE: All CPUs Content

2020 - 2022 CPU Benchmarks Hierarchy

You can find our rankings of the most current-gen systems on the previous page. The results below are from our legacy benchmarks, using a different GPU and test systems than our current CPU benchmark rankings. However, this provides great historical context and also includes other previous-gen CPUs not included in our new test suite. You'll also find our even older legacy rankings further below. These date back over the last decade.

Legacy: 2020 - 2022 CPU Benchmarks Rankings - Windows 10 and 11

Tom's Hardware

Legacy: 2020 - 2022 Gaming CPU Benchmarks Ranking

Legacy: Gaming CPU Benchmarks Hierarchy 2020 - 2022 - Windows 11
	1080p Gaming Score	1440p Gaming Score	Architecture	Cores/Threads (P+E)	Base/Boost GHz	TDP - MTP
$589 - Core i9-13900K	100.00%	100.00%	Raptor Lake	24 / 32 (8+16)	3.0 / 5.8	125 / 253W
$409 - Core i7-13700K	96.09%	97.09%	Raptor Lake	16 / 24 (8+8)	3.4 / 5.4	125 / 253W
$365 - Ryzen 7 5800X3D	94.42%	97.45%	Zen 3	8 / 16	3.4 / 4.5	105W
$319 - Core i5-13600K	90.03%	92.94%	Raptor Lake	14 / 20 (6+8)	3.5 / 5.1	125 / 181W
$474 - Ryzen 9 7900X	87.40%	90.52%	Zen 4	12 / 24	4.7 / 5.6	170 / 230W
$569 - Ryzen 9 7950X	87.25%	90.27%	Zen 4	16 / 32	4.5 / 5.7	170 / 230W
$349 - Ryzen 7 7700X	87.13%	91.55%	Zen 4	8 /16	4.5 / 5.4	105 / 142W
$329 - Ryzen 7 7700	86.19%	88.88%	Zen 4	8 / 16	3.8 / 5.3	65 / 88W
$429 - Ryzen 9 7900	84.75%	88.46%	Zen 4	12 / 24	4.7 / 5.6	170 / 230W
$249 - Ryzen 5 7600X	83.62%	88.44%	Zen 4	6 / 12	4.7 / 5.3	105 / 142W
$229 - Ryzen 5 7600	79.74%	85.97%	Zen 4	6 / 12	3.8 / 5.1	65 / 88W
$550 - Ryzen 9 5950X	72.04%	77.51%	Zen 3	16 / 32	3.4 / 4.9	105W
$350 - Ryzen 9 5900X	71.69%	78.95%	Zen 3	12 / 24	3.7 / 4.8	105W
$235 - Ryzen 7 5800X	70.90%	78.19%	Zen 3	8 / 16	3.8 / 4.7	105W
$210 - Ryzen 7 5700X	69.50%	76.65%	Zen 3	8 / 16	3.4 / 4.6	65W
$165 - Ryzen 5 5600X	67.52%	74.68%	Zen 3	6 / 12	3.7 / 4.6	65W
$189 - Core i5-12400	66.62%	73.53%	Alder Lake	6 / 12 (6+0)	2.5 / 4.4	65 / 117W

Legacy: Gaming CPU Benchmarks Hierarchy 2020 - 2022 - Windows 10
	1080p Gaming Score	1440p Gaming Score	CPU	Cores/Threads	Base/Boost GHz	TDP	Buy
Intel Core i9-12900K DDR4 / DDR5	100% / 93.51%	100% / 95.86%	Alder Lake	16 / 24 (8P+8E)	3.2 / 5.2	125 / 241W	Core i9-12900K
Intel Core i9-11900K	92.48%	97.26%	Rocket Lake	8 / 16	3.5 / 5.3	125W	Core i9-11900K
Intel Core i7-12700K DDR4 / DDR5	97.71% / 91.23%	99.8% / 97.30%	Alder Lake	12 / 20 (8P+4E)	3.6 / 4.9	125 / 190W	Core i7-12700K
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X	90.98%	93.18%	Zen 3	12 / 24	3.7 / 4.8	105W	Ryzen 9 5900X
Intel Core i5-12600K DDR4 / DDR5	90.89% / 84.32%	96.94% / 92.33%	Alder Lake	10 / 16 (6P+4E)	3.7 / 4.9	125 / 150W	Core i5-12600K
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X	90.22%	95.32%	Zen 3	16 / 32	3.4 / 4.9	105W	Ryzen 9 5950X
AMD Threadripper Pro 5975WX	88.71%	89.71%	Zen 3	32 / 64	3.6 / 4.5	280W	Threadripper Pro 5975WX
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X	88.51%	91.79%	Zen 3	6 / 12	3.7 / 4.6	65W	Ryzen 5 5600X
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X	86.85%	91.72%	Zen 3	8 / 16	3.8 / 4.7	105W	Ryzen 7 5800X
Intel Core i7-11700K	86.3%	92.0%	Rocket Lake	8 / 16	3.6 / 5.0	125W	Core i7-11700K
AMD Threadripper Pro 5995WX	86.12%	84.79%	Zen 3	64 / 128	2.7 / 4.5	280W	Threadripper Pro 5995WX
Intel Core i9-10900K	85.01%	91.5%	Comet Lake	10 / 20	3.7 / 5.3	125W	Core i9-9900K
Intel Core i9-10850K	84.6%	91.07%	Comet Lake	10 / 20	3.6 / 5.2	95W	Core i9-10850K
Intel Core i5-11600K	84.06%	90.43%	Rocket Lake	6 / 12	3.9 / 4.9	125W	Core i5-11600K
Intel Core i5-11400	80.98%	87.77%	Rocket Lake	6 / 12	2.6 / 4.4	65W	Core i5-11400
Intel Core i7-10700K	80.66%	87.88%	Comet Lake	8 / 16	3.8 / 5.1	125W	Core i7-10700K
Intel Core i9-10980XE	78.04%	84.04%	Cascade Lake-X	18 / 36	3.0 / 4.8	165W	Core i9-10980XE
Intel W-3175X	76.93%	82.58%	Skylake	28 / 56	3.1 / 4.3	225W	@Newegg
Ryzen 7 5700G*	76.61%	83.1%	Zen 3	8 / 16	3.8 / 4.6	65W	N/A
Intel Core i9-9900KS	76.12%	84.85%	Coffee Lake-R	8 / 16	4.0 / 5.0	127W	Intel Core i9-9900KS
Intel Core i7-10700/F	~	~	Comet Lake	8 / 16	2.9 / 4.8	65W	Intel Core i7-10700
Intel Core i5-10600K	75.42%	82.57%	Comet Lake	6 / 12	4.1 / 4.8	125W	@Newegg
Intel Core i7-9700K	73.62%	81.12%	Coffee Lake-R	8 / 8	3.6 / 4.9	95W	@Amazon
Intel Core i9-9900K / F	73.41%	84.85%	Coffee Lake-R	8 / 16	3.6 / 5.0	95W	Core i9-9900K
AMD Ryzen 9 3950X	72.63%	78.58%	Zen 2	16 / 32	3.5 / 4.7	105W	@Amazon
AMD Threadripper 3970X	72.44%	77.99%	Zen 2	32 / 64	3.7 / 4.5	280W	AMD Threadripper 3970X
AMD Threadripper 3960X	72.07%	77.12%	Zen 2	24 / 48	3.8 / 4.5	280W	AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X
AMD Ryzen 5 5600G	71.99%	76.76%	Zen 3	6 / 12	3.9 / 4.4	65W	Ryzen 5 5600G
AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT	71.78%	79.28%	Zen 2	8 / 16	3.9 / 4.7	105W	@Newegg
AMD Threadripper 3990X	71.68%	77.94%	Zen 2	64 / 128	2.9 / 4.3	280W	AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X
AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT	71.67%	78.55%	Zen 2	12 / 24	3.8 / 4.7	105W	Ryzen 9 3900XT
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X	~	~	Zen 2	12 / 24	3.8 / 4.6	105W	@Amazon
Intel Core i9-9980XE	~	~	Skylake	18 / 36	4.4 / 4.5	165W	@B&HPhoto
AMD Ryzen 9 3900	~	~	Zen 2	12 / 24	3.1 / 4.3	105W	OEM only
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X	71.43%	79.08%	Zen 2	8 / 16	3.6 / 4.4	65W	Ryzen 7 3700X
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X	71.3%	78.67%	Zen 2	8 / 16	3.9 / 4.5	105W	Ryzen 7 3800X
AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT	70.62%	77.75%	Zen 2	6 / 12	3.8 / 4.5	95W	@Newegg
AMD Ryzen 5 3600	68.63%	75.59%	Zen 2	6 / 12	3.6 / 4.2	65W	@Amazon
Intel Core i9-7960X	~	~	Skylake	16 / 32	2.8 / 4.2	165W	@Newegg
Intel Core i7-8700K	68.47%	76.41%	Coffee Lake	6 / 12	3.7 / 4.7	95W	@Amazon
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X	68.41%	75.60%	Zen 2	6 / 12	3.8 / 4.4	95W	@Newegg
AMD Threadripper Pro 3975WX	67.63%	74.42%	Zen 2	32 / 64	3.5 / 4.2	280W	Threadripper Pro 3975WX
AMD Ryzen 3 3300X	67.49%	74.6%	Zen 2	4 / 8	3.8 / 4.3	65W	@Newegg
Intel Core i5-9600K	67.06%	75.11%	Coffee Lake-R	6 / 6	3.7 / 4.6	95W	@Newegg
AMD Threadripper Pro 3995WX	66.18%	69.28%	Zen 2	64 / 128	2.7 / 4.2	280W	Threadripper Pro 3995WX
Intel Core i5-8600K	65.84%	73.4%	Coffee Lake	6 / 6	3.6 / 4.3	95W	@Newegg
Intel Core i7-8700	65.57%	73.66%	Coffee Lake	6 / 12	3.2 / 4.6	65W	Core i7-8700
Intel Core i7-8086K	65.05%	73.5%	Coffee Lake	6 / 12	4.0 / 5.0	95W	Core i7-8086K
Intel Core i5-9400 / i5-9400F	64.85%	72.08%	Coffee Lake	6 / 6	2.9 / 4.1	65W	@Amazon
Intel Core i5-8400	63.96%	71.2%	Coffee Lake	6 / 6	2.8 / 4.0	65W	@Newegg
AMD Ryzen 5 3500X	~	~	Zen 2	6 / 6	3.6 / 4.1	65W	@Newegg
Core i3-10100	61.88%	69.08%	Comet Lake	4 / 8	3.6 / 4.3	65W	Core i3-10100
AMD Ryzen 7 2700X	59.19%	66.55%	Zen+	8 / 16	3.7 / 4.3	105W	@Newegg
Ryzen 7 4750G*	58.43%	66.46%	Zen 2	8 / 16	3.8 / 4.6	65W	Ryzen 7 4750G
AMD Ryzen 3 3100	57.75%	64.21%	Zen 2	4 / 8	3.8 / 3.9	65W	@Newegg
Intel Core i9-7980XE	~	~	Skylake	18 / 36	2.6 / 4.2	165W	@Amazon
Intel Core i9-7900X	~	~	Skylake	10 / 20	3.3 / 4.3	140W	@Newegg
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X	57.55%	65.33%	Zen+	6 / 12	3.6 / 4.2	95W	@Amazon
Intel Core i7-7700K	~	~	Kaby Lake	4 / 8	4.2 / 4.5	91W	@Amazon
AMD Threadripper 2990WX (GM)	~	~	Zen+	32 / 64	3.0 / 4.2	250W	@Newegg
Intel Core i7-7820X	~	~	Skylake	8 / 16	3.6 / 4.3	140W	@Amazon
AMD Threadripper 2950X (GM)	~	~	Zen +	16 / 32	3.5 / 4.4	180W	@Amazon
AMD Threadripper 2970WX	~	~	Zen +	24 / 48	3.0 / 4.2	250W	@Amazon
AMD Ryzen 7 2700	~	~	Zen+	8 / 16	3.2 / 4.1	65W	@Amazon
AMD Threadripper 1900X (GM)	~	~	Zen	8 / 16	3.8 / 4.0	180W	@Amazon
Intel Core i7-7700	~	~	Kaby Lake	4 / 8	3.6 / 4.2	65W	@Amazon
AMD Ryzen 5 2600	~	~	Zen+	6 / 12	3.4 / 3.9	65W	@Newegg
Intel Core i7-7800X	~	~	Skylake	6 / 12	3.5 / 4.0	140W	@Newegg
Intel Core i5-7600K	~	~	Kaby Lake	4 / 4	3.8 / 4.2	91W	@Amazon
AMD Threadripper 1950X (GM)	~	~	Zen	16 / 32	3.4 / 4.0	180W	@Newegg
AMD Threadripper 1920X (GM)	~	~	Zen	12 / 24	3.5 / 4.0	180W	@Amazon
Intel Core i3-9350KF	56.42%	65.19%	Coffee Lake	4 / 4	4.0 / 4.6	91W	@Amazon
AMD Ryzen 3 5300G	55.54%	62.68%	Zen 3	4 / 8	4.0 / 4.2	65W	OEM Only
AMD Ryzen 7 1800X	53.86%	60.83%	Zen	8 / 16	3.6 / 4.0	95W	@Newegg
Intel Core i5-7600	~	~	Kaby Lake	4 / 4	3.5 / 4.1	65W	@Amazon
Intel Core i3-8100	~	~	Coffee Lake	4 / 4	3.6 / -	65W	@Amazon
Intel Core i5-7500	~	~	Kaby Lake	4 / 4	3.4 / 3.8	65W	@Amazon
Intel Core i5-7400	~	~	Kaby Lake	4 / 4	3.0 / 3.5	65W	@Amazon
AMD Ryzen 7 1700X	~	~	Zen	8 / 16	3.8 / 3.9	95W	@Amazon
AMD Ryzen 5 1600AF	~	~	Zen +	6 / 12	3.2 / 3.6	65W	@Amazon
AMD Ryzen 7 1700	~	~	Zen	8 / 16	3.0 / 3.8	65W	@Newegg
Intel Core i3-8350K	53.84%	61.82%	Coffee Lake	4 / 4	4.0 / -	91W	Core i3 i3-8350K
Intel Core i3-9100	51.96%	60.1%	Coffee Lake-R	4 / 4	3.6 / 4.2	65W	@Newegg
AMD Ryzen 5 1600X	49.99%	57.28%	Zen	6 / 12	3.6 / 4.0	95W	@Amazon
AMD Ryzen 5 1600	~	~	Zen	6 / 12	3.2 / 3.6	65W	@Amazon
AMD Ryzen 5 3400G	48.81%	55.73%	Zen +	4 / 8	3.7 / 4.2	65W	@Amazon
Intel Core i5-7400	~	~	Kaby Lake	4 / 4	3.0 / 3.5	65W	@Newegg
Intel Core i3-8100	48.43%	59.7%	Coffee Lake	4 / 4	3.6 / -	65W	@Amazon
AMD Ryzen 3 3200G	45.96%	52.98%	Zen +	4 / 4	3.6 / 4.0	65W	@Amazon
AMD Ryzen 5 2400G	44.84%	50.67%	Zen+	4 / 8	3.6 / 3.9	65W	@Newegg
AMD Ryzen 5 1500X	~	~	Zen	4 / 8	3.5 / 3.7	65W	@Newegg
Intel Core i3-7350K	~	~	Kaby Lake	2 / 4	4.2 / -	60W	@Newegg
Intel Pentium G5600	~	~	Coffee Lake	2 / 4	3.9 / -	54W	@Newegg
AMD Ryzen 3 2200G	42.16%	48.56%	Zen+	4 / 4	3.5 / 3.7	65W	@Amazon
AMD Ryzen 3 1300X	~	~	Zen	4 / 4	3.5 / 3.7	65W	@Amazon
Intel Core i3-7300	~	~	Kaby Lake	2 / 4	4.0 / -	51W	@BH&Photo
Intel Pentium G5600	37.52%	44.7%	Coffee Lake	2 / 4	3.9 / -	54W	@Intel
Intel Pentium G5400	36.57%	43.31%	Coffee Lake	2 / 4	3.7 / -	54W	@Amazon
Intel Core i3-7100	~	~	Kaby Lake	2 / 4	3.9 / -	51W	@Amazon
AMD Ryzen 5 1400	~	~	Zen	4 / 8	3.2 / 3.4	65W	@Amazon
Intel Pentium G4620	~	~	Kaby Lake	2 / 4	3.7 / -	54W	@Newegg
Intel Pentium G4560	~	~	Kaby Lake	2 / 4	3.5 / -	54W	@Newegg
AMD Athlon 3000G	~	~	Zen+	2 / 4	3.5 / -	35W	@Amazon
AMD Athlon 240GE	~	~	Zen	2 / 4	3.5 / -	35W	@Amazon
AMD Athlon 220GE	~	~	Zen	2 / 4	3.4 / -	35W	@Amazon
AMD Athlon 200GE	~	~	Zen	2 / 4	3.2 / -	35W	@Amazon
AMD Ryzen 3 1200	~	~	Zen	4 / 4	3.1 / 3.2	65W	@Amazon
Zhaoxin KaiXian KX-U6780A	~	~	LuJiaZui	8 / 8	2.7 / -	70W	N/A
AMD A10-9700	~	~	Bristol Ridge	4 / 4	3.5 / 3.8	65W	@Newegg

These tests are from our 2022 test bench. We measured performance for the 1080p CPU gaming benchmarks with a geometric mean of Borderlands 3, Hitman 2, Far Cry 5, Project CARS 3, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. We measured performance for the 1440p CPU gaming benchmarks with a geometric mean of Borderlands 3, Project CARS 3, Far Cry 5, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. We conducted these tests in Windows 10.

Legacy: 2020 - 2022 Single-Threaded CPU Benchmarks Rankings

Legacy: 2020 - 2022 Single-Threaded CPU Benchmarks Hierarchy - Windows 10
	Single-Threaded App Score	Architecture	Cores/Threads	Base/Boost GHz	TDP
Intel Core i9-11900K (ABT off/on)	100% / 99.57%	Rocket Lake	8 / 16	3.5 / 5.3	125W
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X	95.31%	Zen 3	16 / 32	3.4 / 4.9	105W
Core i9-12900K DDR5 / DDR4	95.16% / 94.64%	Alder Lake	16 / 24 (8P+8E)	3.2 / 5.2	125 / 241W
Core i7-11700K	94.29%	Rocket Lake	8 / 16	3.6 / 5.0	95W
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X	93.69%	Zen 3	12 / 24	3.7 / 4.8	105W
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X	92.84%	Zen 3	8 / 16	3.8 / 4.7	105W
Intel Core i5-11600K	92.56% / 89.67%	Rocket Lake	8 / 16	3.9 / 4.9	125W
Intel Core i7-12700K DDR5 / DDR4	91.60%	Alder Lake	12 / 20 (8P+4E)	3.6 / 4.9	125W / 190W
AMD Threadripper Pro 5975WX	89.25%	Zen 3	64 / 128	2.7 / 4.5	280W
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X	89.19%	Zen 3	6 / 12	3.7 / 4.6	65W
Ryzen 7 5700G	88.92%	Zen 3	8 / 16	3.9 / 4.4	65W
AMD Threadripper Pro 5995WX	88.48%	Zen 3	64 / 128	3.6 / 4.5	280W
Core i5-12600K DDR4 / DDR5	87.85% / 87.82%	Alder Lake	10 / 16 (6P+4E)	3.7 / 4.9	125 / 150W
Intel Core i9-10900K	86.68%	Comet Lake	10 / 20	3.7 / 5.3	125W
AMD Ryzen 5 5600G	85.75%	Zen 3	6 / 12	3.9 / 4.4	65W
Intel Core i9-10850K	84.87%	Comet Lake	10 / 20	3.6 / 5.2	95W
Intel Core i9-9900KS	83.13%	Coffee Lake-R	8 / 16	4.0 / 5.0	127W
Intel Core i5-11400	83.09%	Rocket Lake	6 / 12	2.6 / 4.4	65W
Intel Core i9-9900K	82.63%	Coffee Lake-R	8 / 16	3.6 / 5.0	95W
Intel Core i7-10700K	82.31%	Comet Lake	8 / 16	3.8 / 5.1	125W
AMD Ryzen 3 5300G	81.51%	Zen 3	4 / 8	4.0 / 4.2	65W
Intel Core i7-9700K	80.36%	Coffee Lake-R	8 / 8	3.6 / 4.9	95W
AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT	79.75%	Zen 2	8 / 16	3.9 / 4.7	105W
AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT	79.11%	Zen 2	6 / 12	3.8 / 4.5	95W
AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT	78.86%	Zen 2	12 / 24	3.8 / 4.7	105W
Intel Core i5-10600K	78.79%	Comet Lake	6 / 12	4.1 / 4.	125W
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X	78.37%	Zen 2	8 / 16	3.9 / 4.5	105W
AMD Ryzen 9 3950X	78.18%	Zen 2	16 / 32	3.5 / 4.7	105W
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X	77.68%	Zen 2	12 / 24	3.8 / 4.6	105W
Intel Core i7-10700/F	~	Comet Lake	8 / 16	2.9 / 4.8	65W
Ryzen 7 4750G	77.2%	Zen 3	8 /16	3.6 / 4.4	65W
AMD Threadripper 3970X	76.52%	Zen 2	32 / 64	3.7 / 4.5	280W
AMD Threadripper 3960X	76.42%	Zen 2	24 / 48	3.8 / 4.5	280W
AMD Threadripper Pro 3975WX	76.36%	Zen 2	32 / 64	3.5 / 4.2	280W
Intel Core i7-8700K	76.32%	Coffee Lake	6 / 12	3.7 / 4.7	95W
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X	76.29%	Zen 2	8 / 16	3.6 / 4.4	65W
Intel Core i7-8086K	76.21%	Coffee Lake	6 / 12	4.0 / 5.0	95W
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X	75.85%	Zen 2	6 / 12	3.8 / 4.4	95W
Intel Core i3-9350KF	75.72%	Coffee Lake	4 / 4	4.0 / 4.6	91W
AMD Ryzen 3 3300X	75.62%	Zen 2	4 / 8	3.8 / 4.3	65W
Intel Core i5-9600K	75.41%	Coffee Lake-R	6 / 6	3.7 / 4.6	95W
Intel Core i9-10980XE	75.24%	Cascade Lake-X	18 / 36	3.0 / 4.8	165W
AMD Threadripper 3990X	75.10%	Zen 2	64 / 128	2.9 / 4.3	280W
Intel Core i7-8700	74.66%	Coffee Lake	6 / 12	3.2 / 4.6	65W
AMD Threadripper Pro 3995WX	74.20%	Zen 2	64 / 128	2.7 / 4.2	280W
AMD Ryzen 5 3600	73.02%	Zen 2	6 / 12	3.6 / 4.2	65W
Intel Core i9-9980XE	~	Skylake	18 / 36	4.4 / 4.5	165W
Intel Core i7-7700K	~	Kaby Lake	4 / 8	4.2 / 4.5	91W
Intel Core i5-8600K	71.08%	Coffee Lake	6 / 6	3.6 / 4.3	95W
Core i3-10100	70.80%	Coffee Lake	4 / 8	3.6 / 4.3	65W
AMD Ryzen 7 2700X	69.53%	Zen+	8 / 16	3.7 / 4.3	105W
Intel Core i3-9100	69.20%	Coffee Lake-R	4 / 4	3.6 / 4.2	65W
AMD Ryzen 3 3100	67.74%	Zen 2	4 / 8	3.8 / 3.9	65W
Intel Core i5-9400 / -9400F	67.67%	Coffee Lake	6 / 6	2.9 / 4.1	65W
Intel Xeon W-3175X	67.51%	Skylake	28 / 56	3.1 / 3.8	225W
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X	66.78%	Zen+	6 / 12	3.6 / 4.2	95W
Intel Core i3-8350K / -8350KF	66.71%	Coffee Lake	4 / 4	4.0 / -	91W
Intel Core i5-8400	66.03%	Coffee Lake	6 / 6	2.8 / 4.0	65W
AMD Ryzen 5 3500X	~	Zen 2	6 / 6	3.6 / 4.1	65W
AMD Ryzen 9 3900	~	Zen 2	12 / 24	3.1 / 4.3	65W
Intel Core i3-7100	~	Kaby Lake	2 / 4	3.9 / -	51W
AMD Threadripper 2950X	~	Zen +	16 / 32	3.5 / 4.4	180W
AMD Threadripper 2990WX	~	Zen+	32 / 64	3.0 / 4.2	250W
AMD Threadripper 2970WX	~	Zen +	24 / 48	3.0 / 4.2	250W
AMD Ryzen 5 3400G	64.86%	Zen +	4 / 8	3.7 / 4.2	65W
AMD Ryzen 5 1600X	63.62%	Zen	6 / 12	3.6 / 4.0	95W
AMD Ryzen 7 1800X	61.99%	Zen	8 / 16	3.6 / 4.0	95W
Intel Core i5-7400	~	Kaby Lake	4 / 4	3.0 / 3.5	65W
AMD Ryzen 3 3200G	60.90%	Zen +	4 / 4	3.6 / 4.0	65W
AMD Ryzen 5 2400G	60.79%	Zen+	4 / 8	3.6 / 3.9	65W
AMD Ryzen 3 1300X	~	Zen	4 / 4	3.5 / 3.7	65W
AMD Ryzen 5 1600AF	~	Zen	6 / 12	3.2 / 3.6	65W
Intel Pentium G5600	60.13%	Coffee Lake	2 / 4	3.9 / -	54W
Intel Core i3-8100	60.12%	Coffee Lake	4 / 4	3.6 / -	65W
AMD Ryzen 3 2200G	57.09%	Zen	4 / 4	3.5 / 3.7	65W
Intel Pentium G5400	56.79%	Coffee Lake	2 / 4	3.7 / -	54W
AMD Athlon 3000G	~	Zen+	2 / 4	3.5 / -	35W
AMD Athlon 220GE	~	Zen	2 / 4	3.4 / -	35W
Intel Pentium G4560	~	Kaby Lake	2 / 4	3.5 / -	54W
AMD Athlon 200GE	~	Zen	2 / 4	3.2 / -	35W
AMD A10-9700	~	Bristol Ridge	4 / 4	3.5 / 3.8	65W
Zhaoxin KaiXian KX-U6780A	~	LuJiaZui	8 / 8	2.7 / -	70W

These results are from our 2022 test bench. We calculate the above single-threaded CPU benchmark rankings based on a geometric mean of the Cinebench, POV-Ray, and LAME CPU benchmarks. The most powerful chip gets a 100, and all others are scored relative to it. We conducted these tests in Windows 10.

Legacy: 2020 - 2022 Multi-Threaded CPU Benchmarks Rankings

Legacy: Multi-Threaded CPU Benchmarks Hierarchy 2020 - 2022 - Windows 10
	Multi-Threaded App Score	Architecture	Cores/Threads	Base/Boost GHz	TDP
AMD Threadripper Pro 5995WX	112.53%	Zen 3	64 / 128	2.7 / 4.5	280W
AMD Threadripper 3990X	100.0%	Zen 2	64 / 128	2.9 / 4.3	280W
AMD Threadripper Pro 3995WX	97.59%	Zen 2	64 / 128	2.7 / 4.2	280W
AMD Threadripper Pro 5975WX	93.14%	Zen 3	32 / 64	3.6 / 4.5	280W
AMD Threadripper Pro 3975WX	82.59%	Zen 2	32 / 64	3.5 / 4.2	280W
AMD Threadripper 3970X	75.74%	Zen 2	32 / 64	3.7 / 4.5	280W
AMD Threadripper 3960X	64.76%	Zen 2	24 / 48	3.8 / 4.5	280W
Intel Xeon W-3175X	59.95%	Skylake	28 / 56	3.1 / 4.3	225W
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X	53.58%	Zen 3	16 / 32	3.4 / 4.9	105W
AMD Ryzen 9 3950X	47.32%	Zen 2	16 / 32	3.5 / 4.7	105W
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X	45.89%	Zen 3	12 / 24	3.7 / 4.8	105W
Intel Core i9-10980XE	43.06%	Cascade Lake-X	18 / 36	3.0 / 4.8	165W
Intel Core i9-9980XE	~	Skylake	18 / 36	4.4 / 4.5	165W
AMD Threadripper 2990WX	~	Zen+	32 / 64	3.0 / 4.2	250W
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X	38.69%	Zen 2	12 / 24	3.8 / 4.6	105W
AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT	38.66%	Zen 2	12 / 24	3.8 / 4.7	105W
Core i9-12900K DDR4 / DDR5	38.39% / 38.11%	Alder Lake	16 / 24 (8P+8E)	3.2 / 5.2	125 / 241W
Intel Core i9-11900K (ABT off/on)	36.01% / 37.07%	Rocket Lake	8 / 16	3.5 / 5.3	125W
AMD Threadripper 2970WX	~	Zen +	24 / 48	3.0 / 4.2	250W
Core i7-11700K	34.26%	Rocket Lake	8 / 16	3.6 / 5.0	125W
Intel Core i9-10900K	33.79%	Comet Lake	10 / 20	3.7 / 5.3	125W
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X	33.48%	Zen 3	8 / 16	3.8 / 4.7	105W
Intel Core i9-10850K	33.38%	Comet Lake	10 / 20	3.6 / 5.2	95W
AMD Threadripper 2950X	~	Zen +	16 / 32	3.5 / 4.4	180W
AMD Ryzen 9 3900	~	Zen 2	12 / 24	3.1 / 4.3	65W
Ryzen 7 5700G	29.73%	Zen 3	8 / 16	3.8 / 4.6	65W
Intel Core i9-9900KS	29.11%	Coffee Lake-R	8 / 16	4.0 / 5.0	127W
Core i7-12700K DDR5 / DDR4	28.77% / 28.77%	Alder Lake	12 / 20 (8P+4E)	2.7 / 3.8	125 / 190W
AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT	28.49%	Zen 2	8 / 16	3.9 / 4.7	105W
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X	28.25%	Zen 2	8 / 16	3.9 / 4.5	105W
Intel Core i7-10700K	28.17%	Comet Lake	8 / 16	3.8 / 5.1	125W
Intel Core i9-9900K	27.78%	Coffee Lake-R	8 / 16	3.6 / 5.0	95W
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X	27.47%	Zen 2	8 / 16	3.6 / 4.4	65W
Intel Core i5-11600K	26.79%	Rocket Lake	8 / 16	3.9 / 4.9	125W
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X	26.15%	Zen 3	6 / 12	3.7 / 4.6	65W
AMD Ryzen 7 4750G	26.06%	Zen 3	8 / 16	3.6 / 4.4	65W
Intel Core i7-10700/F	~	Comet Lake	8 / 16	2.9 / 4.8	65W
Intel Core i5-11400	24.46%	Rocket Lake	6 / 12	2.6 / 4.4	65W
AMD Ryzen 5 5600G	23.33%	Zen 3	6 / 12	3.9 / 4.4	65W
Core i5-12600K DDR4 / DDR5	2308% / 23.07%	Alder Lake	10 / 16 (6P+4E)	3.7 / 4.9	125 / 150W
Intel Core i7-9700K	22.81%	Coffee Lake-R	8 / 8	3.6 / 4.9	95W
AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT	22.28%	Zen 2	6 / 12	3.8 / 4.5	95W
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X	21.76%	Zen 2	6 / 12	3.8 / 4.4	95W
AMD Ryzen 5 3600	21.41%	Zen 2	6 / 12	3.6 / 4.2	65W
AMD Ryzen 7 2700X	21.59%	Zen+	8 / 16	3.7 / 4.3	105W
Intel Core i5-10600K	20.83%	Comet Lake	6 / 12	4.1 / 4.8	125W
Intel Core i7-8700K	20.23%	Coffee Lake	6 / 12	3.7 / 4.7	95W
Core i7-8700	20.04%	Coffee Lake	6 / 12	3.2 / 4.6	65W
Core i7-8086K	19.30%	Coffee Lake	6 / 12	4.0 / 5.0	95W
AMD Ryzen 7 1800X	19.17%	Zen	8 / 16	3.6 / 4.0	95W
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X	16.96%	Zen+	6 / 12	3.6 / 4.2	95W
Intel Core i5-9600K	16.60%	Coffee Lake-R	6 / 6	3.7 / 4.6	95W
AMD Ryzen 5 3500X	~	Zen 2	6 / 6	3.6 / 4.1	65W
Intel Core i7-7700K	~	Kaby Lake	4 / 8	4.2 / 4.5	91W
Intel Core i5-8600K	15.93%	Coffee Lake	6 / 6	3.6 / 4.3	95W
AMD Ryzen 3 5300G	15.83%	Zen 3	4 / 8	4.0 / 4.2	65W
AMD Ryzen 3 3300X	15.55%	Zen 2	4 / 8	3.8 / 4.3	65W
AMD Ryzen 5 1600AF	~	Zen	6 / 12	3.2 / 3.6	65W
AMD Ryzen 5 1600X	15.16%	Zen	6 / 12	3.6 / 4.0	95W
Intel Core i5-9400 / -9400F	15.04%	Coffee Lake	6 / 6	2.9 / 4.1	65W
Intel Core i5-8400	14.76%	Coffee Lake	6 / 6	2.8 / 4.0	65W
AMD Ryzen 3 3100	14.17%	Zen 2	4 / 8	3.8 / 3.9	65W
Core i3-10100	13.37%	Rocket Lake	4 / 8	3.6 / 4.3	65W
Intel Core i3-9350KF	11.76%	Coffee Lake	4 / 4	4.0/4.6	91W
AMD Ryzen 5 3400G	11.31%	Zen +	4 / 8	3.7 / 4.2	65W
Intel Core i3-8350K	10.74%	Coffee Lake	4 / 4	4.0 / -	91W
Intel Core i3-9100	10.70%	Coffee Lake-R	4 / 4	3.6 / 4.2	65W
AMD Ryzen 5 2400G	10.56%	Zen+	4 / 8	3.6 / 3.9	65W
Intel Core i3-8100	9.61%	Coffee Lake	4 / 4	3.6 / -	65W
Intel Core i5-7400	~	Kaby Lake	4 / 4	3.0 / 3.5	65W
AMD Ryzen 3 3200G	8.66%	Zen +	4 / 4	3.6 / 4.0	65W
AMD Ryzen 3 1300X	~	Zen	4 / 4	3.5 / 3.7	65W
Intel Core i3-7100	~	Kaby Lake	2 / 4	3.9 / -	51W
AMD Ryzen 3 2200G	7.99%	Zen	4 / 4	3.5 / 3.7	65W
Intel Pentium G5600	5.43%	Coffee Lake	2 / 4	3.9 / -	54W
AMD Athlon 3000G	~	Zen+	2 / 4	3.5 / -	35W
AMD Athlon 220GE	~	Zen	2 / 4	3.4 / -	35W
Intel Pentium G5400	5.13%	Coffee Lake	2 / 4	3.7 / -	54W
AMD Athlon 200GE	~	Zen	2 / 4	3.2 / -	35W
Intel Pentium G4560	~	Kaby Lake	2 / 4	3.5 / -	54W
AMD A10-9700	~	Bristol Ridge	4 / 4	3.5 / 3.8	65W
Zhaoxin KaiXian KX-U6780A	~	LuJiaZui	8 / 8	2.7 / -	70W

These tests are from our 2022 test bench. The multi-threaded workload column is based on CPU benchmarks performance in Cinebench, POV-ray, vray, Blender (four tests - Koro, Barcellona, Classroom, bmw27), y-cruncher, and Handbrake x264 and x265 workloads. These CPU benchmarks represent performance in productivity-focused applications that tend to require more compute horsepower. The most powerful chip gets a 100, and all others are scored relative to it. We conducted these benchmarks in Windows 10.

Legacy 2023 CPU Benchmarks Hierarchy Test Setup
Hardware
AMD Socket AM4 (400- 500-Series)	AMD Ryzen 2000- 3000- 5000- series processors
	MSI MEG X570 Godlike
	2x 8GB Trident Z Royal DDR4-3600
Intel LGA 1151 (Z490)	Intel Comet Lake processors
	MSI Z370 Gaming Pro Carbon AC
	2x 8GB Trident Z Royal DDR4-3600
AMD Socket AM4 (300-Series)	Ryzen 1000-series processors
	MSI X370 Xpower Gaming Titanium
	2x 8GB G.Skill FlareX DDR4-3200 @ DDR4-2667
Intel LGA 1151 (Z270)	Intel Coffee Lake, Kaby Lake processors
	MSI Z270 Gaming M7
	2x 8GB Trident Z Royal DDR4-3600
Intel LGA 2066	Intel Skylake processors
	MSI X299 Gaming Pro Carbon AC
	2x 8GB Trident Z Royal DDR4-3600
All	Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3090 Eagle
	2TB Intel DC4510 SSD
	EVGA Supernova 1600 T2, 1600W
	Windows 10 Pro version 2004 (build 19041.450)
Cooling	Corsair H115i

Legacy: Pre-2018 Desktop CPU Benchmarks

Recognizing that a lot of older platforms are going to be paired with graphics subsystems multiple generations old, we wanted to define the top of our range to encourage balance between host processing and complementary GPUs. At this point, anyone with a Sandy Bridge-based Core i7 would realize a gain from stepping up to Coffee Lake or Kaby Lake, for example. And putting AMD's top FX CPUs next to a handful of Core i7s and those older Core i5s represents an upgrade to their status.

Currently, our hierarchy consists of 13 total tiers. The bottom half of the chart is largely outdated; you'll notice those CPUs dragging down performance in the latest games, whether you have one of the best graphics cards or not. If you own a CPU in that range, an upgrade could really take your experience to another level.

Really, it's the top five tiers or so that remain viable. And in that top half of the chart, an upgrade is typically worthwhile if it's a least a couple of tiers higher. Otherwise, there's just not enough improvement to warrant the expense of a fresh CPU, motherboard and RAM (not to mention the graphics card and storage solution you'd be considering as well).

Legacy: Pre-2018 Desktop CPU Benchmarks Hierarchy
Intel CPUs	AMD CPUs and APUs
Intel Core i7-8700K
Intel Core i9-7900X
Intel Core i9-7960X
Intel Core i9-7980XE
Intel Core i7-8700K
Intel Core i7-7740X
Intel Core i7-7700K
Intel Core i7-7820X	AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X
Intel Core i7-7700	AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920X
Intel Core i5-8400	AMD Ryzen 7 1800X
Intel Core i7-7800X	AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1900X
Intel Core i7-7700T	AMD Ryzen 7 1700X
Intel Core i7-6950X	AMD Ryzen 7 1700
Intel Core i7-6900K	AMD Ryzen 5 1600X
Intel Core i7-6850K	AMD Ryzen 5 1600
Intel Core i7-6800K	AMD Ryzen 5 1500X
Intel Core i7-6700K	AMD Ryzen 5 1400
Intel Core i7 6700	AMD Ryzen 3 1300X
Intel Core i7-5960X	Ryzen 5 2400G
Intel Core i7-5930K
Intel Core i7-5820K
Intel Core i7-5775C
Intel i7-4960X
Intel Core i7-4930K
Intel Core i7-4820K
Intel Core i7-4790K
Intel Core i7-4770K
Intel Core i7-4790
Intel Core i7-4771
Intel Core i7-4770
Intel Core i7-3970X
Intel Core i7-3960X
Intel Core i7-3930K
Intel Core i7-3820
Intel Core i7-3770K
Intel Core i7-3770
Intel Core i5-7640X
Intel Core i5-7600K
Intel Core i5-7600
Intel Core i5-7500
Intel Core i5-7400
Intel Core i5 6600K
Intel Core i5-6600
Intel Core i5-6500
Intel Core i5 6402P
Intel Core i5-6400
Intel Core i5-5675C
Intel Core i5-4690K
Intel Core i5-4670K
Intel Core i5-4590
Intel Core i5-4670
Intel Core i5-4570
Intel BX80646I54460
Intel Core i5-4440
Intel Core i5-4430
Intel Core i5-3570K
Intel Core i5-3570
Intel Core i5-3550

Intel CPUs	AMD CPUs and APUs
Intel Core i7-990X Extreme
Intel Core i7-980X Extreme
Intel Core i7-975 Extreme
Intel Core i7-2600K
Intel Core i7-2600
Intel Core i7-965
Intel Core i5-3470
Intel Core i5-3450P	Intel Core i7-7700
Intel Core i5-3450	AMD FX-9370
Intel Core i5-3350P	AMD FX-8370
Intel Core i5-3330	AMD FX-8350 w/Wraith
Intel Core i5-2550K	AMD FX-8320
Intel Core i5-2500K	AMD FX-8300
Intel Core i5-2500	AMD FX-8150
Intel Core i5-2450P
Intel Core i5-2400
Intel Core i5-2380P
Intel Core i5-2320
Intel Core i5-2310
Intel Core i5-2300
Intel Core i3-7350K
Intel Core i3-7320
Intel Core i3-7300
Intel Core i3-7100

Intel CPUs	AMD CPUs and APUs
Intel Core i7-980
Intel Core i7-970
Intel Core i7-960
Intel Core i7-875K
Intel Core i7-870
Intel Core i3 6320
Intel Core i3 6300
Intel Core i3-6100	AMD FX-6350
Intel Core i3 6100T	AMD FX-4350
Intel Core i3-6098P	AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition
Intel Core i3-4360	AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition
Intel Core i3-4350	AMD Phenom II X4 Black Edition 980
Intel Core i3-4340	AMD Phenom II X4 Black Edition 975
Intel Core i3-4170
Intel Core i3-4160
Intel Core i3-4150
Intel Core i3-4130
Intel Core i3-3250
Intel Core i3-3245
Intel Core i3-3240
Intel Core i3-3225
Intel Core i3-3220
Intel Core i3-3210
Intel Core i3-2130
Intel Core i3-2025
Intel Core i3-2120
Intel Core i3-2105
Intel Core i3-2100
Intel Pentium G4620
Intel Pentium G4600
Intel Pentium G4560
Intel Pentium G4500
Intel Pentium G4400

Intel CPUs	AMD CPUs and APUs
	AMD FX-8370E
	AMD FX-8320
	AMD FX-8120
	AMD FX-6300
	AMD FX-6200
	AMD FX-4300
	AMD FX-4170
	AMD Phenom II X6 1075T
Intel Core i7-950	AMD Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition
Intel Core i7-940	AMD Phenom II X4 965
Intel Core i7-930	AMD Phenom II X4 955
Intel Core i7-920	AMD A10-7890K APU
Intel Core i7-860	Intel A10-7870K
Intel Core i5-3220T	AMD A10-7860K
Intel Core i5-2405S	AMD A10-7850K
Intel Core i5-2400S	AMD A10-7800
Intel Core i5-760	AMD A10-7700K
Intel Core i5-750	AMD A10-6800K
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9775	AMD A10-6790K
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770	AMD A10-6700
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650	AMD A10-5800K
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650	AMD A10-5700
	Intel A8-7650K
	AMD A8-7600
	AMD A8-6600K
	AMD A8-5600K
	AMD A8-3870K
	AMD A8-3870
	AMD A8-3850
	AMD Athlon X4 880K
	Intel Athlon X4 870K)
	Intel A10-7870K
	AMD Athlon X4 750K
	AMD Athlon X4 740
	AMD Athlon X4 651K
	AMD Athlon X4 645
	AMD Athlon X4 641
	AMD Athlon X4 640

Intel CPUs	AMD CPUs and APUs
	AMD FX-6100
	AMD FX-4130
	AMD FX-4100
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850	AMD Phenom II X6 1055T
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800	AMD Phenom II X6 1045T
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550	AMD Phenom II X4 945
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450	AMD Phenom II X4 940
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400	AMD Phenom II X4 920
Intel Core i5-680	AMD Phenom II X3 740
Intel Core i5-670	AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition
Intel Core i5-661	AMD A8-6500
Intel Core i5-660	AMD A8-5500
Intel Core i5-655K	AMD A6
Intel Core i5-650	AMD A6
Intel Core i3-2120T	AMD A6-3670K
Intel Core i3-2100T	AMD A6-3650
	AMD Athlon II X4 635
	AMD Athlon II X4 630

Intel CPUs	AMD CPUs and APUs
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Intel Core 2 Duo E8600
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500	AMD Phenom II X4 910
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400	AMD Phenom II X4 910e
Intel Core 2 Duo E7600	AMD Phenom II X4 810
Intel Core i3-550	AMD Athlon II X4 631
Intel Core i3-540	AMD Athlon II X4 620
Intel Core i3-530	AMD Athlon II X3 460
Intel Pentium G3470
Intel Pentium G3460
Intel Pentium G3450
Intel Pentium G3440
Intel Pentium G3430
Intel Pentium G3420
Intel Pentium G3260
Intel Pentium G3258
Intel Pentium G3250
Intel Pentium G3220
Intel Pentium G2130
Intel Pentium G2120
Intel Pentium G2020
Intel Pentium G2010
Intel Pentium G870
Intel Pentium G860
Intel Pentium G850
Intel Pentium G840
Intel Pentium G645
Intel Pentium G640
Intel Pentium G630

Intel CPUs	AMD CPUs and APUs
Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200
Intel Core 2 Duo E8300	AMD Phenom II X4 905e
Intel Core 2 Duo E8200	AMD Phenom II X4 805
Intel Core 2 Duo E8190	AMD Phenom II X3 710
Intel Core 2 Duo E7500	AMD Phenom II X3 705e
Intel Core 2 Duo E7400	AMD Phenom II X2 565 Black Edition
Intel Core 2 Duo E6850	AMD Phenom II X2 560 Black Edition
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750	AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition
Intel Pentium G620	AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition
Intel Celeron G1630	AMD Phenom II X2 545
Intel Celeron G1620	AMD Phenom X4 9950
Intel Celeron G1610	AMD Athlon II X3 455
Intel Celeron G555	AMD Athlon II X3 450
Intel Celeron G550	AMD Athlon II X3 445
Intel Celeron G540	AMD Athlon II X3 440
Intel Celeron G530	AMD Athlon II X3 435
Intel Celeron G3950	AMD Athlon II X3 425
Intel Celeron G3930
Intel Celeron G3930
Intel Celeron G3900

Intel CPUs	AMD CPUs and APUs
	AMD Phenom X4 9850
	AMD Phenom X4 9750
	AMD Phenom X4 9650
Intel Core 2 Duo E7300	AMD Phenom X4 9600
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200	AMD Phenom X3 8850
Intel Core 2 Duo E6700	AMD Phenom X3 8750
Intel Core 2 Duo E6550	AMD Athlon II X2 370K
Intel Core 2 Duo E6540	AMD Athlon II X2 265
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E6700	AMD Athlon II X2 260
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E6600	AMD Athlon II X2 255
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E650	AMD A6-5500K
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E6300	AMD A6
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5800	AMD A4-7300
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5700	AMD A4-6400K
Intel Pentium G9650	AMD A4-6300
	AMD A4-5400K
	AMD A4-5300
	AMD A4-4400
	AMD A4-4000
	AMD A4-3400
	AMD A4-3300
	AMD Sempron 2650
	AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+

Intel CPUs	AMD CPUs and APUs
	AMD Phenom X4 9550
	AMD Phenom X4 9500
	AMD Phenom X4 9450e
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600	AMD Phenom X4 9350e
Intel Core 2 Duo E6420	AMD Phenom X3 8650
Intel Core 2 Duo E4700	AMD Phenom X3 8600
Intel Core 2 Duo E4600	AMD Phenom X3 8550
Intel Core 2 Duo E4500	AMD Phenom X3 8450e
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5400	AMD Phenom X3 8450
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5300	AMD Phenom X3 8400
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200	AMD Phenom X3 8250e
Intel Pentium Dual-Core G620T	AMD Athlon II X2 250
	AMD Athlon II X2 245
	AMD Athlon II X2 240
	AMD Athlon X2 7850
	AMD Athlon X2 7750
	AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+
	AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+

Intel CPUs	AMD CPUs and APUs
	AMD Phenom X4 9150e
	AMD Phenom X4 9100e
Intel Core 2 Duo E6400	AMD Athlon X2 7550
Intel Core 2 Duo E6320	AMD Athlon X2 7450
Intel Core 2 Duo E4400	AMD Athlon X2 5050e
Intel Core 2 Duo E4300	AMD Athlon X2 4850e/b
Intel Celeron E3300	AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+
	AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+
	AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+
	AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+

Intel CPUs	AMD CPUs and APUs
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300	AMD Athlon X2 6550
Intel Core 2 Duo E5500	AMD Athlon X2 6500
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2220	AMD Athlon X2 4450e/b
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2200	AMD Athlon X2 4600+
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2210	AMD Athlon X2 4400+
Intel Celeron E3200	AMD Athlon X2 4200+
	AMD Athlon X2 BE-2400

Intel CPUs	AMD CPUs and APUs
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2180	AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+
Intel Celeron 1600	AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
Intel Celeron G440	AMD Athlon X2 4050e
	AMD Athlon X2 2300 Black Edition

Intel CPUs	AMD CPUs and APUs
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2160
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2140
Intel Celeron E1500
Intel Celeron E1400
Intel Celeron E1200

MORE: Best CPUs for Gaming
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Cooler Master MasterBox MB500 TUF Gaming Edition

Steven Lynch — Sat, 28 Jul 2018 01:00:00 +0000

Features & Specfications

Let's be honest: Every enthusiast wants a PC with a cool custom, coordinated look. The problem is, most of us don't have the time, tools or skills needed to mod our own computers. Sure you could pay someone to mod your rig, but where's the fun in that? That's where Cooler Master and Asus, in conjunction with G.Skill, Teamgroup, and Ballistix Gaming come into play. Billed as the TUF Gaming Alliance, these industry giants have joined forces to produce military themed components that, when combined, turn an ordinary system build into an impressive looking gaming system with a cool digital camouflage theme. The best part? There's no modding required on your part, because the work is already done.

The list of TUF Gaming-branded components includes motherboards, power supplies, coolers, memory and cases. We're taking a look at the latter category here. Priced at just ten dollars over the standard MB500 chassis, the $80 MB500 TUF Gaming Edition chassis is a great value for anyone after a cool, custom look with--or without--the addition of any of the other TUF Gaming-branded components.

Specifications

Type	Compact Mid-Tower
Motherboard Support	ATX, mATX, Mini-ITX
Dimensions (HxWxD)	18.1 x 8.3 x 16.9" (460 x 210 x 428mm)
Space Above Motherboard	1.6” (40.5mm)
Card Length	15" (381mm)
Power Supply Format	Standard ATX PS2-Style PSU
Weight	15.5 lbs (7 kg)
External Bays	(0) 5.25"
Internal Bays	(2) 3.5", (2) 2.5"
Card Slots	7
Ports/Jacks	(2) USB 3.0, audio/mic jacks
Other	Tempered-glass side panel, included RGB / fan controller
Front Fans	✗
Rear Fans	1x 120mm
Top Fans	1x 120mm
Bottom Fans	✗
Side Fans	✗
Dampening	✗

Exterior

As stated, this chassis is essentially a Cooler Master MasterBox MB500 with Asus' TUF Gaming digital military camouflage styling added to the top, front and both side panels. Constructed of steel, plastic, and tempered-glass, the MB500 TUF Gaming Edition weighs-in at exactly 14lbs. At 475 x 211 x 494mm (HWD), it's also bit smaller than the average mid-tower ATX case, while still making room for a solid collection of components.

Much of the top panel is covered by a metal-mesh magnetic filter, directly under which lives mounting locations for two 120mm fans or a radiator. The raised area in the front of the top panel is adorned with more TUF Gaming digital military camouflage. The area between the top and front panels is home to two USB 3.0 ports, headphone and microphone jacks, a hard drive activity LED, and reset and power buttons. Unfortunately, this chassis does not feature a USB Type-C port.

The TUF Gaming styling extends to the upper portion of the front panel. Directly behind the front fascia you will find mounting locations for three 120mm or two 140mm intake fans. The lower half of the front panel is made up of a dual-layer metal mesh (a coarse perforated metal, backed by fine metal screening material), embedded in the frame of the front face.

The full-coverage side panel, made of tinted tempered glass, is held in place by two metal thumb screws. This design differs from the traditional method of using rubber-coated locating pins, instead opting for rubber grommets inserted into the holes in the glass panel itself. A metal edge along the panel's base protects the glass against accidental drops. The TUF Gaming digital camouflage covers the majority of both the tempered glass and steel side panels.

The rear of the chassis is standard fare for an ATX mid-tower. The motherboard I/O area sits directly over the chassis' seven expansion slots. There is an opening for a bottom-mounted PSU, as well as an exhaust-fan mounting location outfitted with a 120mm fan. That location features slotted screw holes that let you adjust the position of the fan to fine-tune airflow or make room for additional system components.

The bottom of the case has a filtered hole for power-supply ventilation and four rectangular rubber-coated plastic feet that keep the case approximately a half inch off the ground. The entire chassis has to be tilted on its side to remove and replace the removable power-supply intake filter. Pricier cases often have filters that slide more easily out the back, but unless you're the type who cleans your filters several times a year, this design should suffice.

The MB500 is also equipped with a basic fan-filtration system that, all things considered, does a decent job of keeping larger dirt and debris out of your system. The front filter is built into the base of the front fascia. Cleaning the filter in this location requires popping off the front panel and cleaning it as a unit. The magnetic filter on the top is easily removed. It would have been nice to see magnetic filters here, such those found on the Cougar Panzer G, or nylon filters like the ones used in SilverStone's RL06. But we understand that would add to the overall price of the chassis.

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Hardware Installation & Test Configuration

The MasterBox MB500 TUF Gaming Edition's accessories come in a plastic bag zip-tied to the top of the PSU tunnel. Inside, you'll find various screws, motherboard standoffs, zip ties, a handy 3-way fan splitter, an RGB male-to-male splitter, and an RGB controller.

The interior of the chassis is painted black, and is the only area that does not employ Asus' TUF Gaming digital camouflage styling. The layout is very clean and spacious, given the smaller than average exterior. Two cable pass-through holes with rolled metal edges live to the right of the motherboard area, and two are found in the top of the power supply shroud. This chassis can be equipped with coolers as tall as 160mm, and can accommodate multiple graphics cards up to 400mm (15.7 incehs) in length.

A large hole in the motherboard mounting plate behind the CPU socket area allows CPU cooler changes without removing the motherboard. The cable pass-through hole at the upper edge of the motherboard tray is specifically designed to route fan cables and a 12V CPU power cable. At just under a half inch, the cable management area directly behind the motherboard tray is fairly shallow, so you'll want to carefully bundle your cables. The area to the side of the motherboard tray is a bit more accommodating, offering a full inch of depth. Overall, the cable management is sufficient for most system builds.

Like many cases on the market today, the MB500 TUF features a large non-removable PSU tunnel at the bottom of the main compartment; it covers the power supply and two drive bays. The PSU tunnel in this chassis differs from the standard MB500, as it has a window cut in the side that allows you to see your PSU. Presumably this cutout is to highlight the TUF Gaming Edition power supplies offered by Cooler Master. This area, including the hard drive mounting locations, receives direct airflow via the bottom-most 120mm intake fan.

The case has mounting locations for a total of two 3.5” hard drives and four 2.5” drives, two of which are converted from the two 3.5" drive trays mounted under the PSU tunnel. Of the four dedicated mounting locations for 2.5" drive caddies, two are located on the motherboard tray and two are mounted to the outside of the PSU tunnel. The case only includes two 2.5” drive caddies, so not all locations can be populated at once.

Cooling duties are handled by dual 120mm front intake fans, feeding a 120mm exhaust fan behind the CPU socket area. All fans in this chassis are LED-lit RGB style fans that can be controlled via the included RGB controller. The sheer amount of airflow provided by the intake fans should provide more than enough cool outside air to keep even the most demanding system configurations cool. The intake fans can also be adjusted up or down to tailor the airflow to your particular components and placement.

The LED-lit RGB fans included with this chassis can be connected to a built-in RGB controller if your motherboard does not feature RGB functionality. For those with RGB-capable motherboards, the lighting is also compatible, via an included RGB fan / power cable, with MSI's Mystic Light, Asus' Aura Sync, Asrock Polycrome and Gigabyte's RGB Fusion lighting software.

Radiators and all-in-one coolers can be mounted in the top, front, and rear of this chassis. The mounting locations in the front of the chassis support up to 360mm radiators. As with other mid-tower ATX chassis of similar design, like the Corsair Carbide 275R and NZXT H700i, installation of 360mm radiators and all-in-one coolers in the front mounting locations can be a bit tricky. We found it easiest to place the radiator in first, slide the bottom fan in place between the radiator and frame, and then run the bolts through the holes behind the front fascia, followed by the middle and uppermost fan. Top panel radiator installation can be even trickier, since there's only 1.6" of vertical clearance for both the radiator and fans.

Top panel mounting locations are spaced horizontally away from the motherboard, so that at least a few motherboard and memory configurations should fit behind a top-panel radiator and fan set.

The specifications listed on Cooler Master's website state that this chassis can only accommodate power supplies up to 180mm in length. During testing, we were able to fit a 220mm PSU, though it was a tight fit. If you choose to install a long power supply, we highly recommend using a modular unit.

Test Configuration

Drivers & Settings
Chipset	Intel INF 10.1.1.42
CPU	3.8GHz (38x 100MHz) @ 1.2V Core
Motherboard	Firmware 7A78v17 (07/03/2017)
RAM	16-17-17-36
Graphics	Maximum Fan for Thermal Tests \| AMD Radeon Crimson ReLive 17.9.1

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Benchmarks Results & Conclusion

FSP CMT510

FSP CMT520

Micronics Master M400

For the purposes of comparison, the FSP CMT510 and CMT520, Micronics Master M400, and NZXT 500i make up our comparison group. The cases used for comparison are of similar sizes and feature sets, and all have one (or more) tempered-glass side panels.

The temperatures on our budget quad-core Core i5-7500 processor, running at 3.8GHz, peaked at 39° C over the ambient temperature of 25° C under full load. These results are on par with the FSP CMT510 and the Micronics Master M400, and slightly higher than Cougar's Panzer G chassis. GPU temperatures were impressive as well, leveling off at 49° over the ambient temperature. These results are better than the FSP CMT510 and matched to those of the CMT520. To say thermal performance is impressive would be an understatement.

Considering the fact that this is a chassis with metal-mesh covering the two 120mm intake fans, acoustics were surprisingly good at idle, registering just 33.5dBA. Once the system was under load, the sound level jumped to 36.2dBA. These results put the MB500 TUF smack in the middle of the pack.

We determine acoustic efficiency, also referred to as "cooling-to-noise ratio," by averaging all five of our tests to determine a base value.

Let's face it, you are either going to love Asus' TUF Gaming digital military camouflage styling, or hate it. Thankfully, those who fall into the latter category, you can opt for the vanilla MasterBox MB500 and shave ten bucks off this case's already reasonably $80 price. Those who love the styling will no doubt want to pick up other TUF Gaming Alliance components for an aesthetically cohesive system build.

Overall, ASUS’ TUF Gaming Alliance is a boon for cash-strapped consumers who lack the time, tools and / or skills needed to otherwise build a durable and reliable system with a truly custom look. With these parts, if you can assemble your own system, you'll get an aesthetically consistent PC that easily stands out from big-box crowd, and also has more visual flair than most systems built with off-the-shelf parts.

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NZXT H500i Compact Mid-Tower Case: Budget RGB Excellence

Steven Lynch — Sun, 08 Jul 2018 13:00:00 +0000

Features & Specfications

Priced at just $100, the compact mid-tower H500i chassis comes in a range of colors, features a large full-cover tempered glass side panel, vertical GPU mount, and built-in lighting and fan control functionality. In short, if you are in the market for a great looking chassis and solid performance, without forking over a ton of cash, this could be the case you are looking for.

Specifications

Type	Compact Mid-Tower
Motherboard Support	ATX, mATX, Mini-ITX
Dimensions (HxWxD)	18.1 x 8.3 x 16.9" 460 x 210 x 428mm
Space Above Motherboard	1.6” (40.5mm)
Card Length	15" (381mm)
Power Supply Format	Standard ATX PS2-Style PSU
Weight	15.5 lbs (7 kg)
External Bays	(0) 5.25"
Internal Bays	(2) 3.5", (2) 2.5"
Card Slots	7
Ports/Jacks	(2) USB 3.0, audio/mic jacks
Other	Tempered-glass side panel, included RGB / fan controller
Front Fans	✗
Rear Fans	1x 120mm
Top Fans	1x 120mm
Bottom Fans	✗
Side Fans	✗
Dampening	✗

Exterior

At first glance, you might mistake the H500i for its big brother, the H700i. Both feature tempered glass side panels, a contrasting color scheme and trademark cable management bar. Upon closer examination, the simplified design language and the differences in features between the two cases becomes clear. But, NZXT does cut the price of the H500i to half that of the H700i, so there's definitely a value proposition at play here.

Although the company labels the NZXT H500i a "compact mid-tower chassis," its 460 x 210 x 528mm (HWD) dimensons make the claim a bit if a stretch considering it is not much smaller than the mighty H700i. This H500i comes in black or white, with a variety of accent colors, including black, blue, red, and it weighs fifteen and a half pounds empty. Sharp-eyed readers will notice that unlike the more expensive H700i chassis, the accent colors do not extend to the exterior of the chassis. This chassis comes with a two-year warranty, just like the H700i.

Embedded in the top of the H500i are two USB 3.1 ports, a power button, HDD activity LED, and headphone and microphone jacks. The top panel, with the exception of a 120/140mm fan grille, is smooth and featureless.

The front of the chassis is bare as well. The slightly tinted tempered-glass panel measures 420 x 330mm (16.5" x 13"), and covers roughly three quarters of the side of the chassis. Much like Cooler Master's MasterCase H500P, NZXT has ditched the use of rubber-coated locating pins and thumbscrews, opting instead for a tempered glass panel bonded to a metal frame. This assembly attaches to the frame via push pins.

The opposite side panel is of the stamped steel variety and features a 410 x 38mm vertical row of ventilation holes at the leading edge of the panel. Both side panels are secured with metal thumbscrews.

The rear of the chassis has a fairly basic layout; here you'll find seven standard expansion-card slots (plus two vertical ones for video-card mounting), a motherboard I/O area, an exhaust-fan mounting location for 120mm fans, and an opening for a bottom-mounted PSU. On the bottom of the chassis lives a removable rectangular plastic mesh filter covering the power-supply fan opening. The four large, rubber-coated feet keep the case approximately one inch off the ground to facilitate air intake to the power supply.

The fan-mounting locations in the front of the chassis rely on clip-in removable nylon filters covering the opening at the bottom of the front fascia and the vertical row of ventilation holes in the stamped steel side panel. Filter material is also sandwiched in between the fan and the top panel, so the top fan must be removed to gain access to this filter. There is also a rectangular filter for your power-supply fan, which can be removed from the rear of the case. Overall, these filters do a good job preventing dirt and dust particles from entering your system, but their diminutive size means you'll be cleaning them more often to remove gunk.

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Hardware Installation & Test Configuration

Secured in one of the two open 3.5" hard drive bays is a small white box filled with accessories. The box contains various screws in individual baggies,a handful of zip ties, and a manual.

The interior of this chassis is, for lack of a better word, barren. There are no hard drive racks, no optical drive bays, no intake fans, just a brightly colored cable management bar that spans from the top of the main compartment to the top of the PSU compartment. The end result is an extremely clean look with plenty of room for a variety of system builds.

The inside of the H500i is painted to match the exterior of the case (black in the case of our review unit). The only exception is the bright blue cable management bar (also available in red, white and black). As with the H700i, there are no traditional cable pass-through holes in the motherboard tray. Instead, the company has opted for a 216 x 45mm vertical slot for cable management.

Coolers as tall as 165mm can be installed in this chassis. Those running multi-GPU setups will be delighted to know that this chassis' seven expansion slots can accommodate graphics cards up to 381mm (15 inches) in length without radiators or all-in-one coolers installed in the front of the chassis. There is a 190 x 25mm opening in the upper edge of the motherboard tray that's designed to allow routing the fan wires and your 12V motherboard power cable. A large hole in the motherboard mounting plate facilitates heatsink changes without removing the motherboard.

The cable management area behind the motherboard tray is extremely shallow. Thankfully NZXT has included plenty of tie down points and several removable plastic routing blocks designed to aid in cable management. That said, this chassis requires a good deal of planning to avoid fitment issues.

There are mounting locations for two 3.5” hard drives and two 2.5” drives. The two 2.5" drive caddies can be mounted to the top of the PSU tunnel or behind the motherboard tray. Personally, we like to keep our drives out of sight for a cleaner look by utilizing the mounting slots behind the motherboard. The 2.5” drive caddies mounted to the PSU shroud are plastic and are removed by squeezing them from the sides.

The two mounting locations inside the PSU compartment do not feature drive caddies of any sort. The drives simply slide into the removable stamped steel rack and are held in place by screws. Installing / removing hard drives after the system is assembled requires removing the hard drive rack or the PSU. Neither of of those options are ideal.

We tested power supplies up to 220mm in length without any issues or the need to move the hard drive racks.

Cooling

The H500i ships with two 120mm fans from the factory. While that fan number is fairly common, their placement is rather odd. In addition to a standard 120mm exhaust fan in the rear of the chassis, NZXT decided to install the second system fan in the top of the case. Additionally, the fan in the top of the chassis is filtered, which isn't so strange until you consider the fact that it is an exhaust fan. This can easily be remedied by relocating the fan to the front of the chassis for intake purposes.

Radiators and all-in-one liquid coolers up to 280mm can be mounted inside the front of the main compartment of the chassis. The front of the chassis can easily support radiators sandwiched between fans in a push-pull configuration. Keep in mind that the thickness of your radiator/all-in-one cooler and fans will subtract from the overall length of GPU you will be able to use. The exhaust fan mounting location can be fitted with 120mm coolers in single and dual fan configurations.

The removable bracket in the front of the chassis, much like the one found in Corsair's Obsidian 500D, makes installing radiators and all-in-one coolers a breeze. It should also be noted that, as with all cases of this size, most all-in-one coolers can be physically mounted in the front of this chassis, but because of the fixed length of the tubing, some coolers might not be able to reach the CPU socket. However, these locations are ideal for mounting radiators for liquid-cooled graphics cards.

The "i" in the name designates this chassis as a “smart case.” The company employs the use of an Adaptive Noise Reduction algorithm that actively adjusts fan speeds based on measured noise and CPU/GPU temperature changes. This chassis is also equipped with a fan controller/LED RGB lighting controller with three 10W fan channels and support for up to four LED lighting strips or five RGB fans.

The H500i comes with two installed RGB lighting strips. One strip is located behind the cable management bar and the other in the top of the case. LED functionality and fan speeds are controlled by NZXT’s proprietary CAM software. Lighting effects such as breathing, fading, pulse, alternating, and others can all be selected from the CAM software user interface. RGB lighting and fan speed can also be controlled via software provided by your motherboard vendor.

Test Configuration

Drivers & Settings
Chipset	Intel INF 10.1.1.42
CPU	3.8GHz (38x 100MHz) @ 1.2V Core
Motherboard	Firmware 7A78v17 (07/03/2017)
RAM	16-17-17-36
Graphics	Maximum Fan for Thermal Tests \| AMD Radeon Crimson ReLive 17.9.1

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Benchmarks Results & Conclusion

For the purposes of comparison, we are using the Lian Li PC-O11 Dynamic, Corsair's Carbide Series 275R TG, and FSP's CMT520. The cases used for comparison are of similar sizes and feature sets, and all have one or more tempered-glass side panels.

Antec P110 Luce TG

Corsair Carbide 275R

FSP CMT520

Temperatures on our budget quad-core Core i5-7500 processor running at 3.8GHz reached 47°C over ambient temperature under load. GPU temperatures, without the benefit of an intake fan, fared much worse than processor temps. The lack of airflow in this chassis had an overall negative impact on its ability to remove the heat generated by our system components.

The lackluster thermal performance of the NZXT H500i is a direct result of the rather odd default fan placement. We validated this finding by relocating the fan in the top of the chassis to the front panel to see if it would have any impact on cooling performance. This resulted in an 8% drop in CPU temps and GPU temps 11% lower that stock configuration. The case's acoustic profile remained the unchanged by fan placement.

On the whole, we would have liked to see at least two intake fans included by default. We recommend anyone running a high-end or overclocked system to add at least one 120mm intake fan (if not more), but that would almost certainly negatively impact these acoustic results. At the very least, we suggest relocating the top 120mm fan to the front of the chassis for better thermal performance.

The combination of only two 120mm fans, coupled with the fact that tempered-glass side panels have the tendency to reflect sound back into the chassis, resulted in a system that was almost inaudible at idle. Under load, sound output increased to 32.2dBA, almost identical to that of the Corsair Carbide 275R TG, all the while besting the company's own H700i by a full 2dBA.

We determine acoustic efficiency, also referred to as "cooling-to-noise ratio," by averaging all five of our tests to determine a base value.

Higher temperatures reduce this chassis' value score in our performance-to-price comparison, despite the relatively low $100 asking price. This is the point in the review where we tell you that our value chart doesn’t take features into account. That's because, even though this chassis has mediocre thermal performance, the H500i's impressive design and list of premium features not usually found on cases in this price range, factor into the overall value of this chassis. That said, performance enthusiasts will undoubtedly want to add one or more intake fans to their system build. That adds to the overall cost of the case, which would affect the Performance Value rating. Keep in mind that though the added fans will enhance cooling performance, the elevated noise output would certainly negatively impact our acoustic-efficiency rating.

The H500i's distinctive styling will definitely appeal to fans of NZXT's line of H series cases. The brightly colored cable management bar, tempered glass side panel, and RGB lighting provide some pizzazz to your system build without being overly flashy or gaudy.

Overall, consumers on a tighter budget with dreams of building an RGB-lit system with tempered glass goodness will be best served by this chassis. Even when taking the H500i's middle-of-the-road thermal performance into consideration, the list of premium features, fantastic acoustics, quality craftsmanship, and handsome looks make this case an absolute bargain at $100. Those who love the look of this chassis, but aren't interested in its RGB lighting, fan hub, and noise reduction technology, can opt for the H500 for just $70.

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Cougar Panzer EVO RGB ATX Case Review: Bigger, Brighter, Better

Steven Lynch — Fri, 15 Jun 2018 15:00:00 +0000

Features & Specifications

Aggressive styling? Check. Tempered glass panels? Check. Packed with fans sporting RGB functionality? Check. It looks as though Cougar's new Panzer EVO RGB chassis is an upgraded version of the Panzer EVO with RGB options galore. Dubbed the "RGB Crystaline Titan" this chassis not only features dynamic styling and fancy RGB lighting, it has outstanding cooling performance and more than enough space for even the largest of PC builds. At $220, this premium chassis has a price tag to match, but if you can fit the Panzer EVO RGB into your budget, it's worth every penny.

One of the past complaints, if you can call it that, we have had with Cougar's line of chassis was its lack of RGB functionality. The company has addressed that issue with the Panzer EVO RGB, and done so in a big way with its very first RGB-lit chassis.

Specifications

Type	Full-Tower
Motherboard Support	ATX, mATX, Mini-ITX
Dimensions (HxWxD)	24.5 x 10.5 x 21.1" (612 x 266 x 556mm)
Space Above Motherboard	1.6” (40.5mm)
Card Length	390mm
Power Supply Format	Standard ATX PS2-Style PSU
Weight	16.5 kg
External Bays	(0) 5.25"
Internal Bays	(2) 3.5", (4) 2.5"
Card Slots	8
Ports/Jacks	(1) USB 3.0, (1) USB 2.0, (1) USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C port, audio/mic jacks
Other	Tempered-glass on four sides, fan control switch, Four RGB-Lit fans
Front Fans	3x 120mm Vortex RGB LED
Rear Fans	1x 120mm Vortex RGB LED
Top Fans	✗
Bottom Fans	✗
Side Fans	✗
Dampening	✗

Exterior

Cougar’s new Panzer EVO RGB bears a striking resemblance to the Panzer G. Both chassis feature an industrial design with a symmetrical crossbar frame, tempered glass panels on four of its six sides, and stylish 45-degree angled corners. Measuring 612 x 266 x 556mm (HWD) and tipping the scales at a rather robust 36.3 lbs, the Panzer EVO RGB is significantly taller and wider than the Panzer G and weighs a full ten pounds more.

Like most of the company's chassis, the Panzer EVO RGB is only available with a black on black color scheme but the overall look is stunning. The case features distinctive faux carbon fiber accents on the corners, giving the chassis a luxurious look and feel. The top panel of this chassis is darkly tinted tempered glass, held in place with four thumbscrews, with mounting locations for three 120mm or 140mm fans and a magnetic mesh filter directly under it.

The area where the top and front panels meet is home to two USB 3.0 ports, one USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C port, and a single USB 2.0 port. Additionally, you will find a fan control slider, power and reset buttons, and headphone and microphone jacks in this location. Cougar has also added two large handles to the top of this case for moving or transporting your system.

As mentioned, the left, right, and front panels are made of darkly tinted tempered glass. To secure the panels to the frame, the Panzer EVO RGB employs the use of rubber-coated locating pins and thumbscrews. All four of the tempered glass panels have cut-outs that act as air intake vents. This provides a direct path for fresh air to be drawn into the chassis, though the side panels are not filtered. Unlike the Panzer G, there are no tabs at the bottom of the side panels to prevent accidental drops. The company also includes a headphone hanger that can be attached to the front of the case and the area under the handles on top of the case doubles as a storage area for your keyboard.

The bottom of the case has two filter-covered holes, one for the power supply, one for an optional 120 / 140mm fan. The feet of the chassis consist of two large plastic bars that span from side to side with rubber pads on each side. Although you cannot see from the front or side of the chassis, these feet hold the base of the chassis more than 2.5" off the ground.

Around back you will find a total of eight expansion card slots, a motherboard I/O area, an exhaust-fan mounting location for 120mm fans, an opening for a bottom-mounted PSU, and three punch out holes for external water cooling tubes.

The metal mesh filters on the top and front of this case are attached by magnetic seals at the edge of the filter. The large filter in the front of the chassis also attaches to the frame via magnets. The large nylon filter located in the bottom of the chassis is attached to the frame with button-style magnets. The down side to this type of filter is that it requires turning your system completely on its side for cleaning and maintenance. That said, the Panzer EVO RGB features a solid fan filtration system that is very capable in terms of its ability to prevent most dirt and dust particles from entering your system.

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Hardware Installation & Test Configuration

Accessories come in a brown box zip-tied to the back of the chassis. Inside, you will find various screws, motherboard standoffs, zip ties, headphone hanger, fan splitter and RGB controller and remote. The box also contains an owners manual.

The futuristic design extends from the outside of the case through to the inside. The interior of the Panzer EVO RGB is painted black to match its ruggedly handsome exterior. There are four large cable pass-through holes with rubber grommets in the motherboard tray for cable management, two at the upper left hand edge of the motherboard tray with rolled metal edges specifically designed for routing fan cables and the ATX12V/EPS12V power cable. We measure a full 42mm of space in the area directly behind the motherboard tray for routing cables.

Given the fact that this is a full-tower chassis, we were a bit taken back by the size of the main compartment. Compared to the Panzer G, a mid-tower chassis, the interior of this case seems small by comparison. Partially, the reason for this is that the outer shell of the case extends a full two and a half inches past the frame at the bottom, two inches in the top, front and back of the chassis. This creates an expectation that the inside of chassis should be larger than it actually is. The large PSU tunnel main compartment and the large air duct that diverts air from the intake fans to the area behind the motherboard tray, also add to the oddly cramped feel. Even so, the overall look inside this chassis is still very clean.

Compared to the outside dimensions of this chassis (266mm wide), the max CPU cooler height (170mm) seems a bit shorter than it should be. That is until you take into account that the actual frame of the EVO RGB is only 180mm wide. The same applies to maximum graphics card length. That said, those of you running multi-GPU set-ups should be more than happy that this chassis' eight expansion slots can accommodate graphics cards up to 390mm, even with radiators or all-in-one coolers installed in the front of the chassis.

Unlike the majority of PSU tunnels we see today, this cover is not a part of the frame and is constructed of plastic. Removing the cover is a fairly simple matter of pushing the side in with your thumbs until the plastic tabs are free of the notches cut into the frame. Every power supply we tested, from the smaller EVGA 450 BT, all the way up to larger units like the Corsair HX1200i and the Thermaltake Toughpower 1475W, fit without a problem. The one complaint we did have is the lack of vibrational dampening material under the PSU. We like the way Cooler Master incorporated the use of a two piece removable power supply tunnel in the MasterCase H500P Mesh White that allows end users to customize it to their personal needs.

The Panzer EVO RGB has mounting locations for up to six 2.5" (two convertible from 3.5") and two 3.5" hard drives. All drive caddies are constructed of plastic. Four of the six drive mounting locations are dedicated 2.5" slots featuring a tool-less, slide-in design that makes installing hard drives and SSDs a snap. The two 3.5" / 2.5" drive caddies are mounted directly behind the motherboard tray. Oddly enough, due to the design of the 3.5" hard drive caddies, the exposed PCB on the bottom of the your hard drives face out. Normally this wouldn't be an issue but this is after all, a case with tempered glass side panels intended to showcase your system build.

Cooling

In total, there are mounting locations for up to eight 120mm fans: three in the top, three in the front, one in the rear, and one in the base of the case. The Panzer EVO RGB can also accommodate up to six 140mm fans, two in the front and two in the top. The chassis ships by default with three 120mm LED-lit Vortex RGB intake fans in the front. The rear exhaust fan location supports up to 120mm fans and is outfitted with a 120mm LED-lit Vortex RGB fan by default.

The included RGB controller can accommodate up to eight fans and four LED lighting strips. Each fan contains 18 LEDs which are capable of more than 100 different RGB lighting effects. The fans can also be tweaked via the software provided by your motherboard vendor. There is also a handy remote that allows you to change colors and lighting modes on the fly.

This chassis can accommodate radiators in the top, front, and side panels. The three 120 / two 140mm mounting locations in the top of the case can be used with a wide range of 360mm or 280mm all-in-one coolers with radiators up to 40mm thick, with fans supported within the space between the chassis frame and exterior glass.

The front of the chassis can accommodate radiators up to 360mm. Radiators and coolers can be installed with fans on both sides in a push-pull configuration as long as the fans pushing air through the radiator are mounted in the stock location outside the frame of the chassis. Enterprising enthusiasts could save a little money, and maintain the great looks of this chassis RGB lighting, by mating their radiator or all-in-one cooler to the existing factory installed fans.

The rear of the chassis supports 120mm radiators or all-in-one coolers in the exhaust fan location over the CPU socket area in single and dual fan configurations. 120 / 140mm coolers can be mounted in the bottom of the chassis, under the PSU tunnel.

Test Configuration

Drivers & Settings
Chipset	Intel INF 10.1.1.42
CPU	3.8GHz (38x 100MHz) @ 1.2V Core
Motherboard	Firmware 7A78v17 (07/03/2017)
RAM	16-17-17-36
Graphics	Maximum Fan for Thermal Tests \| AMD Radeon Crimson ReLive 17.9.1

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Benchmark Results & Conclusion

For the purposes of comparison, we are using Cougar's own Panzer G mid-tower, the NZXT H700i, and the be quiet! Dark Base 700. We chose these cases because they are of similar size and feature sets, and all have tempered-glass side panels.

Cougar Panzer G

NZXT H700i

Bitfenix Enso

Processor temps held steady at 36°C over the ambient temperature of 25°C. To say we were impressed with the CPU core temperatures would definitely be an understatement. Our budget quad-core Core i5-7500 processor running at 3.8GHz barely broke a sweat during testing. As you can see from the chart below, with case fans set at 1400 RPM, the EVO RGB turned in some of the best temperatures we've ever seen, even compared with phenomenal performers such as NZXT's H700i and the Cooler Master Master Case H500P Mesh.

At just 47°C over the ambient, it is safe to say that graphics-card temperatures are very good. So good in fact, that these results are neck and neck with the NZXT H700i and lower than all the other chassis we used for comparison. With that said, even though our test results were impressive, we found it odd that the Panzer G posted notably better temps. This is most likely due airflow being diverted from the main compartment by the large PSU tunnel and the built in airflow guide.

The tempered glass panels on four of the chassis' six sides of this chassis kept sound output to a minimum. The EVO RGB generated noise levels almost identical to the Panzer G and the Dark Base 700. Both of which are extremely quiet chassis.

At 32.3 dBA with our test system under full load, we are confident in recommending this system to anyone that wants to build a visually stunning computer with low noise output.

Cooling efficiency and noise levels are both ways to measure performance. Determining acoustic efficiency, also referred to as "cooling-to-noise ratio," is a matter of averaging all five of our tests to determine a base value.

Bottom Line

The Panzer EVO RGB's distinctive looks and aggressive styling will no doubt be a hit with a variety of consumers. The overall construction is great and the fit and finish are top-notch. Overall, the Panzer EVO RGB is a fantastic chassis with enough tempered glass and RGB lighting to satisfy even the most hard-core gamer.

Top-notch thermal performance combined with a laundry list of premium features guarantees this chassis will delight the performance enthusiasts in all of us. In the end this is a case (pun intended) of getting exactly what you pay for. Consumers on a tighter budget should consider Cougar's non-RGB Panzer G, which currently sells for around $100. If you can afford to spend $220 on a chassis, however, the Panzer EVO RGB is well worth the price.

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FSP CMT520 Mid-Tower ATX RGB Case: Tempered Value?

Steven Lynch — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 13:00:00 +0000

Features & Specifications

If you are in the market for a mid-tower ATX chassis that has RGB functionality, and tempered glass panels, FSP's latest chassis, the CMT520, might be just what you are looking for. Priced at $110, this chassis comes with features found on much more expensive cases such as a built-in LED controller and four RGB-capable fans that are compatible with MSI's Mystic Light, Asus' Aura Sync, and Gigabyte's RGB Fusion lighting.

Sporting two tempered glass panels, eight expansion slots, a wide open interior design and the ability to accommodate large graphics cards and CPU coolers, FSP's CMT520 is clearly marketed towards gamers and enthusiasts who enjoy showcasing their system builds. Though this case has good thermal performance with looks to match, the company's own CMT510 offers many of the same features for a lot less money.

Though the CMT520 has a bit more stylish appearance than its predecessor, the CMT510, the overall construction quality of this chassis feels inferior by comparison. Measuring 485 x 210 x 430mm (HWD) and weighing just shy of 19 lbs, the CMT520 is constructed of steel, plastic, and tempered glass panels. This chassis, as with all the cases in FSP's CMT line, is only available with a black exterior. It would be nice to see color combinations such as those found on NZXT

Almost the entire top of the chassis is covered by a magnetic mesh fan filter, and below that are mounting locations for three 120mm / 140mm fans. In the angled area between the top and front of the case you will find a pair of USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, RGB lighting control button, headphone and microphone jacks, HDD LED, power, and reset buttons.

The left and front panels on the CMT520 are both feature tempered glass construction. The left panel is held in place by rubber-coated locating pins and large thumbscrews. The front glass panel is held in place by four tiny screws that thread through back of the plastic front panel. The front fascia holds the glass panel roughly 5mm away from the frame, allowing air to be drawn into the chassis around the sides of the glass panel. There is also a row of vents on both sides of the front face of the case.

Around back you will find eight expansion-card slots, a 120mm exhaust-fan mounting location, the motherboard I/O area, and an opening for a bottom-mounted PSU.

The bottom of the case has a hole for power-supply ventilation covered by a 6" slide out nylon dust filter, and four rectangular rubber coated plastic feet.

The CMT520's fan-filtration system is confusing to say the least. As mentioned, the entire top of the case is covered by a magnetic filter. This is nice if you have plans to mount fans or an all-in-one cooler in this location but no fans are installed in here by default. This chassis also has a removable nylon fan filter for the PSU. This obviously benefits the power supply but, by design, air that is drawn in by the PSU fan is immediately vented out the back of the unit without ever entering the chassis main compartment. Meanwhile the three 120mm intake fans in the front of the chassis are completely unfiltered. Although it is possible to re-purpose the magnetic filter from the top of the case to cover the intake fans, end users will most likely opt for a third party magnetic filter at an additional cost.

The overall build quality of the CMT520 feels cheap. The metal panels flex easily, the thumbscrews are the plastic coated type, the plastic front panel is thin and pops off easily, and the lack of an intake fan filter all point to cost-saving design choices that hurt the quality of this case. Chassis such as the Riotoro CR500, Lian Li PC-011 Dynamic, and FSP's own CMT510 offer markedly better build quality at a lower price.

Specifications

Type	Mid Tower
Motherboard Support	EATX, ATX, mATX, Mini-ITX
Dimensions (HxWxD)	495 x 215 x 510mm
Space Above Motherboard	6.4” recess (163mm)
Card Length	423mm
Power Supply Format	Standard ATX PS/2
Weight	8.5 kg
External Bays	(0) 5.25"
Internal Bays	(2) 3.5", (4) 2.5"
Card Slots	8
Ports/Jacks	(2) USB 2.0, (2) USB 3.0, (1) Audio/Mic
Other	LED-lit fans, tempered glass on four sides
Front Fans	3x 120 mm LED fans (Supports 3x 140 mm)
Rear Fans	1x 120 mm LED fan
Top Fans	✗ (Supports 2x 120/140 mm)
Bottom Fans	✗
Side Fans	✗
Dampening	✗

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Hardware Installation & Test Configuration

Interior

Accessories for the FSP CMT520 are located in a small white box secured in one of the two open 3.5" hard drive bays. The box contains various screws, zip ties, and a separate RGB fan extension cable. The box also contains an owners manual.

The interior layout of this chassis is extremely clean thanks in large part to the PSU tunnel and lack of drive racks in the main compartment. The interior of the CMT520 is painted black to match the exterior of the case. There are eight cable pass-through holes with rolled metal edges in the motherboard tray for cable management. Coolers as tall as 163mm can be installed in this chassis. Those of you running multi-GPU set-up with be thrilled with the eight expansion slots that can accommodate graphics cards up to 423mm in length without radiators or all-in-one coolers installed in the front of the chassis.

Although the company claims this case supports up to EATX motherboards, the reality of the situation is that, even though there is physically enough space, there are not enough standoffs to install a true EATX motherboard measuring 13” deep by 12” tall. Additionally, even if there were enough standoffs to support a true EATX motherboard, the three cable pass-through holes on the right-hand side of the motherboard tray would be complete blocked.

Now that we have that out of the way, let's talk about the interior of this chassis. Overall, the main compartment is spacious and very well laid out. The CMT520, like many of the chassis we see these days, features a PSU tunnel, but with a twist. The top of the PSU tunnel is covered with a removable high-gloss black plastic panel that attaches to the frame via magnetic strips. Instead of using rivets to secure the side rail of the power supply tunnel, it would have been nice if FSP would have used screws, making it possible to remove the entire PSU tunnel without drilling out the rivets.

Storage options are fairly tame. The CMT520 can accommodate a total of two 3.5" hard drives and a total of four 2.5" hard drives or SSDs (two convertible from 3.5"). Two hard drive mounting locations can be found in the bottom of the main compartment under the PSU tunnel. The non-removable hard drive rack features two plastic drive trays that can house two 3.5" and/or two 2.5" hard drives. Finally, there are additional mounting locations for two 2.5" SSDs directly behind the motherboard tray. The drive caddies for these locations are of the stamped steel variety, much like the ones used in the Cougar Panzer G and the SilverStone Redline RL06.

Cooling

There are mounting locations for up to seven 120mm fans: three in the top, three in the front, and one in the rear. The CMT520 may also be outfitted with up to six 140mm fans, three in the front and three in the top.

The chassis ships by default with three LED RGB 120mm intake fans in the front. The rear exhaust fan location is outfitted with a LED RGB 120mm fan. This is a step up from the CMT510 that was outfitted with three LED intake fans but wasn't equipped with an exhaust fan.

The LED-lit RGB fans included with this chassis are connected to a built-in LED controller. There are five lighting modes including; static, breathing, flash, flash 3 colors and sync. The lighting is compatible with MSI's Mystic Light, Asus' Aura Sync, and Gigabyte's RGB Fusion lighting via an included RGB fan / power cable.

Radiators and all-in-one liquid coolers up to 360mm can be mounted in top and front of this chassis. The mounting location in the front of the chassis can easily support radiators and all-in-one coolers sandwiched between fans in a push-pull configuration. Some radiator fan combos may require installing one set of fans outside the frame, behind the front fascia. As is the case with most chassis that have mounting locations in the top panel, some coolers may be limited to a single fan configuration, depending on the size of your motherboard. Finally, a 120mm all-in-one cooler or radiator can be mounted in the exhaust fan location in single and dual fan configurations.

FSP lists support for power supplies up to 200mm in length but we did find it a tight fit. End users would be wise to choose a power supply with flexible modular cables for any PSU over 190mm.

Test Configuration

Drivers & Settings
Chipset	Intel INF 10.1.1.42
CPU	3.8GHz (38x 100MHz) @ 1.2V Core
Motherboard	Firmware 7A78v17 (07/03/2017)
RAM	16-17-17-36
Graphics	Maximum Fan for Thermal Tests \| AMD Radeon Crimson ReLive 17.9.1

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Testing Results & Conclusion

For the purposes of comparison, we are using the Vivo V10G, the Cougar Panzer G, the Micronics Master M400, and FSP's own CMT510. The cases used for comparison are of similar sizes and feature sets, and all have one or more tempered-glass side panels.

Vivo V10G Tempered Glass ATX Case

Cougar Panzer G

Micronics Master M400

The temperatures on our budget quad-core Core i5-7500 processor, running at 3.8GHz, peaked at 42° C over the ambient temperature of 25° C under full load. These results are on par with Cougar's Panzer G mid-tower ATX chassis. GPU temperatures were equally impressive. Our test GPU leveled off at 49° over the ambient temperature. These results are better than the FSP CMT510 and equally matched to those of the be quiet! Dark Base 700. In fact, the temperatures we see here today rival those of the NZXT H700i, a chassis almost twice the price of the CMT520.

Normally, tempered glass panels do a good job of reflecting noise back into the case. Unfortunately for the CMT520, the vents in the front of the case, combined with the gap between the front glass panel and the plastic front face, allows a considerable amount of noise to escape the chassis. At 36.2 dBA under load, the CMT520 is one of the loudest cases equipped with tempered glass panels that we have tested. It is rare that a chassis with a tempered glass front panel is louder than open-face mesh chassis such as the Silverstone Redline RL06 and the Cooler Master MasterCase H500P Mesh. If keeping system noise low is at the top of your list of priorities, you'd be better served by virtually any other case in this comparison.

Cooling is one way to measure performance. Noise levels are another. Comparing cooling to noise gives us an overall performance rating labeled “acoustic efficiency” and better known as cooling-to-noise ratio. Regrettably, the overall cooling benefit of this chassis was canceled out by the sizable noise deficit.

The CMT520's current street price is just too high for what this chassis has to offer. This chassis' exceptional thermal performance skews out Perormance Value charts to make it seem as though it is a better value than it truly is. Poor acoustic performance, lackluster build quality, and missing features, make it a poor value overall.

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Cougar Panzer G Mid-Tower Chassis Review: Good Looks, Great Performance

Steven Lynch — Fri, 11 May 2018 15:00:00 +0000

Features & Specifications

With its bold lines and aggressive styling, all wrapped in tempered glass and filled with the company's new vortex LED fans, Cougar's Panzer G chassis might be ideal the case for buyers who are tired of monolithic designs. With its top-notch cooling performance and rugged good looks, this mid-tower case has a lot to offer, but its $120 price is a little on the high side.

Well known in the enthusiast PC community, Cougar has spent the last decade refining its "Real Gear for Real Gamers" approach across a line of products that includes power supplies, gaming peripherals and computer chassis. The latter is what brings us here today.

Exterior

Cougar’s new Panzer G features tempered glass panels on the left, right, top, and front sides, with a symmetrical frame that resembles metal crossbars. If this design looks familiar, that is because the company has used this aesthetic on several of its Panzer series chassis (if it isn't broke, don't fix it). This industrial design seems to be increasingly popular with other case manufacturers as well. The Cooler Master MasterCase H500P Mesh is a good example of a chassis with a similar crossbar frame design.

Measuring 565 x 208 x 520mm (HWD) and tipping the scales at just under 25lbs, the Panzer G's rather imposing design is constructed of steel, plastic, and tempered glass panels. The black on black paint scheme gives this chassis a bit of an ominous, sinister look. The top panel of this chassis is darkly tinted tempered glass, held in place with four thumbscrews, with mounting locations for two 120mm or 140mm fans and a magnetic mesh filter directly under it. The area where the top and front panels meet is home to two USB 2.0 ports, a pair of USB 3.0 ports, a large power button, and headphone and microphone jacks.

The left, right, and front panels are tempered glass as well. Like most cases equipped with tempered glass panels, the Panzer G uses rubber-coated locating pins and thumbscrews to secure the panels to the frame. Air intake vents on either side of the top and front panels provide a direct path for fresh air to be drawn into the chassis. The front and top panels have cut-outs along the sides to allow air into the chassis as well. Much like the FSP CMT510, tabs at the bottom of the side panels require tilting them 45° out and away from the chassis before lifting them up and off the frame.

The bottom of the case has two filter-covered holes, one for the power supply, one for an optional 120mm fan, as well as four large, rubber-coated plastic feet.

The rear of the chassis is home to seven card slots, a motherboard I/O area, an opening for a bottom-mounted PSU, and an exhaust-fan mounting location for 120mm fans.

The fan filtration system is fairly robust in terms of its ability to prevent most dirt and dust particles from entering your system. As mentioned earlier, the metal mesh filter on the top of the case is attached by magnetic seals at the edge of the filter. The large filter in the front of the chassis also attaches to the frame via magnets. The weak point in the filtration system would be the filters located in the bottom of the chassis. Cleaning and maintenance requires turning your system complete on its side. A third magnetic filter in this location would be a better solution.

Specifications

Type	Mid Tower
Motherboard Support	CEB, ATX, mATX, Mini-ITX
Dimensions (HxWxD)	565 x 208 x 520mm
Space Above Motherboard	1.5” + 1.5” recess (39 + 39mm)
Card Length	400mm (424mm w/o front fans)
Power Supply Format	Standard ATX PS/2
Weight	11.25 kg
External Bays	(0) 5.25"
Internal Bays	(2) 3.5", (4) 2.5" (2 converted from 3.5" bays)
Card Slots	7
Ports/Jacks	(2) USB 2.0, (2) USB 3.0, (1) Audio/Mic
Other	LED-lit fans, tempered glass on four sides
Front Fans	3x 120 mm LED fans
Rear Fans	✗
Top Fans	✗
Bottom Fans	✗
Side Fans	✗
Dampening	✗

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Hardware Installation & Test Configuration

Interior

Accessories come in a brown box zip-tied to the back of the chassis. Inside, you will find various screws, motherboard standoffs, zip ties and a manual.

Although it limits the total amount of hard drives that can be used in your system, Cougar's decision to place all hard drive mounting locations behind the motherboard tray really opens up the main compartment of the Panzer G. This design works well and is very similar to the one used in FSP's CMT510 chassis. This leaves an abundance of space in the main compartment for large graphics cards, radiators, and other water cooling components. In fact, there is more than enough room for a custom cooling loop, dual 360mm radiators, a reservoir, and a multi-GPU set-up with room to spare.

Painted black to match the exterior, the interior of the Panzer G is rather simple and straightforward. There are no traditional cable pass-through holes in the motherboard tray. Cougar instead opted for a two piece design that splits the motherboard tray into two sections with a 1-inch gap between the two sections. This design is similar to that of the NZXT H700i except without the fancy cable management bar. The hole at the upper left hand edge of the motherboard tray is specifically designed for routing fan cables and the ATX12V/EPS12V power cable. There is plenty of space for cable management in the area directly behind the motherboard tray.

This chassis can be equipped with coolers as tall as 160mm and can accommodate multiple graphics cards up to 425mm in length. The seven expansion slots will easily accommodate multi-GPU set-ups in this chassis. We tested power supplies up to 220mm in length without any issues.

As previously mentioned, the Panzer G has mounting locations for up to six 2.5" (two convertible from 3.5") and two 3.5" hard drives. All drive caddies are of the stamped steel variety. Two of the dedicated 2.5" drive caddies mount to the top of the PSU tunnel and two mount directly behind the motherboard tray. Both 3.5" drive caddies mount behind the motherboard tray as well.

However, the two mounting locations on the PSU drive tunnel seem unsightly and unnecessary. Most end users could easily forego the drive mounts on the PSU cover and still have enough hard drive mounting locations for a pair of raided SSDs for their OS and a pair of large spinning disks for storage. This also provides a much cleaner look and reduces clutter in the main compartment.

Cooling

There are mounting locations for up to eight 120mm fans: three in the top, three in the front, one in the rear, and one in the base of the case. The Panzer G also can be outfitted with up to four 140mm fans, two in the front and two in the top. The chassis ships by default with three 120mm intake fans in the front. The rear exhaust fan location supports up to 120mm fans though it is not equipped with one by default. Those of you worried about the lack of an exhaust fan can easily re-purpose one of the 120mm intake fans for use in this location without being a detriment to overall cooling performance.

Radiators and all-in-one liquid coolers up to 360mm can be mounted in top and front of this chassis. The mounting location in the front of the chassis can easily support radiators and all-in-one coolers sandwiched between fans in a push-pull configuration using the stock 120mm LED fans. Though there is a good deal of space in the top of the chassis, radiators and all-in-one coolers using a push-pull configuration require mounting one set of fans outside the frame, under the top cover. The exhaust fan mounting location can be fitted with 120mm coolers in single and dual fan configurations.

Test Configuration

Drivers & Settings
Chipset	Intel INF 10.1.1.42
CPU	3.8GHz (38x 100MHz) @ 1.2V Core
Motherboard	Firmware 7A78v17 (07/03/2017)
RAM	16-17-17-36
Graphics	Maximum Fan for Thermal Tests \| AMD Radeon Crimson ReLive 17.9.1

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Testing Results & Conclusion

For the purposes of comparison, we are using the NZXT H700i, the Bitfenix Enso, and the be quiet! Dark Base 700. The cases used for comparison are of similar sizes and feature sets, and all have tempered-glass side panels.

Bitfenix Enso

NZXT H700i

be quiet! Dark Base 700

CPU core temperatures on our budget quad-core Core i5-7500 processor running at 3.8GHz were very impressive. With the case's fans set at 1400 RPM, the Cougar Panzer G, thanks in no small part to the generous airflow provided by the triple 120mm intake fans, was more than capable of keeping temperatures in check. Processor temps never exceeded 37°C over the ambient temperature of 25°C. This puts the Panzer G into a tie with Cooler Master's Master Case H500P Mesh chassis and ahead of the NZXT H700i. No easy feat

Graphics-card temperatures fared even better, at 45°C over the ambient, our test GPU turned in the best performance of any of the cases we used for comparison purposes. Obviously this level of heat dissipation can be attributed to the sheer amount of unobstructed airflow, as well as the close proximity of the intake fans to our graphics card. Let's see if all this cooling performance has to come at a cost to acoustic performance.

With tempered glass panels on the front, top and both sides of this chassis, it came as no surprise that system noise was some of the best we have seen. At just 32.2 dBA under load, these results are better than the CMT510, NZXT H700i, and on par with the Dark Base 700. If keeping system noise low is at the top of your list of priorities, you'd be hard-pressed to find a quieter chassis.

The Panzer G offers ticks all the right boxes, including design, functionality and performance. However, even though this chassis is less expensive than direct competitors, we believe a $100 price point would make this a deal you just couldn't pass up. Overall, this is a great case, even at $120.

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Vivo V10G ATX Case Review: Tempered Glass On The Cheap

Steven Lynch — Wed, 09 May 2018 13:00:00 +0000

Features & Specifications

Got glass on the brain for your next PC build-out? If you are in the market for an inexpensive PC chassis that offers a bit of bling and a tempered-glass side panel, Vivo has a solution. The budget-friendly V10G is as easy on the eyes as it is your wallet, and it brings a reasonable mix of features to the table for its low asking price. (The MSRP was $51.99, and we saw the chassis selling for a few bucks less than that from some resellers when we wrote this.) We had some quibbles with the design, though.

An entry-level chassis of steel, plastic, and tempered-glass construction that's painted black inside and out, the V10G is just a bit smaller than the average mid-tower ATX case. It measures 16.6x7.7x16.7" (HWD) and tips the scales at just over 10 lbs.

The steel top panel is featureless and held in place by rivets. At the top of the front panel, you will find the power and reset buttons, as well as two USB 2.0 ports and a single USB 3.0. The front-panel connectivity is rounded out by the usual headphone and microphone jacks and the power LED and hard drive activity lights.

Specifications

Type	Mid-Tower
Motherboard Support	ATX, mATX, Mini-ITX
Dimensions (HxWxD)	16.7 x 7.7 x 16.6" (421 x 196 x 423mm)
Space Above Motherboard	0.5” (12.7mm)
Card Length	350mm
Power Supply Format	Standard ATX PS2-Style PSU
Weight	4.63 kg
External Bays	(0) 5.25"
Internal Bays	(2) 3.5", (2) 2.5"
Card Slots	7
Ports/Jacks	(2) USB 2.0, (1) USB 3.0, audio/mic jacks
Other	Tempered-glass front and side panel
Front Fans	3x 120mm LED
Rear Fans	✗
Top Fans	✗
Bottom Fans	✗
Side Fans	✗
Dampening	✗

Devoid of features and drive-bay openings, the entire front of the chassis is covered by a plastic fascia with a built-in tempered glass panel. Removing this panel is a simple matter of grabbing the lower edge and pulling outward, away from the chassis, but you'll need to take care to avoid twisting the panel and breaking the glass insert. Ventilation into the chassis is provided by a row of vents that runs down both sides of this front face.

Around back is a standard I/O cutout, seven expansion slots with punch-out covers, a spot for a top-mounted PSU, and an exhaust-fan-mounting location for 120mm or 80mm fans. This chassis is not outfitted with an exhaust fan from the factory. According to the owner's manual, the case is designed so that your PSU's ventilation acts as an exhaust fan. The bottom of the chassis is bare, apart from four round plastic feet.

The tempered-glass side panel is held in place by rubber-coated thumbscrews. Unfortunately, this chassis is not equipped with locating pins or other stays, so there is nothing keeping this panel from falling to the desk once the last screw is removed. You'll want to take extra care when removing the glass. The steel panel on the opposite side of the chassis is plain and secured with plastic-coated thumbscrews.

We were more than a little concerned to discover that the Vivo V10G is not equipped with a single fan filter. The owner's manual instructs users to "clean filters using compressed air," but no filters are included with this case. Obviously, this can be remedied with an aftermarket magnetic filter, but at least one should have been included by default for an intake fan.

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Hardware Installation & Test Configuration

Accessories come in a plastic bag zip-tied to the hard drive racks. Inside, you will find various screws, motherboard standoffs, a single expansion-slot cover, a system speaker, and a manual.

The interior of the V10G is a decades-old design that dates back to the turn of the century. The cramped appearance is due to a large stamped-steel hard drive rack that extends from the top of the chassis to the bottom and covers more than a third of the main compartment. The rack is riveted in place and not removable without drilling out the rivets. To our eyes, this is not the type of internal layout that you want to accentuate with a full tempered-glass side panel.

The good news is that the interior of the chassis is larger than it appears and supports up to ATX motherboards. The seven expansion slots will accommodate multi-GPU setups, and you get more than enough room for most dual-GPU configurations and graphics cards up to 350mm long, depending on how many 3.5" hard drives you have installed. (The drives may jut into the video-card airspace.) Six of the seven expansion-slot covers are of the old punch-out style, so you will need to source a few screw-down covers if you reconfigure your system at a later date and need to fill in punched-out gaps.

There is a medium-size cable pass-through hole with rolled metal edges in the power-supply area for cable management. The way the Vivo V10G is designed, though, we see no real reason to run your cables behind the motherboard tray. There is also a large hole in the motherboard mounting plate behind the CPU socket area that allows for heatsink changes without having to remove the motherboard. (While we are on the subject, this chassis can accommodate CPU coolers up to 152mm tall.)

The fact that this chassis lacks any pass-through holes in the motherboard tray means that all fan, audio, USB, and 12V motherboard power cables will be exposed. Adding insult to injury, Vivo chose to use cables that are white or bright blue, and they stand out like a sore thumb.

The previously mentioned hard drive rack measures 5.5" x 15.5" and is riveted to the frame of the case. In addition to two mounting locations for 3.5" drives at the bottom, the chassis has side mounting locations for two 2.5" drives and what appears to be a trio of leftover 5.25" drive bays in the top, even though this chassis has no openings in the front panel for externally accessible drives.

The power supply mounts in the top of this chassis with its fan facing down. Although the company designed the V10G so that your PSU fan acts as an exhaust fan, this is not an ideal setup for anyone running an overclocked computer or a system with a silent/fanless power supply. Also, even though it is possible to mount power supplies as long as 240mm in this case, anything over 150mm will block the PSU cable pass-through hole. You will also notice that, because the sheet metal used in the construction of this chassis is so thin, heavier power supplies may sag under their own weight, as you can see above.

Cooling

Cooling duties are handled by a trio of 120mm LED (blue) fans. Although the case has a mounting location for a 120mm exhaust fan, no such fan is included from the factory. Clever enthusiasts, though, could easily re-purpose the bottom-most 120mm intake fan as an exhaust fan.

Radiators and all-in-one coolers can only be installed in the exhaust-fan mounting location. The good news: Not only can you install 120mm liquid coolers in a dual-fan configuration (with the radiator sandwiched between fans in a push-pull configuration), but the added exhaust fans also help to balance airflow in the chassis. The bad news? The intake-fan mounting locations in the front of the chassis are obscured by the non-removable hard drive racks, and the top of the chassis is taken up by the power supply.

Test Configuration

Drivers & Settings
Chipset	Intel INF 10.1.1.42
CPU	3.8GHz (38x 100MHz) @ 1.2V Core
Motherboard	Firmware 7A78v17 (07/03/2017)
RAM	16-17-17-36
Graphics	Maximum Fan for Thermal Tests \| AMD Radeon Crimson ReLive 17.9.1

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Benchmark Results & Conclusion

Comparison Cases

Antec P110 Luce TG

Phanteks Eclipse P300 TG

Riotoro CR500 TG

For comparison purposes, we used the Antec P110 Luce, the Riotoro CR500, and the Phanteks Eclipse P300 TG. The cases used for comparison are of similar sizes and feature mixtures, and all have tempered-glass side panels.

With the PC under full load, the temperatures on our budget quad-core Core i5-7500 processor, running at 3.8GHz, leveled off at 44° C over the ambient temperature of 25° C. GPU temperatures were high, despite the fact that the case has three 120mm intake fans. We believe this is due to the combination of the open-air style of cooler on our test GPU and the lack of an exhaust fan on the chassis. Although 59° C is not dangerously high, the Vivo's graphics-card temperatures were the highest among the cases in this comparison set.

Acoustics were good at idle, registering just 32.4dBA. We were a bit surprised that, once we cranked things up and the system was under full load, the sound level increased by only a few dBA. The downside: Even though the chassis produced a relatively low 35.6dBA under load, the case rattled.

In terms of acoustic efficiency, the Vivo V10G and the Phanteks Eclipse P300 come in neck-and-neck.

The Vivo V10G's low current street price makes this chassis look like a better deal than it actually is. In reality, this case's middle-of-the-pack thermal and acoustic performance, coupled with its lack of features, its limited liquid-cooling options, and the decades-old design, make it a poor value overall.

We really wanted to like the V10G but, in the end, we can't give it a thumbs-up. That doesn't mean there isn't an audience for a case like this. If you were buying in bulk to build low-cost PCs for an internet cafe or similar scenario, an entry-level chassis with tempered-glass side panels like this might be just what you are looking for. Discriminating DIY-ers, though? Not so much.

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Micronics Master M400 Mid-Tower Case Review

Steven Lynch — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 15:00:01 +0000

Features & Specifications

Elder geeks may recognize the Micronics brand from motherboard lore, but the Korean former distributorship has survived all the mergers and acquisitions of its former U.S. partners to develop its own brand of PC power supplies, AIO CPU coolers, AIO computer chassis, and standard computer cases. One of the latter is the company's $95 Master M400, which is not to be confused with Cooler Master's own line of MasterCase chassis.

Featuring two tempered glass side panels, a slick glossy finish and support for up to ATX motherboards and long graphics cards, the Master M400 may seem like the perfect mid-tower chassis...until you take a closer look. Though this case has good thermal performance and a few nice touches, competitors such as the Riotoro CR500 offer similar performance and better build quality for a lot less money.

The M400 is constructed of steel, plastic, and tempered-glass that is painted black inside and out. Slightly larger than the average mid-tower ATX case, it measures 520 x 203 x 470mm (HWD) and weighs just over 14lbs. Much of the top panel is covered by a metal-mesh filter, directly under which are mounting locations for two 120mm fans, all-in-one coolers and radiators.

The area between the top panel and the front panel is slanted at a 45° angle. This 3.5 x 7" space is home to two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports, a fan control button, LED controller, headphone and microphone jacks, a hard drive activity LED, and a reset and power button. The company includes anti-dust plugs for each port to prevent debris from accumulating in the ports when the computer is not in use. Directly behind the front fascia you will find mounting locations for two 120mm intake fans. Ventilation into the chassis is provided by a row of vents that runs down both sides of this front face.

The M400 is equipped with a single 5.25" mounting location for optical drives or drive bay accessories. The high-gloss acrylic front panel is smooth and very darkly tinted, but, unfortunately, the 5.25" drive bay cover is not as darkly tinted. This means that, if you chose not to install an optical drive or drive bay accessory in this slot, the light from the LED fans causes it to stand out like a back-lit sore thumb.

The left and right side panels are 4mm-thick tempered glass held in place by rubber-coated locating pins and thumbscrews. The tempered glass side panel on the business side of things is slightly tinted but, as strange as it may seem, the tempered glass side panel on the opposite side is not see-through. Designed to hide cables, it may seem like a waste to use tempered glass to those who see transparency as the whole point of TG. A stamped steel panel could have served the same purpose while cutting the price, at the cost of aesthetic continuity.

The bottom of the case has a filtered hole for power-supply ventilation, a filtered hole just under the hard drive racks, and four rectangular rubber coated plastic feet.

The rear of the chassis is home to seven expansion-card slots (+2 vertical slots), a 120mm exhaust-fan mounting location, the motherboard I/O area, and an opening for a bottom-mounted PSU.

The M400 is equipped with a basic fan-filtration system that, for the most part, does a decent job of keeping larger dirt and debris out of your system. The top filter is built into the top panel and easily removable. The front panel vents are also built into the plastic fascia and, as you can see from the images, would do little to keep fine dust out of your system.

The use of magnetic filters, such as the ones found in the FSP CMT510, or the nylon filters like the ones used in SilverStone's RL06, would go a long way to help keep dirt and dust out of your system without adding much to the overall cost of the chassis. The filters on the bottom of the chassis require turning the entire case on its side to remove the filter.

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Hardware Installation & Test Configuration

A plastic bag containing various screws, zip ties, system speaker and cloth for cleaning the tempered glass side panels is stowed inside one of the open 3.5" drive bays. The bag also contains the manual.

Painted black to match the exterior, the interior of the Master M400 is rather roomy for a mid-tower. There are four cable pass-through holes with rubber grommets located in the right hand side of the motherboard tray and two in the top of the PSU tunnel.

There is a small hole at the upper left hand edge of the motherboard tray that is specifically designed for routing fan cables and the ATX12V/EPS12V power cable. We highly recommend routing the EPS12V power cable behind the motherboard tray before installing your motherboard, because it is impossible to do so afterward. The cable management area directly behind the motherboard tray is fairly narrow at just three quarters of an inch. Those of you in need of more cable management space would no doubt be better served by the Riotoro CR500, without sacrificing performance, build quality or value.

The seven expansion slots allow for multi-GPU setups, with cards up to 390mm in length. And you'll still have room to spare for radiators and all-in-one coolers in the front of the chassis. Unfortunately, the expansion slot covers are the punch-out variety. This case can be outfitted with CPU coolers up to 160mm and power supplies up to 210mm in length.

At the bottom of the main compartment you will find a large non-removable PSU tunnel that covers your power supply and two drive bays. There are two large cut outs in the side of the PSU tunnel; one for drive tray removal and one that is presumably there to allow you to show off your power supply logo.

The Master M400 is equipped with a single, space-saving 5.25" optical drive bay slot in the main component compartment. As you can see from the photos, the cut-away design of the 5.25" drive bay allows optical drives to be supported in the front, while holes in the motherboard tray let you attach the rear of your optical drives to the chassis frame.

Two of the six hard drive mounting locations are placed under the power supply tunnel and support both 2.5" and 3.5" drives via plastic hard drive caddies. This case also features four dedicated mounting locations for 2.5" SSDs behind the motherboard tray. It should be noted that two of these 2.5" mounting locations are located directly over two cable pass-through holes in the motherboard tray, eliminated the use of both.

Finally, the M400 comes equipped with a vertical VGA card holder from the factory. This removable plastic holder allows end users to install a PCI-E x16 riser cable to show off their high-dollar graphics card by mounting it vertically, but the riser cable is sold separately. Also, we were unable to vertically mount the MSI RX 580 Gaming we use for testing because, at 140mm tall, it came into contact with our 153mm CPU air cooler. Obviously this would not be a problem with stock height coolers or all-in-one liquid coolers but it is definitely something to keep in mind when selecting components.

Cooling

The Master M400 is outfitted with two LED-lit 120mm intake fans in the front of the chassis and a 120mm LED fan in the rear of the case near the CPU socket area. In total, you can install up to five 120mm fans. The mounting locations on the top and front of the case can accommodate up to two 120mm fans. The rear exhaust fan location supports one 120mm fan. If you look closely, you will notice that the front fans have the option to slide both fans up about 65mm. This gives you the ability to fine tune the airflow in your system.

The fan control wiring system is a rat's nest. To save money, the M400 isn't equipped with a proper fan controller. Instead, all the fans (and any subsequent fans added by the end user) are all daisy chained, making for a huge mess of tangled wiring. SilverStone's Redline Series RL06 is equipped with a fan control hub that not only allows end users to easily control up to ten fans, it helps keep cable clutter to a minimum and doesn't add a lot to the overall price of the case.

The M400 can accommodate radiators in three locations: The two 120mm mounting locations in the top of the case can be used with a wide range of 240mm radiators and all-in-one coolers from various manufacturers. As is the case with most chassis that have mounting locations in the top panel, some coolers may be limited to a single fan configuration, depending on the size of your motherboard.

The front of the chassis can accommodate radiators up to 240mm in both, with enough room for fans mounted on both sides in a push-pull configuration. The rear of the chassis supports 120mm radiators or all-in-one coolers in the exhaust fan location over the CPU socket area in single and dual fan configurations.

Test Configuration

Drivers & Settings
Chipset	Intel INF 10.1.1.42
CPU	3.8GHz (38x 100MHz) @ 1.2V Core
Motherboard	Firmware 7A78v17 (07/03/2017)
RAM	16-17-17-36
Graphics	Maximum Fan for Thermal Tests \| AMD Radeon Crimson ReLive 17.9.1

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Benchmarks & Final Analysis

Comparison Cases

FSP CMT510

Phanteks Eclipse P300 TG

Riotoro CR500 TG

For comparison purposes, we used the SilverStone Redline Series RL06, the Riotoro CR500, FSP CMT510, and the Phanteks Eclipse P300 TG. The cases used for comparison are of similar sizes and feature mixtures, and all have one or more tempered-glass side panels.

With the PC under full load, the temperatures on our budget quad-core Core i5-7500 processor, running at 3.8GHz, maxed-out at 40° C over the ambient temperature of 25° C. Due to the sheer amount of unobstructed airflow and close proximity of the intake fans to the graphics card, our GPU temps peaked at 50° C over the ambient temperature. These results put us right in the middle of the cases we used for comparison.

We took sound level readings with two off-the-shelf dB meters from two different angles. The M400 registered 30.2dB at idle and 35.9dB under load. These results could have been better but it seems that the sound deadening properties of a tempered glass side panel were somewhat cancelled out by the thin acrylic front fascia. Also something to be considered, the chassis emits a somewhat annoying "wheezing" noise as air is drawn in through the small ventilation holes in the sides of the front panel.

We determine acoustic efficiency, also referred to as "cooling-to-noise ratio," by averaging all five of our tests to determine a base value.

On the one hand, the M400 looks like a decent value, based on thermal and acoustic performance. Conversely, the lack of features, cheap construction and strange design choices make this case a poor value, even at $95. Thankfully for cost-conscious enthusiasts, chassis such as the Riotoro CR500 TG and the SilverStone Redline Series RL06 not only offer better features and / or performance, they are priced significantly less than the Master M400.

At the time of writing, this chassis carried a retail price of $95. At that price, we felt that even if this chassis was inferior to some of its competitors, it might be worthy of your consideration at a significantly lower price point. Luckily, Micronics and Newegg are currently offering this chassis for $70 for a limited time. So, those of you that had any inclinations of purchase this case, now might be a good time to do so before the price goes back up to its original MSRP.

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Lian Li PC-O11 Dynamic Chassis Review: Affordable Luxury

Steven Lynch — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 13:00:00 +0000

Features & Specifications

Lian Li's latest case offering, the PC-O11 Dynamic, is a gorgeous chassis with large tempered glass panels, outstanding water cooling support, and a surprisingly reasonable price tag of $99.

Exterior

Sharp eyed readers will remember that the Lian Li PC-O11 Dynamic was awarded our "Best Value PC Case" award at CES 2018 earlier this year. This chassis, designed in collaboration with renowned extreme-overclocker Roman “Der8auer” Hartung, features steel-and-tempered-glass construction, with a brushed-aluminum accent panel. The chassis measures 450 x 275 x 450mm (L x W x H), is painted black inside and out, and weighs in at just under 22lbs.

The top of the chassis is flat and, with the exception of a 5 by 15-inch row of ventilation slots, is featureless. There are no handles, buttons, slots or ports on the top if the PC-O11 Dynamic. The aforementioned slotted vents span almost the entire length of the left-hand side of the chassis, front to back.

The right-hand side of the front of the chassis is covered by a brushed aluminum panel that is home to two USB 3.0 ports, microphone and headphone jacks, a power button, and a single USB Type-C port. The majority of the front of the case is covered by a 420 x 220 x 4mm tinted tempered glass panel.

The fact that this chassis is equipped with a full-cover tempered glass side panel isn't anything special, many cases these days have one or more glass panels. But It's the rather ingenious way the tempered glass panels are attached to the case that make this chassis stand out. The tempered glass panels can only be detached once the top panel has been removed. This clever design minimizes the possibility of dropping a glass panel during installation or maintenance, and the lack of traditional thumbscrew fasteners gives the PC-O11 Dynamic a sleek and stylish look.

Those of you concerned about airflow need only to look at the panel on the opposite side of the case, where you'll find slotted vents, identical to those on the top panel, covering both the front and back of the stamped-steel panel. Just as with the glass panels, the top panel has to be removed in order to gain access for cleaning and maintenance.

The rear of the chassis is home to eight expansion card slots, a motherboard I/O area in the center, a mounting location for a bottom-mounted PSU, as we as an opening for two 3.5" hard drives (or a secondary power supply). The bottom of the case has three filter-covered mounting locations for 120mm fans, as well as four large, rubber-lined plastic feet.

The PC-O11 Dynamic features a solid fan filtration system. Every intake fan mounting location in this chassis is equipped with a large washable magnetic filter. Overall, these filters do a good job preventing dirt and dust particles from entering your system.

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Hardware Installation & Test Configuration

Accessories for the PC-O11 Dynamic are located in a small box secured in the open 3.5" hard drive bays. The box contains the usual collection: various screws, Velcro cable straps, and an owners manual and installation guide.

Although Lian Li claims this case supports up to EATX motherboards, the reality of the situation is that since true EATX motherboard measure 13” deep by 12” tall, there are not enough standoffs to install a motherboard of that size. In fact, the motherboard tray in the PC-O11 Dynamic is designed in such a way that attempting to use a full EATX motherboard would leave over three inches of your motherboard unsupported.

With that out of the way, the inside of this chassis is absolutely cavernous. The dual-chamber design allows users to move components hard drives, power supplies, radiators and all-in-one coolers into the rear chamber, freeing up the entire main compartment for your system build.

This chassis features eight expansion slots and can accommodate multi-GPU set-ups up to 420mm in length and 150mm wide. Lian Li also offers--at an additional cost--an optional rear panel that allows you to vertically mount a dual-slot GPU.

You'll find four trapezoid-shaped cable pass-through holes with rubber grommets in the motherboard tray for cable management. Additionally, two small holes with rolled-metal edges sit at the base of the motherboard tray, and there's another for passing through the 12v motherboard power cable as well. You'll also find a large hole in the motherboard mounting plate, behind the CPU socket area, to facilitate heatsink changes without removing the motherboard. This chassis can be outfitted with CPU coolers up to 155mm and graphics cards up to 420mm.

As far as storage options go, the PC-O11 Dynamic can accommodate up to three 3.5" hard drives and a total of six 2.5" hard drives or SSDs. Two of the 2.5" drive-mounting locations can be found in the bottom of the main compartment. In the secondary compartment, there is a removable hard drive rack with two metal drive trays that can house two 3.5" and/or two 2.5" hard drives. Finally, there are mounting locations for two 2.5" SSDs or one SSD and one 3.5" drive on the cable management bar. For a cleaner look, builders can forego using the 2.5" mounting locations in the floor of the main compartment in favor of mounting all the storage devices in the secondary compartment.

Power supplies up to 210mm long can be installed in the secondary compartment behind the motherboard tray. The bottom slot can accommodate PSUs up to 210mm and--with the cable management bar in place--up 170mm in length in the top PUS slot. Removing the cable management bar allows for dual 210mm PSUs, but that comes at the expense of losing two hard drive mounting locations. Lian Li told us at CES 2018 that one of the main reasons the case is designed for two power supplies is that a pair of mid-wattage PSUs often costs less than one high-end, high-wattage PSU. While that's certainly true, we suspect the percentage of people buying this case and installing a pair of power supplies will be fairly low.

Cooling

When it comes to cooling, we were a bit disappointed to discover that the PC-O11 Dynamic doesn't ship with any fans from the factory. Obviously, this can be remedied by the end user, but it would have been nice to see at least one fan included with the case. In total, this chassis can be equipped with up to nine 120mm spinners, or a combination of two 140mm and six 120mm fans.

All-in-one coolers and radiators up to 360mm can be installed in the top, side and bottom of the chassis. When adding an all-in-one cooler or radiator in the side mounting location, the radiator can be installed (with fans) in the in the primary compartment or, for a cleaner look or to make room for other components, the fans can be mounted in the main chamber with the radiator in the secondary chamber.

Test Configuration

Drivers & Settings
Chipset	Intel INF 10.1.1.42
CPU	3.8GHz (38x 100MHz) @ 1.2V Core
Motherboard	Firmware 7A78v17 (07/03/2017)
RAM	16-17-17-36
Graphics	Maximum Fan for Thermal Tests \| AMD Radeon Crimson ReLive 17.9.1

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Benchmark Results & Conclusion

Comparison Cases

be quiet! Dark Base 700

Bitfenix Enso

NZXT H700i

The lack of airflow in this chassis is due to the fact that the PC-O11 Dynamic ships with no fans. Although we are fully aware that this is done as a cost-cutting measure--and enthusiasts prefer to add their own fans--we still think Lian Li should have included one intake and one exhaust fan to provide some airflow into the chassis.

To be honest, we expected higher temperatures from a case that has no fans and is equipped with tempered-glass panels. Temperatures were higher than the cases we used for comparison purposes but, this is quite literally a worst-case scenario and temps can only get better with the addition of a couple fans. Our budget quad-core i5-7500 processor running at 3.8 GHz peaked at 52°C over the ambient temperature of 25°C. Those of you running highly overclocked systems will no-doubt want to take advantage of the water-cooling-friendly design by adding a custom water cooling loop or an all-in-one cooler. GPU temperatures also elevated at 63°C over the ambient room temperature.

Most enthusiasts are aware of the benefits of panels made of tempered glass and its ability to reflect sound back into the chassis. That, combined with a complete lack of cooling fans, means that this chassis is almost inaudible at idle. Under load, the PC-O11 Dynamic generated very little noise and is easily the quietest case in the bunch. Unfortunately, glass panels also lead to higher system temperatures. This can be remedied by the addition of one or more intake fans, but that would almost certainly negatively impact the acoustic results below.

We openly admit that our Performance Value results can be a bit misleading, even now. Anyone buying this chassis will no doubt add cooling fans and/or fans attached to radiators and all-in-one cooling solutions. Installing fans would add to the overall cost of the case, and that in turn would affect the Performance Value rating. Also, even though fanswould improve overall thermal performance, it would certainly introduce more system noise and negatively impact our acoustic-efficiency rating.

Those of you that already have an all-in-one cooler picked out for use in this chassis won't need to buy as many extra case fans, so that is something to take into consideration as well. Also, anyone buying this chassis must factor the cost of cooling fans into the total price of this chassis--unless you're carrying spinners over from a previous build. That said, even with the added cost of cooling fans, the sub-$100 asking price low enough that the PC-O11 Dynamic is still a great value.

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Shuttle X1 Mini PC Review: This Tiny Gamer Packs Pep

Derek Forrest — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 13:00:00 +0000

Introduction & Product Tour

Shuttle is known for its small form factor (SFF) barebones gaming PCs, so we were surprised to receive a fully configured mini PC with an Intel Core i7 processor and a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card. The Shuttle X1 is one of the smallest systems (barebones or configured) we’ve seen with true gaming chops. But can this minuscule machine make good on its promise of VR-ready gaming performance? It’s time to put the X1 to the test.

Exterior

The Shuttle X1 features a box-like chassis (5.6 x 5.6 x 3.4”) with a steel frame and a plastic top panel. The lid sports the company logo and sharp red accents. The design is typical for a PC marketed as a gaming device, except it’s considerably small. The size makes it an ideal pairing for a living-room TV or sitting on a small desk with a monitor.

The bottom and side panels sport vents to dissipate the heat, with the bottom vent acting as an intake with fan behind it. Copper heat sinks are visible through the vented side panels. (We’ll see what those are for later.)

The front panel I/O consists of the power button, an SD card reader, and two USB 3.0 ports. The backside of the X1 is more generous with its USB connectivity, with a USB 3.1 (Gen 1) Type-C, two USB 3.0, and four USB 2.0 ports. You can connect your monitor (or multiple displays) with a DisplayPort 1.3 interface and three HDMI 2.0 ports. An RJ-45 port (powered by a Realtek RTL8111G gigabit Ethernet NIC) will connect you to the internet, but the X1’s integrated 802.11ac Wi-Fi antenna is nowhere to be found. (There’s a good reason for this, so read on.)

Interior

The chambered interior makes accessing the primary components (CPU, GPU) difficult for the end user. The bottom panel sports four screws (one at each corner) that will free the metal base from the rest of the chassis to reveal the aforementioned intake fan and copper heatsink. They cool the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB MXM graphics card with two copper pipes and a small heatsink that exhausts the hot air out of the side panel.

A small circuit board with the bottom half of the rear panel I/O is also visible in the chamber, with two of the HDMI ports and the DisplayPort interface exposed. The Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor and HM175 chipset reside in the center chamber (between the top and the bottom) of the device, and end users aren’t meant to toil with it, or the bottom half of the machine.

The top panel can be detached to access the memory and storage by removing the four screws along the top edges of the side panels. To get to the screws, you first have to remove a magnetic sticker that hides them, which may require a small screwdriver to pick it off. Once the screws are out, the top panel lifts out, but it won’t go far. That's because the entire panel is an 802.11ac Wi-Fi antenna, attached to the Intel Wireless AC 3165 M.2 module with thin wires. You should take extra care when opening this panel so you don’t accidentally pull out the cables.

Another metal panel blocks access to the storage and memory, but removing the four screws (near each corner of the device) will set it free from the chassis. However, the metal panel also acts as a drive cage should you want to add a 2.5” storage drive to the system (which we would highly recommend). Any such additional storage was not included in this particular test model. We added our own HDD to get our game library loaded for testing, but we weren’t fond of the procedure, which involved a SATA connector with a tiny cable, and an even smaller retention clip to insert the cable into, requiring many attempts. (Thanks, giant hands.)

Once you are inside, the memory and primary SSD storage are easy to find. The 16GB (2 x 8GB) kit of DDR4-2400 is plenty of memory for a serious gamer. Although the 2,400MHz speed is standard for the CPU, the CAS latency (17-17-17-39) is less common than the usual CAS 16 kits found in many OEM systems. However, the off-brand memory (Goldkey, to be precise) should be adequate for gaming and light productivity workloads. A 256GB SATA 6GB/s Phison PS3111-S11 SSD is seated in the M.2 slot, and the mid-size capacity is ideal for a boot drive with a few light games on it.

Software & Accessories

The Shuttle X1 comes with Windows 10 Home 64-bit installed, with no bloatware or trial software to speak of cluttering up your low-capacity SSD. However, Shuttle includes a driver DVD in case you want to start over with your system by switching to a bigger SSD or an Intel Optane setup (say, with an Optane M.2 module and high-capacity 2.5” HDD). The external 180W AC adapter is adequate for the mobile components inside the X1.

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Synthetic & Productivity Benchmarks

The Shuttle X1’s Core i7-7700HQ and GeForce GTX 1060 3GB MXM graphics card put it into a similar box as other mini PCs (barebones or full systems) we’ve tested in both form factor and pricing, so we compared the X1 to the recently reviewed Gigabyte Brix Gaming VR and Zotac ZBox Magnus EN1060K barebones PCs. These mini PCs fall into a similar price category as the fully configured Shuttle X1 after purchasing the required storage, memory, and OS.

We also included the metrics from our H270 test bench, which is loaded with an Intel Core i5-7500, a Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 6GB graphics card, and a 16GB kit of Kingston HyperX Fury DDR4-2133, all running at stock settings. Although we anticipate that it will easily outperform the mobile-GPU-equipped systems in single-threaded CPU workloads, we’ve included it to show how much performance it costs you to get something much smaller, and how much multithreaded performance you could gain with more cores in a mobile Core i7 CPU. It will also give us baseline storage and memory-performance metrics to compare against the X1. (We excluded these benchmarks in our barebones-PC reviews.)

Comparison Products

Gigabyte BRIX Gaming VR (Barebones)

ZOTAC ZBOX MAGNUS EN1060K-U

H270 Test System Configuration

The Brix Gaming VR sports the same CPU as the Shuttle X1 (a Core i7-7700HQ), so it should provide comparable performance in CPU-intensive workloads. The Zbox sports a desktop Core i5-7500T, which will showcase the advantages of Hyper-Threading in the Core i7-equipped systems. However, the Zotac and Gigabyte offerings each sport a 6GB version of the mobile GeForce GTX 1060 MXM graphics card, which will put them ahead of the Shuttle X1’s 3GB GTX 1060 in games with settings that put a heavy load on the frame buffer.

3DMark

The Shuttle X1’s strengths and weaknesses are on full display in the 3DMark Fire Strike and Time Spy benchmarks, where the X1 manages to land itself between the Brix and Zbox in the 1080p (Fire Strike) and 1440p (Fire Strike Extreme) tests. Although the Shuttle X1’s CPU performance nearly matches the Brix and pushes it to a higher overall score against the EN1060K (and even exceeds the Physics score of our desktop H270 system’s Core i5-7500), the performance of the X1’s GTX 1060 3GB graphics card lags behind the GTX 1060 6GB GPU-equipped barebones systems.

At 4K (Fire Strike Ultra), the X1 is shuffled to the bottom of the heap as the bottleneck shifts to the GPU. Although the 3GB GTX 1060 inside the X1 sports the same clock speeds and CUDA core count (1,280) as the 6GB counterparts in the Zbox and Brix, the halved frame buffer has a negative impact on the graphics performance, especially as you turn up the resolution and any VRAM-hungry settings or effects.

Cinebench R15

The Shuttle X1 performs much better when the graphics card isn’t involved, with better scores than its most apples-to-apples competitor, the Gigabyte Brix Gaming VR. Both systems sport a Core i7-7700HQ, but the X1 pulls ahead in Rendering (both single- and multi-threaded) and OpenGL Shading portions of the Cinebench R15 tests, thanks to better thermal performance, an attribute we noted the Brix seemed to lack when we reviewed it a few months back. The X1 is simply able to maintain its peak CPU turbo frequency (which boosts in lightly threaded workloads) for longer durations because the thermal limits aren’t throttling it back down.

The multi-threaded Rendering results may put the X1 slightly ahead of the similarly equipped Brix, but the scores are nearly identical because the CPUs operate at the same base frequency without variation when all the cores are engaged.

CompuBench

Bringing the GPU back into play returns the Shuttle X1 to the back of the line in the CompuBench tests. Whereas the 6GB MXM GTX 1060-equipped systems (the Zbox and Brix) are within a small margin of each other, the smaller frame buffer of the X1’s 3GB GTX 1060 GPU puts a considerable dent in the performance, falling short by over 13 FPS and 53 MHash/s in the Video Processing and Bitcoin Mining tests, respectively (compared to the next competing system with 6GB of VRAM).

Storage Test

We didn’t benchmark the storage performance of the Gigabyte and Zotac barebones systems because we used the same hardware in each of them (and you have to buy it yourself), so we only compared the performance of the X1’s 256GB Phison PS3111-S11 SATA M.2 SSD to the 480GB Kingston HyperX Savage 2.5” SSD in our H270 test rig. The X1 is speedy, but it doesn’t have the fastest flash on the market, with the smaller-capacity Phison SSD falling significantly behind in 4K random and 128K sequential read and write performance at QD2. However, average consumers wouldn’t see much of a difference so long as it’s fast.

Sandra Memory Bandwidth

We also didn’t test the memory performance of the barebones systems we’ve reviewed, so the H270’s 16GB kit of Kingston HyperX DDR4-2133 will be the only base comparison for the Shuttle X1’s 16GB (2 x 8GB) kit of Goldkey DDR4-2400 SODIMM memory. The faster RAM wins out, with the X1 edging out our test rig thanks to a higher frequency (2,400MHz). The higher CAS latency (17-17-17-39) of the X1’s memory doesn’t let it pull too far ahead of our reference system (which was tested with CAS timings set to 15-15-15-35), but it should provide slightly better performance in memory-bandwidth-intensive workloads.

PCMark 8

The Shuttle X1 is able to upend the Zotac EN1060K in the PCMark 8 Adobe Creative application benchmark, thanks to its faster (and Hyper-Threaded) CPU and RAM. (We tested our barebones systems with DDR4-2133 SODIMM memory.) But it falls far behind the pack in the Office application tests. This is likely due to the storage we used in the barebones reviews, a PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD with considerably higher random read/write performance than a SATA device. The slower SATA SSD inside the X1 has a considerable impact in word processing applications.

PCMark 10 Extended

The Shuttle X1 lands in a similar spot in the PCMark 10 Extended results, besting the Zotac Zbox and falling behind our H270 test rig (and by an even larger margin, the Brix). The CPU’s Hyper-Threaded cores give it the edge against the Zbox in every benchmark, and it even steals a win against the reference desktop PC in the Productivity section of the test. Similar to the 3DMark Fire Strike results, the Gaming portion of the test (which is just Fire Strike on a different scale) put the X1 ahead of the EN1060K, despite the smaller frame buffer.

VRMark

The X1 is sent to the back of the line once again in the VRMark Orange and Blue Room benchmarks. Although it scores well above the minimum frame-rate target in the less-demanding Orange Room test (and is therefore VR-ready), it still falls behind by a considerable margin due to the GPU’s 3GB frame buffer. None of the GTX 1060-equipped systems (regardless of memory capacity) is able to handle the Blue Room benchmark’s demanding detail and effect settings.

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Gaming Benchmarks

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation

We couldn’t run the Shuttle X1 at the usual Crazy settings we use in our reviews in Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation; the 3GB version of the GPU isn’t privy to the same presets that everything from GTX 1060 6GB graphics cards and up can access. Certain settings are just missing, so we couldn’t turn it up to match the preset manually. However, we foresaw this being an issue when we first started with our mid-range barebones and mini PC reviews, so we took data for all the systems we’re comparing today at the much less demanding Standard preset with MSAA x8 enabled.

With less-demanding settings, the Shuttle X1 is able to perform within 5 FPS and 1.5 FPS of the competition in the Ashes benchmarks at 1080p and 4K, respectively. The performance gap between the 3GB and 6GB versions of the GTX 1060 is minimal at these settings, but the Shuttle X1 still lingers behind the pack.

Bioshock Infinite

Bioshock Infinite is one of the least-demanding games in our suite even at the highest possible settings, and the Shuttle X1 doesn’t perform far behind its similarly equipped competition, the Brix Gaming VR. The X1’s halved VRAM doesn’t significantly stunt its performance compared to the Gigabyte barebones, with only a 2.16 FPS difference in average frame rate at 1080p and a negligible 0.68 FPS margin at 4K.

DiRT Rally

The highest settings in DiRT Rally saturate the frame buffer, which makes the Shuttle X1 fall behind the pack by a higher margin than the previous in-game benchmarks we’ve run so far at 1080p. It still puts out a playable 47.76 FPS average frame rate, but it falls behind the 6GB GTX 1060-equipped systems by about 9 FPS or a little more. At 4K, the Shuttle X1’s GPU simply can’t handle the workload, and it bricks the game to an unplayable 12.5 FPS. Turning down the AA and details will obviously net better frame rates at either resolution.

Grand Theft Auto V

GTA V is another game that uses a lot of VRAM at the highest settings, causing the Shuttle X1’s 3GB graphics card to fall slightly behind the 6GB GPU systems in the field at 1080p. However, the frame buffer is fast enough to handle the extra eye candy at this resolution without hindering performance in a significant way, and the X1 musters a playable 35.62 FPS average frame rate without sacrificing any of the effects.

Turning up the resolution to 4K at these settings makes the game utterly unplayable, with the benchmark unable to record a proper run because it continuously stutters. It’s no surprise; at these settings, the game demands more than double the VRAM the X1 has at its disposal (a whopping 7,616MB). Although it’s entirely possible to get an ideal 60 FPS at 1080p or playable frame rates at 4K if you don’t mind sacrificing the effects, we excluded the 4K charts and didn’t test the X1 at a lower setting because we didn’t do so for the other systems we reviewed, which were at least able to complete a benchmark without stuttering at 4K.

Hitman

The X1’s smaller frame buffer similarly impacts performance in Hitman, with the Shuttle sample falling behind the next leading system by a significant margin at 1080p and 4K. Whereas the 6GB GTX 1060-equipped PCs in the field all average above 60 FPS at 1080p, the X1 can only muster 48.59 FPS with all the settings at max. Switching up to 4K makes it worse, with the X1 shorting the Zbox by more than double the 11.23 FPS average it manages to put out.

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider is a demanding game with all the settings at the maximum, and the smaller VRAM capacity of the X1’s GPU doesn’t do it any favors in the benchmarks. Although the PCs with GTX 1060 6GB graphics cards are able to keep their average frame rate above a playable 30 FPS at 1080p, the X1’s 3GB of graphics memory pushes the average down by more than 10 FPS. At 4K, the game is unplayable at the highest settings unless you significantly reduce the detail and effect settings. We didn’t put it in a chart, but we were able to pull the X1 above a playable 30 FPS on the Low and Lowest presets at 4K.

The Division

The Division is decidedly less critical of the X1’s 3GB GTX 1060, with Shuttle’s fully configured mini PC only giving up 3.8 FPS to the barebones Zotac Zbox EN1060K at 1080p with all the settings turned up. The X1 is also able to complete the 4K benchmark with the details maxed without crashing or stuttering, and it falls behind the pack by just 0.8 FPS. However, none of the GTX 1060-equipped systems reached the 60 FPS promised land at 1080p, or the 30 FPS playable barrier at 4K. You’ll definitely have to turn down the effects if you want smooth gameplay.

Middle Earth: Shadows of War

The Shuttle X1 finishes our benchmark suite in its familiar position at the bottom of the charts, averaging 40 FPS and 17 FPS at 1080p and 4K, respectively, in the Middle Earth: Shadows of War tests. Once again, it trails the other mini PCs that sport GPUs with a higher memory capacity. Although the gap is a considerable 9 FPS at 1080p, the margin shrinks to just 2 FPS at 4K.

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Price Analysis & Conclusion

The Shuttle X1 is an astoundingly small and powerful mini PC that’s ideal for the living room, with adequate performance for VR and AAA games running at 1080p with high (or, sometimes, "Ultra") settings. Although Shuttle slaps "4K Ready" on the package, the X1’s Core i7-7700HQ and GeForce GTX 1060 3GB graphics card are not an ideal pairing for a 4K display if gaming is the goal. And we don’t recommend pushing the resolution past 1080p if you desire a smooth 60 FPS without sacrificing too much eye candy in new AAA games.

The chassis is the smallest gamer we’ve reviewed recently, and the abundance of slots and ports (USB, an SD card reader, and multiple display outputs) is uncommon for such a tiny device. The concealed Wi-Fi antenna under the top panel gives it an even smaller footprint compared to other mini PCs with exterior antennas, and we’re impressed with Shuttle’s compact design.

The tiny design doesn’t come without a few sacrifices. The most obvious (and detrimental) drawback is the static storage configuration, which consists of a 256GB M.2 SATA SSD. Most gamers will find themselves running out of space rather quickly if their library consists of anything more than a handful of games, and the low-capacity SSD is simply not a good starting point for a gaming enthusiast’s library. The speedy load times are welcomed, but the storage space (or lack thereof) is a downer.

The low total storage capacity can be remedied by installing your own 2.5” drive, and a 1TB HDD is a good investment if you intend to purchase the Shuttle X1. However, we aren’t fond of the procedure to install it. The top cover screws are each covered with a sticker; that may make it look sleek, but the residue that remains after you crack the seal isn’t attractive. The top panel and drive cage are easy enough to detach (more screws), but the SATA ribbon cable is delicate and difficult to connect to the motherboard (or, at least, it was for these large hands). We’d be much happier with an additional storage drive already installed to save us the trouble, even if it increases the price a little bit.

We’d also have liked to see a 6GB version of a GTX 1060 MXM graphics card installed instead of the 3GB model, mostly because the halved VRAM buffer means the X1 takes a significant performance hit when memory-hungry effects are enabled. The performance difference is so severe in some games that the Shuttle X1 can’t produce a stutter-free benchmark run with the usual all-maxed settings we use in our reviews at 4K (even though 6GB models can complete the tests). And some games downright restrict certain high-end settings with the less-powerful 3GB GPU. If getting that 6GB of graphics memory means adding another $50 to $100 to the MSRP, we wouldn’t even complain.

The mini PC market is starting to see more of these tiny gaming systems, and Shuttle has been an innovator in the SFF space for quite some time. The X1 is a marvel in its own right for the performance packed inside, and although it doesn’t meet all of our enthusiast expectations, it is still an adequate starting point for a new PC gamer looking for a compact design, VR-ready performance, and a plethora of USB connectivity.

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Deepcool Quadstellar ATX Chassis Review: A Big, Bold Performer

Steven Lynch — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 15:00:00 +0000

Features & Specifications

Deepcool is primarily known for its line of CPU air coolers, all-in-one liquid CPU coolers and power supplies. Although not as well known in the US as companies such as Thermaltake or Corsair, the company has branched out into consumer electronics, cooling fans and computer cases. The latter is what brings us here today.

Specifications

Exterior

Deepcool’s successor to the its massive Tristellar Mini-ITX case, appropriately named the Quadstellar due to its four separate component compartments, is a unique beast in every sense of those words (both unique and beast). Measuring 483 x 493 x 538mm (W x H x D) and tipping the scales at almost 34lbs empty, the word "beast" definitely suits this chassis.

The four-lobed compartmentalized design of this case is unlike any computer chassis you've ever seen before, which is why "unique" is such a fitting description.

Starting at the front of the chassis, the Quadstellar features a powder coated front panel frame constructed of cast aluminum. There are four plastic panels, one for each compartment, that can be opened to allow more airflow into the chassis. The panels are controlled via the accompanying Quadstellar app and can be set to open automatically or controlled directly from the app. Unfortunately, the panels do not have the option to be opened manually. This seems to be a bit of an oversight. The large diamond shaped button at the center of the front fascia is the power button.

The leading edge of the upper left lobe of the front section is home to two USB 3.0 ports and the headphone and microphone jacks. Inside this compartment you will find hard drive mounting locations with plastic drive caddies. The upper right compartment is equipped with mounting locations for a graphics cards or water cooling components. The lower right hand lobe of the chassis acts as the motherboard chamber. The lower left lobe is the PSU compartment. We'll go into more detail of these sections later in this review.

All four lobes of this chassis are equipped with tempered glass panels that attach to the frame via powerful magnets, and metal covers that slide off from the rear and are held in place by thumbscrews.

Around back you'll find an opening for a bottom-mounted PSU, eight standard expansion-card slots (plus six vertical ones in the upper right hand compartment for video-card mounting), and an exhaust-fan mounting location in the upper right hand compartment. There are four large rubber feet that keep the case approximately half an inch off the ground.

The Deepcool Quadstellar is equipped with a very nice fan filtration system. Every intake fan mounting location in the front of the chassis is equipped with a large nylon filter. Accessing these filters requires using the app to set the front doors into the open position. There is also a large filter located in the motherboard cabin as well.

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Hardware Installation & Test Configuration

Accessories for the Quadstellar are located in a small black box secured in one of the open 3.5" hard drive bays. The box contains various screws and zip ties. The box also contains an owner's manual.

The interior of the Quadstellar is unlike anything you've seen in a full-tower chassis before--unless you're familiar with the company's previous Tristellar chassis, that is. The large X-shaped case features four large distinctive cabins: one for the hard drives, one for PSU, one for vertical GPUs and water cooling components and the main chamber that supports up to full-size (12 x 13” deep) E-ATX motherboards.

There are a total of nineteen cable pass-through holes in the motherboard tray, four of which are equipped with rubber grommets. The cable pass-through hole at the upper left hand edge of the motherboard tray is specifically designed for routing fan cables and the ATX12V/EPS12V power cable. There is also a large hole in the motherboard tray behind the CPU socket area to facilitate heatsink changes without removing the motherboard.

Not only can this chassis accommodate graphics cards up to 380mm in length, it also supports up to 3-way CrossFire and SLI in the main compartment as well as the separate GPU compartment. The Quadstellar also comes equipped from the factory with one PCI-E 3.0 X16 riser cable. The fact that this chassis only supports CPU coolers up to 110mm tall tells us that Deepcool designed this case with water cooling enthusiasts in mind.

As previously mentioned, each compartment is independently cooled by a dedicated 120mm intake fan. This design thermally isolates system components by providing focused airflow for each compartment. The best way to describe this design would be that each lobe acts as a "wind tunnel." This, combined with the doors on the front of each compartment (Deepcool refers to them as "active thermal control gates"), allows the end user to customize airflow to meet their specific needs.

Radiators and all-in-one coolers can be mounted in the front and rear of this chassis. The mounting locations in the front support radiators and all-in-one liquid coolers up to 360mm. The bottom-right compartment can be outfitted with liquid coolers up to 240mm, and the intake fan mounting location can be fitted with 120mm coolers in single and dual fan configurations.

The Quadstellar is a storage enthusiast's dream chassis. The removable hard drive rack in the upper-left section supports a total of eight 3.5" and two 2.5" hard drives, with an additional three 2.5" bays inside the main compartment. The uppermost SSD mounting location, directly under the tempered glass panel, features RGB lighting. The storage lobe is also the only compartment to feature a 120mm fan in the front and rear of the chamber.

Deepcool lists support for power supplies up to 300mm in length but, as you can see from the photos, we don't think there is a PSU on the market today that would be too long for this chassis.

Fans of “all things RGB” will be pleased to know this chassis has integrated lighting on the front, as well as an extra header behind the motherboard tray for RGB lighting strips and accessories. RGB lighting features, fan control and the four active thermal control gates are all controlled via the company's proprietary smartphone app (available on Android and iOS.

Each of the RGB lighting zones and the power button can be controlled separately. Fans can be controlled independently or via preset "performance" and ""silent" modes. The active thermal control doors can bet set in the open or closed position or set to automatic. If the later is chosen, the doors will automatically open if the temperature inside the chassis reaches 40°C.

Although it is convenient to use the app to set fan speeds, temperature controls and RGB lighting effects, we wish there was a way to control some of these features manually.

Test Configuration

Drivers & Settings
Chipset	Intel INF 10.1.1.42
CPU	3.8GHz (38x 100MHz) @ 1.2V Core
Motherboard	Firmware 7A78v17 (07/03/2017)
RAM	16-17-17-36
Graphics	Maximum Fan for Thermal Tests \| AMD Radeon Crimson ReLive 17.9.1

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Benchmark Results & Conclusion

Normally we would compare the performance of the Quadstellar to other chassis of similar sizes and feature sets but, as you can tell by now, there really isn't anything else on the market close to this chassis in features and design. That said, we are using the NZXT H700i, the Bitfenix Enso, and the be quiet! Dark Base 700 for comparison because they are all premium chassis. All thermal tests were performed with the front active thermal control gates closed to simulate a "worst case scenario."

Bitfenix Enso

NZXT H700i

be quiet! Dark Base 700

Due to the Quadstellar's severe CPU cooler height limitation, we were unable to use the Cooler Master Hyper T4 normally used in our standardized test configuration. We chose the low profile Noctua NH-L12 with a single 120mm fan attached for testing. With that in mind, let's take a look at thermal performance.

With case fans set to 1400 RPM for testing, CPU core temperatures on our budget quad-core Core i5-7500 processor running at 3.8GHz were easily the best we have ever seen. This, despite the fact we used a smaller, low-profile CPU cooler. Even under 100% load, processor temps never exceeded 35°C over the ambient temperature of 25°C. GPU temps were taken with the graphics card installed in the upper right hand lobe of the chassis. The close proximity and position of the dedicated 120mm intake fan kept GPU temps to a minimum during testing. We attribute the Quadstellar's phenomenal CPU and GPU temps to its unique compartmentalized wind tunnel design.

We tested the Quadstellar with the front doors open to allow as much noise as possible to escape the chassis to give you an overall idea of just how much noise this case generates under the most extreme conditions. We were suprised to find that, even with the active thermal control doors open, this chassis produced only 33.9dBA. This is most likely due to the combination of the chassis' thick metal casing, tempered glass side panels and the accoustic profile of the fans themselves.

We determine acoustic efficiency, also referred to as "cooling-to-noise ratio," by averaging all five of our tests to determine a base value.

This is the point in the review where we tell you that our value chart doesn’t take features into account. That's because, even though this chassis has great thermal and acoustic performance, it is hard to justify the $400 price tag based on performance alone. This is where the Quadstellar's list of features, unique looks and impressive design come into play. Those of you looking for a chassis that will impress friends, colleagues and bystanders alike right out of the box, would be hard-pressed to find a better chassis, even at this price point.

We are fully aware that looks are subjective, but we think it is relatively safe to say that there are very few cases on the market today that have the "wow-factor" of Deepcool's Quadstellar chassis. We are the first to admit that this chassis may not be for everyone but, to be fair, Deepcool isn't targeting just "everyone." This is a specialized high-end chassis with a unique design that is sure to impress.

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Cooler Master MasterCase H500P Mesh White: Spiffy Looks, and Better Thermals

Steven Lynch — Tue, 20 Mar 2018 13:00:00 +0000

Features & Specifications

If you fancy yourself a PC enthusiast, not only have you heard of Cooler Master, you've most likely owned one or more of the company's products at some point: a case, a keyboard, or, well, a cooler. Today, we have the company's latest chassis on the test bench for a little review action: a tempered-glass, white-bodied version of the company’s MasterCase H500P Mesh ATX mid-tower.

Exterior

This chassis is made of steel and plastic and is painted white (inside and out) with black accents. It measures 544 x 242 x 542mm (L x W x H) and weighs just under 25 lbs. The MasterCase H500P's black-and-white color scheme gives it a bit of a storm-trooper vibe, a bonus if you are a fan of the Star Wars franchise. This $150 chassis comes with a one-year limited warranty.

There is a large tinted-acrylic window in the center of the top panel. Directly under this plastic panel is an area with mounting locations for three 120mm or 140mm fans, or two 200mm fans. Cooler Master makes use of a "structured bar design" featuring ventilation holes running along both sides of the front and top panels. These air-intake vents provide a path for fresh air to be drawn in, and Cooler Master has chosen to apply accent colors in their vicinity, providing a nice contrast to the base white color. The top of the chassis is also home to two USB 2.0 ports, a pair of USB 3.0 ports, a large power button, and headphone and microphone jacks.

The spaces between the structured bar area are fitted with the same dual-layer black metal mesh (a coarse perforated metal, backed by fine metal screening material), embedded in the frame of the front face. Behind the mesh front panel you'll find two white 200mm RGB-lit fans. The design of the front panel is a throwback to the old days, when removing the face of a chassis required taking off both side panels to gain access to six clips (three on each side) holding the front in place.

The full-coverage side panel, made of tinted tempered glass, is held in place by a slotted-head cam latch mechanism in the middle of the upper edge. A metal edge along the panel's base buffers the glass against accidental drops. The steel panel on the opposite side of the chassis is plain and secured with captive thumbscrews.

In the rear of the chassis, you'll find an opening for a bottom-mounted PSU, seven standard expansion-card slots (plus two vertical ones for video-card mounting), and an exhaust-fan mounting location that supports both 120mm and 140mm fans. The exhaust-fan mounting location features slotted screw holes that let you adjust the position of the fan to fine-tune airflow or make room for system components. There is a large plastic mesh filter covering the power-supply fan opening that is removable from the rear. The four large, rubber-coated feet keep the case approximately three-quarters of an inch off the ground.

The fan-filtration system on the H500P Mesh is a bit of a mixed bag. A large, removable nylon filter covers the opening for the power-supply fan; you remove this filter from the rear of the case. This, of course, requires moving your entire system to gain access. The fan-mounting locations in the front and top of the chassis are covered by the dual-layer black mesh we mentioned earlier. Cleaning and maintenance require removing the entire panel.

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Hardware Installation & Test Configuration

Interior

Accessories for the MasterCase H500P Mesh are located in a black box secured in one of the two 3.5" hard drive bays. The box contains various screws, zip ties, an RGB controller, and a three-way splitter cable for RGB LED fans. The box also contains a printed manual.

The interior of this chassis is rather large for a mid-tower ATX case. At first glance, the H500P Mesh looks very similar to other mid-tower cases, but, upon closer inspection, you will see some creative design choices that give you the ability to really open this chassis up.

The seven (plus two vertical) expansion slots will easily accommodate multi-GPU set-ups, and, for those of you running long graphics cards, you will be happy to know that video cards up to 412mm can be installed in this chassis. We tested power supplies up to 220mm in length without any issues or the need to move the hard drive racks. You can use CPU air coolers up to 190mm tall.

We counted five cable pass-through holes in the motherboard tray for cable management: three large rectangular openings with rubber grommets, and two smaller holes with rolled metal edges.

Cooler Master has equipped this chassis with a number of cable covers that keep your system looking neat and tidy. (We are not sure what function the CPU cut-out cover serves other than as a cosmetic feature.) We found plenty of room for cable management behind the motherboard tray whether or not you use the included cable covers.

We noted two mounting locations for the 3.5" hard drive rack in the area under the two-piece power-supply tunnel. By default, the hard drive is installed in the mounting location closest to the front of the chassis. Those of you wishing to install a 360mm radiator or an all-in-one cooler in the front of the chassis will need to move the hard drive rack to the other slot or remove it altogether. Additionally, two 2.5" hard drive caddies can be mounted on the PSU tunnel, behind the motherboard tray and on top of the hard drive rack.

Cooling duties are handled by two massive 200mm front intake fans and a large 140mm exhaust fan behind the CPU socket area. This combination of fans should provide more than enough airflow for even the most demanding system configurations.

Radiators and all-in-one coolers can be mounted in the top, front, and rear of this chassis. The mounting locations in the top and front of the chassis support radiators and liquid coolers up to 360mm. There is a total of 39mm of clearance for radiators and coolers in the space above the motherboard and an additional 39mm for fans to be mounted in the area above the frame and below the top panel.

Directly behind the 200mm intake fans is more than enough space to install a radiator or an all-in-one cooler. Creative enthusiasts can easily mount radiators and all-in-one coolers in this area to free up space in the main compartment. This also makes for an overall cleaner look. Inside the frame, the front of the chassis can easily support radiators sandwiched between fans in a push-pull configuration. The exhaust-fan mounting location can be fitted with 120mm and 140mm coolers in single- and dual-fan configurations. There was more than enough room for a multi-GPU set-up, a custom cooling loop, a reservoir, and a radiator or two.

The H500P Mesh comes with an RGB controller and a three-way splitter cable for RGB LED fans. Lighting effects such as breathing, fading, and pulse are all selectable by hooking the RGB controller to the reset button on the front face, and fan speed is also tweakable via the software provided by your motherboard vendor.

Test Configuration

Drivers & Settings
Chipset	Intel INF 10.1.1.42
CPU	3.8GHz (38x 100MHz) @ 1.2V Core
Motherboard	Firmware 7A78v17 (07/03/2017)
RAM	16-17-17-36
Graphics	Maximum Fan for Thermal Tests \| AMD Radeon Crimson ReLive 17.9.1

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Benchmark Results & Conclusion

Bitfenix Enso

NZXT H700i

be quiet! Dark Base 700

With the case's fans set at 1400 RPM, CPU core temperatures on our budget quad-core Core i5-7500 processor running at 3.8GHz were excellent. The Cooler Master MasterCase H500P Mesh performed head and shoulders above the competition, thanks in no small part to the massive airflow provided by the dual 200mm intake fans. Processor temps never exceeded 37°C over the ambient temperature of 25°C.

Graphics-card temperatures fared even better, with our test GPU barely hitting 45°C over the ambient. Regardless of how hard we pushed our test system, the H500P Mesh stayed as cool as a cucumber. Let's see if all this cooling performance has to come at a cost to acoustic performance.

Considering this chassis has two 200mm intake fans and a mesh front panel, we were expecting higher-than-average noise levels in our testing. At idle, this case performed well, generating just 31.4dBA. Sure, the thick glass side panel helps a bit by reflecting noise back into the chassis, but conventional wisdom tells us that a case with this feature set should produce noisier results than the 34.7dBA we saw under load. Color us impressed.

As a side note, when fan speed was set at 1400 RPM, we noted a distinct "whooshing" sound produced by this chassis, as air is drawn through the perforated front face.

We determine acoustic efficiency, also referred to as "cooling-to-noise ratio," by averaging all five of our tests to determine a base value.

Although looks are subjective, we feel that the H500P Mesh is very handsome as it ships from the factory. That said, this case is (literally) a blank canvas for simple mods such as a paint job, graphics stick-ons, and other cosmetic improvements that personalize your system. This chassis is also available in gunmetal grey.

The fit and finish of this case are top-notch, and the overall construction is quite solid. Shoppers will have to decide whether these factors justify the $150 price. To our eyes, this chassis would be a much better value and a solid Editors' Choice award candidate were it in the $120 to $130 range.

Overall, the MasterCase H500P has great looks, excellent thermal performance, spiffy RGB lighting, a cleverly designed tempered-glass side panel, and a host of premium features. That said, those features come at slight premium. Also, though Cooler Master is hardly the only company guilty of this, we simply do not understand why most case manufacturers choose not to include at least one USB Type-C port on their cases in this price range.

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Corsair Carbide 275R Tempered Glass Case Review: Clear Winner?

Steven Lynch — Wed, 07 Mar 2018 23:30:00 +0000

Features & Specifications

If you're a PC builder, you've likely seen the Corsair Carbide series before, as well as PC-case designs inspired by it. A new addition to this budget-friendly line, the Carbide 275R tempered-glass chassis features a clean, minimalist design with a builder-friendly internal layout. If Corsair's recently launched Obsidian 550D premium chassis is a bit too extravagant for you, the compact mid-tower Carbide 275R may be just what you are looking for.

The first thing you will notice about the Corsair Carbide 275R is the chassis' overall basic-black demeanor. If you were to place it next to other mid-tower chassis with a tempered-glass side panel such as the Riotoro CR500, the Fractal Design Define R6, and the Antec P110 Luce, you would be hard-pressed to tell them apart. But, before we get ahead of ourselves, let's look at this chassis' tech specs.

Constructed of steel, plastic, and tempered glass, the Carbide 275R is painted black inside and out, measures 455 x 225 x 460mm (HWD), and tips the scales at 16lbs. Most of the top panel is covered by a magnetic metal-mesh filter. Directly under the filter is a perforated area that has mounting locations for two 120mm or 140mm fans.

The tinted-glass side panel measures 419 x 419mm, and it is held in place by rubber-coated locating pins and Allen-head screws. The steel panel on the opposite side of the chassis is plain and secured with captive thumbscrews.

The plastic front panel is covered by a thin brushed-aluminum skin. Two USB 3.0 ports, headphone and microphone jacks, a hard drive activity LED, and a power button are located in the uppermost edge of the front panel. Behind the plastic is a large removable nylon mesh filter covering mounting locations for three 120mm or two 140mm fans. A 10mm gap on either side of the front panel allows air to pass into the chassis through the front filter that covers the fan-mounting locations. The front panel is easy to remove by grabbing the lower edge and pulling out and away from the chassis.

The rear of the chassis is pretty standard fare for an ATX mid-tower. The motherboard I/O area sits directly over the chassis' seven (and two vertical) expansion slots. There is an opening for a bottom-mounted PSU, as well as an exhaust-fan mounting location outfitted with a 120mm fan. That location features slotted screw holes that let you adjust the position of the fan to fine-tune airflow or make room for system components.

The bottom of the case has a filtered hole for power-supply ventilation and four round plastic feet. The four large rubber-coated feet keep the case approximately a half inch off the ground. The removable 6" nylon power-supply filter must be removed from the rear for maintenance and cleaning.

The fan filtration system on the Carbide 275R is fairly robust in terms of its ability to prevent most dirt and dust particles from entering your system. As mentioned earlier, the metal mesh filter on the top of the case is attached by magnetic seals at the edge of the filter. The large plastic filter in the front of the chassis also attaches to the frame via magnets. The plastic filter covering the PSU mounting location slides in and out from the rear of the case. Considering the rear filter measures just 6" long, servicing this filter shouldn't be an issue.

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Hardware Installation & Test Configuration

Interior

A small box containing zip ties and a variety of screws is located in one of the open 3.5" drive bays. The case manual and an Allen wrench (for the glass side panel) can be found in the PSU area in a plastic bag.

Painted black to match the exterior, the interior of the Carbide 275R is rather spacious for a mid-tower ATX case. There are two large cable pass-through holes with rubber grommets in the motherboard tray and one in the top of the PSU tunnel. The hole at the upper left hand edge of the motherboard tray is specifically designed for routing fan cables and the ATX12V/EPS12V power cable.

This chassis is also available with a white finish.

This chassis can be equipped with coolers as tall as 170mm and can accommodate multiple graphics cards up to 370mm in length. Those of you planning to install a workstation motherboard will be happy to know that the Carbide 275R supports 3-Way SLI and CrossFire configurations with a compatible motherboard. (As with all 7-slot cases, compatibility requires the third card be mounted in the case's sixth and seven slots. Most of the motherboards we test have the third graphics card slot at the bottom, excluding 3-way compatibility from any 7-slot case -ed).

There are mounting locations for up to seven 120mm fans: three in the top, three in the front, and one in the rear. The 275R also can be outfitted with up to four 140mm fans, two in the front and two in the top. The chassis ships by default with on 120mm intake fan in the front and a single 120mm exhaust fan in the rear.

As with any chassis that is equipped with a single 120mm intake/exhaust fan, we highly recommend installing a second intake fan or, at the very least, a higher-volume 140mm fan. The two factory-installed fans simply do not provide enough airflow to keep the components in our test system cool.

Additionally, the use of a video card with a blower-style cooler with this fan configuration has a negative impact on the airflow profile of this chassis. Blower-style GPU coolers tend to immediately draw in most of the cool outside air provided by the single 120mm intake fan and force it out the rear of the chassis. While this benefited graphics card temperatures, the rest of the system suffered as a result.

Radiators and all-in-one coolers can be mounted in the top, front, and rear of this chassis. The mounting locations in the front of the chassis support 120, 140, 240, 280, and 360mm radiators. It should be noted that installation of 360mm radiators and all-in-one coolers in the front mounting locations can be a bit tricky. We found it easiest to place the radiator in first, slide the bottom fan in place between the radiator and frame, and then run the bolts through the holes behind the front fascia, followed by the middle and uppermost fan. Aside from that minor issue, the 275R would be a great foundation for an all-out water-cooled rig. We managed to mount a 320mm radiator in the front and a 240mm in the top simultaneously.

The Carbide 275R has six internal drive bays. The two mounting locations under the PSU tunnel can be used for both 2.5" and 3.5" drives. Behind the motherboard tray are four dedicated mounting locations for 2.5” SSDs. Two utilize stamped-steel mounting brackets that attach to the frame via thumbscrews, and two more drives can be mounted directly to the back of the motherboard tray.

Corsair lists support for power supplies up to 180mm in length but, even though it is a tight fit, it is possible to install power supplies up to 200mm long.

Test Configuration

Drivers & Settings
Chipset	Intel INF 10.1.1.42
CPU	3.8GHz (38x 100MHz) @ 1.2V Core
Motherboard	Firmware 7A78v17 (07/03/2017)
RAM	16-17-17-36
Graphics	Maximum Fan for Thermal Tests \| AMD Radeon Crimson ReLive 17.9.1

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Benchmark Results & Conclusion

We are using the Antec P110 Luce, the Phanteks Eclipse P300, and the Fractal Design Define R6 TG chassis for comparison with our Corsair test unit. They are of similar size and features, and all have tempered-glass side panels.

Antec P110 Luce TG

Phanteks Eclipse P300 TG

Fractal Design Define R6 TG

The thermal performance of the Corsair Carbide 275R is on par with other mid-tower chassis equipped with a single 120mm intake-fan and 120mm exhaust-fan combination, but that isn't saying much. In fact, this chassis turned in numbers almost identical to Corsair's Obsidian 500D chassis.

Temperatures on our budget quad-core Core i5-7500 processor running at 3.8GHz ran as high as 49°C over ambient temperature under load. Thanks to the close proximity and position of the 120mm intake fan, the GPU temperatures fared much better than processor temps. The lack of airflow in this chassis had a serious negative impact on its ability to remove the heat generated by the components in our test system.

On the whole, thermal performance lagged behind the cases we used for comparison purposes. Anyone running a high-end or overclocked system would be wise to add at least one (if not more) 120mm intake fans. Again, we would have liked to see at least two intake fans included by default.

Determining acoustic efficiency, also referred to as "cooling-to-noise ratio," is a matter of averaging all five of our tests to determine a base value.

By now, most people are aware that tempered-glass side panels tend to reflect sound back into the chassis. That, and the inclusion of only two 120mm fans, leaves you with a chassis that is whisper-quiet at idle. Even under load, the Carbide 275R generated very little noise. Unfortunately, glass panels also lead to higher system temperatures. This can be remedied by the addition of one or more intake fans, but that would almost certainly negatively impact these acoustic results.

Alas, the higher temperatures reduce the Carbide 275R's value score in our performance-to-price comparison, despite this case's relatively low asking price.

Our Performance Value results are a bit misleading, even now. Most people who buy this chassis will undoubtedly want to add at least one or more intake fans to the system build. That would add to the overall cost of the case, and that in turn would affect the Performance Value rating. Also, even though the added fans will enhance cooling performance, that would more than likely introduce more system noise and negatively impact our acoustic-efficiency rating. As a result, while we like this budget-minded chassis, you'll want to do the price math on an extra fan or two and make sure that the overall cost doesn't push matters into the realm of a pricier case.

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FSP CMT510 Tempered-Glass Case Review

Steven Lynch — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 14:00:00 +0000

Features & Specifications

Announced back in November, the FSP CMT510 mid-tower ATX chassis features RGB-lit fans, tempered-glass side panels on three of its six sides, and an asking price of just $90. What’s not to like? Let’s find out.

RGB lighting and tempered glass are all the rage these days, so it seems only fitting that FSP’s latest mid-tower case has an abundance of both. It’s obvious that the company designed this chassis to showcase your system build, but the sheer amount of factory-installed RGB fans suggests a focus on cooling performance, as well. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s take a look at the exterior of the CMT510.

The first thing you will notice about the FSP CMT510 is its sleek, stylish design. This mid-tower ATX chassis is constructed of steel and tempered glass and is painted black inside and out. The case measures 448x208x491mm (HWD), and it weighed in right at 16 lbs.

The top of the chassis features a fan-mounting location in the rear portion of the panel that can accommodate 120mm or 140mm fans, but the 1.1” of space above the motherboard is too narrow for most all-in-one coolers and radiators. At the leading edge of the top panel, you will find two USB 3.0 ports, microphone and headphone jacks, power and reset buttons, and an RGB controller switch.

The left, right, and front panels on the CMT510 are all 4mm-thick tempered glass. The left and right side panels are held in place by rubber-coated locating pins and thumbscrews. The plastic feet on this chassis have a simple yet effective outcropping on the top that acts as a support for the glass side panel and prevents the panel from being accidentally dropped. The front glass panel is held in place by four thumbscrews that thread through the frame from the inside into brackets that hold the panel about 10mm away from the frame. We find it odd that, unlike the side panels, there is nothing keeping this panel from falling once the last screw is removed. Extra care is warranted when removing the front panel.

The bottom of the case has two filter-covered holes, one for the power supply, one for hard drive ventilation, as well as four large, rubber-coated plastic feet. The rear of the chassis is home to seven card slots, a motherboard I/O area, and an opening for a bottom-mounted PSU.

The fan filtration system on the CMT510 is basic, but, for the most part, it serves its purpose. The included filters will keep pet hair and larger debris out of your computer but do little to prevent finer dust particles from entering your system. Also, cleaning and maintenance require turning the entire chassis on its side to remove the filters on the bottom.

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Hardware Installation & Test Configuration

A plastic bag containing various screws, zip ties, and a PSU mounting plate comes attached to the frame of the chassis with a twist tie. The bag also contains the manual.

The interior of the FSP CMT510 is very spacious for a mid-tower. This chassis looks small from the outside, thanks to FSP's clever design choices (among them, moving most of the hard drive mounts behind the motherboard tray). But you can install just about any build you can imagine in this chassis. The seven expansion slots allow for multi-GPU setups, with cards up to 400mm in length. And you'll have room to spare for radiators and all-in-one coolers (up to 360mm long) in the front of the chassis.

An opening in the upper edge of the motherboard tray allows for routing through the 12V motherboard power cable or fan wires, and a larger hole facilitates heatsink changes without removing the motherboard. There are no traditional pass-through holes in the motherboard tray for cable management. FSP has instead opted for a two-piece motherboard-tray design that offsets both panels a bit, creating a vertical slot for routing cables. This design also provides 32mm of space behind the offset panel; here, FSP has included two 3.5" or 2.5" hard drive mounting locations. The area directly behind the motherboard is a bit tight at just 13mm, but there is still enough room for the fan controller and two 2.5" mounting locations for SSDs.

While we are on the subject of hard drive mounting locations, the CMT510 can accommodate a total of six hard drives. Two 2.5” drives can be installed on the top of the PSU tunnel, and two 3.5” drives and an additional two 2.5” drives can go behind the motherboard tray. FSP has done away with traditional slide-out drive trays, opting instead for stamped steel trays that are fastened to the chassis via thumbscrews.

It's a surprise to see a budget-friendly chassis like this one include a total of four 120mm LED-lit fans connected to an LED lighting controller. The lighting switch allows you to cycle through a number of different illumination effects, including static color, RGB circle, RGB smooth cycle, flash three colors, and flashing white. On the cooling side of things, the triple 120mm intake fans feeding a single exhaust fan should provide more than enough airflow for everything from mild to wild enthusiast PC builds. We'll see how all that airflow affects system temperatures a bit later in this review.

Radiators and all-in-one coolers up to 360mm can be installed in the front of the case. CPU air coolers up to 165mm in height can be equipped in this chassis. This chassis can also accommodate graphics cards up to 400mm.

The CMT510 has more than enough room for modern power supplies. We installed everything from a small 650W power supply (87x150x140mm, HWD) all the way up to Thermaltake's Toughpower 1500W power supply (99x150x220mm) without any fitment issues.

Test Configuration

Drivers & Settings
Chipset	Intel INF 10.1.1.42
CPU	3.8GHz (38x 100MHz) @ 1.2V Core
Motherboard	Firmware 7A78v17 (07/03/2017)
RAM	16-17-17-36
Graphics	Maximum Fan for Thermal Tests \| AMD Radeon Crimson ReLive 17.9.1

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Benchmarks & Final Review

Compared to similar cases such as the NZXT H700i, the Bitfenix Enso, the be quiet! Dark Base 700 and the Antec P110 Luce, this chassis falls right into the middle of the pack. We chose these cases for comparison purposes because they are of like size and feature set, and all have tempered-glass side panels.

Antec P110 Luce TG

Bitfenix Enso

be quiet! Dark Base 700

The combination of three 120mm intake fans and a single 120mm exhaust fan provided more than enough airflow to keep system temps in check. Fan speeds were manually set at 1,400 RPM. Under full load, CPU core temperatures on our budget quad-core Intel Core i5-7500 processor running at 3.8GHz peaked at 40°C over ambient temperature (25°C) during testing. Graphics-card temperatures benefited the most from the airflow provided by the trio of 120mm intake fans. GPU temps leveled off at 51°C over ambient temperature.

System noise was kept to a minimum, thanks in no small part to the sheer amount of tempered glass on this chassis. In fact, the CMT510 has an acoustic profile almost identical to that of the Dark Base 700, the quietest case we've tested to date. If keeping noise levels low is at the top of your list of priorities, you'd be hard-pressed to find a quieter chassis.

Normally, this is the point in the review where we tell you that our value chart doesn’t take features into account. But it should be obvious by now that, in addition to its solid thermal and acoustic performance, in the FSP CMT510 you are getting a whole lot of case for the $90 asking price.

Indeed, the CMT510 is an interesting beast. It features tempered glass galore, good performance, and whisper-quiet operation. And it provides enough LED fans to satisfy the most ardent proponents of RGB case lighting. Overall, this is a great chassis for the money.

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SilverStone Redline Series RL06 Case Review: Slick Budget Chassis

Steven Lynch — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 02:00:00 +0000

Features & Specifications

A name synonymous with quality and innovative design, SilverStone Technology is back with another Redline Series chassis. Founded in 2003, the company offers a complete line of power supplies, coolers, fans, and accessories to fill its well-known chassis. Its Redline Series RL06 is the subject of today's evaluation.

Four versions of the RL06 chassis are available, in two color combinations. The most basic version is equipped with an acrylic window (with a model name tagged with a "W"). The next step up is an acrylic windowed case with three LED intake fans ("PRO"). After that, there is a version with a tempered glass side panel ("G"), and the peak model is a case with a tempered-glass side panel and three LED intake fans ("GP"). The chassis we have here today is the white-and-silver PRO version equipped with an acrylic window and three 120mm LED intake fans.

The first thing you will notice about SilverStone's RL06 is the lustrous, high-gloss white paint job on the exterior of the chassis. Regardless of which exterior color combination you choose, all RL06 models feature a matte black interior. In this case (figuratively and literally), the contrasting black interior looks great and adds to the overall appeal.

The Redline RL06 features steel construction with a plastic front panel and measures 477x200x455mm (HWD) and weighs 13.9 lbs. Much of the top panel is covered by a magnetic metal-mesh filter. Directly under the filter is a perforated area that has mounting locations for two 120mm or 140mm fans.

The leading edge of the top panel is home to two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports, headphone and microphone jacks, a hard drive activity LED, and a power button. The plastic front panel is covered entirely by a metal mesh insert. Directly behind the front face, you will find mounting locations for three 120mm intake fans and a large removable filter that clips into place.

As previously mentioned, this version of the RL06 features a 14" x 12" acrylic side panel window for showing off your system components. Care must be taken when cleaning the window, as even the microfiber towel we used to clean the window left abrasion marks on the acrylic surface. The opposite side of the chassis is equipped with a solid-metal side panel. Both side panels are held in place by standard plastic-covered thumbscrews.

The bottom of the case has a filtered hole for power-supply ventilation and four rectangular plastic feet. The rear of the chassis is home to seven expansion-card slots, an exhaust-fan mounting location (in our model, fitted with a 120mm fan), the motherboard I/O area, and an opening for a bottom-mounted PSU.

The RL06 is equipped with a basic fan-filtration system that, for the most part, does a decent job of keeping dirt and debris out of your system. The top filter, which we mentioned earlier, is magnetic and therefore easily removable. The large plastic filter in the front of the chassis clips into place behind the front panel. This ease of access makes cleaning and maintaining these two filters a breeze. Conversely, the bottom filter requires turning the entire chassis on its side to remove the filter.

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Hardware Installation & Test Configuration

A small plastic bag containing various screws and a quick installation guide is located in one of the open 3.5” drive bays.

The interior of the chassis is fairly spacious for a mid-tower chassis and supports up to ATX motherboards. The seven expansion slots will accommodate three-card SLI and CrossFire schemes. Although common sense tells us that most performance enthusiasts won't buy a budget-minded chassis such as this for a high-end system build, the fact that this chassis can accommodate multi-GPU configurations and long graphics cards (up to 348mm in length)--and place them in close proximity to three 120mm intake fans--might sway enthusiasts to see this chassis as a viable, if unconventional, option. (As with all 7-slot cases, compatibility requires the third card be mounted in the case's sixth and seven slots. Most of the motherboards we test have the third graphics card slot at the bottom, excluding 3-way compatibility from any 7-slot case -ed).

For cable management, you get a total of seven cable pass-through cutaways with rolled-metal edges in the motherboard tray. Three additional pass-through holes with rolled edges are located in the top of the PSU tunnel. Note, though: Two of the pass-through holes at the bottom of the motherboard tray are inaccessible if an ATX motherboard is installed in this chassis.

A large hole in the motherboard mounting plate behind the CPU socket area allows for heatsink changes without having to remove the motherboard. The two cable pass-through holes at the upper edge of the motherboard tray are specifically designed to route fan cables and a 12V CPU power cable.

The cable management area directly behind the motherboard tray is fairly shallow (just under a half inch), while the area to the side of the motherboard tray is roughly an inch deep. Overall, the cable management is sufficient for most basic-to-moderate system builds. The RL06 also comes with a powered fan hub.

Like so many cases today, the RL06 features a large non-removable PSU tunnel at the bottom of the main compartment; it covers the power supply and three drive bays. This area, including the hard drive mounting locations, receives direct airflow via the bottom-most 120mm intake fan.

While we are on the subject of hard drives, all five drive-mounting locations are located behind the motherboard tray. Three are under the PSU tunnel and support both 2.5" and 3.5" drives via plastic caddies. The case also features a pair of dedicated mounting locations for 2.5" SSDs on the back of the motherboard tray.

The Redline RL06 is outfitted with three LED-lit 120mm intake fans in the front of the chassis and a single unlit 120mm fan in the rear of the case near the CPU socket area. In total, you can install up to six 120mm fans or four 140mm fans in this chassis. The mounting locations on the top of the case can accommodate up to two 120mm or 140mm fans. The front of the RL06 can be equipped with up to two 140mm fans or three 120mm fans. And the rear exhaust location supports one 120mm fan.

The triple 120mm LED intake fans provide an impressive amount of airflow without sounding like a wind tunnel. (We'll talk about that more on the next page of this review.)

Although SilverStone didn't provide exact PSU measurements--its site simply lists "standard PS2 (ATX)"--we were able to install several different power supplies up to 220mm in length without issue. If you choose to install a longer power supply, we highly recommend using a modular unit. The Redline RL06 can be equipped with CPU air coolers up to 158mm tall and can accommodate graphics cards up to 348mm in length.

Now, the company claims it is possible to mount radiators and all-in-one coolers in the top of the chassis, as long as the total thickness does not exceed 30mm. Unless you use ultra-thin fans paired with an extremely thin radiator, however, these locations are best suited for fan use only. Radiators and all-in-one coolers up to 240mm or 280mm can be mounted in the front of the chassis directly to the existing 120mm LED fans or in a push-pull configuration using the fans that come with your all-in-one cooler. Finally, a 120mm all-in-one cooler can be mounted in the exhaust-fan location.

Test Configuration

Drivers & Settings
Chipset	Intel INF 10.1.1.42
CPU	3.8GHz (38x 100MHz) @ 1.2V Core
Motherboard	Firmware 7A78v17 (07/03/2017)
RAM	16-17-17-36
Graphics	Maximum Fan for Thermal Tests \| AMD Radeon Crimson ReLive 17.9.1

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Benchmarks & Final Review

For comparison, we are pitting the SilverStone Redline RL06 against the Enermax Ostrog Lite, the Phanteks Eclipse P300 TG, the Riotoro CR500 TG, and the FSP CMT510. All are of similar size and features.

Enermax Ostrog Lite

Phanteks Eclipse P300 TG

Riotoro CR500 TG

As previously stated, we were pleasantly surprised to find that this budget-friendly chassis comes equipped with three 120mm LED-lit intake fans. In theory, more fans should translate into better thermal performance, but, as we all know, that isn't always the case. When the Redline RL06 and its triple 120mm intake fans were put to the test, this chassis turned in some of the best numbers we've seen to date in a chassis of its size and class. Regardless of how hard we pushed our budget quad-core Core i5-7500 processor running at 3.8GHz, the airflow provided by this chassis was more than enough to keep temps in check.

As you can imagine, the sheer amount of unobstructed airflow and close proximity of the intake fans to our graphics card is a winning combination when it comes to heat dissipation. At 49°C over the ambient temperature, our results were better than any of the cases we used for comparison.

Oddly enough, given the sheer number of case fans, coupled with a mesh front panel, the acoustics were nowhere near as loud as one might expect. Under full load, the noise output closely rivaled those of the Riotoro CR500 and the FSP CMT510, both of which featured one or more tempered-glass panels.

We determine acoustic efficiency, also referred to as "cooling-to-noise ratio," by averaging all five of our tests to determine a base value.

Undoubtedly, higher-end hardware and/or highly overclocked systems might not fare as well as our budget test system. But you can't deny the appeal of this level of performance given the price.

The SilverStone Redline RL06 is an excellent choice for performance enthusiasts on a budget, if you can overlook its few shortcomings. It might not have all the features of a premium chassis, but the thermal performance is top-notch, and it is priced to sell.

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Corsair Obsidian Series 500D Mid-Tower Case Review

Steven Lynch — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 14:00:00 +0000

Features & Specifications

Corsair hardly needs an introduction here: The company is a key provider of enthusiast-grade components over the past two decades, with a major following among the PC performance community. Today, the company is rolling out the latest addition to its Obsidian line of premium computer chassis.

Billed as a chassis that makes it "easier than ever to build your dream PC," the Obsidian 500D premium ATX mid-tower features aluminum and tempered-glass panels attached to a steel frame. This chassis measures 508x233x502mm (HWD), weighs 24.6 lbs, and is painted black inside and out.

The entire top of the chassis is covered by a raised aluminum panel that features a row of triangular ventilation holes down the center. Underneath the top panel, you will find mounting locations for two 120mm or two 140mm fans. Corsair also includes a large plastic filter in this location that removes from the side; the filter edges are magnetic, and it's washable. The top panel is held in place by thumbscrews that thread into it from the inside of the chassis.

Like so many cases these days, the 500D is not equipped with an external 5.25" drive bay. That may, or may not, be a deal-breaker for some. The front of the chassis is covered by a thick plastic panel with a thin brushed-aluminum insert designed to match the look of the aluminum top panel. The outer edges of the front panel are curved to allow air to pass into the chassis through the magnetic filter that covers the three fan-mounting locations behind the front face. The upper edge of the front panel is home to a power button, two USB 3.0 ports, a single USB 3.1 Type C port, headphone and microphone jacks, a hard drive activity LED, and a reset switch.

Around back, you'll find the standard motherboard I/O area, seven expansion-card slots (plus two card slots for vertical-mounted GPUs), an opening for a bottom-mounted power supply unit, and an exhaust-fan mounting location that supports 120mm fans. The exhaust-fan mounting location features slotted screw holes that lets you adjust the position of the fan to fine-tune airflow or make room for system components. The bottom of the chassis sports a filtered hole for power supply ventilation and four large rubber-coated feet that elevate the case approximately a half inch off the ground.

The tempered-glass and aluminum side panels are hinged in the rear and employ a magnetic latching system that grants instant access to the inside of the chassis. The tempered glass is darkly tinted, but it's still transparent enough for you to see your system hardware. Lifting the side panels off the chassis requires the removal of a single screw on the top hinge on either side. Once the screw is removed, the side panel can be safely removed from the chassis.

The 500D is equipped with large removable nylon filters that cover every fan-mounting location, including the power supply. The fan filters in the top and front of the chassis slide in and out for easy maintenance and are held in place by magnets. The power supply filter slides out from the rear and requires moving your entire system to access it for maintenance and cleaning.

Although the "look" of a case is subjective, we believe most people will find the look and design of this chassis suitable for a variety of different environments from business to gaming.

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Hardware Installation & Test Configuration

Interior

The Corsair Obsidian 500D has cables for HD Audio, front panel I/O, and USB 3.0, as well as a USB 3.1 Type C header. An accessory box is secured in the uppermost 3.5" hard drive caddy behind the motherboard tray. Inside the box were various screws and zip ties. A ziplock bag containing the user manual was located in the PSU compartment.

The inside of this chassis is very spacious. Thanks to the lack hard drive racks in the main compartment, and the inclusion of the seven (plus two vertical) expansion slots, it is possible to install up to three graphics cards in SLI and/or CrossFire. [That is, as long as your third card mounts in the sixth slot, which many motherboards don't support, or your cards are single-slot, which most aren't, or you purchase a flexible riser cable to deploy the side slots and the additional card isn't blocked by the PCI Express power cables of the other two cards, or... -Ed.] Although the 500D includes two expansion slots for vertically mounting a dual-slot GPU, no riser cable is included. You'll have to bring your own.

You get a total of five large cable pass-through holes with rubber grommets in the motherboard tray for cable management. The upper edge of the motherboard tray is notched to allow the 12V motherboard power cable and fan wires to be routed through this area. Also, a large hole in the motherboard mounting plate behind the CPU socket area facilitates heatsink changes without removing the motherboard. The chassis has plenty of space and tie-down points behind the motherboard tray for cable management, too.

The Obsidian 500D also features dedicated mounting locations for reservoirs and water pumps in the bottom of the chassis, located between the PSU tunnel and the front fan-mounting locations.

The Corsair 500D can accommodate power supplies up to 225mm in length without removing the PSU tunnel endcap. This case can be equipped with coolers up to 170mm tall and can accommodate graphics cards up to 370mm in length.

Behind the motherboard tray, you will find mounting locations for a total of five hard drives (two 3.5" drives, and three 2.5" drives). The two 3.5" drive caddies are made of plastic and come with rubber-coated pins for vibration dampening. The 2.5" drive mounts are made of stamped steel.

Cooling

When it comes to cooling, we were a bit disappointed to discover that the 500D, billed by Corsair as a premium mid-tower chassis, ships with only a single 120mm intake fan. Because of the size and placement of the included fans, airflow in this chassis is limited. Obviously, this can be remedied by the end user, but at this price point, we expected two 120mm or 140mm intake fans, at the least. In total, this chassis can be equipped with up to six 120mm or four 140mm fans.

Corsair has incorporated removable fan/radiator brackets in the front and top of the chassis. They make installing a radiator or an all-in-one-style CPU cooler in the 500D a breeze. Removing the fan bracket is simply a matter of removing two thumbscrews and sliding the unit out and away from the chassis. Once you have attached your cooling components to the bracket, you'll slide the entire setup back into your system and reinstall the thumbscrews. It's as easy as that.

Although you'll find a good deal of space in the top of the chassis, some coolers may be limited to a single-fan configuration, depending on the size of your cooler, fan thickness, and motherboard components. The exhaust-fan mounting location can be fitted with 120mm radiators and all-in-one coolers in single- and dual-fan configurations.

Radiators and all-in-one coolers can be mounted in the top, front, and rear of this chassis. The mounting locations in the front of the chassis support radiators and liquid coolers up to 360mm, with enough room for fans mounted on both sides in a push-pull configuration. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we want to point out that, even though most all-in-one coolers can be physically mounted in the front of this chassis, because of the fixed length of the tubing, some coolers might not be able to reach the CPU socket. But these locations are ideal for mounting radiators for water-cooled graphics cards.

Test Configuration

Drivers & Settings
Chipset	Intel INF 10.1.1.42
CPU	3.8GHz (38x 100MHz) @ 1.2V Core
Motherboard	Firmware 7A78v17 (07/03/2017)
RAM	16-17-17-36
Graphics	Maximum Fan for Thermal Tests \| AMD Radeon Crimson ReLive 17.9.1

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Benchmarks & Final Review

Antec P110 Luce TG

Phanteks Eclipse P300 TG

Fractal Design Define R6 TG

Given that this chassis is equipped with two tempered-glass side panels and a single intake fan, we aren't expecting world-class cooling performance. The two 120mm fans included from the factory (one intake, one exhaust) turned in better-than-expected performance when it came to cooling our system components. But, in the grand scheme of things, that really isn't saying much. Overall, thermal performance was lacking, and it is obvious that anyone running multiple GPUs or an overclocked system would benefit from the addition of one or more 120mm intake fans. Given the $150 asking price, we would have liked to have seen at least two intake fans included by default.

Our budget quad-core Core i5-7500 processor, running at 3.8GHz, peaked at 48°C over the ambient temperature of 25°C. As stated, those of you running high-end hardware or who plan on overclocking your system will no doubt want to add more fans or opt for a custom water-cooling loop or an all-in-one cooler. At 55°C over the ambient room temperature, our GPU temperatures performed on par with our comparison systems, due in large part to the proximity and position of the 120mm intake fan.

We took sound-level readings with two off-the-shelf dB meters from two different angles. Thanks to two full-cover tempered-glass side panels and two 120mm fans, the Obsidian 500D registered just over 28dB at idle and 31dB under load. These numbers are on par with the Fractal Design Define R6 TG, as well as the be quiet! Dark Base 700 (the latter not charted here).

Determining acoustic efficiency, also referred to as "cooling-to-noise ratio," is a matter of averaging all five of our tests to determine a base value.

Even though our performance value charts do not take high-end features or production quality into account, at $150, the Obsidian 500D is a bit overpriced when compared to the other cases in its class on this raw measure. Those of you that desire a premium mid-tower ATX chassis, and for whom cost is not an option, should obviously ignore this chart. Budget-conscious shoppers, on the other hand, might use this chart to justify opting for a lower-cost option, such as the Fractal Design Define R6 Tempered Glass Edition case.

Bottom Line

The Corsair Obsidian 500D's sleek and elegant styling, high-quality fit and finish, and premium components (aluminum panels, hinged tempered-glass side panels), all come together in a highly attractive chassis. And when it comes to functionality, the Obsidian 500D is a very builder-friendly chassis, with removable magnetic fan filters, the slide out fan/radiator bracket, and its lift-off side panels. Just know that you'll likely want to factor in the cost of an extra fan or two if your config will go much beyond basic.

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Riotoro CR500 Tempered Glass Mid-Tower Case Review

Steven Lynch — Sun, 18 Feb 2018 14:00:00 +0000

Features & Specifications

"Riotoro" might not be a name that many of you are familiar with (yet), but the company comes from strong stock: It was founded by a group of folks that bring decades of experience to the table, from companies such as Corsair and Nvidia. In addition to its line of PC cases, Riotoro also makes power supplies, water cooling kits, gaming mice, keyboards, and fans.

Specifications

Exterior

The CR500 mid-tower chassis measures 435 x 270 x 453mm (HxWxD) and weighs just shy of 14 pounds. The company markets the CR500 as a budget-friendly chassis that features a direct airflow path, as well as a dual-chamber design. Painted black inside and out, this chassis features steel and plastic construction with a single tempered-glass side panel.

The top of the case is home to one USB 3.0 port and two USB 2.0 ports, headphone and microphone jacks, power and reset buttons, and a hard drive activity LED. There is a vented area in the rear portion of the top panel, and the entire front of the chassis is a solid metal mesh panel (on a plastic frame) with ventilation holes backed by a mesh filter. Directly behind the front fascia, you will find mounting locations for three 120mm (or two 140mm) fans.

The full-cover, tempered-glass side panel is slightly tinted, measures 407 x 432mm, and is held in place by rubber-coated locating pins and thumbscrews. The steel panel on the opposite side of the chassis is plain and secured with standard thumbscrews.

In the rear of the chassis, you'll find the standard motherboard I/O area, seven expansion card slots, an opening for a bottom-mounted PSU, and an exhaust-fan mounting location that supports 120mm fans.

The bottom of the case has a filtered hole for power-supply ventilation adjacent to another 120mm filtered hole for added air flow. There are four feet attached to the base of the case that keep the chassis approximately a half inch off the ground. The feet are equipped with rubber padding that helps damp vibrations and keeps your case from sliding around.

The filtration system on the CR500 is basic but effective. The two removable filters on the bottom of the case will keep larger dust particles out of your system but are not easily accessible without turning the case completely on its side. The filtration system on the front of the case consists of a mesh filter inserted behind the large mesh front panel. Cleaning and maintenance is a relatively simple process, as no tools are required to remove the filters.

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Hardware Installation & Test Configuration

Interior

A small box containing accessories is located in one of the open 3.5" drive bays. Inside you will find zip ties, two motherboard standoffs, and a variety of screws. The case manual can be found in the PSU area in a plastic zip-lock bag.

Riotoro claims the CR500 features a "dual-chamber design." Although that may be technically correct, unlike the company's CR1080 mini-tower chassis, this case is not what you would consider a true dual-chamber design, lest we consider every case with a PSU tunnel as having such a design.

The interior of the CR500 is painted black to match the exterior of the case. The layout is extremely clean and rather spacious for a mid-tower case. There are three cable pass-through holes with rubber grommets in the motherboard tray and one in the top of the PSU tunnel. This chassis can be equipped with coolers as tall as 180mm and can accommodate multiple graphics cards. The specifications listed on the company website (and the box) state that the CR500 can only accommodate graphics cards up to 320mm in length without radiators or all-in-one coolers installed in the front of the chassis.

During testing, we found it possible to install a 240mm radiator with two 120mm fans and still have more than enough space remaining for long graphics cards. There are mounting locations for up to four 120mm fans; three in the front and one in the rear. The chassis ships by default with two red LED 120mm intake fans in the front and a single 120mm exhaust fan in the rear.

All-in-one coolers and radiators up to 240mm can be installed in the front of the chassis. Due to the fact that the two factory installed 120mm LED fans are mounted outside the frame, enterprising water cooling enthusiasts can use that design feature to their advantage in several ways. Need more space in the chassis' main component compartment? Clever system builders can utilize the factory-installed front-mounted fans by flush -mounting a bare radiator or all-in-one cooler to the inside of the frame. Need added cooling power? Leave the factory-installed 120mm fans in place and mount a radiator or all-in-one cooler with dual 120mm fans for a push/pull airflow configuration.

It should be noted that, as with many mid-tower ATX chassis, even though you can physically mount most all-in-one coolers in the front of the case, because of the fixed length of the tubing, some coolers might not be able to reach the CPU socket. Despite that limitation, these locations are ideal for mounting radiators for water-cooled graphics cards. A single 120mm AIO cooler can be installed in the rear fan mounting location over the CPU socket area.

The CR500 has four internal drive bays. The two mounting locations under the PSU tunnel can be used for both 2.5" and 3.5" drives. Behind the motherboard tray are two dedicated mounting locations for 2.5” SSDs, both of which utilize stamped steel mounting brackets that attach to the frame via thumbscrews.

Riotoro lists support for power supplies up to 180mm in length. During the review process we found that it was in fact possible to install power supplies up to 200mm long.

Test Configuration

Drivers & Settings
Chipset	Intel INF 10.1.1.42
CPU	3.8GHz (38x 100MHz) @ 1.2V Core
Motherboard	Firmware 7A78v17 (07/03/2017)
RAM	16-17-17-36
Graphics	Maximum Fan for Thermal Tests \| AMD Radeon Crimson ReLive 17.9.1

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Benchmark Results & Conclusion

For comparison purposes, we chose to pit the Riotoro CR500 against the Antec P110 Luce, the Phanteks Eclipse P300, and the Fractal Design Define R6 TG, because they are of similar size and features, and all have tempered-glass side panels.

Antec P110 Luce TG

Phanteks Eclipse P300 TG

Fractal Design Define R6 TG

Riotoro’s decision to equip the CR500 with two 120mm intake fans and a single 120mm exhaust fan proved to be a wise design choice. This combination made quick work of the heat generated by our test system. Fan speeds were manually set at 1,400 RPM for testing. CPU core temperatures on our budget quad-core i5-7500 processor running at 3.8GHz maxed out at 44°C over ambient temperature (25°C) during testing. Graphics card temperatures remained steady at 52°C over ambient temperature.

We were pleasantly surprised by the acoustic performance of the CR500. This is given the fact that, of the cases used for comparison purposes, it was the only chassis that features a mesh front panel, so we were expecting higher noise levels. It would seem that the filter material behind the mesh front panel did a pretty good job keeping fan noise down.

Looking at our value chart, the Riotoro CR500 is dead even with both the Phanteks Eclipse P300 and the Fractal Design Define R6 in terms of basic features and price. This chassis, even with features taken into account, is a much better value than the Antec P110 Luce. Given this chassis’ solid thermal performance and respectable noise levels, the asking price of $60 seems like a bargain to us.

The Riotoro CR500 checks all the right boxes. The chassis sports a tempered-glass side panel, good acoustic and thermal performance, and three 120mm fans, two of which feature red LED lighting. Overall, this is a great chassis for the money.

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Zotac Zbox Magnus EN1060K-U Barebones Mini PC Review

Derek Forrest — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 14:00:00 +0000

Introduction & Product Tour

Zotac’s Zbox Magnus mini-PC lineup packs everything from lean muscle machines to world-class weightlifters into its small boxes. The SKUs include Intel processors ranging from Core i3 to i7, and Nvidia graphics starting at GTX 1050 and going all the way up to GTX 1080. Today, we’re taking a look at the midrange, with a barebones offering of the Magnus EN1060K, a Core i5- and GTX 1060-equipped gaming PC that offers VR-ready performance in a small form factor for under $1,000.

Is this barebones box worth the bucks to outfit into a full configuration, or is it the value equivalent of a brick?

Specifications

Exterior

The Zbox Magnus EN1060K is the usual Zotac fare, with a ring embedded in the lid of a small, boxy chassis, measuring in at only 210 x 203 x 62.2 mm. The small form factor (SFF) gaming PC’s black-plastic and metal chassis isn’t much to look at, and an orange LED around the power button is the only major nod to aesthetics on the device.

Vents line the four edges of the bottom panel, allowing fresh air to flow over the components. The top panel has vents on three of the four edges (the front edge is solid), exhausting hot air up and out of the chassis, and a copper heatsink is visible through the vent on the back panel. Cooling is always a significant factor with SFF PCs, and we’ll see if Zotac’s EN1060K can dissipate the heat properly in our benchmarks.

Given its small case, the Zbox Magnus EN1060K-U offers ample USB and display connectivity. On the front panel, you get two USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports (one Type-A, one Type-C) capable of data transfer speeds up to 10 Gbps, in addition to two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports on the rear. Two DisplayPort 1.3 and two HDMI 2.0 ports give you plenty of options to connect a display (most likely a TV in your living room), and a card reader on the front panel makes it easy to transfer photos off of your camera.

The Zotac Zbox Magnus EN1060K-U also sports dual gigabit Ethernet ports powered by a Realtek RTL8168 controller, and a single antenna provides Wi-Fi connectivity via an Intel Wireless AC 3165 NIC.

Interior

As with all barebones PCs, you have to install some of your own components before you can boot the device. Zotac makes this process about as easy as it gets.

The rear edge sports two thumb screws that hold the bottom panel in place, and removing the plastic panel is as simple as sliding it away from the chassis with moderate pressure. There’s even a groove in the plastic into which you can place your thumb so that you can easily get a grip.

Zotac’s interior layout makes component installation a breeze, with the memory SO-DIMM, M.2, and 2.5” SATA drive slots all exposed and accessible without making you use any tools or remove more panels. The aforementioned Wi-Fi module (an Intel Wireless AC 3165) is positioned below the SATA connector, and a fan near the center of the device passes through the visible PCB to push air to the CPU and GPU, which are in the top half of the chassis. End users aren’t meant to toil with the primary components, and the lack of access to the processor and graphics keeps things simple.

Install the memory by lining up the grooves in the module and slot and pushing it in at an angle. Once it’s completely in, just push down toward the PCB, and the module will snap into place. The M.2 slot’s stud and screw are already configured for Type-2280 devices, so you just have to remove the screw, insert the drive at an angle, and tighten it back down to the stud.

The 2.5” drive tray can be removed by loosening the thumbscrew and pulling the plastic away from the PCB. You will attach your drive of choice using the four plastic pegs protruding from the tray’s inner sides, making sure to position the drive with the SATA connectors on the opposite side of the thumb screw hole. Replace the tray, slide the connectors into place, and tighten it back with the thumbscrew. We loaded the EN1060K with our usual barebones components (an M.2 NVMe SSD, an 8GB kit of memory, a 1TB 2.5” SATA HDD) that we’ll detail on the next page.

Software & Accessories

The Zotac Zbox Magnus EN1060K-U is a barebones PC, so it doesn’t come with an operating system or any software. However, the company gives you two options to load your drivers: a typical installation DVD, or a thumb drive. This is particularly useful, considering there’s no optical drive.

In addition to needing a Windows license key (about $100), end users of the barebones version will have to purchase their own memory and storage. A minimalistic dual-channel kit of memory will cost you roughly $70; a moderate-capacity M.2 NVMe SSD goes for around $120; and a 2.5” HDD can run you $60 or so for 1TB of space. All said and done, you will spend anywhere from $350 to $600 (if you really go nuts) just to get the EN1060K-U up and running. There are ways to get in the door cheaper (even less RAM, less ambitious storage), but cutting costs will slice performance in ways we wouldn’t recommend.

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Synthetic & Productivity Benchmarks

We pitted the Zotac Zbox Magnus EN1060K-U against our H270 test bed, which is equipped with an Intel Core i5-7500 processor, an Asrock H270 Performance motherboard, 16GB of DDR4-2133, and a Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 6GB mini graphics card. The rig is powered by a 650W EVGA Supernova G3 PSU and housed in a Thermaltake Versa H22 mid-tower case.

Comparison Products

Gigabyte BRIX Gaming VR (Barebones)

MSI G25 Vortex 8RD

Test System Configuration

We also tapped into the data from our reviews of the MSI G25 Vortex 8RD and Gigabyte BRIX Gaming VR barebones PC. The Vortex features an Intel Core i5-8400 processor, 16GB of single-channel DDR4-2400, a 256GB SATA M.2 SSD for primary storage, and a GeForce GTX 1060 6GB MXM graphics card. The BRIX sports a mobile Core i7-7700HQ with a custom GTX 1060 6GB MXM module, but we tested it with the same components that we put inside the EN1060K-U (a 256GB Toshiba RD400 M.2 NVMe SSD, a 1TB 7,200RPM Western Digital hard drive, a two-4GB-stick/8GB kit of G.Skill SO-DIMM DDR4-2133 memory with a CAS latency of 15-15-15-35).

3DMark

The Zotac Zbox Magnus EN1060K-U fails to impress in the 3DMark Fire Strike and Time Spy synthetic gaming tests. The Core i5-7500T under the hood is to blame, as it just can’t compete with higher-clocked CPUs (our test bench and Vortex) with more processing threads (the BRIX). However, the EN1060K-U keeps up with its competition in the Combined tests, which are the best indicators of real-world game performance (it pushes both the CPU and GPU). It also manages a Graphics win against the BRIX in the Time Spy test (helped by exceptional thermals, observed at 69C).

Cinebench R15

Shifting focus to the CPU, the Cinebench R15 results paint a similar picture. The Core i5-7500T inside the EN1060K-U is simply not as powerful as a mobile Core i7 and its higher-clocked counterpart, the -7500 (which resides in our H270 test rig). However, it manages to upend the Gigabyte BRIX Gaming VR in the OpenGL test, falling just behind the MSI G25 Vortex 8RD and portending that the Zbox may make up for its CPU performance with some GPU horsepower.

CompuBench

The Compubench results give us a glimpse of the EN1060K-U's graphics proficiency, with the Zbox narrowly outperforming the Vortex with the GPU-intensive Bitcoin test and trailing it by only 0.05 FPS in the Video Processing benchmark. The Zotac offering also takes a lead on the BRIX, largely due to the thermal performance of each device. The BRIX trails the pack due to higher temperatures. (It topped out at 85C and would throttle slightly.)

PCMark 8

The Zbox Magnus EN1060K-U returns to the bottom of the heap in the PCMark 8 application tests; that is directly attributed to CPU performance. The Core i5-7500T inside the Zotac barebones offering just isn't as fast as the other systems in the field that sport higher-clocked processors. This is especially apparent when compared to the Gigabyte BRIX Gaming VR barebones mini-PC, in which we used the same storage and memory configuration as the Zbox.

PCMark 10 Extended

The PCMark 10 Extended benchmark shows much of the same results as our other synthetic productivity tests, with the EN1060K-U falling behind the pack thanks to its T-series processor. The Zbox comes close to catching up with the H270 test bed in the Productivity segment of the test, but the weaker CPU puts it behind the other systems in the field by several hundred points in all of the other benchmarks.

VRMark

As a VR-ready device, the Zotac Zbox Magnus EN1060K-U is able to perform well above the Oculus Rift's minimum requirements in the Orange Room test. However, it still falls slightly behind the rest of the pack due to the CPU. The Blue Room results push all of the GTX 1060-equipped systems to the limit, and none of them could handle VR with ultra-high textures and effects enabled.

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Gaming Benchmarks

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation

Switching to in-game benchmarks, the Zotac Zbox Magnus EN1060K-U seems to fare better against its barebones competition, the Gigabyte BRIX Gaming VR. Running the GPU-focused Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation tests exposes the Zbox as contender, and the poor thermal performance of the Gigabyte offering puts the EN1060K-U in a more favorable light with real-world gaming workloads.

Bioshock Infinite

The Bioshock Infinite results tell a similar story, with the EN1060K-U pushing past the BRIX Gaming VR at 1920 x 1080 and 3840 x 2160. The CPU inside the Zbox gives it the lowest minimum framerate in the bunch, but the GPU performance is able to boost its average framerate ahead of its direct barebones competition. Bioshock is also the only game in our suite that is quite playable at 4K with GTX 1060-equipped systems, even with the highest settings enabled.

DiRT Rally

DiRT Rally is another game that doesn't rely much on the CPU for performance, and the EN1060K-U maintains its lead against the Gigabyte BRIX Gaming VR. Using the most-demanding settings at 1080p, the GTX 1060-equipped systems all fall slightly short of the ideal 60FPS average. At 4K, we're met with unplayable average framerates from all of the PCs in the field, but you can get there by reducing the AA, textures, and effects.

Grand Theft Auto V

The Zotac Zbox Magnus EN1060K-U takes its familiar position in the GTAV benchmark at 1920 x 1080, besting the Brix and falling behind the Vortex with an average framerate of 36.39 FPS. However, it still fetches the lowest minimum framerate at this resolution by a longshot, and you'll have to reduce the detail settings to get to a target 60 FPS. At 3840 x 2160, a GTX 1060 graphics card is brought to unplayable framerates with the eye candy at max, and the BRIX manages to push a slightly better average framerate than even the Vortex. That is a testament to the EN1060K-U's thermal performance.

Hitman

The Direct3D 12 version of the Hitman benchmark favors CPU performance, and it's because of this we see the Zotac Zbox Magnus EN1060K-U fall to the bottom of the chart again. This is particularly noticeable at 1920 x 1080, where the Zbox nets the lowest minimum framerate. However, it still averages above 60 FPS with all of highest detail settings enabled at 1080p. Turning up the resolution to 3840 x 2160 pushes the bottleneck to the GPU, and the Brix's lead over the Zbox is less pronounced. The EN1060K-U also manages to achieve a better minimum framerate than the Gaming VR at 4K.

Middle Earth: Shadows of War

Shadows of War is a great game to weed out GPU performance discrepancies, and the Zbox is shown in a more positive light by netting the same average framerate as the MSI G25 Vortex 8RD at 1920 x 1080 and 3840 x 2160. The Gigabyte BRIX Gaming VR was exhibiting poor thermal performance in our review, and it definitely can't keep up in a GPU performance showdown against the better-cooled Vortex and Zbox. At 1080p, you'll be able to get close to 60 FPS average with all the candy turned up, but if you want to game at 4K, expect to turn down the detail dials to get playable framerates.

Rise of the Tomb Raider

With all of the effects and details at their maximum, the Zotac EN1060K-U makes it past the 30 FPS mark with playable average framerates at 1920 x 1080 in Rise of the Tomb Raider. However, the eye candy cripples all of the GTX 1060-equipped systems in the field at 4K, with all of them achieving less than a 10 FPS average. Decreasing the settings will obviously net better performance, but the Zbox still triumphs over the BRIX with less than a 1 FPS lead.

The Division

The Zotac Zbox Magnus EN1060K-U ends our test suite where it started, at the bottom of the chart. The Division favors CPU performance using the DX12 API, and it's no surprise that the Zbox takes a backseat to the systems with better processors. However, the performance difference between the EN1060K-U and its direct competition, the BRIX, is negligible. It trails the Gaming VR by only 0.1 FPS at 1920 x 1080, and the Zbox ties the Brix at 4K.

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Price Analysis & Conclusion

The Zotac Zbox Magnus EN1060K-U is meant for the living room with its trim chassis design, and it’s priced right at $900. It offers excellent 1080p gaming and VR-ready performance for considerably less money than other barebones solutions (see the Gigabyte Brix Gaming VR, priced at $1,150). Although you have to purchase your own storage, memory and operating system, the reasonable price of entry can afford you better components (in both speed and capacity) without pushing the total cost too high.

The Zbox isn’t much to look at if tucked away in a niche, but that can make sense for a PC designed for the living room. (Our DVD players don’t light up like a Christmas tree; why should any other device in our entertainment center?)

There’s enough USB connectivity to attach an HTC Vive or an Oculus Rift, but you’ll have to do so from the rear panel due to the lack of an HDMI port on the front panel. This is by no means a deal breaker, but the feature has been making its way to many other SFF gaming PCs bound for the living room, and it seems like it’s the only thing missing from Zotac’s VR-ready GTX 1060-equipped Zbox.

Installing the components took all of three minutes, and we’re impressed with Zotac’s simplistic interior design. Even novices can easily figure out how to get it up and running with tool-less access that makes similar barebones products seem like a nightmare to configure. The USB thumb drive loaded with all the drivers is another small thing that goes a long way for first-time DIY consumers. It would be a tough order to find another SFF gaming PC with as small a footprint and simplistic a setup process as the Zotac Zbox Magnus EN1060K-U, and it’s one of the best designs we’ve come across in this segment.

The Zbox Magnus EN1060K-U does have a few drawbacks. The Intel Core i5-7500T processor inside is not the fastest Core i5 on the market, with a base clock of 2.7GHz and a max turbo frequency of 3.3GHz in lightly threaded applications. As such, it falls behind in CPU-intensive workloads against higher-clocked Core i5s (the Vortex and our test bench) and mobile Core i7 (the BRIX) systems. However, it doesn’t severely affect most game tests.

The gaming performance of the EN1060K is on par with the other GTX 1060-equipped systems in our charts, exhibiting exceptional thermal dissipation despite the appearance of having little to cool the components. We observed temperatures of 69C with prolonged usage, which is right behind the Vortex and its impressive cooling system (observed at 61C). The EN1060K-U handily outperforms Gigabyte’s GTX 1060 barebones offering because of its stable thermals, with the BRIX topping out at 85C (and throttling). This is apparent in our game results, where the ZBox upends the BRIX in almost every test.

We may be nit-picking with this factor, but M.2 connectivity is limited in comparison to other barebones PCs we’ve encountered. A single slot appeals to standard users, but it wouldn’t have been difficult to fit another M.2 interface for more advanced consumers. (The PCB certainly appears to have some space for it.) The Zbox has some appeal to enthusiasts (we can’t build it that small and have to install our own components), and more storage connectivity would be a sweet incentive for those on the fence.

The Zotac Zbox Magnus EN1060K-U offers the best bang for your buck that we’ve seen in the SFF barebones PC segment by a landslide, coming in at $900 ($250 less than Gigabyte’s offering with the same GPU). Enthusiasts can always make the argument that you can build something more powerful for less money, but you definitely won’t be able to make it this small. Those same enthusiasts also likely have a powerhouse full tower PC sitting at their desk. Having an exceptionally priced SFF living-room gaming PC with enough power under the hood for excellent 1080p and entry-level VR gaming can give them the satisfaction of doing it themselves. Plus, you'll get better-than-console performance at a smaller cost and size than the competition.

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Gigabyte BRIX Gaming VR Barebones Mini PC Review

Derek Forrest — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 02:00:00 +0000

Introduction & Product Tour

Our recent Z270 desktop PC reviews put a focus on top-tier gaming machines leveraging the most powerful components available, with several of our review samples exceeding a price tag of $2,500. With the arrival of Intel’s 8^th generation Coffee Lake processors, the Z270 platform has seen its time in the sun. However, until H310 and H370 chipset motherboards arrive, 7^th generation Intel chips are still occupying many OEM product lines in the mid-range price tier.

With that in mind, we decided to take a look at a handful of these sub-$1,500 (and therefore still relevant) gaming rigs, specifically in the form of barebones mini PCs.

We’re familiar with Gigabyte’s BRIX gaming line—we took the Gaming GT for a spin a few months back, and we found the small form factor (SFF) gaming PC to be quite powerful at an exceptional price. Now, Gigabyte has an even smaller VR-ready machine: the BRIX Gaming VR barebones mini PC. Let's see if this Core i7 and GTX 1060-equipped game box can ride alongside its Gaming GT brethren in the halls of PC Valhalla.

Specifications

Exterior

The Gigabyte Brix Gaming VR is worthy of its name with its brick-like compact chassis, which takes form as a tall yet small 8.66 x 4.33 x 4.33-inch box that can easily find its place in your living room entertainment center. The casing is made of black metal and plastic, giving it a sleek look. The top of the device features an LED light that glows white and illuminates the ventilation around it. The bottom of the chassis is also ventilated, acting as an air intake, which forces fresh air to rise over the interior components and out the top.

From the front, the Brix Gaming VR is stoic and unblemished with a black plastic shroud, but the rear of the system sports a variety of connectivity options. There are two USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports (a Type-C and Type-A) capable of data transfer speeds up to 10 Gb/s and three USB 3.0 ports. This is enough USB connectivity to support both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive VR HMDs, but in the case of the Rift (with Touch), you’ll be left with just one Type-A port to connect any other peripherals. However, you can also connect a keyboard and mouse via Bluetooth if you want to reserve the USB ports for VR devices, as the name of the PC suggests.

For display output, the Gigabyte Brix Gaming VR includes two mini DisplayPort 1.3 and two HDM 2.0 interfaces, making the device adept for multiple displays and VR HMDs. An Intel i219LM gigabit Ethernet port or Intel WirelessAC 8265 802.11ac WiFi will get you connected, and the overall design of the Brix Gaming VR makes a strong case for placement in your living room.

The Brix Gaming VR gets its power from a 180W adapter, drawing about as much juice as a laptop with its mobile components.

Interior

Under the hood, the Gigbyte Brix Gaming VR features an Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor clocked at 2.8 GHz with a maximum turbo frequency of 3.8 GHz in lightly threaded applications. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB graphics card inside the Brix Gaming VR is an MXM card, and it should provide comparable performance to that of a full-fledged desktop GTX 1060 6GB graphics card.

As a barebones system, memory and storage (and an operating system) aren’t provided, but you can equip the Gaming VR with two DDR4-2133 SO-DIMM modules, up to two M.2 2880 devices (PCIe or SATA), and a 2.5” SATA drive (SSD or HDD). Ideally, a moderate-sized M.2 SSD and high-capacity 2.5” HDD would make for a sweet storage pairing in the Gigabyte Brix Gaming VR.

To get to the component slots, you have to remove the four screws at the bottom of the chassis and pop out the plastic part of the bottom panel. Slide the plastic part of the case upwards and away from the metal. With the innards of the Brix Gaming VR exposed, locate the side covered with the metal plate and remove the two screws holding it in place. Lift up and swing the metal panel away from the centrifuge (it has a sort of floating hinge) and carefully unplug the fan and power cables connected between the boards to allow the board to swing fully away from the device and give you access to the M.2 and memory slots.

We equipped the Gigabyte Brix Gaming VR with a 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD, a 1TB 2.5” 7,200 RPM HDD and an 8GB (2 x 4GB) kit of DDR4-2133 (we’ll detail the specific parts on the next page), and after freeing the removable board from the tiny chassis, installing the components is a breeze. The M.2 slots, mounting posts, and screws are easily accessible on the same board as the SO-DIMM memory slots, and both are equally easy to install using the instructions Gigabyte provides. Once the M.2 storage and memory are installed, return the board to its original position (making sure to plug in the fan and power cables) and secure it to the chassis with the screws.

The 2.5” drive bay is on the other side of this panel (where the large heatsink is located), and it can be accessed by removing the two screws on either side of it and lifting the tray up and out of the centrifuge. The SATA power and data cable is taped to the nearby heatsink. Secure your 2.5” drive of choice in the metal tray with the provided screws, plug in the SATA connector, and replace the cage to the chassis. Finish up by screwing down the drive bay, sliding the plastic shroud back over the exposed components, and reattaching the bottom panel.

Software And Accessories

The Gigabyte Brix VR doesn’t come with an operating system or any software, with the exception of the driver disk. You’re on your own when it comes to obtaining a Windows installation, and that easily adds at least $100 to the bill. Combine that with a minimalist kit of memory ($70), a moderate capacity M.2 NVMe SSD ($120), and a 2.5” HDD ($60), and you will spend somewhere around an additional $350 just to get the Brix VR up and running. You could equip the device with even less ambitious components (just an HDD, even less RAM), but the cost savings would impact performance significantly.

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Synthetic & Productivity Benchmarks

We compared Gigabyte's Brix Gaming VR to the recently reviewed MSI G25 Vortex 8RD, which also features a custom MXM GeForce GTX 1060 6GB graphics card and delivers a desirable small form factor. It uses an Intel Core i5-8400 CPU. The Gigabyte Brix Gaming VR also falls into the same sub-$1500 price point as the Vortex (after you add storage, memory, and an operating system). We also made a new H270 platform equipped with an Intel Core i5-7500 and an ASRock H270 Performance motherboard to see how a similarly equipped desktop with a locked CPU would perform against Gigabyte’s sample with a locked mobile CPU. You can see the full specifications of our H270 test platform below.

Comparison Products

Gigabyte BRIX Gaming VR (Barebones)

MSI G25 Vortex 8RD

H270 Test System Configuration

We also tapped into the data from our Z270 test bench, which is equipped with an Intel Core i7-7700K clocked at the default frequencies. We anticipate the Brix Gaming VR should fall in line somewhere between the two reference systems in CPU-intensive tasks. Both of our desktop reference systems were tested with a Zotac GTX 1060 6GB mini graphics card, which sports Nvidia’s stock clock rates. This should provide an adequate baseline to compare with Nvidia’s mobile counterparts.

Z270 Test System Configuration

For these barebones system reviews, we used the same set of storage and memory for testing. This includes an 8GB (2 x 4GB) kit of G.Skill SO-DIMM DDR4-2133 memory with a CAS latency of 15-15-15-35 and a 256GB Toshiba OCZ RD400 M.2 NVMe SSD. Since these components affect a variety of our synthetic benchmarks, we excluded our usual Storage and Memory Bandwidth results, as they will vary based on what the end user ultimately chooses to put in a barebones PC. These parts will also affect productivity workloads where memory bandwidth and storage speed is a factor, but we still chose to include these metrics because we are using the same set of components across all of the barebones PCs we test.

3DMark

The Gigabyte Brix Gaming VR performs in the same ballpark as its similarly equipped desktop competition in the 3DMark Fire Strike and Time Spy benchmarks, but it falls noticeably behind its direct competition, the MSI G25 Vortex, in the graphics portions of the tests. This is likely the result of lower peak GPU clock rates, with the Brix throttling back to the base clock rate fairly often thanks to temperatures reaching up to 85°C. However, the Gaming VR manages to net better CPU performance than our H270 test rig (equipped with a Core i5-7500), and it narrowly trails the Vortex's Core i5-8400, showing that Intel's 8th-generation, six-core desktop CPU has better multi-core performance chops than the previous generation's mobile i7 offering.

Cinebench R15

With CPU performance under the microscope in the Cinebench R15 benchmark, the Gigabyte Brix Gaming VR performs similarly to what the 3DMark CPU tests laid out, lagging behind the pack in single-threaded and OpenGL workloads. Again, the Gaming VR bests our H270 reference system in the multi-threaded portion of the test, with the hyper-threaded quad-core i7-7700HQ under the hood beating the Core i5-7500's four cores.

CompuBench

The Gigabyte Brix Gaming VR clearly has a slight GPU disadvantage compared to the G25 Vortex, falling behind the MSI-branding competition in the CompuBench Video Processing and Bitcoin Mining tests. Although the margin is small, it continues to point out a performance gap between Gigabyte's MXM GeForce GTX 1060 6GB graphics card and MSI's custom MXM card.

PCMark 8

Performance in the PCMark 8 application benchmarks are a mixed bag of results for the Gigabyte Brix Gaming VR. It falls significantly behind the other GTX 1060-equipped PCs in the field in the Adobe Creative test, but it manages to outpace the H270 reference system in the Microsoft Office application workloads. Storage and memory-intensive workload performance (especially Adobe software) will vary depending on what you install in your barebones Brix, but we can confidently say that the Gaming VR performs slightly behind other options.

PCMark 10 Extended

The PCMark 10 Extended results give us a more varied look at specific productivity workload performance, and the Gigabyte Brix Gaming VR is able to finally lift itself out of the bottom slot in the chart by outperforming our H270 reference system. The Brix Gaming VR still falls behind the H270 rig (and other GTX 1060-equipped PCs) in the Gaming test, but a close score in the Essentials benchmark, and comfortable leads in the Productivity and Digital Content Creation portion of the test gives the Brix a higher overall score. Again, our particular storage and memory setup has a significant impact on this, and your choice of hardware may prove better or worse in these particular workloads.

VRMark

VRMark tells a similar gaming performance story. The Gigabyte Brix Gaming VR falls behind the desktop GPU-equipped competition and the MSI G25 Vortex 8RD. However, the Brix exceeds the minimum recommended performance for the Oculus Rift in the Orange Room test. Pushing the detail settings higher with the Blue Room test crushes all of the GTX 1060-equipped systems in the field.

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Gaming Benchmarks

For this particular review, we excluded 2560 x 1440 test results. We did this because the mobile GPU would not run this resolution in full screen mode (although we could have run the tests with windowed resolutions), and these systems are meant for the living room, where 1080p and 4K TVs are more common.

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation

The Gigabyte Brix Gaming VR starts the gaming benchmarks at the bottom of the heap, trailing the MSI G25 Vortex 8RD in average framerates by about 14% in the Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation tests at 1920 x 1080 and 3840 x 2160. This benchmark is known to stress the CPU more than the GPU, but the results indicate that the Brix Gaming VR is behind the pack on both fronts.

Bioshock Infinite

The Bioshock Infinite results are less damning, with the Brix Gaming VR coming in behind the G25 Vortex in average framerate by 4% at 1920 x 1080 and by 3% at 3840 x 2160. Bioshock is also acceptable to play at 4K, with all of the GTX 1060-equipped systems netting above a 30 FPS average with all the settings at maximum.

DiRT Rally

Again, the Gigabyte Brix Gaming VR performs just slightly behind the G25 Vortex in the DiRT Rally benchmarks, highlighted by lower minimum framerates at 1920 x 1080 and 3840 x 2160. The desktop CPUs inside the competition simply achieve better peak clock rates, and the Brix Gaming VR is more on par with a similarly equipped laptop (which still isn't too shabby).

Grand Theft Auto V

The slight CPU disadvantage of the Brix Gaming VR once again places it at the bottom of the chart. GTAV is especially taxing with the detail settings at maximum, and all of the GTX 1060-equipped PCs struggle to achieve above a 30 FPS average at 1920 x 1080. It's unreasonable to expect playable framerates at 4K without drastically reducing the eye candy.

Hitman

Similar to Bioshock Infinite, the Gigabyte Brix Gaming VR fares better at 1920 x 1080 in the Hitman benchmarks, achieving an average framerate above a desirable 60 FPS (65.6 FPS to be exact). Turning up the resolution to 3840 x 2160 doesn't do any favors for the mobile GPU-equipped PCs in the field. Whereas the desktop samples are able to achieve just under a playable 30 FPS average at 4K with all the settings at maximum, the Vortex and Brix Gaming VR trail them by a few FPS. The Brix only falls behind the Vortex by less than 1 FPS, but both systems require less demanding settings for playable framerates at 4K.

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider is another hardware-heavy title that brings all of the GTX 1060-equipped systems to single-digit framerates at 4K. However, at 1920 x 1080, the Gigabyte Brix Gaming VR is able to average above a playable 30 FPS with all the details and AA and their highest settings. Once again we see the Brix trail the Vortex, but with the GPU clearly being the bottleneck, this disadvantage is much smaller than we've seen in other games.

The Division

We see more of the same results in The Division, with the Brix achieving a 47.2 FPS average framerate at 1920 x 1080 with the highest settings. It again falls behind the Vortex (by 3.5 FPS), and although we see better average framerates in this game at 4K than some of the others we've tested, it's still highly recommended that you turn the detail and AA dials way down if you want to play at 3840 x 2160.

Middle Earth: Shadows of War

Our newest game in the test suite gives a great indication of GPU performance (both of our test rigs with different CPUs achieve the same average framerate), and the Brix Gaming VR again falls behind the Vortex in Middle Earth: Shadows of War. The difference between Gigabyte and MSI's MXM GTX 1060 is small, but the slight GPU memory overclock of the MSI G25 Vortex (along with better observed thermals) puts the Gigabyte a few FPS behind it in the majority of our GPU-intensive tests.

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Price Analysis & Conclusion

The Gigabyte Brix Gaming VR is one of the smallest gaming PCs we've ever tested. It's about the size of a Google Home or Amazon Echo, and it packs considerable gaming horsepower. The Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor and GeForce GTX 1060 6GB graphics card will get you in the door for VR gaming and will provide excellent framerates in many AAA game titles at 1920 x 1080. However, you may have to back down the details to get the most out of Gigabyte's SFF gaming PC. 4K gaming is not the ideal intent for the Brix Gaming VR (or any other GTX 1060 equipped PC).

Size is the primary consideration factor for the Gigabyte Brix Gaming VR. It doesn't get much smaller than this. The tiny chassis can easily find a home in a living room entertainment center, and at full load the sound is comparable to a full-sized desktop PC at idle (it's not noisy). As a barebones PC, there is also an appeal to enthusiast consumers looking for an ultra-compact PC that requires a bit of technical knowledge to use (you have to install your own memory, storage, and operating system).

The chassis is easy to open, but we thought accessing the component interfaces (M.2, SATA, memory SO-DIMMs) was a bit awkward (the included instructions were also of little help). The best advice we can offer is to mind the attached cables when removing the main panel to install RAM and M.2 storage; our review sample's main power cable clip (attached to the removable panel) was broken (presumably from a prior review) from what appeared to be too much pressure on the cable when the board is pulled away to expose the interior. We were able to reattach it and use the device, but it's important to detach all the visible cables as you delicately open the system.

The compact design and quiet fans don't come without drawbacks. There's not much USB connectivity to go around. With only four Type-A ports, you'll have a problem connecting an Oculus Rift with Touch unless you opt for a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

Another serious issues is thermal performance. We observed GPU temperatures reaching 85°C (the maximum operating temperature before it throttles), which resulted in lower peak sustained clock rates compared to the direct competition, the MSI G25 Vortex (which also features an MXM GTX 1060). As such, the Brix Gaming VR falls behind the pack ever so slightly in our GPU-intensive benchmarks. That performance drop appears to be the price of ultra-compact PC gaming.

At $1,150, the Gigabyte Brix Gaming VR comes in at an attractive price on paper, but you'll spend anywhere from $250 to $600 more to add your own memory, storage, and OS (depending on how crazy you get with your memory and storage performance and capacity). This brings your total cost of ownership more in line with what the competition is asking for its fully assembled SFF PC (the G25 Vortex, priced at $1,500). Consequently, the Gigabyte Brix Gaming VR doesn't have as strong of a price-to-performance ratio as its base pricing may suggest. If performance is your primary deciding factor, there are other options in this price point that offer better thermal (and therefore, GPU) performance.

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MSI G25 Vortex 8RD Gaming PC Review

Derek Forrest — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 15:00:00 +0000

Introduction & Product Tour

MSI debuted its new G25 Vortex small form factor (SFF) gaming PC at the end of September 2017, shortly after the arrival of Intel’s 8th-generation Coffee Lake processors. The new desktop defies a few notions about this particular product category. The G25 Vortex is a console-size PC measuring only 2.5L in volume but with some impressive hardware under the hood. Can MSI's $1,499 offering deliver on its promise of being a VR-ready PC-gaming system in the body of a gaming console?

Specifications

Exterior

The MSI G25 Vortex 8RD resembles a laptop (sans display) more than it conjures a desktop. The chassis measures a mere 10.98 x 13.03 x 1.69 inches (roughly 2.5L volume) and weighs only 5.51lbs. The device can be positioned horizontally like a traditional console or vertically with a provided stand. (It fits in the stand only one way, with the vents pointed upward.) Either way, the G25 Vortex won’t take up a lot of space in your living-room entertainment center, which is an ideal target location.

Laying the G25 Vortex flat makes it resemble a sleek gaming console, with smooth black plastic and eye-catching RGB LED bars on the top panel, the panel’s front edge, and the power button. The bottom is less polished, with multiple air vents illuminated by static red LED lights and rubber feet meant to hold it in place. The most aesthetically pleasing part of the bottom panel (aside from the lighting) is an etched MSI dragon logo, which is also where the device’s VESA mounting bracket is located. Setting the G25 Vortex upright (with the included stand) makes the vents less restricted from airflow, with the underside becoming fully exposed and the exhaust vents (on the left side, horizontally) located at the top of the chassis.

The front of the G25 Vortex features a USB 3.0 Type-C port and two USB 3.0 ports, in addition to audio jacks and an HDMI 2.0 port to connect your virtual reality (VR) head-mounted display (HMD). Unlike many SFF cases with a front-panel HDMI port, this is not a pass-through, and there is no extra wire required in the rear of the device to make the port work.

The back of the device sports two more USB 3.0 ports, another HDMI 2.0 interface, and a USB 3.1 (Gen 1) Type-C port. A gigabit Ethernet port (powered by a Qualcomm AR8171 NIC) or the onboard Intel WirelessAC 3168 will get you online, and Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity can free up some USB ports if you're using wireless peripherals. With limited USB connectivity (only four Type-A ports), some Type-C to Type-A adapters may be required for those who want to connect more than just a VR HMD and a wired keyboard and mouse.

Interior

We found it incredibly easy to access the primary components inside the G25 Vortex, despite its compact size. Four thumbscrews are located in the corners of the "bottom" (the left side, looked at vertically) of the chassis; all we had to do was loosen them and pull the top and bottom panels away from the center to gain access to the parts under the hood.

MSI loaded the G25 Vortex 8RD with an Intel Core i5-8400 six-core processor, which is seated in a custom MSI Z370 motherboard and cooled with the company’s patented Silent Storm Cooling Pro 3. This consists of a series of copper heat pipes (four for the CPU, three over the GPU, and one for its VRMs) that run into a set of dissipation fins. These are cooled by two fans that pull in air from the bottom (left, when upright) of the chassis and exhaust the heat out the left side (top, when upright). The cooling resembles that of a laptop more than a desktop, but we don’t see much risk of thermal throttling; the interior of the chassis is spacious and has plenty of airflow.

The GeForce GTX 1060 6GB graphics card is an MXM module, surprisingly. Many SFF OEMs opt for chip-down (soldered) solutions, but MSI has higher-priced models of the G25 Vortex available with more powerful graphics, and the use of MXM likely makes the manufacturing process easier. It also makes it so that end users can upgrade the graphics down the line (after the factory warranty is expired; accessing the GPU will void it), so long as they can keep the new GPU in the same power envelope (150W). However, the downside is that MXM cards usually add a hefty premium to the total bill (at least more than a chip-down setup) due to the increased production cost for the OEM.

The G25 Vortex 8RD is equipped with 16GB of DDR4-2400 with a CAS latency of 17-17-17-39, but it comes in the form of a single SO-DIMM module, cutting out dual-channel operation and likely hamstringing the memory subsystem on bandwidth-intensive workloads. However, users will find it easy enough to access the memory DIMM slots (there are four of them, two on each side of the device) and upgrade the RAM configuration to something more suitable, if they so desire. Average consumers won’t notice the lack of dual-channel memory, but an enthusiast eye knows that two modules are always better than one, and it’s somewhat disappointing to see MSI intentionally nerf a perfectly good Z370 platform with single-channel memory operation.

The storage is accessible behind the smooth side panel (top horizontally, right side vertically), which hides two of the four SO-DIMM memory slots in addition to two M.2 interfaces and a 2.5” 1TB 7,200RPM HDD. One of the M.2 slots is occupied with a 256GB Samsung PM871a M.2 SATA 6GB/s SSD. This client model ships to OEMs and is rated for up to 540MB/s and 520MB/s sequential read/write speeds, as well as up to 97K and 79K random read/write IOPS, respectively. If you crave more storage speed, the M.2 slots also support PCIe 3.0 x 4 SSDs that you can purchase and install yourself.

Software And Accessories

MSI didn’t pre-install any trial version software (bloatware), but the G25 Vortex does come loaded with Nahmic audio software and the company’s custom overclocking and monitoring software, Dragon Center. The app gives users the ability to monitor CPU and GPU usage and temperatures, in addition to one-click overclocking and fan speed settings. The CPU is not overclockable, but you can boost the GPU core and memory clocks if you don’t mind increased fan noise from higher temperatures.

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Synthetic & Productivity Benchmarks

MSI’s G25 Vortex 8RD is one of the first systems we’ve tested that features Intel Coffee Lake processors, so our comparison factors are mostly comprised of previous-generation systems. We happened to have an Intel H270 platform with a Core i5-7500 (the Core i5-8400’s predecessor) on hand, so we set it up and collected data to pit against MSI’s next-gen contender.

Our Z270 test bench features an Intel Core i7-7700K cooled by a Deepcool Gammaxx 400 on an ASRock Z270 Gaming i7 motherboard, with 16GB of Kingston HyperX Savage DDR4-2133 memory, a 1TB HyperX Savage SATA 6 Gb/s SSD, and a 1000W EVGA Supernova G3 power supply.

The H270 test platform sports a Core i5-7500 on an ASRock H270 Performance motherboard. We used the same memory from our Z270 platform, and Kingston shipped us a 512GB Savage SATA 6 Gb/s SSD to use in the reference bench. EVGA also hooked us up with a 650W version of the Supernova G3 power supply for the new test rig. Zotac provided us with a stock-clocked GTX 1060 6GB graphics card, and we used it in both the Z270 and H270 rigs. The full specifications of our comparison systems are listed below.

Test System Configurations

Z270 TEST BED

H270 TEST BED

We tested the MSI G25 Vortex using the presets in its Dragon Center software, with the performance mode set to Sport and the fan curve on Auto (this was how it was originally shipped). Our Z270 and H270 tests systems were both tested with stock CPU and GPU clock speeds and operation, with memory set to DDR4-2133 and a CAS latency of 15-15-15-35.

We also made some changes to our Productivity test suite, adding VRMark and PCMark 10 Extended to our usual list of benchmarks.

3DMark

The MSI G25 Vortex doesn’t fare too well against its similarly-equipped desktop brethren, netting lower overall, Graphics, and Combined scores across the gamut of 3DMark Fire Strike and Time Spy tests. The main cause of this is the mobile GTX 1060 under the hood; it performs—as we'd expect—slightly behind a desktop version of the graphics card (at stock frequencies). However, the Vortex takes the second place with its Physics and CPU scores throughout the entirety of the tests, with the Core i5-8400 performing better than our Core i5-7500-equipped test rig and just behind the quad-core (8-thread) Core i7-7700K in our Z270 reference machine.

Cinebench R15

With the CPU in the spotlight, the MSI G25 Vortex 8RD takes a more favorable position in the stack, besting our H270 machine (with the previous-gen i5-7500 inside) and falling slightly behind the previous Intel flagship CPU (the i7-7700K). Single-threaded tests put the Vortex only slightly ahead of our H270 rig, but the Core i5-8400 shines with multi-threaded workloads, putting the Vortex within arm's reach of our Z270 (i7-7700K) test bench.

CompuBench

The MSI G25 Vortex returns to the bottom of the pile in the Compubench test results. Although the Vortex manages to (barely) outpace the H270 test rig in the Video Processing test, its weaker mobile GPU loses a little over 20 MHash/s compared to the desktop counterpart inside the H270 machine.

Storage Test

MSI’s use of an M.2 SSD with a SATA controller may seem to be an odd choice, the 256GB Samsung PM871a SATA 6 Gb/s SSD inside the Vortex performs well, achieving just under its rated sequential read speed (of 540 MB/s) at 539.14 MB/s. However, the sequential read and random read and write IOPS performance falls short of the advertised speeds for the drive. Despite this, the SSD performs admirably (it even bests our reference SATA storage in write IOPS), and average consumers will appreciate the speedy primary storage.

Our reference rigs both feature the same brand of SSD, although in different capacities. However, while testing the new H270 machine (with a 512GB HyperX Savage SSD), our storage test results only varied from our Z270 test bench (with a 1TB HyperX Savage SSD) by less than 1%. Because of this, we simply used our data from the Z270 test rig to represent both reference platforms, since the storage is virtually identical in performance, despite the difference in capacity.

Sandra Memory Bandwidth

Predictably, the MSI Vortex falls behind the dual-channel desktop PCs in the field during the Sandra memory bandwidth test. This is due to the Vortex’s single 16GB module of DDR4-2400 SO-DIMM memory, which sports a high CAS latency of 17-17-17-39 (which also doesn’t help its bandwidth performance). Because of this, the MSI G25 Vortex will lag behind systems with dual-channel memory operation in workloads that are bandwidth intensive.

PCMark 8

The Vortex’s speedy storage and processor give it an edge over our H270 reference rig in the PCMark 8 application tests. The Vortex also trails the Z270 platform by a small margin in the Microsoft Office application benchmark, but its Core i5-8400 can’t compete with the higher thread count and clock speeds of our Z270 rig’s i7-7700K in the Adobe Creative application tests.

PCMark 10 Extended

We added the PCMark 10 Extended benchmark to our suite to get a better idea of specific productivity performance across a broad range of application types. The MSI G25 Vortex takes its familiar second-place position over our H270 rig and just behind our Z270 platform, but the Vortex still finishes last in the gaming portion of the test, which uses a version of 3DMark Fire Strike to test the system’s gaming acumen.

VRMark

VRMark tells a similar story: the MSI G25 Vortex falls behind the desktop GPU-equipped competition, despite the differences in CPU horsepower. However, the Orange Room test shows that the Vortex exceeds the minimum recommended performance for the Oculus Rift, but pushing the details higher with the Blue Room test brings all three of the systems in the field to their knees.

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Gaming Benchmarks

Similar to our productivity tests, we made some changes to our game test suite by removing some older titles and adding some brand-spanking-new ones. We stopped using Alien: Isolation, GRID Autosport, Metro: Last Light Redux, and Thief, and in their places we added Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation (to replace the previous Ashes benchmark) and Middle Earth: Shadows of War. As usual, we tested all games with the maximum settings, which for Ashes: Escalation is the DX12 Crazy Preset with MSAA x8. For Shadows of War, we didn’t pre-load the MIPS and disabled Dynamic Resolution and set the game to Ultra with FXAA only.

For this particular review, we also excluded 2560 x 1440 resolution test results. This is partially because the mobile GPU would not run that resolution at full screen (although we could have run the tests with windowed resolutions), but also because these types of devices are typically meant for the living room, where 1080p and 4K TVs rule the roost. (Note: you will see that a GTX 1060 GPU, in either mobile or desktop form, is not exactly adequate for 4K gaming, especially at these high settings.)

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation

The MSI Vortex’s mobile GPU is going to be a thorn in its side throughout our gaming benchmarks when compared to a system with a desktop graphics card, and it starts testing off with the expected ~10% performance gap from the next closest reference system with a stock-clocked desktop GPU. Although there is only difference of roughly 5 FPS between our Z270 reference rig and the Vortex, the Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation results show that a GTX 1060 isn’t going to bode well at Ultra settings with demanding modern AAA games. Scaling back the detail levels and anti-aliasing will vastly improve your frame rates in a game such as this.

Bioshock Infinite

The MSI G25 Vortex 8RD provides excellent frame rates at 1920 x 1080 in Bioshock Infinite, netting an average of 113.05 FPS. This is still behind our reference systems with a desktop GPU, but this game isn’t particularly taxing until you crank up the resolution. However, even at 4K, the Vortex puts out an average of 37.28 FPS, which is playable (and easily improved without turning down too many settings).

DiRT Rally

The MSI G25 Vortex 8RD once again trails the desktop GPU-equipped comparison systems. At 1920 x 1080, the Vortex falls behind our H270 reference rig by 1.24 FPS. Cranking the resolution up to 3840 x 2160 makes the margin even slimmer, with only a 0.62 average FPS difference between the Vortex and the Core i5-7500-equipped H270 test system. You won’t be able to get playable frame rates at 4K without some significant reductions to the detail and AA settings, but all of the GTX 1060-equipped systems are able to provide close to a 60 FPS average with the maximum detail settings at 1080p.

Grand Theft Auto V

GTA V gives the MSI G25 Vortex 8RD its only second-place finish in the game benchmarks at 3840 x 2160, where the six-core i5-8400 gives it a slight edge over the previous-gen i5-7500 in our H270 reference machine. However, at 1920 x 1080, the Vortex remains at the bottom of the chart, behind the H270 test rig by 3.45 FPS average.

Hitman

The MSI G25 Vortex 8RD nets impressive average frame rates in the Hitman benchmarks at 1920 x 1080, but it still remains behind the desktop GPU-equipped comparison systems. At 4K, the reference PCs are able to almost achieve a playable 30 FPS at the most punishing settings, but the Vortex falls painfully short of the 30 FPS mark with its mobile GPU by 3.57 FPS. However, reducing the detail and AA settings will get you playable frame rates at 3840 x 2160.

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider is one of the most punishing games in our test suite, and the Vortex puts out an average frame rate of 34.72 FPS at 1920 x 1080 with all the bells and whistles turned on. Reducing the AA will drastically improve performance, but gaming at 3840 x 2160 will be a tough task without reducing the texture details to their minimums. At max settings, none of the GTX 1060-equipped systems is able to reach double-digit average frame rates.

The Division

The Division is another hardware-intensive game with all the eye candy at maximum, and the Vortex again finds the bottom of the pile with an average frame rate of 50.7 FPS at 1920 x 1080. Dialing up the resolution to 3840 x 2160 again proves to be a tough order; not a single system in the field reaches beyond 20 FPS. Reducing settings will help, but it’s starting to become apparent that the G25 Vortex 8RD is more limited to 1080p TVs/displays, at least at maxed-out settings.

Middle Earth: Shadows of War

The newest game in our test suite is extremely GPU-focused using its Ultra preset, evidenced by the identical average frame rates of our Z270 and H270 test systems. (We used the same GPU in each platform.) As such, the MSI G25 Vortex 8RD trails the desktop GPU-equipped systems at a reasonably expected margin (9-11%) at 1920 x 1080 and 3840 x 2160. Once again, the Vortex demonstrates enthusiast-level frame rates at 1080p, but it fails to impress at 4K with the detail settings at max. You'll have to upgrade the graphics card for that.

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Price Analysis & Conclusion

The MSI G25 Vortex 8RD is a Core i5-8400 and GTX 1060-equipped, console-size gaming PC that was designed specifically for the living room. The hardware under the hood is VR-ready, and it’s easy to connect an HMD with the front HDMI port. There’s no abundance of USB connectivity (you get only four Type-A ports), and if an Oculus Rift with Touch (which requires three USB Type-A ports at minimum) is to be paired with the Vortex, you’ll have to either settle for one Type-A port or some Type-C to Type-A adapters to connect your peripherals, or use a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

The look of the Vortex screams “gamer,” with RGB LED bars on the center and front edge of the smooth panel and in the power button, in addition to red LEDs illuminating the air vents on the bottom side (or left, vertically). The edgy design is subjective, but we think it’s fair to say that consumers in the 11-24 demographic will find it aesthetically pleasing.

The G25 Vortex is easy to upgrade, and it’s a good thing. The memory and storage that ship with the Vortex 8RD are mere starting points for enthusiast gamers. MSI disappointed us with the use of single-channel memory (a dual-channel kit would have provided better bandwidth performance), and although 16GB of RAM is more than enough for the latest AAA game titles, the speed and CAS latency are less than fantastic. The SATA 6 Gb/s M.2 SSD provides fast load times, but the capacity is somewhat minimal at 256GB. The 1TB HDD is also minimalist, and anyone with an extensive AAA game library would outgrow the device’s storage space fairly quickly. However, the storage is a good starting point for a new PC gamer (especially compared to the storage of a gaming console), and that’s the target customer MSI is clearly looking for with the G25 Vortex.

The use of an MXM GPU also gives the G25 Vortex a degree of longevity over other OEM SFF gaming PCs that use chip-down graphics; the end user could hypothetically upgrade the graphics card down the line (say, when Nvidia releases mobile Volta-based GPUs) if more performance is needed.

We knew that the MSI G25 Vortex 8RD would be a tough sell in a performance battle against DIY systems equipped with GTX 1060 6GB desktop graphics cards. Nvidia said we’d see about a 10% performance variance from the desktop version compared to the mobile GPUs when the mobile 10-series launched, and that’s roughly what we see from the Vortex across the range of gaming benchmarks in our suite. It doesn’t quite live up to the expectations of a 4K gaming machine, but no GTX 1060-equipped PC really is. However, if your living room sports a 1080p display, the G25 Vortex 8RD will provide excellent frame rates at High and Ultra settings in most modern AAA game titles.

The Vortex also excels in multi-threaded workloads against our Core i5-7500-equipped H270 reference system, thanks to its 8th-generation Core i5-8400 six-core processor. The higher core count improves performance in most of the productivity benchmarks, with the Vortex placing below our i7-7700K-equipped Z270 test rig and above the H270 system in CPU-intensive workloads.

At $1,499, the MSI G25 Vortex 8RD is not a value play for the hardware inside. (You could configure a comparable DIY system with a similar form factor for around $1,200 or less, with an OS included.) But the markup isn’t as considerable as some other custom-shop SFF options we’ve seen. For uninitiated consumers, we can see the Vortex as a viable option if they are seeking a powerful, console-size VR-ready gaming machine for their living room entertainment center.

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NZXT H700i Case Review

Steven Lynch — Sun, 07 Jan 2018 14:00:00 +0000

Features and Specifications

NZXT's new H series line of cases, announced in early 2017, are equipped with installed RGB lighting, Aer F-series fans, and a tempered-glass side panel. We've got the H700i mid-tower chassis on the test bench. Let's dive right in.

Specifications

Exterior

The NZXT H700i mid-tower chassis comes in black or white and a variety of accent colors, including black, blue, and red. Measuring 516 x 230 x 494mm, it weighs just over 27lbs, retails for $200, and comes with a two-year warranty.

The top of the H700i is home to two USB 2.0 ports, a pair of USB 3.0 ports and headphone and microphone jacks. The rest of the top panel is smooth and featureless. The front and side of the chassis are devoid of features as well. The opposite side panel features a one-button release mechanism that allows instant access to the area behind the motherboard tray. Air intake vents on either side of the top and front panels not only provide a path for fresh air to be drawn in, it is also the area where NZXT has applied accent colors, providing a distinctive bit of flair to the overall look of the H700i.

As you can see from the photos, the 5mm thick tempered-glass side panel is slightly recessed making it a bit difficult to reinstall on the rubber-coated locating pins once it has been removed. Metal thumb screws with rubber washers keep the tempered-glass panel in place.

The rear of the chassis has a standard motherboard I/O area, seven expansion card slots, and an opening for a bottom-mounted power supply. Supporting both 120 and 140mm fans and outfitted with 140mm fan, the exhaust fan mounting location features slotted screw holes that let you slide the fan up or down to make room for system components or to fine tune airflow. The bottom of the case has a single filtered hole for the power supply and four large rectangular rubber-coated feet that keep the case approximately one inch off any surface

The NZXT H700i employs a fairly standard fan filtration system. There is a large removable nylon filter that covers the fan mounting locations in the front of the chassis and a power supply filter that you remove from the rear of the case. The fan mounting locations in the top of the chassis are unfiltered.

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Hardware Installation and Test Configuration

Accessories for the NZXT H700i are located in a small white box secured in one of the two 3.5" hard drive bays. The box contains various screws, zip ties, and an additional LED RGB lighting strip and extension cable. The box also contains an owners manual.

Thanks to the recent popularity of relocating hard drive racks to the area under the power supply tunnel, cases like the H700i have an abundance of space in the main compartment for water cooling components. In fact, even though this chassis is equipped with a trio of 120mm intake fans, a 140mm exhaust fan, and a large cable management bar, there is more than enough room for a custom cooling loop, reservoir, and a multi-GPU set-up with room to spare.

While we are on the subject of space, it's worth mentioning that it's becoming increasingly common among case manufacturers to list support for E-ATX motherboards up to 10.7”. Although that sounds great, true E-ATX motherboards measure 12 x 13” deep. You can imagine how unhappy you'd be if you bought this case under the assumption it supported a full-sized E-ATX motherboard.

In lieu of traditional cable pass-through holes in the motherboard tray, NZXT has opted for a 8.7” x 1.75” vertical slot for cable management. To keep things neat and tidy, you get a large cable management bar that, along with the PSU cover, help hide unsightly wires and cable clutter. The cable management bar is painted to match to the H700i's accent color. There is a 10" x .5" opening in the upper edge of the motherboard tray that's designed to allow routing the 12V motherboard power cable or fan wires. A large hole in the motherboard mounting plate facilitates heatsink changes without removing the motherboard. Space behind the motherboard, although well designed, is extremely limited. NZXT has included a number of plastic routing blocks for cable management and plenty of tie down points, but even so, space is at a premium and requires careful planning.

There are mounting locations for a total of three 3.5” hard drives and seven 2.5” drives, two of which are convertible from the two 3.5" drive slots mounted under the PSU tunnel. Of the five dedicated mounting locations for 2.5" drives, two are located behind the motherboard tray and three are mounted to the outside of the PSU tunnel. The 2.5” drive caddies mounted to the PSU tunnel are plastic and are removed by squeezing them from the sides. Although both 3.5” drive racks are removable, you have to remove the top hard drive rack to access the bottom drive rack. Additionally, you can move the 3.5” hard drive racks closer to the front panel or rear of the chassis (toward the PSU).

Cooling duties are handled by three 120mm front intake fans and a large 140mm exhaust fan behind the CPU socket area. The sheer number of fans installed in this chassis from the factory should provide more than enough airflow for even the most demanding system configurations.

Although some larger PSUs may require relocating the hard drive racks, the H700i can accommodate power supplies up to 250mm in length without moving the hard drive racks. You can use CPU air coolers up to 185mm tall and the case can accommodate multiple graphics cards up to 423mm in length.

Radiators and all-in-one coolers can be mounted in the top, front, and rear of this chassis. The mounting locations in the front of the chassis support radiators and liquid coolers up to 360mm. There is a total of 39mm clearance for radiators and coolers in the space above the motherboard and an additional 39mm for fans to be mounted in the area above the frame and below the top panel.

As with all cases of this size, most all-in-one coolers can be physically mounted in the front of this chassis, but because of the fixed length of the tubing, some coolers might not be able to reach the CPU socket. However, these locations are ideal for mounting radiators for water-cooled graphics cards.

Radiators and all-in-one liquid coolers up to 360mm can be mounted inside the main compartment of the chassis. The front of the chassis can easily support radiators sandwiched between fans in a push-pull configuration. The exhaust fan mounting location can be fitted with 120 and 140mm coolers in single and dual fan configurations.

NZXT bills the H700i as a “smart case.” The company employs the use of an Adaptive Noise Reduction algorithm that actively adjusts fan speeds based on measured noise and CPU/GPU temperature changes. This chassis is also equipped with a fan controller/LED RGB lighting controller with three 10W fan channels and support for up to four LED lighting strips or five RGB fans.

The H700i comes with one installed 12” RGB lighting strip and includes an additional 12” LED RGB lighting strip in the accessory box. LED functionality and fan speeds are controlled by the company’s proprietary CAM software. Lighting effects such as breathing, fading, pulse, alternating, and wings can all be selected from the CAM software user interface. Not a fan of NZXT’s CAM software? RGB lighting and fan speed can also be controlled via the software provided by your motherboard vendor.

Test Configuration

Drivers & Settings
Chipset	Intel INF 10.1.1.42
CPU	3.8GHz (38x 100MHz) @ 1.2V Core
Motherboard	Firmware 7A78v17 (07/03/2017)
RAM	16-17-17-36
Graphics	Maximum Fan for Thermal Tests \| AMD Radeon Crimson ReLive 17.9.1

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Benchmarks and Final Review

For comparison purposes, we pit the NZXT H700i against the Antec P110 Luce, Bitfenix Enso, and the be quiet! Dark Base 700. The cases used for comparison are of similar size and features, and all have tempered-glass side panels.

Antec P110 Luce TG

Bitfenix Enso

be quiet! Dark Base 700

With fan speeds set at 1400 RPM, CPU core temperatures on our budget quad-core i5-7500 processor running at 3.8 GHz were easily some of the best we've ever recorded with this test system. At just 38°C over the ambient temperature of 25°C, the massive airflow provided by the three 120mm intake fans made quick work of the heat generated by our test system, and regardless of how hard we pushed our test system we couldn't get the H700i to come close to breaking a sweat.

GPU temperatures also benefited from the direct airflow provided by the triple 120mm intake fans. Registering 47°C over the ambient temperature, these test results are once again some of the lowest we've seen in this test configuration. Now it's time to find out what kind of acoustic performance we can expect.

Noise-wise, the NZXT H700i performed similarly to other mid-tower chassis equipped with a large tempered-glass side panel. At idle, this chassis performed very well at just 31.1dBA. Under full load, the noise output was slightly higher than the Dark Base 700 but less than the Bitfenix Enso. Even with a closed front panel and a thick tempered-glass side panel, the number of intake fans adversely affected acoustic performance. Thanks to the included fan controller, fan speeds can be adjusted to reduce noise output without sacrificing much in the way of thermal performance.

We determine acoustic efficiency, also referred to as cooling-to-noise ratio, by averaging all five of our tests to determine a base value.

Although looks are subjective, we think this is a very handsome chassis, and the clever color choices offer enough variety for just about everyone. This chassis doesn’t just look good either; it performs very well and comes with a number of premium features that set it apart from the crowded mid-tower market. On the other hand, great looks and above-average performance come at a premium cost. As a side note, the lack of at least one USB Type-C port seems like a glaring oversight in such a premium case, especially in this price range.

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Fractal Design Define R6 Tempered Glass Edition Case Review

Steven Lynch — Wed, 20 Dec 2017 15:00:00 +0000

Features & Specifications

Fractal Design has a well-established reputation for high-quality, feature-rich chassis that are surprisingly easy on the budget. We have the tempered-glass version of the company’s new Define R6 mid-tower ATX case in house for little review action today.

Specifications

After a brief departure from the company’s signature look—let's call it Fractal Design's Meshify C period—the Define R6 appears to be a return to the style that made the company's cases famous. In fact, this chassis bares a striking resemblance to the Fractal Design Define S .

The Fractal Design Define R6 mid-tower chassis comes in black, gunmetal grey, blackout, and white. Measuring 543 x 233 x 465mm and weighing almost 32lbs, this $150 chassis comes with a two-year limited warranty.

Almost the entire top of the Define R6 is covered by what Fractal Design calls its ModuVent sound-damping vent cover. Directly under the ModuVent is a plastic mesh fan filter, and below that are mounting locations for three 120mm or two 140mm fans. The cover can be removed separately from the fan filter to allow air to flow into or out of the case when fans or all-in-one coolers are installed. At the front edge of the top panel are a pair of USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, headphone and microphone jacks, HDD LED, power, and reset buttons.

Designed to mimic the look of brushed aluminum, the front of the case is a large plastic door with a thin aluminum insert and reversible swing that's lined with a thick layer of sound damping material. Behind the door you will find a single 5.25" drive bay opening and a large removable plastic mesh filter covering mounting locations for three 120mm or two 140mm fans. Vertical vents line both sides of the front fascia, extending from the top to bottom of the chassis. Removing the front panel is a simple matter of grabbing the lower edge and pulling.

In the rear of the chassis you'll find the standard motherboard I/O area, an opening for a bottom-mounted PSU, seven expansion card slots, and an exhaust fan mounting location that supports both 120mm and 140mm fans. The exhaust fan mounting location features slotted screw holes that lets you adjust the position of the fan to fine tune airflow or make room for system components. The bottom of the chassis is covered by a 20.5" plastic mesh filter that is removable from the front. The filter covers two mounting locations for 120mm or 140mm fans and the power supply fan opening. The four large rubber-coated feet keep the case approximately a half inch off the ground.

The tempered-glass side panel is attached to a metal frame that eliminates the need for rubber-coated locating pins or hinges. A push-to-lock latching mechanism keeps the panel in place. Fractal Design includes optional thumbscrews to further secure the tempered glass. The panel on the opposite side of the chassis also features a thick layer of sound damping material and is held in place by thumbscrews.

The Define R6 is equipped with a fairly robust fan filtration system, with large removable nylon filters on every fan mounting location including the power supply. It should also be mentioned that all filters are easy to access with no need to move your system for filter maintenance and cleaning.

Although the "look" of a case is subjective and will vary from person to person, we believe most people will find the minimalist design of the Fractal Design Define R6 Tempered Glass Edition very attractive.

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Hardware Installation & Test Configuration

Interior

We found the accessories for the Fractal Design Define R6 in a small white box secured in one of the open 3.5" hard drive bays. Inside the box were various screws and zip ties. A ziplock bag containing the user manual is stored under the PSU tunnel.

The Define R6 features a dual layout design that, while configured in the "standard" layout, can accommodate up to six 3.5" hard drives and a pair of 2.5" drives simultaneously. The alternate "open" layout allows you to remove the hard drive mounting locations in the main compartment in favor of a clear air flow path and room for larger GPUs and water cooling components.

The main compartment is equipped with seven expansion slots and can accommodate graphics cards up to 440mm in 3-Way SLI and CrossFire configurations (as long as your third card mounts in the sixth slot, which most boards don't support, or your cards are single slot, which most aren't, or you purchase a flexible riser cable to deploy the side slots and the additional card isn't blocked the PCIe power cables of the other two cards, or...-ed). The chassis also features two expansion slots for vertically mounting a dual-slot GPU, though no PCI-e riser cable is included. There are four cable pass-through holes with rubber grommets in the motherboard tray for cable management (2 x 5", 2 x 3") and a large rubber-lined hole in the top of the power supply shroud (2 x 5"). Additionally, there is a small hole with rolled metal edges in the top of the PSU tunnel for routing audio cables and such. There is also a large hole in the motherboard mounting plate behind the CPU socket area to facilitate heatsink changes without removing the motherboard. This chassis can be outfitted with CPU coolers up to 160mm, graphics cards up to 440mm without removing the front fan, and power supplies up to 300mm in length.

In addition to the six removable hard drive mounting locations that can accommodate both 3.5" and 2.5" hard drives, there are two dedicated 2.5" SSD brackets behind the motherboard tray. The Define R6 has a single 5.25" drive bay slot for those of you still using optical drives or 5.25" drive bay accessories.

The Fractal Design Define R6 is equipped with pair of Dynamic X2 GP-14 140mm intake fans in the front of the chassis and a single 140mm exhaust fan in the rear, over the CPU socket area. The rear exhaust fan location supports both 120mm and 140mm fans as do the mounting locations in the base of the case. In total, the Define R6 supports up to nine 120mm or seven 140mm fans. Specifically, the mounting locations in the top and front of the case can accommodate up to three 120mm or two 140mm fans.

The Define R6 can accommodate radiators in four separate locations: The top of the chassis supports up to 360mm radiators in standard layout and up to 420mm radiators in the open layout. The front of the chassis can accommodate radiators up to 360mm. The bottom of the chassis supports 280mm radiators, and a single 120mm or 140mm radiator or all-in-one cooler can be mounted in the exhaust fan location over the CPU socket area.

Comparison Products

Antec P110 Luce TG

be quiet! Dark Base 700

Bitfenix Enso

Test Configuration

Drivers & Settings
Chipset	Intel INF 10.1.1.42
CPU	3.8GHz (38x 100MHz) @ 1.2V Core
Motherboard	Firmware 7A78v17 (07/03/2017)
RAM	16-17-17-36
Graphics	Maximum Fan for Thermal Tests \| AMD Radeon Crimson ReLive 17.9.1

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Benchmark Results & Conclusion

Though we expected higher temperatures from a case with sound deadening insulation and a tempered-glass side panel, temperatures were not as high as anticipated. Thanks in large part to the airflow provided by the dual 140mm intake fans, our budget quad-core i5-7500 processor running at 3.8 GHz peaked at 44°C over the ambient temperature of 25°C. Those of you running highly overclocked systems will no doubt want to take advantage of the water-cooling friendly design of the Define R6 by adding a custom water cooling loop or an all-in-one cooler. On the other hand, GPU temperatures were fairly decent at 55°C over the ambient room temperature.

We took sound level readings with two off-the-shelf dB meters from two different angles. Thanks to the thick sound deadening material and the tempered-glass side panel, the Define R6 registered barely 28dB at idle and 31dB under load. These are some of the best numbers we've seen to date, besting even the be quiet! Dark Base 700.

Determining acoustic efficiency, also referred to as cooling-to-noise ratio, is a matter of averaging all five of our tests to determine a base value.

Added features such as the removable top cooling bracket, a dedicated fill port under the top filter for refilling water loops, and a Nexus+ PWM fan hub will make the Define R6 a favorite with performance enthusiast and water-cooling aficionados alike. The overall construction of this chassis is extremely solid, and the fit and finish are top notch. In the end, you must decide how important those features are and whether they justify the $150 price tag.

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Antec P110 Luce Case Review

Steven Lynch — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 14:00:00 +0000

Features & Specifications

On the test bench today we have the Antec P110 Luce, a full-featured, mid-tower chassis with a tempered-glass side panel. This chassis is constructed of steel, aluminum, and plastic and is painted black inside and out. The case measures 230 x 489 x 518mm (W x D x H) and weighs just under 26lbs.

Specifications

The rear portion of the top of the case is covered by a plastic mesh filter with magnets embedded in each corner. Directly under the filter is a mesh area that has mounting locations for two 120mm/140mm fans.

The front of the chassis consists of a large plastic panel with a .8mm brushed-aluminum cover. There are vertical air intake vents on either side of the front fascia. Aside from the lighted Antec logo in the upper left hand corner, the front panel is featureless and lacks any 5.25" drive bay openings. The front panel is tool-less and is attached to the chassis via metal push pins. Removing the panel for maintenance or component installation is a simple matter of pulling the lower edge out and away from the chassis. The front panel requires very little effort to remove. Care must be taken when lifting or moving your system to prevent the panel from popping off.

The tempered-glass side panel, held in place by rubber-coated locating pins and thumbscrews, measures 451 x 489mm and covers the entire side of the case. Oddly enough, the metal panel on the opposite side of the chassis also features locating pins and thumbscrews, almost as if this chassis could be fitted with a tempered-glass side panel on this side as well.

The bottom of the case has a large filtered hole for power supply ventilation and four large plastic feet. The rear of the chassis is home to ten expansion card slots (8 horizontal, two vertical), motherboard I/O area, and an opening for a bottom-mounted PSU.

The screw holes for the rear-mounted 120mm exhaust fan are slotted, allowing you to slide the fan up or down. This is especially useful when making room for other components or for fine tuning the airflow in your system.

The Antec P110 Luce features a robust filtration system that is easy to use and maintain. Every intake fan mounting location is equipped with a removable nylon fan filter. The filter on the top and front attach to the chassis via built-in magnets. The large filter on the bottom of the chassis slides in and out on rails. Kudos to Antec for making the bottom filter removable from the side of the chassis so maintenance doesn't require you to move your entire system to gain access to the filter.

Inside one of the empty 3.5" drive bays you will find a small white box containing various screws, Velcro cable straps, and an installation guide.

The interior of the P110 Luce is roomy for a mid-tower ATX chassis. This can be attributed in large part to the lack internal drive bay racks in the main component compartment. This chassis can accommodate up to ATX motherboards. The eight expansion slots make it possible to install up to three graphics cards in SLI and/or CrossFire (even on motherboards that require the third card be placed into the bottom slot -ed).

The chassis also features two expansion slots for vertically mounting a dual-slot GPU, though no PCI-e riser cable is included. Although this case supports graphics cards up to 390mm, cards of this length can prevent the installation of all-in-one coolers and fans in the front of the chassis.

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Hardware Installation & Test Configuration

In lieu of traditional cable pass-through holes, the P110 Luce features a large rectangular cut-out on the right-hand side of the motherboard tray measuring 291 x 70mm (H x W) for cable management. A large silver "cable management bar" covers most of the wires that pass through the motherboard tray.

Additionally, there are two smaller holes in the PSU cover that allow power cable routing. The cable pass-through hole at the upper left hand edge of the motherboard tray is specifically designed for routing fan cables and the ATX12V/EPS12V power cable.

There is also a large hole in the motherboard tray behind the CPU socket area to facilitate heatsink changes without removing the motherboard. Behind the motherboard tray there are plenty of tie down points and close to 20mm of space for cable management.

The P110 Luce has mounting locations for up to eight internal hard drives. There are two mounting locations under the PSU tunnel that can accommodate both 2.5" and 3.5" drives. Behind the motherboard tray you will find two dedicated mounting locations for a 2.5” SSD. On the top of the PSU tunnel in the main compartment there are two removable drive trays that can be outfitted with up to four 3.5" hard drives or two 3.5" hard drives and two SSDs. All drive caddies are made of metal and come with rubber grommets for vibration dampening. Depending on the size of the motherboard, graphics card size and configuration, it might not be possible to use the drive caddies that mount to the top of the PSU tunnel.

The 120mm exhaust fan coupled with a single 120mm intake fan provides adequate airflow, but just barely. Ideally we would have liked to have seen a larger 140mm intake fan (or an additional 120mm) to improve airflow, but this is something that enterprising enthusiasts can easily accomplish on their own.

This chassis can be equipped with power supplies up to 200mm with the removable hard drive rack in place. Removing the hard drive racks allowed us to easily install power supplies up 225mm in length.

Cooling

The P110 Luce can be equipped with coolers up to 165mm tall and can accommodate graphics cards up to 390mm in length. For longer, heavier graphics cards, there is an adjustable VGA holder built into the cable management bar.

Radiators and all-in-one coolers can be mounted in the top, front, and rear of this chassis. The mounting locations in the front of the chassis supports 120, 140, 240, 280, and 360mm radiators. It should be taken into account that even though most all-in-one coolers can be physically mounted in the front of this chassis, due to the fixed length of the tubing, some coolers might not be able to reach the CPU socket. But these locations are ideal for mounting radiators for water-cooled graphics cards.

Radiators can be mounted inside the main compartment of the chassis or outside the frame, behind the front fascia. Radiator and all-in-one cooler fans can be mounted in a push-pull configuration by mounting the radiator inside the chassis with the push fans mounted in the area behind the front panel. The mounting locations in the top of the chassis support 120mm and 240mm radiators. As is the case with most chassis that have mounting locations in the top panel, some coolers may be limited to a single fan configuration, depending on the size of your motherboard. Finally, a 120mm all-in-one cooler or radiator can be mounted in the exhaust fan location in single and dual fan configurations.

As previously mentioned, the two 120mm fans included from the factory (one intake, one exhaust) provided barely enough airflow to keep the components in our test system cool. We found that even small changes, such as installing a video card with a blower style cooler, drastically impacted the the airflow profile of this chassis. The reason for this was a simple matter of the cool outside air provided by the single 120mm intake fan being immediately sucked into the blower style GPU cooler and forced out the rear of the chassis. While this benefited graphics card temperatures, the rest of the system suffered as a result. Again, we highly recommend installing a second intake fan or, at the very least, a higher volume 140mm fan.

Comparison Products

Phanteks Eclipse P300 TG

BitFenix Nova TG

Test Configuration

Cooling	Cooler Master Hyper T4
CPU	Core i5-7500 @ 3.8GHz (38x 100MHz w/ 1.2V Core)
Graphics	Radeon RX 580 @ Max Fan Speed w/ AMD Radeon Crimson ReLive 17.9.1
Memory	Patriot Viper DDR4 3000MHz (16GB) @ 16-17-17-36
Motherboard	Z270 Gaming M5 w/ Firmware 7A78v17 (07/03/2017) & Intel INF 10.1.1.42
PSU	Sparkle Magna Platinum (650W)
Software	Windows 10 Pro
Storage	Agility 4 (128GB)
Thermal Paste	MX-4

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Benchmark Results & Conclusion

[Note: This is a different test platform from the one used in our other ATX case reviews, so we re-tested the BitFenix Nova to keep the comparison fair. This is indicated by the "test #2." Readers who are good with numbers should be able to make comparisons between the cases tested here and those tested at our other lab.]

During testing, temperatures on our budget quad-core i5-7500 processor running at 3.8 GHz reached 45°C over the ambient temperature of 25°C. GPU temperatures definitely benefited from the placement of the 120mm intake fan, registering 56°C over the ambient temperature. In the end, we saw higher CPU temp and lower GPU temps than other chassis in this comparison set.

The benefit of having only two 120mm fans and a large tempered glass panel are that acoustics are very good overall. At idle, the P110 Luce rivaled the performance of the Bitfenix Nova TG. Additionally, at just 34.4dBA under full load, this chassis provided the lowest noise output of the three chassis used for comparison purposes.

Determining acoustic efficiency, also referred to as cooling-to-noise ratio, is a matter of averaging all five of our tests to determine a base value.

Although our performance-value chart doesn’t take features into account, we don't think the Antec P110 Luce has enough extras to justify its $120 price tag. Especially considering the fact that the market is full of cases with tempered-glass side panels that cost half what Antec is asking.

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Bitfenix Enso Mid-Tower Case Review

Steven Lynch — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 02:00:00 +0000

Features & Specifications

Originally spotted at Computex 2017, this mid-tower ATX chassis sports a tempered-glass side panel, RGB lighting functionality, and a price tag that won’t break the bank. The Bitfenix Enso is constructed of steel and plastic, measures 210 x 489 x 454mm (W x H x D), and is painted in black inside and out. Tipping the scales at just 15lbs, this chassis is fairly light considering its 4mm thick glass.

Specifications

Exterior

At first glance, the Bitfenix Enso looks like your average ATX mid-tower. It is only upon closer inspection that this chassis begins to set itself apart from the crowd.

The rear portion of the top of the case is covered by a removable magnetic metal mesh dust filter. Directly under the filter is a mesh area that has mounting locations for two 120mm fans. The leading edge of the top panel is home to two USB 3.0 ports, headphone and microphone jacks, HDD LED, power and reset buttons, and LED controller buttons.

The front of the chassis consists of a large plastic panel with LED lighting strips in all four corners. There are no openings for 5.25" drives or drive bay accessories. The front of the case lacks vents of any sort. All incoming air is drawn into the chassis via a cutout in the bottom inner edge of the fascia. The front panel is tool-less and is attached to the chassis with plastic push pins. Removing the panel for maintenance or component installation is a simple matter of pulling the lower edge out and away from the case.

The full-cover, tempered-glass side panel is slightly tinted, measures 400 x 420mm, and is held in place by rubber-coated locating pins and thumbscrews. The steel panel on the opposite side of the chassis is secured with standard thumbscrews.

The bottom of the case has a large filtered hole for power supply ventilation and two large plastic feet that span the entire length of the chassis. The feet are almost 2" tall and are equipped with rubber strips to keep the chassis from sliding. The rear is home to nine expansion card slots (7 horizontal, two vertical), motherboard I/O area, and an opening for a bottom-mounted PSU.

The fan filtration system on the Bitfenix Enso is one of the best we have ever seen on a chassis in this price range. Although these are traditional removable nylon fan filters, it's not what they are made of that makes them so great. It is the way they are integrated into the chassis. The filters in the front and bottom of the case slide out from the side, which means that you no longer have to move your entire system just to clean your filters.

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Hardware Installation & Test Configuration

Interior

There is a small plastic bag containing various screws, motherboard stand-offs, and zip ties located in one of the open 3.5” drive bays. A 10-page quick installation guide sits in the PSU compartment.

The interior of the Bitfenix Enso measures roughly 395mm deep and 330mm high. There are no internal 5.25” drive bays in the main component compartment. The company claims motherboard support up to E-ATX, but in reality the Enso only supports motherboards up to 10.6” deep.

Seven expansion slots make it possible to install up to three graphics cards in SLI and/or CrossFire. This case supports graphics cards up to 340mm in length. Those with plans to mount an all-in-one cooler in the front of this chassis could run into space constraints depending on the size and thickness of fans and radiator.

There are only two medium-sized cable pass-through holes with rubber grommets in the motherboard tray for cable management. There are also two small holes in the top of the PSU tunnel that can be used to route front panel I/O wires such as USB, audio, power and reset buttons, and HDD activity lights. The cable pass-through hole at the upper left hand edge of the motherboard tray is specifically designed for routing fan cables and the ATX12V/EPS12V power cable. There is also a large hole in the motherboard tray behind the CPU socket area to facilitate heatsink changes without removing the motherboard.

The Bitfenix Enso has five internal drive bays. The two mounting locations under the PSU tunnel can be used for both 2.5" and 3.5" drives. Behind the motherboard tray there are three mounting locations for 2.5” SSDs, two of which are basically just holes in the motherboard tray.

There are a total of seven fan mounting locations in the Bitfenix Enso. The chassis ships with a single 120mm intake fan in the front as well as a 120mm exhaust fan over the CPU socket area. The two installed fans are placed almost parallel to each other providing better than expected airflow. But airflow still suffers because of fan size. Mild builds should be fine, but overclocked systems with multiple graphics cards will definitely call for more fans or larger 140mm intake fans.

Although Bitfenix lists support for power supplies up to 150mm in length, we found this to be a conservative number, as we were able to install a 200mm modular PSU, although it was a tight fit. The Enso can be equipped with coolers as tall as 160mm and can accommodate multiple graphics cards up to 340mm in length.

Radiators and all-in-one coolers can be mounted in the front and rear of this chassis. The mounting locations in the front support radiators and all-in-one liquid coolers up to 280mm. As with many mid-tower ATX chassis, even though you can physically mount most all-in-one coolers in the front, because of the fixed length of the tubing, some coolers might not be able to reach the CPU socket. Despite that limitation, these locations are ideal for mounting radiators for water-cooled graphics cards. The exhaust fan mounting location can be fitted with 120mm coolers in single and dual fan configurations.

Fans of “all things RGB” will be pleased to know this chassis has integrated lighting on the front of fascia as well as an extra header behind the motherboard tray for RGB lighting strips and accessories.

Comparison Products

Enermax Ostrog Lite

Phanteks Eclipse P300 TG

be quiet! Dark Base 700

Test Configuration

Cooling	Cooler Master Hyper T4
CPU	Core i5-7500 @ 3.8GHz (38x 100MHz w/ 1.2V Core)
Graphics	Radeon RX 580 @ Max Fan Speed w/ AMD Radeon Crimson ReLive 17.9.1
Memory	Patriot Viper DDR4 3000MHz (16GB) @ 16-17-17-36
Motherboard	Z270 Gaming M5 w/ Firmware 7A78v17 (07/03/2017) & Intel INF 10.1.1.42
PSU	Sparkle Magna Platinum (650W)
Software	Windows 10 Pro
Storage	Agility 4 (128GB)
Thermal Paste	MX-4

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Benchmarks & Final Analysis

Core temperatures on our budget quad-core i5-7500 processor running at 3.8 GHz held steady at 42°C over the ambient temperature of 25°C. Keep in mind that more powerful or overclocked systems will likely require extra cooling to keep temperatures in check. GPU temperatures, while not the best we've seen from a a mid-tower ATX chassis with a tempered-glass side panel, were decent at 51°C over the ambient temperature. Overall, this chassis' performance is almost identical to that of the Enermax Ostrog Lite and Dark Base 700.

The large tempered-glass side panel helped muffle system noise and sound generated by the two 120mm fans. Under full load, the Bitfenix Enso performed very well at 35.4dBA. In terms of acoustic performance, this chassis easily beat the other cases we used for comparison purposes, except for the Dark Base 700.

Determining acoustic efficiency, also referred to as cooling-to-noise ratio, is a matter of averaging all five of our tests to determine a base value.

When you look at the performance value chart below, the Bitfenix Enso's $90 MSRP looks great compared to the Dark Base 700, which performs well, but is double the price. The Enso, with its superior noise performance, can't quite match the value of Enermax Ostrog Lite, which retails for $40 less. These two products do equally well on thermal performance. However, when you take into account the tempered-glass side panel, the RGB lighting, and the superior design of the removable fan filters, the true value of the Enso becomes a bit more clear. Ultimately, we'd like to see it retail in the $70 - $80 range, but the current asking price is fair.

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be quiet! Dark Base 700 Mid-Tower ATX PC Case Review

Steven Lynch — Tue, 14 Nov 2017 14:00:00 +0000

Features & Specifications

be quiet!, best known as the emphatic lower-case manufacturer of power supplies and low-noise PC components, has developed a strong following in the enthusiast community. Today we have the company’s latest installment in its Dark Base line of high-end chassis.

Specifications

Exterior

The be quiet! Dark Base 700, at 241 x 544 x 519mm (W x D x H), is rather large for a mid-tower case but not so much that it could be classified as a full-tower. This chassis is constructed of aluminum and plastic and features a steel frame. The Dark Base 700 is painted black inside and out and weighs just shy of 30lbs.

The exterior of this chassis is simple yet elegant. Thanks to a lack of handles, fan holes, and grilles, one could go as far as to describe the look of this chassis as spartan. The top panel, with the exception of a few slots in the rear portion for ventilation, is bare. The front fascia is comprised of a brushed-aluminum covered plastic panel. There are vertical air intake vents on either side of the front panel that allow fresh air to be drawn into the chassis. Those of you who still use optical drives and/or 5.25” drive bay accessories might be saddened to know that there are no 5.25" drive bay openings in the Dark Base 700.

The upper edge of the front panel is home to a large square power button, fan control switch, a single USB 3.1 Type C port, headphone and microphone jacks, HDD activity LED, reset switch, and two USB 3.0 ports. This chassis features a clear plastic lighting strip embedded into the frame between the front panel and the air intake vents. These switchable, multi-mode, RGB lighting strips (and logo) can be set to white, red, green, blue, orange, and purple, or controlled by your motherboard's lighting controller if so equipped.

The Dark Base 700 is equipped with a 4mm thick tempered-glass side panel that's held in place by rubber-coated locating pins and thumbscrews. The full-cover side panel is slightly tinted and measures 514mm x 475mm. The tempered-glass side panel can be relocated to the opposite side of the chassis, but we will go into that in detail later.

The entire bottom of the chassis is essentially one large filtered hole with mounting locations for additional fans and power supply ventilation. There are four large rubber-coated plastic feet that keep the case from sliding around on your desk. Around back you will find seven expansion card slots (7 horizontal, two vertical), motherboard I/O area, and an opening for your power supply. The rear fan mounting location supports both 120 and 140mm fans and comes outfitted with a SilentWings 3 140mm fan.

It is apparent that be quiet! put a great deal of thought into the design of this chassis’ filtration system. Every intake fan mounting location in the Dark Base 700 is equipped with a washable nylon fan filter. Gaining access to filters requires removing the front panel. This clever design means that, even though the front and bottom filters are extremely long (16.5” and 19.5” respectively), maintenance and cleaning is a snap. There is no need to move your PC, simply pull off the front panel and slide the filters out.

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Hardware Installation & Test Configuration

Interior

Accessories for the be quiet! Dark Base 700 are located in a small box secured in the open power supply bay. The box contains various screws, Velcro cable straps, and an additional hard drive rack. The owners manual and installation guide was taped to the outside of the box.

The interior of this case is cavernous for a mid-tower ATX chassis. Sure, the lack of internal hard drive racks and optical drive bays contribute to the overall feeling of spaciousness, but the the main compartment is also very spacious, even with the large PSU tunnel in the base of the chassis. This case can accommodate motherboards up to EATX size, although true 13"-deep EATX boards will block the use of the cable pass-through holes.

The front, top, and right hand side panels are all lined with sound-damping material on the inside. Although this is great for keeping noise to a minimum, it remains to be seen if this will have an adverse effect on system temperatures, especially when combined with a tempered glass side panel.

The seven expansion slots make it possible to install up to three graphics cards in SLI and/or CrossFire. The chassis also features two expansion slots for vertically mounting a dual-slot GPU, though no PCI-e riser cable is included. Take note: those planning to use the modular hard drive racks in conjunction with a longer graphics cards (up to 430mm) will be limited to using the slots above or below the path of the GPU.

There are a total of three large cable pass-through holes with rubber grommets in the motherboard tray for cable management. The upper edge of the motherboard tray is designed in such a way as to allow the 12V motherboard power cable or fan wires to be routed through this area. The Dark Base 700 also has a large hole in the motherboard mounting plate behind the CPU socket area to facilitate heatsink changes without removing the motherboard. There is plenty of space and tie down points behind the motherboard tray for cable management.

There are mounting locations for a total of seven 3.5” hard drives and fourteen 2.5” drives but, because this chassis only ships with three modular drive racks (the rest are optional), only three 3.5” drive and nine 2.5” drives can be installed in this chassis as it ships from the factory. Two drive racks are mounted under the PSU tunnel. These removable drive racks can be relocated to one of the five located in the main compartment of this chassis. be quiet! also includes handy plastic slot covers that block off the holes in the motherboard tray when not in use. There are three dedicated 2.5” mounting locations behind the motherboard trays as well. All drive caddies are made of metal and come with rubber grommets for vibration dampening.

Now that we have detailed this chassis tech specs, we wanted to talk about one other nice customization feature. The motherboard tray in this chassis can be re-positioned so that your system components are inverted and accessible from the right hand side of the chassis instead of the left hand side. The rubber-coated locating pins are slotted so that, using only a standard screwdriver, they can be relocated to the other side of the chassis. The entire process of flipping the motherboard and moving components requires less than 30 minutes if you know your way around a computer.

Cooling

As previously mentioned, the Dark Base 700 comes with a large SilentWings 3 140mm intake fan that feeds another SilentWings 3 140mm exhaust fan in the rear of the chassis over the CPU socket area. Because of the size and placement of these fans, airflow in this chassis is extremely efficient. The almost parallel placement of the fans coupled with an unobstructed flow path, allows the cool outside air to move from the front of the case to the rear exhaust fan with very little resistance. In total, this chassis can be equipped with up to nine 120/140mm fans.

The Dark Base 700 can accommodate power supplies up to 285mm in length, although some larger PSUs may require relocating the hard drive racks. This case can be equipped with coolers up to 180mm tall and can accommodate multiple graphics cards up to 430mm in length.

Radiators and all-in-one coolers can be mounted in the top, front, and rear of this chassis. The mounting locations in the front of the chassis supports radiators and liquid coolers up to 360mm. There is a total of 31.75mm clearance for radiators and coolers in the space above the motherboard and an additional 25.5mm for fans to be mounted above the slide-out bracket. It should be taken into account that even though most all-in-one coolers can be physically mounted in the front of this chassis, because of the fixed length of the tubing, some coolers might not be able to reach the CPU socket. But these locations are ideal for mounting radiators for water-cooled graphics cards.

Radiators and all-in-one liquid coolers up to 360mm can be mounted inside the main compartment of the chassis. The mounting location in the front of the chassis can easily support radiators and all-in-one coolers sandwiched between fans in a push-pull configuration. Though there is a good deal of space in the top of the chassis, some coolers may be limited to single fan configuration, depending on the size of your motherboard. The exhaust fan mounting location can be fitted with 120 and 140mm coolers in single and dual fan configurations.

The two 140mm SilentWings 3 fans included from the factory (one intake, one exhaust) did an admirable job keeping our system components cool under pressure. The intake fan is positioned so that it provides a stream of cool outside air directly to your graphics card and CPU air cooler before being swept out the rear of the chassis by the large 140mm SilentWings 3 exhaust fan. Although there really wasn’t a need for it with our test setup, those of you running a highly overclocked system and/or multiple GPUs would benefit from the addition of another 140mm intake fan. Considering the asking price, we would have liked to have seen that included.

Comparison Products

Phanteks Eclipse P300 TG

BitFenix Nova TG

Test Configuration

Cooling	Cooler Master Hyper T4
CPU	Core i5-7500 @ 3.8GHz (38x 100MHz w/ 1.2V Core)
Graphics	Radeon RX 580 @ Max Fan Speed w/ AMD Radeon Crimson ReLive 17.9.1
Memory	Patriot Viper DDR4 3000MHz (16GB) @ 16-17-17-36
Motherboard	Z270 Gaming M5 w/ Firmware 7A78v17 (07/03/2017) & Intel INF 10.1.1.42
PSU	Sparkle Magna Platinum (650W)
Software	Windows 10 Pro
Storage	Agility 4 (128GB)
Thermal Paste	MX-4

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Benchmarks & Final Analysis

During testing, temperatures on our quad-core i5-7500 processor running at 3.8 GHz never went higher than 42°C over the ambient temperature of 25°C. GPU temperatures took full advantage of the cool air provided by the placement of the 140mm intake fan. Temperatures under full load barely hit 50°C over the ambient temperature. Much to our surprise, the sound deadening material combined with tempered glass didn’t lead to higher overall system temperatures. In fact, these are some of the best temperatures we’ve seen.

Having panels lined with sound deadening material coupled with a tempered glass side panel results in a system that is near silent with the fans running at 1,000 RPM and just barely audible with the system under full load and fans running at 1,600 RPM. In fact, when compared to the other cases, this chassis provided the lowest noise output at just 32.1dBA under full load. It should be noted that the fan controller is set to “silence mode” out of the box, which limits fan speed to just 1,000 RPM. Selecting “performance mode” boosts fan speed to 1,600 RPM.

Cooling efficiency and noise levels are both ways to measure performance. Determining acoustic efficiency, also referred to as cooling-to-noise ratio, is a matter of averaging all five of our tests to determine a base value.

Our value chart doesn’t take features into account. We can probably all agree that the $180 asking price seems high, until you take the overall performance and customization options into account. Although we'd have liked the company to throw in another fan at this price point. The ability to swap your case from one side to other other will be worth the asking price to many enthusiasts and system builders, and the performance speaks for itself.

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Enermax Ostrog Lite Case Review

Steven Lynch — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 13:00:00 +0000

Features & Specifications

The Enermax Ostrog Lite is an entry-level, mid-tower chassis that, despite its budget friendly price tag, still offers great looks and some features normally found on higher-end chassis. It features an all steel construction, with the exception of the plastic front panel, and is painted black inside and out (also available in grey). The case measures 194 x 440 x 460mm (W x D x H) and weighs just over 10lbs.

* (1x converted from 5.25") / ** (2x converted from 3.5", 2x on top of the motherboard tray)

The majority of the real estate on the top of this chassis is covered by a magnetic filter. Directly under the magnetic filter you will find mounting locations for two 120mm fans. There's an I/O panel on top of the chassis containing a single USB 3.0 port, two USB 2.0 ports, headphone and microphone jacks, and power and reset buttons.

The front of the case consists of a large plastic panel designed to mimic the look of brushed aluminum. The Enermax Ostrog Lite has two 5.25" drive bay openings for those who still use optical drives. There is a horizontal opening at the base of the front fascia for ventilation. The front panel is tool-less and is easily removable by grabbing the lower edge and pulling.

This case features a 12" x 10" acrylic side panel window for showing off your system components. The solid metal side panel on the opposite side of the chassis features a convex raised design. Both side panels are held in place by standard thumbscrews. The bottom of the case has a filtered hole for power supply ventilation and four large plastic feet. The rear of the chassis is home to seven expansion card slots, an exhaust fan mounting location fitted with an Enermax Apollish LED fan, motherboard I/O area, and an opening for a bottom mounted PSU.

The Ostrog Lite is equipped with a standard fan filtration system. There is a magnetic filter that covers the fan mounting locations in the top of the chassis and a removable nylon power supply filter. The two fan mounting locations in the front of the chassis are unfiltered, but an enterprising enthusiast could easily repurpose the magnetic filter from the top of the chassis for use over the intake fans in the front.

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Component Installation

Accessories come in a plastic bag zip-tied to the motherboard tray. You will find various screws, zip ties, and an owners manual.

The interior of the chassis is large enough to support up to ATX motherboards. The seven expansion slots will accommodate 3-way SLI and CrossFire, but we don't see many people buying an entry-level mid-tower case like this to house a triple GPU set-up. Nevertheless, there is more than enough room for most dual GPU configurations and long graphics cards up to 16.7".

There are six cable pass-through holes with rolled metal edges in the motherboard tray for cable management. But depending on the size of the motherboard you install, you may not have access to more than three of the six cable management holes. There is also a large hole in the motherboard mounting plate behind the CPU socket area that allows for heatsink changes without having to remove the motherboard. The uppermost cable pass-through hole at the upper edge of the motherboard tray is specifically designed to route fan cables and a 12V motherboard power cable. we highly recommend routing the EPS12V power cable behind the motherboard tray before installing your motherboard, because it is impossible to do so afterward.

The cable management area directly behind the motherboard tray is almost non-existent, while the area to the side of the motherboard tray is limited to roughly a quarter of an inch.

At the bottom of the main compartment you will find a large non-removable PSU tunnel that covers your power supply and two drive bays. Because of the size and position of the side panel window, the PSU cover is a bit redundant; you can't actually see the PSU with the side panel in place. Additionally, there is an 82/92mm fan mounting location on the top of the PSU tunnel near the front of the chassis.

The Ostrog Lite is equipped with two space saving 5.25" optical drive bay slots in the main component compartment. As you can see from the photos, the cut-away design of the 5.25" drive bays allows optical drives to be supported in the front, while holes in the motherboard tray let you attach the rear of your optical drives to the chassis frame. This case is equipped with a removable plastic 5.25" drive bay adapter so you can mount a 3.5" drive or 80mm fan in the optical drive bay area. Two of the four hard drive mounting locations are placed behind the motherboard tray and support both 2.5" and 3.5" drives via plastic hard drive caddies. The case also features a pair of dedicated mounting locations for 2.5" SSDs on the motherboard tray in the main component compartment.

The Enermax Ostrog Lite is outfitted with a single 120mm intake fan in the front of the chassis and a 120mm Enermax Apollish LED fan in the rear of the case near the CPU socket area. In total, you can install up to five 120mm, one 80mm, and one 82/92mm fans. The mounting locations on the top and front of the case can accommodate up to two 120mm fans. The rear exhaust fan location supports one 120mm fan.

Although things were tight, we were able to install several different power supplies up to 220mm in length without issue. Any time there's limited space behind the motherboard tray, we highly recommend using a modular power supply. The Enermax Ostrog Lite can be equipped with coolers up to 152mm tall and can accommodate graphics cards up to 390mm in length.

Cooling

Even though the Enermax website lists only one location for mounting radiators in this chassis, we found that radiators and all-in-one coolers can actually be mounted in three separate locations. The mounting locations in the top of the chassis support 120mm and 240mm radiators, as do the mounting locations in the front of the chassis. Finally, a 120mm all-in-one cooler can be mounted in the exhaust fan location.

The 120mm intake fan in the front of the case feeding the 120mm exhaust fan in the top of the chassis didn't seem to provide adequate airflow. This is likely due to the air intake slot at the bottom of the front fascia restricting airflow. Also, the airflow into the chassis is divided by the PSU tunnel. Although this type of design provides airflow to the hard drive racks, it diverts airflow away from the hotter components that need it most.

The two 120mm mounting locations in the top of the case can be used with a wide range of 120mm radiators and all-in-one coolers from various manufacturers. As is the case with most chassis that have mounting locations in the top panel, some coolers may be limited to a single fan configuration, depending on the size of your motherboard.

Those of you with plans to internally mount a 240mm all-in-one cooler can do so in mounting locations in the top and front of the chassis. Even though most all-in-one coolers can be physically mounted in the front of this chassis, due to the fixed length of the tubing, some coolers are unable to reach the CPU socket. However, these locations are ideal for mounting radiators for water-cooled graphics cards. The rear exhaust fan location behind the CPU socket area supports 120mm radiators and all-in-one coolers in single and dual fan configurations.

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Benchmarks & Conclusion

Test Configuration
Cooling	Cooler Master Hyper T4
CPU	Core i5-7500 @ 3.8GHz (38x 100MHz w/ 1.2V Core)
Graphics	Radeon RX 580 @ Max Fan Speed w/ AMD Radeon Crimson ReLive 17.9.1
Memory	Patriot Viper DDR4 3000MHz (16GB) @ 16-17-17-36
Motherboard	Z270 Gaming M5 w/ Firmware 7A78v17 (07/03/2017) & Intel INF 10.1.1.42
PSU	Sparkle Magna Platinum (650W)
Software	Windows 10 Pro
Storage	Agility 4 (128GB)
Thermal Paste	MX-4

Comparison Products

Under full load, temperatures on our budget quad-core i5-7500 processor running at 3.8 GHz never rose more than 41°C over the ambient temperature of 25°C. GPU temperatures ramped up extremely quick, but we believe this is a side effect of the airflow being diverted by the PSU tunnel, because temperatures eventually leveled off at 51°C over ambient. Overall, both CPU and GPU temps were the lowest of the cases in this comparison set.

Acoustics were decent at idle, registering just 31dBA. But the sound level increased significantly once the system was under full load. At 38.6dBA, the Ostrog Lite was the loudest of the three chassis. However, it wasn’t so much the noise produced by the fully assembled system that bothered us, it was the noise produced by chassis vibrations and rattling that were the most distracting.

Determining acoustic efficiency, also referred to as cooling-to-noise ratio, is a matter of averaging all five of our tests to determine a base value.

Although the chart above, based on a $60 MSRP, shows a 6% below average value, the street price for this chassis currently sits at $50. Based on that, along with the Ostrog Lite's thermal performance, it's a good value. At MSRP, the value falls a bit.

Although the "look" of a case is subjective and will vary from person to person, we believe most people will find the minimalist design of the Enermax Ostrog Lite handsome. And we believe the universal good looks will appeal to budget conscious enthusiasts and gamers alike. The Enermax Ostrog Lite, thanks in most part to its budget-friendly street price, is a solid choice for those looking for value.

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Phanteks Eclipse P300 Case Review

Steven Lynch — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 15:00:00 +0000

Features and Specifications

Priced at just $60, Phanteks' latest entry-level chassis features a steel, plastic, and tempered glass construction and is painted black inside and out. This is a mid-tower case, and it weighs just over 13lbs.

Specifications

Exterior

The exterior of the Phanteks Eclipse P300 is fairly basic. There is a fan mounting location in the rear of the top panel that can be fitted with either a 120/140mm fan, radiator, or all-in-one cooler. On the right-hand edge of the top panel you will find two USB 3.0 ports, HD audio jacks, and a reset button. In the center of the top panel is an RGB LED power switch.

The front of the chassis is one large plastic panel with vertical vents for air intake at the top and bottom. The entire front lacks any drive bay openings and is completely devoid of features. It is attached to the chassis via metal push pins, and removing it is a simple matter of grabbing the lower edge and pulling.

This case features a 14” x 13” tinted tempered-glass side panel that lets you show off your system components; it's held in place by rubber-coated locating pins and thumbscrews. The panel on the opposite side of the chassis is solid metal and featureless, and it's held in place by captured thumbscrews. The bottom of the case has four rubber-coated plastic feet that keep the chassis from sliding. There is also a filtered hole for power supply ventilation.

Around back, you will find the standard motherboard I/O area, an opening for a bottom-mounted PSU, seven expansion card slots, and an exhaust fan mounting location that comes with a 120mm fan pre-installed from the factory.

The fan filtration system on the Eclipse P300 is fairly basic, consisting of a single standard nylon screen filter below the PSU. Although the press material shows fan filters covering the top fan mounting location and the vents in the front panel, our review unit arrived with only the PSU filter. We reached out to the company to see if this chassis does in fact come with magnetic filters or if they are an optional item. We'll update once we hear back.

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Hardware Installation

You will find a small brown box inside one of the empty drive bays containing various screws, zip ties, and an installation guide.

The interior of the Eclipse P300 is a fairly spacious for a mid-tower ATX chassis, mainly because it lacks internal drive bay racks in the main chamber. The company claims this chassis supports up to EATX size motherboards, but there is a caveat: The EATX motherboards must be 275mm (10.8") or smaller, even though full-sized EATX boards can be as large as 330mm (13") wide. The seven expansion slots can accommodate 3-Way SLI and CrossFire systems but, depending on the length and size of your graphics cards, things could get tight in dual and triple card configurations.

There are a total of seven small cable pass-through holes with rolled metal edges in the motherboard tray for cable management. Some of these will be blocked depending on the size of your motherboard. The cable pass-through hole at the upper left hand edge of the motherboard tray is specifically designed for routing fan cables and the ATX12V/EPS12V power cable. There is also a large hole in the motherboard tray behind the CPU socket area to facilitate heatsink changes without removing the motherboard.

The Eclipse P300 has a total of four internal drive bays. The two under the PSU tunnel can be used for both 2.5" and 3.5" drives. Behind the motherboard tray there are two mounting locations for 2.5” SSD, although only one drive caddy is included with the case.

We found it odd that the 3.5” drive caddies, accessible only by removing the front panel, situate our hard drives so that the SATA and power connectors face outward from the chassis. 2.5” drives can be mounted with SATA and power connectors facing the inside of the chassis, but, because of the way the drives are fastened to the drive caddy, it is almost impossible to attach a power cable to the drive. In the end, we installed our 2.5” SSD in the location behind the motherboard tray to avoid clearance issues.

The airflow in the Eclipse P300 is extremely limited. After all, it ships with only one 120mm exhaust fan, and although we are fully aware that this is done as a cost cutting measure, and enthusiasts prefer to add their own fans, we still think Phanteks should have included at least one intake fan to improve airflow.

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Cooling & Test Configuration

In total, you can outfit this chassis with up to four 120mm fans and three 140mm fans or a combination thereof. The mounting locations in the front and top of the case can accommodate both sizes, while the rear exhaust fan location supports 120mm fans.

The two mounting locations in the front of the case can be fitted with a variety of 120, 240, and 280mm all-in-one coolers and radiators. Depending on the length of your graphics card(s), some coolers may be limited to a single fan configuration.

Even though all-in-one coolers can be mounted in the front of the case, most can't reach the CPU socket because of the fixed-length tubing. However, these locations are ideal for mounting radiators for water-cooled graphics cards. The rear exhaust fan location behind the CPU socket area supports 120mm radiators and all-in-one coolers in single and dual fan configurations.

Cable routing is surprisingly easy thanks in large part to the 1.5"-deep cable management channel behind the motherboard tray.

According to the listed specifications, this chassis can accommodate PSUs up to 160mm (6.3"). We tested power supplies as long as 190mm (7.5") without issue but, because of the location and orientation of the hard drive rack, you may be limited to using a modular power supply.

The Phanteks Eclipse P300 can be outfitted with coolers up to 160mm (6.3") tall. We were able to install a variety of air coolers, ranging from the NZXT Havik 140 to our standard test cooler, the Cooler Master Hyper T4. Working around the CPU socket area is easy enough, but it can get a bit tight if you're installing larger dual fan coolers.

Comparison Products

BitFenix Nova TG

Enermax Ostrog Lite

Test Configuration

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Benchmarks & Final Analysis

[Note: This is a different test platform from the one used in our other ATX case reviews, so we re-tested the BitFenix Nova to keep the comparison fair. This is indicated by the "test #2." Readers who are good with numbers should be able to make comparisons that way between the cases tested here, and those tested at our other lab.]

As you might expect from a chassis with a single 120mm exhaust fan and a tempered glass side panel, the Eclipse P300 performed poorly during thermal testing.

Temperatures on our budget quad-core i5-7500 processor running at 3.8 GHz ran as high as 68°C under load with ambient temperatures as low as 25°C during testing. Graphics card temperatures suffered the most from the lack of an intake fan. GPU temps were upward of 83°C, a full 58°C over ambient temperature.

Thanks to the tempered glass side panel, a front fascia with no forward-facing vents, and a single case fan, this chassis generated very little noise at just 33.4dBA under load. At idle, the Eclipse P300 was extremely quiet at 29.6dBA.

Determining acoustic efficiency, also referred to as cooling-to-noise ratio, is a matter of averaging all five of our tests to determine a base value. Phanteks Eclipse P300 generated very little noise partly by eliminating intake fans. Sure the tempered glass side panel helps, because it reflects sound back into the chassis, but we believe the the addition of one or more intake fans would almost certainly negatively impact these acoustic results.

Unfortunately, the higher temperatures compromises the Eclipse P300's value score in our performance-to-price comparison, despite its low asking price. Its competitors also have low asking prices. And they also perform better.

Our value results are a bit misleading, even now. Most people who buy this chassis will undoubtedly want to add at least one or more intake fans to the system build. Obviously, that is going to add cost. And while those fans will enhance cooling performance, it will come at the expense of overall system noise. If Phanteks were to add a fan and hold the price steady, it might be hard to pass up. For now, there are better choices.

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How To Build A $1,000 Gaming PC

Derek Forrest — Sun, 02 Jul 2017 13:00:01 +0000

The $1,000 Best PC Build is proof positive that you can outfit a platform with an Intel Core i5 processor, a GeForce GTX 1070 graphics card, 16GB of RAM, and a modular 80 PLUS Gold-certified PSU for a moderate price.

The locked CPU saves money on the build with its included heatsink, but the performance ceiling is noticeably lower than the potent and unlocked Core i5-7600K we’ve seen in other builds. The graphics card is definitely powerful for the total cost of the build (it’s almost 40% of the total budget), and that GPU is the cornerstone of this rig.

The ASRock B250M Pro 4 is a sturdy platform with which to build a non-overclocked gaming rig, with a feature set that allows for upgrades down the line (although some features, such as the two Ultra M.2 slots, go to waste with this particular build). The memory is a perfect fit, matching the CPU’s stock memory controller speed. 16GB is also more than adequate for any AAA game title currently available.

However, that’s not to say that Provost’s Pick doesn’t fall flat with a few of its components. The case is decidedly plain and uncooperative, with a flimsy feel and weight that doesn’t portend gaming greatness underneath the hood. At least it has USB 3.0 front ports. However, Damric was well aware of its shortcomings (it's better than a shoe box) when he selected it, but a few concessions had to be made in order to have enough budget for a GTX 1070.

The 480GB SSD is definitely better than a traditional HDD, but the OCZ Trion 150 is sandbagged with TLC flash, which is generally less durable than slightly pricier MLC SSDs. However, the capacity and speed would be difficult to match at this price, and we’re thankful for the flash storage over a slower (sometimes painfully) HDD.

Despite those few shortcomings, you would be hard pressed to get a system with these specs for anything less than this price, and we applaud the sheer tenacity of going for big gaming performance without breaking the bank.

Specifications

"Provost's Pick" by Damric
Case	T2 Plus
CPU	Core i5-7500
Graphics	Zotac GTX 1070
Memory	Mushkin Enhanced Backline 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 RAM
Motherboard	B250M Pro4
Power Supply	CX550M
Storage	Toshiba OCZ Trion 150 480GB TRN150-25SAT3-480G

Now let's assemble the Best $1000 PC Build.

The Case

Remove the Zalman T2 Plus micro-ATX case from its box and unscrew the thumbscrews holding the panels in place (slide 2 in the album below). They aren’t particularly tight, so you should be able to use your hands. Detach the side panels and set them aside. Take out the hardware and silica bags by untwisting the tie wraps holding them to the case. Free the internal cables (front I/O, USB 2.0, USB 3.0, audio) in the same fashion (slides 5 - 7).

In order to properly attach all of the motherboard standoffs to the chassis, you’ll have to remove the 3.5” drive bay at the front of the case. Begin by tugging on the bottom lip of the case’s front panel until it comes free (see the first picture in the album below). A swift, quick motion works best. You can leave the panel somewhat ajar of the main chassis without fully removing it (and its front panel I/O wiring). You just need to get to the four screws holding the bay in place, which can be accomplished by pivoting the panel left and right (you can see this in pictures 2 and 3 below).

Remove the four screws beneath the 3.5” drive bay. Grab the bay from either side and slide it upwards to release it from the chassis (4th picture above). At this point, we’d recommend finding a permanent home for the bay and its screws in a closet somewhere; we won’t need it for this particular build. If you decide to add some hardware to the machine later on, it could come in handy, but even then you’d have to wait until after you install the motherboard to replace the cage. Refasten the front panel to the chassis and pull the case wiring away from the internal chassis.

Now that you have a clear avenue in which to work, locate and attach the motherboard standoffs to the appropriate spots in the case (there are no labels, so check out the last photo in the album above, or eye it up with your motherboard). Tighten the posts with your fingers at first. Use a pair of pliers to make them snug after they are mostly tight (there isn’t an included tool, unfortunately).

The Power Supply

Remove the EVGA Supernova G2 550W power supply from its box. It’s fully modular, so you don’t have to worry about any of the cables yet. Line up the PSU and set it on the cushions and above the ledges near the back panel (see picture 2 in the album below).

We found it quite difficult to get the PSU to fit properly in this particular case. The ledges were angled upward (lifting the power supply), so we had to apply some considerable pressure downward to bend the ledges enough to line up the screw holes. You may want to start with the bottom right screw when you attach the PSU to the case; we found that the easiest to get started, and the rest fell into place after tightening the first one. After you secure all four of the provided screws, set the case aside and get ready to prepare the motherboard.

The CPU & Motherboard

Remove the ASRock B250M Pro4 motherboard from its box, along with its rear I/O backplate and SATA data cables (set both aside for now). The board comes with a foam padding, which is a perfect place to rest it as you attach the next few components.

Take the Intel Core i5-7500 out of its box, but keep it in the plastic cover for now. Also remove the CPU cooler and set it aside. Raise the retention arm on the motherboard’s CPU socket to raise the clamp and expose the socket (see the 4th and 5th picture below). Carefully remove the processor from its plastic cover, line up the notches in the CPU and socket (6th picture below), and lower it into the motherboard. Remove the clamp’s plastic protective cover and position it over the CPU and under the retention bolt (see 7th picture). Lower the retention arm and attach it to the hook to keep it down.

The Cooler & Memory

Guide the CPU cooler’s fan cable out of the fan blades and loosen it so that the fan spins freely. You can keep the wire hooked to the side of the cooler as is; it will easily reach the fan port without changing it. Line up the heatsink’s posts to the motherboard’s holes (so that the fan cable can reach its ports on the motherboard) and press down, two at a time (diagonally, illustrated in the 4th picture below), to secure the cooler to the processor. Plug in the CPU fan cable to the CPU FAN 1 leads (slide 5 below).

Remove the 16GB (2 x 8GB) kit of Mushkin Blackline DDR4-2400 RAM from its packaging. Unlock the clips at the top of the second and fourth DIMM slots from the left, line up the notches in the module with the memory slot, and press down to secure the RAM to the motherboard (see the 9th picture above). The clips should lock in place by themselves.

Component Installation

Next, we’ll install the motherboard and remaining components. Attach the motherboard’s rear I/O plate to the case (see slide 2 below). The sidewall of the chassis is somewhat flimsy, and it may be difficult at first, but we found that persistence is key with this particular case.

Carefully lower the motherboard into the chassis (the CPU cooler makes an adequate gripping point; see the 3rd picture above) and line up the case’s stand offs with the holes. Also make sure that the rear I/O ports are lined up properly, with nothing bending or out of place. Use the thin-threaded, rimmed screws from the hardware bag to secure the motherboard to the case (see slides 4 and 5 above).

Guide the case’s internal wiring around the memory and let it all hang down (there’s not much that can be done about the mess). Run the USB 2.0 and Audio cables under the bottom right edge of the motherboard (see the 3rd picture below) and towards their respective pins. Attach them both to the motherboard.

Run the front panel I/O wiring down the case and plug the leads into the appropriate pins (it's printed really small on the motherboard, or refer to your manual). Let the excess hang; there’s still not much to be done about the cable mess. Plug in the USB 3.0 cable (3rd picture below) and let the slack loop naturally into the lower part of the chassis.

Untie the rear 80mm case fan cable and connect it to the CPU FAN 2 port on the motherboard. You can use a tie wrap through one of the fan’s mounting holes to secure the wire under the fan and up the side to reduce the slack (as seen in the last picture above).

The SSD

Remove the 480GB OCZ Trion 150 SSD from its packaging. Thanks to the modularity of the PSU, we can plug in the cables before mounting it to the case. Grab a SATA power cable from the PSU box, in addition to the angled SATA data cable (see slide 2 below). Plug in the SATA power cable using the very last plug on the line, then connect the SATA data cable with the angled plug attached to the SSD.

Slide the SSD into the 2.5” bay residing below the 5.25” bay at the top of the case (the 7th picture above). There are two notches in the small hanging bay that hold the left side of the SSD in place, and you may need to convince the SSD to sit properly in the slot. Once you get the SSD over the hump, line up the visible (right) side with the case’s screw holes and secure the drive to the case with two of the thin-threaded, rimmed screws. Plug in the SATA data cable to the SATA_3 0 port on the motherboard (right next to the ATX power plug, as seen in the last picture in the album above) and loop the excess into the cable jungle. Let the SATA power plug hang for now.

The Graphics Card

To install the graphics card, we’ll have to first remove the PCIe lane plates on the rear of the case. Remove the two screws that secure the angled plate and set it aside. Unscrew the first PCIe lane plate and use a flathead screwdriver to wrench the second plate from the chassis (see 4th picture below).

Remove the Zotac GeForce GTX 1070 Mini from its box and lower it into the chassis, lining up the PCIe x16 slot and rear panel. Push down to secure the GPU to the motherboard. Replace the PCIe lane screw to secure it to the case (as seen in the 8th picture above), then replace the angled PCIe lane cover and screw it back in.

Cable Management

All that remains is the CPU, ATX, and PCIe power cables, which are incredibly easy to install thanks to their modularity. Start by plugging in the 8-pin (4+4-pin) CPU connector to the motherboard, then run the cable through the hole above the motherboard so that there’s not excess cable in the chassis (see the 4th picture below). Run the cable down the backside of the case and through the hole leading to the PSU. Plug in the CPU cable to the power supply and loop the excess wiring at the bottom of the case. Tie the cable down to the chassis using a tie wrap so that it’s as flush as possible with the case (see the 7th picture below).

Plug the PCIe power cable into the PSU. Connect the SATA power plug we left hanging while you’re there. Run the PCIe power cable up to the graphics card and connect the first 6+2-pin cable in the line to the GPU (the 4th picture below). You can let the cables hang.

Finally, take the 24-pin ATX power cable (labeled “MB”) and connect it to the power supply (7th picture above). Run the cable up the chassis (behind the other cables) and connect it to the motherboard’s ATX plug (8th picture above). Again, leave the excess hang and loop it towards the bottom of the case as naturally as possible.

Finishing Touches

With all of the components installed, make sure that the cables are plugged in properly and tucked as best as they can be. This isn’t particularly important (the case has no windowed side panel), and the case has next to zero management options. However, tying them together at points will keep things somewhat neater than the mess of wires we find ourselves with at the end of this build. If you want to (we didn’t), replace the 3.5” drive bay before closing it up.

Replace the case’s side panels and secure them using the thumbscrews. Find a well-ventilated place to put your new gaming rig: the Best PC Build $1,000 can buy.

Setup Tips

Download the BIOS and all the latest drivers from ASRock’s website using a separate computer. This will ensure that you have the latest compatibility and performance updates.

To update the BIOS, unzip the BIOS file and place it on the root directory of a thumb drive. Plug the thumb drive into the new build and boot the machine. Press the F6 key to access ASRock’s BIOS update utility. The program will automatically recognize the BIOS and do most of the work for you with just a few clicks.

Without an unlocked CPU (or Z-series chipset), all you need to do is set the XMP memory profile by reentering the BIOS (by pressing F2). You can turn on XMP Profile 1 on the main screen (click on X.M.P.) then hit F10 to save and exit. Now you can load an operating system.

Benchmark Results

The Intel Core i5-7500 is clocked at 3.4 GHz with a boost frequency of 3.8 GHz in lightly threaded workloads, and the 16GB (2 x 8GB) Mushkin Blackline DDR4-2400 features CAS timings of 15-15-15-35. The Zotac GeForce GTX 1070 Mini 8GB graphics card sports clock speeds only slightly higher than the Nvidia Founder’s Edition GPU, with a base clock of 1518 MHz and a boost frequency of 1657 MHz.

The $1000 Best PC Build performs admirably in our selected productivity benchmarks, with impressive scores in 3DMark Fire Strike that portend serious gaming chops for the dollar. However, these benchmarks also illustrate the limitations of the locked Intel Core i5-7500 processor with its Physics results, which fall in about 2,000 points behind our Best $750 PC Build (the unlocked Lava Stream). Similarly, Provost's Pick trails the Lava Stream in the Cinebench R15 test thanks to a lower peak CPU clockrate.

Provost's Pick is the first build in our lineup that features solid-state storage, and the 480GB OCZ Trion 150 SSD has impressive sequential and random read/write performance for a drive with TLC flash. The memory par for the course, running at its intended 2400 MHz on the Intel B250 motherboard; the Sandra Memory Bandwidth test scores aren't anything to write home about. However, the combination of quick storage and a dual-channel memory kit results in substantially higher scores in the Adobe Creative and Microsoft Office benchmarks of PCMark 8 (again, see the $750 Best Build, which doesn't have an SSD).

We kicked our game settings up to full throttle to match our desktop PC review suite, which means the highest detail and most punishing settings. This is where Provost's Pick shines; the budget was chiseled down in other areas (a locked CPU, case, a single SSD for storage) to leave enough cash for a Zotac GeForce GTX 1070 Mini, which gives the Best $1000 PC Build excellent graphics (and gaming) performance. At 1920 x 1080, Metro: Last Light Redux, DiRT Rally, and Bioshock Infinite have no trouble achieving over 60FPS. Even demanding titles including Rise of the Tomb Raider and Grand Theft Auto V put up decidedly playable framerates (50+ FPS) at the most intense graphics settings at 1080p.

If you are looking to dabble with higher resolutions, we wouldn't say that the GTX 1070 is a 4K gaming GPU, although there are games that you can easily achieve playable framerates (see Bioshock and DiRT). QHD seems like a better fit for Provost's Pick, with impressive performance across the gamut of our tests (at least 30+ FPS). Turning down the anti-aliasing and other detail settings will smooth out your gameplay, but you'd be hard-pressed to cram this level of graphics performance into a gaming rig for less money.

Final Analysis

$1,000 isn’t going to buy the best gaming rig in the world, but Provost's Pick won't let you down. The performance shelf between a $750 build and this $1,000 build is significant (go check out our Best $750 PC Build on the previous page), and the extra cash affords you faster storage, higher memory capacity, and a significantly more powerful graphics card. For the money, we wouldn’t change anything about the choice of CPU, motherboard, memory, or GPU, but there are similarly-priced choices on the AMD side, including the Ryzen 5 1600 at pretty much the same price point as the Core i5-7500. However, the B350 motherboard prices are running anywhere from $25 - $40 higher than Provost Pick board; to get the AM4 choice at this price point, you'll have to go with an A320 board (there's a similar ASRock offering at roughly the same price).

However, there were a few choices we'd advise against. The EVGA Supernova G2 550W is an excellent PSU, but we feel the modularity goes to waste when matched with the Zalman T2 case. Sure, it makes assembling the machine slightly easier, but ultimately, shaving a few dollars off the PSU (perhaps with a less-expensive 80 PLUS Bronze certified, semi-modular PSU?) would free up budget for some of the other troublesome parts of the build.

We did not enjoy working with the Zalman T2 case (we gave it a fair chance, too). Despite Zalman’s inexpensive approach to a mini-tower, we’d highly recommend going with a different micro-ATX chassis. The lack of cable management doesn’t hurt the overall presentation (still, no windowed side panels), but it was difficult to get the PSU and rear I/O backplate to fit properly, and everything felt flimsy and cheap. A few more dollars thrown at the case (maybe someone can get one with window, finally?) would improve what we feel is the biggest weakness of this build.

The 480GB OCZ Trion 150 SSD is a speedy entry-level TLC flash drive, but if you can manage to squeeze a few more dollars into your budget (or free it up by swapping PSUs), an MLC SSD would likely give you more longevity. An additional 1TB HDD would also give you a place to store your regular files - those that don’t necessarily need the speed of an SSD, reducing the read and writes on the drive, perhaps adding to its longevity. There are also cheap M.2 NVMe SSD options out there if you want to take full advantage of the 200-series motherboard’s features.

Provost's PickView Deal

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AMD Ryzen 5 1600 CPU Review

palcorn@outlook.com (Paul Alcorn) — Mon, 29 May 2017 13:00:01 +0000

Introduction

AMD's Ryzen line-up shook up the CPU market with more cores and threads at lower price points than competing Intel processors. But the series' universally unlocked ratio multipliers are the real key to extracting maximum value from Ryzen.

The Ryzen 7 family redefined what an 8C/16T CPU cost, and the Ryzen 5s do the same in their segment with a powerful duo of affordable 6C/12T options. AMD's Ryzen 5 series also includes the 4C/8T 1500X and 1400, but we think AMD's $220 Ryzen 5 1600 is much more interesting.

Like its $250 1600X counterpart, the Ryzen 5 1600 features six cores and 12 threads. AMD bins the 1600X as a 95W part, while the 1600 falls into the 65W TDP range. As expected, the 1600's lower TDP boils down to reduced voltages, imposing lower stock frequencies and thermal output. The Ryzen 5 1600 features a 3.2 GHz base clock rate compared to the "X" model's 3.6 GHz, and it also incurs a similar 400 MHz deficit to the dual-core Precision Boost frequency.

Ryzen 5 1600 falls neatly into the $40 price gap between Intel's Core i5-7500 and -7600K. Both competitors are quad-core models lacking the benefit of Hyper-Threading. That should make for a lopsided battle favoring AMD in heavily-threaded workloads, such as content creation and rendering. Ryzen processors also provide acceptable performance in lightly-threaded workloads. The Intel CPUs do come with on-die graphics for those who need it, while AMD dedicates all of Ryzen's transistors to host processing. Discrete GPUs are a must-have for enthusiasts anyway, so it makes sense to go the route that AMD chose.

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AMD indicates that its non-X models do not feature XFR (eXtended Frequency Range) functionality, which allows the CPU to dynamically adjust its clock rate (for two cores) above the Precision Boost rating based on available thermal headroom. During a single-core Cinebench test, we recorded frequencies that regularly jumped to 3.7 GHz on two cores, so it appears the Ryzen 5 1600 also features XFR. Many of the architecture's other features remain unchanged, including its spacious 16MB of L3 cache, SenseMI suite, and unlocked multiplier.

Intel's carefully segmented stack, which relies on locked multipliers to force specific performance profiles, serves as a liability in the face of AMD's unlocked approach. As we've seen from other Ryzen models, the non-X SKUs tend to hit their overclocking ceilings at lower frequencies and offer less consistent memory overclocking. But your access to the platform's many knobs and dials is the same, no matter which Ryzen CPU you purchase. A bit of tuning often pulls the non-X models into range of their more expensive counterparts, also helping close the gap with Intel's mid-range Core CPUs in lightly-threaded apps.

Much like Intel's K-series CPUs, AMD's X models don't come bundled with thermal solutions. So, their additional frequency headroom is accompanied by a higher platform cost. AMD sweetens the Ryzen 5 1600's value proposition by giving you its 95W Wraith Spire cooler. The 1600, like all other Ryzen chips, drops into Socket AM4. Combining the budget-minded processor with an affordable B350-based motherboard results in a capable 6C/12T rig with plenty of horsepower in reserve for any number of enthusiast workloads.

A lot has been written about Ryzen's challenges in some games, but improved memory support and a trickle of software patches have addressed the most glaring issues. The Ryzen processors are good enough for gaming. But the question is whether they offer enough performance to unseat Intel's incumbents in the important price-to-performance ratio comparison. Let's see if the 1600 has what it takes to usurp Core i5.

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Overclocking & Test Setup

Overclocking

The Ryzen 5 1600 is based on the same die as Ryzen 5 1600X, albeit with a lower 65W TDP. So, we expect a fairly similar overclocking experience.

We dialed in a Prime95-stable 3.9 GHz using a 1.425 vCore setting and 1.2V CPU NB voltage (CPU Loadline Calibration set to Auto). We've seen others achieve 4 GHz overclocks with lower voltages, so it's possible that we have a lower-quality sample. We recorded 84°C (per AIDA) with Noctua's NH-U12S SE-AM4 cooler during extended stress tests.

Our vCore voltage is higher than AMD's recommended limit of 1.35V for long-term overclocks. AMD notes that Ryzen processors can withstand more than 1.45V, though a setting that high may have an impact on longevity. Of course, the warranty doesn't cover damage from overclocking of any sort, so proceed at your own risk.

We were able to use our G.Skilll FlareX DDR4 memory kit at 2999 MT/s with relaxed 16-16-16-34 timings, but were unable to achieve 3200 MT/s in tandem with our 3.9 GHz overclock. Notably, we ran the Ryzen 5 1600X with the same kit at 3200 MT/s and 14-14-14-34 timings on the same motherboard. As we've seen with other non-X models (and the Ryzen 5 1500X), it's possible that the memory overclocking disparity is attributable to AMD's IMC (Integrated Memory Controller).

Ryzen Memory Support	MT/s
Dual-Channel/Dual-Rank/Four-DIMM	1866
Dual-Channel/Single-Rank/Four-DIMM	2133
Dual-Channel/Dual-Rank/Two-DIMM	2400
Dual-Channel/Single-Rank/Two-DIMM	2677

After experimenting with the recently-exposed ProcODT (on-die termination signal) motherboard firmware setting, we found that it has a profound impact on memory overclocking and compatibility. The 40- to 60-ohm range allows us to use various memory kits with Ryzen processors that were previously unusable.

AMD recently released a new v1.0.0.6 AGESA update. Motherboard vendors build firmware upon the AGESA bedrock, so improvements to the underlying code allow manufacturers to provide more options through their own BIOS builds. The latest version exposes 26 more settings that should improve memory overclocking, such as allowing either 1T or 2T command rates (previously limited to 1T) and an expanded range of multipliers that allow 4000 MT/s without BCLK overclocking. We will revisit the 1600's memory overclockability when the final firmware revisions become available.

Comparison Processors

Intel Core i5-7400

Intel Core i5-7500

Intel Core i5-7600K

Test Setup

We conducted gaming testing with the MSI B350 Tomahawk. To streamline our workflow, we employed Asus' B350-Plus for application testing. The Ryzen gaming story has changed quickly since the launch as a string of motherboard firmware and chipset drivers, along with game updates, have come to fruition. As such, we retested all processors with updated firmware and drivers.

Test Systems and Measurement Setups
Systems	AMDRyzen 5 1600, 1600X, 1500XMSI B350 Tomahawk (games)Asus B350-Plus (applications)2x G.Skill FlareX DDR4-3200 @2666 (stock), 2933 (1600 and 1500X) and 3200 MT/s (1600X)IntelIntel Core i5-7600K, i7-7500MSI Z270 Gaming M72x G.Skill FlareX DDR4-3200 @2400 and 3200 MT/sAllEVGA GeForce GTX 1080 FE1TB Samsung PM863SilverStone ST1500, 1500WWindows 10 Creators Update Version 1703
Cooling	Noctua NH-U12S SE-AM4Arctic MX-4

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VRMark & 3D Mark

VRMark

Futuremark's new VRMark test lets you gauge your system's suitability for use with the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift, even if you don't currently own an HMD. VRMark features both HMD and Desktop modes. Desktop mode works both with and without an HMD attached. If you do have one connected, software caps the frame rate at the HMD's refresh rate (90Hz for both the Vive and Rift), and Futuremark doesn't recommend wearing the HMD during the test. We conducted our tests in Desktop mode on a standard monitor, outputting the same resolution and view (for each eye) as an HMD, but without the 90 FPS cap.

The Orange Room test is based on the suggested system requirements for current-generation HTC Vive and Oculus Rift HMDs. Futuremark defines a passing score as anything above 109 FPS (for both tests), so all of these processors paired with a GeForce GTX 1080 are suitable for modern VR experiences.

An overclocked Ryzen 5 1600X outpaces Intel's stock Core i5-7600K, but the overclocked Ryzen 5 1600 lags behind slightly. The Ryzen 5 1600 outpaces its four-core 1500X counterpart, while the Core i5-7500 bests the stock 1500X and 1600.

The Blue Room metric performs a grueling 5K resolution benchmark that mimics the expected performance requirements for future VR devices. It's clear that we're butting up against a graphics bottleneck during the test.

3DMark

3DMark's DX11 physics and DX12 CPU tests quantify the amount of processing power available to a game engine.

The stock and overclocked Ryzen 5 1600X configurations unleash beastly performance during the DX12 physics workload. The 1600 also posts strong results that either beat or challenge the overclocked Core i5-7600K.

AMD's Ryzen processors win the DX11 physics tests. The Intel CPUs fare better during the 3DMark API tests, but Ryzen naturally provides strong threaded DX12 draw call performance.

As we've come to expect, Intel processors perform well in single-threaded DX11 metrics. Even AMD's overclocked CPUs can't match them there. Strong per-clock performance helps explain Intel's advantage in lightly-threaded benchmarks where Ryzen's core count advantage is neutralized.

Once again, even after Futuremark's recent API test update, we note a reduction in multi-threaded DX11 draw call performance for the overclocked six-core Ryzen processors compared to their stock configurations.

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AotS: Escalation & Battlefield 1

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation

Ashes of the Singularity was one of the first games to receive a Ryzen-specific patch, so it illustrates what can happen when a developer spends time optimizing for the Zen architecture's intricacies. We recorded impressive performance boosts after the update.

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation scales exceedingly well with more cores/threads, rewarding the six-core Ryzen processors in both stock and overclocked configurations. Intel's Core i5-7600K has much more overclocking headroom, however, allowing it to take the pole position. In its stock configuration, the -7600K falls into the same range as the other four-core processors.

Notably, AMD's four-core Ryzen 5 1500X bests the Intel Core i5-7500, largely due to improved utilization, which is enabled by its SMT implementation.

The stock Ryzen 5 1600 experiences the most apparent frame time outliers during the test, but a bit of overclocking provides a drastic improvement.

Battlefield 1 DX12

We dialed Battlefield 1 up to the Ultra preset and took an armor-laden stroll across the O La Vittoria landscape.

The Ryzen 5 1600 bests a four-core 1500X, but trails the rest of the field. Overclocking helps propel it to similar performance as the overclocked Ryzen 5 1600X.

Battlefield 1 DX11

In Battlefield 1, under the DX11 API, Ryzen processors tend to score better relative to Intel's Core chips. Presenting benchmark results using different settings helps illustrate how even one game can paint different pictures of performance, depending on how it's set up.

The stock Ryzen 5 1600 beats Intel's Core i5-7500, and overclocking widens the gap. We notice a much larger delta between the overclocked Ryzen 5 1600 and 1600X (3.25%) in this test. Then again, there is a 100 MHz difference in clock rate between the two processors (2.5%). The 1600X's 3200 MT/s memory data rate is also higher than the 1600's 2966 MT/s, and given the increased performance we find with faster memory, that likely contributes to the disparity. AMD's forthcoming AGESA update might improve memory overclocking with the Ryzen 5 1600, which would help get it closer to the 1600X.

Those big blue spikes in our frame time over run chart belong to the Ryzen 5 1500X. Not good.

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Civilization VI & Dues Ex: Mankind Divided

Civilization VI AI Test

Civilization VI's demanding AI test isolates host processor performance, and historically responds better to high clock rates and IPC throughput than more cores.

Not surprisingly, then, Intel's Core i5-7600K leads in both its stock and overclocked configurations.

The overclocked Ryzen 5 1600 nearly matches the more expensive 1600X. However, AMD's 1500X beats the 1600 in a stock configuration due to its higher base and boost clock rates.

Civilization VI Graphics Test

The stock Ryzen 5 1600 encounters some frame time turbulence during the graphics test, but once again, tuning helps smooth out the wrinkles.

Intel's Core i5-7500 falls to the bottom of the group, while its stock Core i5-7600K also struggles. Interestingly, the latter Core i5 still achieves a notably higher minimum frame rate than the stock 1500X and 1600.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Deus Ex continues to favor AMD's Ryzen processors, while the Intel CPUs hit a ceiling of some sort around 58 FPS. The average FPS chart reflects this dichotomy.

The game also doesn't respond well to overclocked Ryzen processors. Our 1600X and 1600 samples yield the same average FPS and frame time measurements in stock and overclocked configurations.

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Grand Theft Auto V & Hitman

Grand Theft Auto V

We measure performance during Grand Theft Auto V's F-16 flight sequence with the built-in benchmark.

Intel's overclocked Core i5-7600K enjoys an undisputed lead over the other processors. Even the stock -7600K beats the rest of our field.

The overclocked Ryzen 5 1600X and 1600 land one after the other.

In spite of the overclocked Core i5's commanding win, it continues demonstrating the same disturbing frame time outlier we've seen previously. Curiously, it isn't affected if we leave its stock clock rate alone.

Hitman

The overclocked Ryzen 5 1600 falls in line beneath the 1600X by nearly the same percentage observed in previous tests. The Core i5-7500 settles in at the bottom of our chart, and Intel's stock Core i5-7600K lands under both six-core Ryzen chips. Overclocking propels the unlocked Kaby Lake-based CPU into a compelling lead, though.

Separately, the stock Intel processors serve up higher minimum frame rates than AMD's stock Ryzen processors.

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Shadow of Mordor & Project CARS

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

The value of an unlocked multiplier becomes clear during this benchmark. AMD's stock Ryzen processors land at the bottom of our chart. However, overclocking them adds enough performance to challenge Intel's Core CPUs.

As expected, the Core i5-7600K leads in this older game. But the overclocked Ryzen 5 1600X isn't far behind. A tuned Ryzen 5 1600 lags behind the 1600X by a mere 1.2 FPS on average. We suspect there'd be little difference between them at 4 GHz, in the event your sample is more flexible than ours. The overclocked quad-core 1500X offers nearly the same performance level, too. A stock Ryzen 5 1500X beats the 1600 during this lightly-threaded benchmark by virtue of its 200 MHz XFR advantage.

At the end of the day, all of these processors facilitate a smooth experience in Middle-earth, and their performance is quite similar.

Project CARS

Project CARS responds most readily to high clock rates and IPC throughput. The overclocked Core i5-7600K offers the highest average FPS, but a few frame time outliers crop up during the benchmark. Intel's Core i5-7500 also experiences a few spikes that show up on our chart.

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Rise of the Tomb Raider & The Division

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Ryzen processors endure a massive performance deficit under Rise of the Tomb Raider and DX12, so we're switching to DX11 to see how the picture changes.

Intel's processors still enjoy a healthy lead, despite our different API settings. Rise of the Tomb Raider could be a good candidate for a Ryzen-optimized patch. Alternately, if Nvidia's graphics driver is negatively affecting performance under DX12, pairing Ryzen with a capable AMD graphics card (Radeon RX Vega, anyone?) could be what equalizes performance between CPU vendors.

Tom Clancy's The Division

Tom Clancy's The Division is fairly graphics-bound, so, outside of minimum frame rates, it doesn't show much variation between host processors. As we've noted in the past, the Ryzen 5 1500X suffers a distressing drop in performance during the opening section of the scene, which is visible as severe stuttering.

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Application Benchmarks

Microsoft Excel 2016 - Word, Excel & PowerPoint

Benchmarking Microsoft Office isn't particularly exciting, but it is representative of software many of us use on a daily basis. The Ryzen processors gain a bit of steam during the PowerPoint workload, but Intel's processors enjoy a lead through most of the tests.

Notably, the overclocked Ryzen 5 1600 and 1600X offer almost identical performance. In either case, aside from the tuned Core i5-7600K, the difference between the various processors is relatively small.

Adobe Creative Cloud

The same trends emerge throughout the Adobe suite, as Intel's Core i5-7600K largely enjoys a lead due to its per-clock performance advantage.

AMD's overclocked Ryzen 1600X and 1600 achieve a higher cumulative score than the Core i5-7500, and the -7400 falls to the bottom of the chart.

Rendering

The six-core Ryzen processors shine during heavily-threaded workloads. Ryzen 5 1600X and 1600 establish convincing leads through our suite of rendering tests, while the overclocked Core i5-7600K jostles for position with Ryzen 5 1500X during a few benchmarks.

The Core i5-7600K, in both stock and overclocked configurations, enjoys a healthy lead in the single-core rendering tests. The tweaked Ryzen CPUs trade blows with the Core i5-7500 in those same metrics, and beat the -7400 during the single-core POV-Ray and Cinebench tests.

Web Browser

During the Kraken Javascript benchmark, Intel's Core i5-7600K leads in its stock and overclocked configurations. But the overclocked Ryzen processors make short work of Intel's multiplier-locked models. Ryzen 5 1500X can't quite keep up with Core i5-7500 during the MotionMark browser benchmark, but the overclocked Ryzen 5 1600 and 1600X both provide a benefit over the locked -7500 and -7400.

SiSoftware's cryptographic test measures performance for both AES-256 and SHA algorithms. Aside from the overclocked Core i5-7600K, Ryzen's hardware AES units provide a tangible performance benefit over the Intel processors in both single-core and multi-core encryption/decryption tasks. The processors also provide faster SHA2-256 AVX hashing performance.

Encoding & Compression

The overclocked Core i5-7600K enjoys a substantial lead in the LAME workload, but the tuned Ryzen 5 1600X and 1600 also provide competitive performance. AMD's six-core Ryzen processors leverage their thread count advantage to great effect during the compression workload. A similar trend emerges during the HandBrake benchmark.

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Final Analysis

As we observed with the Ryzen 7 1700X and 1700, AMD’s unlocked multipliers and similar overclocking ceilings are great for enthusiasts on a budget. You're able to buy a cheaper CPU and realize almost the same performance as higher-end models after a bit of tinkering. We couldn't achieve a 4 GHz overclock with Ryzen 5 1600, which would have matched our results with the 1600X. According to other tests we've seen, though, it’s certainly possible to find a sample capable of 4 GHz. We also couldn't match the 1600X's 3200 MT/s memory speed, but that is fairly common from non-X Ryzen CPUs. Motherboard vendors should have a wave of new firmware versions coming soon that might improve memory overclocking.

We use a geometric mean of average and minimum FPS through our benchmark suite to generate a gaming price efficiency chart. This includes six titles released in 2016 and four older games that launched in 2015.

In the suite, a stock Ryzen 5 1600 provides nearly the same average frame rate as Intel's Core i5-7500. But a bit of overclocking propels it into the lead. An overclocked 1600 can't quite reach the performance of a tuned Core i5-7600K, but it sells for $20 less and comes awful close paired up to high-end graphics. Most systems in this price bracket utilize less powerful GPUs, and the Ryzen 5 1600 should provide enough horsepower to propel mid-range builds to smooth gameplay.

The story changes when we remove older games from our calculation. The second average frame rate chart, which only includes modern games that tend to utilize processing resources more efficiently, places the stock Ryzen 5 1600 ahead of Intel's stock Core i5-7600K. That's quite an impressive feat considering the 1600 also has plenty of spare threads available for more taxing productivity applications. Notably, Intel's CPUs continue to enjoy a substantial lead when we look at minimum frame rates in new and old games alike.

The 1600's low price point is hard to ignore. This CPU features the lowest price-per-core through AMD's Ryzen portfolio, and in light of its solid showing through our application and game suite, it also provides an impressive price-to-performance ratio. The addition of a bundled 95W cooler magnifies the savings relative to Intel's Core i5-7600K and AMD's Ryzen 5 1600X, neither of which include a thermal solution. The Ryzen 5 1600 also provides more performance than Core i5-7500 in a wide range of applications for a little extra money. That should get you thinking about stepping up to AMD's $220 Ryzen instead of buying a locked Intel model.

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Intel CPU Price List

Michael Justin Allen Sexton — Mon, 15 May 2017 01:00:00 +0000

Intel CPUs

This article lists all of Intel’s CPUs currently available on the market. These CPUs primarily use either Intel’s Skylake or Kaby lake architecture. They are then subdivided into groups labeled as Celeron, Pentium, Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7.