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Benchmarks & Final Analysis
Yes these are temperature deltas, and yes we had to lower the temperature of the room to test the Storm 6000. From a ventilation standpoint, it seems to follow the trend set by a certain other nicely painted RGB-lighted case.
The Storm 6000 has impressively fast RGB fans on the top and front, yet those are so well blocked-in that only a small portion of that noise reaches the user. Though far from silent, it blocks noise in so well that we barely see a difference between its full-graphics-fan “Full Load” and low-graphics-fan “Idle” setting. That would make this the perfect case to retest at lower fan speed, except that the attempted retest pushed our CPU past its custom-set 115° throttle point.
With noise moderated by a relatively closed front-panel design, cooling was the weakness that struck down the Storm 6000 in our temperature-to-noise chart.
Surprisingly, the $170 Thermaltake View 71 TG’s overall performance advantage was so great that it beat the other cases in value. Even the $200 RGB version of the View 71 TG would have beaten the $150 Storm 6000 (by around 6%) in performance-per-dollar.
We started off this review with high hopes for an outstanding-looking case built from medium-gauge sheet metal (steel), perfectly painted, and given the full RGB treatment. Those hopes were further bolstered by an early test error that produced far better numbers than those shown here. But alas it was not to be, as the Storm 6000 simply didn’t move enough air to keep our hot platform cool. The barely-open front panel that did such a great job of blocking in graphics card noise appears to have done a similarly remarkable job of blocking out cool air. Warm air likely followed the path of least resistance by recirculating though open fan mounts.
Then there’s the matter of the glass side panel having no locator pins or even a ledge to hold it up while installing or removing screws. I dropped it on my table several times just setting up photos. Yet because it looks so good, I’ll probably hang onto the Storm 6000 until I finally drop that glass on something less forgiving.
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