Results: Temperature And Noise Level At Full Fan RPM
For the sake of comparison, we’re starting with a list of the case's fans and their rotational speeds before moving on to the thermal measurements. We're using an Aqua Computer Aquaero 5 LT to measure RPM. The following results represent each fan at its highest setting.
| Fan RPM, Benchmark 1 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Front Fan | 2 x 120 mm Cooler Master A12025-18CB-3EN-F1 | 1857 RPM |
| Rear Fan | 1 x 120 mm Cooler Master | 1831 RPM |
| CPU Fan | 2 x 150 mm Noctua NF-A15 PWM | 1508 RPM |
Aggressive cooling performance is accompanied by lots of noise. Nothing in life is free, after all. Here are the exact numbers:
| Cooler Master HAF XB: All Fans at Maximum RPM | |
|---|---|
| Ambient Temperature | 22 °C |
| AMD FX-8350 (Core Temperature) | 47-48 °C |
| GPU (GeForce GTX 470) | 69 °C |
| 2136 RPM (45%) | |
| PhysX (GeForce GTX 650 TI) | 49 °C |
| 1200 RPM (37%) | |
| SSD | 32 °C |
| Hard Drive | 29 °C |
| Noise Level from Front, 50 cm | 50.2 dB(A) |
| Noise Level from Top Left Diagonal, 50 cm | 47.8 dB(A) |
| Noise Level from Top Right Diagonal, 50 cm | 48.0 dB(A) |
As we expected, the HAF XB's layout helps keep our components nice and cool. AMD's FX-8350, which isn’t exactly known for its appealing thermals, flips between 47 and 48 degrees Celsius. This is quite a ways from the 70 degrees where we know this chip will start throttling. There's clearly headroom available for an even higher overclock attempt.
The graphics cards are in similarly good shape. Gigabyte's 990FXA-UD7 gives us two slots between the Nvidia GeForce GTX 470 and GeForce GTX 650 Ti, which handles PhysX calculations. That's enough space to allow airflow from the front of the case to flow through. Consequently, the GTX 470 hovers at 69 degrees Celsius, while the 650 Ti stays at 49 degrees. Each card's fan is barely audible over the case's coolers, which you can certainly hear at 1800 RPM. Then again, this setup is optimized for thermal performance, not acoustics.
Color us impressed by these results, particularly since we didn't even use the optional 200 mm top cooler, which would have required a shorter CPU cooler than Noctua's NH-U14S.
Next, we'll try to answer whether Cooler Master's HAF XB continues to perform well when we tune for performance and noise. The following batch of measurements is taken with fan RPMs cut back.