Roundup: Four Gaming Cases Under $150

Test Settings

An old C0 stepping Core i7-920 processor produces a great amount of heat when overclocked, which is perfect for testing the ventilation of today’s cases.

Asus’ P6T keeps the processor stable at high temperatures and current loads.

A factory-overclocked XFX GeForce GTX 285 reflects the graphics power that gamers typically need.

Rosewill’s Fort 120 air cooler is large enough to expose any potential mounting space issues, noisy enough at full speed to reveal a case’s noise-isolation capability, and powerful enough to keep our overclocked CPU well below its thermal limits.

The most efficient 1,000W power supply we could find, OCZ’s Z1000 was originally obtained for use in an overkill CrossFire configuration. Though its debut article was cancelled, modular design and an 80 PLUS Gold rating still make this the perfect unit for high-end case reviews.

In order to create the maximum possible thermal load from our hardware, we dedicated a single CPU thread to FurMark and the remaining seven threads to Prime95 simultaneously, measuring the component temperatures after warming the system for one hour.

Galaxy’s low-cost CM-140 SPL meter takes care of our audio testing needs, though its 32dB minimum rating forces us to check audio levels at a .25m reduced distance. All readings are corrected to an industry-standard 1m distance (-12dB).