Temperature And Noise
Benchmark System for Temperature and Noise
What good is a case review if we don't test it the way it was meant to be used? We're packing the Phantom 820 with enthusiast-oriented hardware, just to see how it'll behave in a real-world environment.
| Benchmark System | |
|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i7-3770K (Ivy Bridge), 22 nm, 4C/8T, 8 MB Shared L3 Cache, 77 W |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte G1.Sniper 3, Z77 Express Chipset |
| Memory | 4 x 4 GB Kingston HyperX DDR3-1600 |
| CPU Cooler | Cooler Master TPC-800 with Noiseblocker eLoop B12-PS (PWM) |
| SSD | Kingston V200+ 480 GB |
| Hard Drives | 1. Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB (7200 RPM)2. Hitachi Deskstar 1 GB (7200 RPM) |
| Power Supply Unit (PSU) | SuperFlower SF500P, 500 W, 80 PLUS Platinum (Passive) or 600 W, 80 PLUS Gold |
| Graphics Cards (Actively Cooled) | HIS HD 7970 X2 ("7990," Tahiti XT Dual-GPU)Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 Super OverclockGigabyte GeForce GTX 680 OC |
| Graphics Cards (Passively Cooled) | HIS HD 7750 iCooler (Passive) |
| Temperature | 22 °C Constant (Climate-Controlled) |
Temperature
Cooling is one of the Phantom 820's strengths. Its interior is very spacious, and its fans generate good airflow. Unfortunately, those fans are not quiet enough to make us want to spend extra money or compromise on the performance of passively-cooled components.
Our thermal benchmarks were run using the original set of factory fans. The only exception was when we removed the side fan for Gigabyte's Radeon HD 7970 Super Overclock, because the cooler tries to suck air in as the graphics card tries to push it out. We used LinX to tax our CPU and one instance of BitMiner (GPU-optimized) to apply a full system load.
| Header Cell - Column 0 | Fan Speed Control (Minimum) | Fan Speed Control (Maximum) |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 63 °C | 58 °C |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 680 OC | 68 °C | 66 °C |
| Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 Super Overclock | 79 °C | 75 °C |
| HIS HD 7970 X2 ("7990") | 82 °C | 79 °C |
Our Core i7-3770K benefits most from the case’s airflow. On average, the processor fan maintains speeds under 1000 RPM.
The NZXT Phantom 820’s cooling performance is definitely somewhere between above average and very good. The caveat here is that the case is at least as loud as its cooling is good, which we’ll get to next.
Noise
We deliberately chose not to use any loud components for our noise benchmark. Thus, the figures below represent the Phantom 820’s noise level pretty well.
In addition to testing the factory configuration, we also tested our modified version with its swapped-out rear fan, which did yield a quantifiable improvement. Our microphone was 50 cm from the top-left of the case for the purpose of recording. We believe this represents a fairly common real-world orientation for folks with tower cases on the floor next to them.
| Header Cell - Column 0 | Fan Speed Control (Minimum) | Fan Speed Control (Maximum) |
|---|---|---|
| Original Fans | 32 dB(A) | 40.8 db(A) |
| Back Fan Replaced With Noiseblocker B12-1 | 30.2 dB(A) | 38.9 dB(A) |
The bottom line is that you get lots of cooling and lots of noise. There are steps you can take to make the acoustics more bearable, though. To begin, replace the back fan. You can also slow down the top fan if you're using a solid CPU cooler. Unless you're using a pair of high-end graphics cards, even the side-panel fan can go.
NZXT's built-in four-channel controller gives you the flexibility to dial in a sweet spot between cooling performance and noise. It works in steps, though, so rotational speeds can't be finely tuned. Sadly, we’ll probably never know why NZXT chose to include the same fans in its $250 Phantom 820 as it does in the $100 Phantom 410. If you end up thinking the Phantom 820 sounds cheap, chalk that up to its fans.
Vibration with Two Hard Drives
We shot a short video to illustrate the Phantom 820’s problem with hard drive vibration. If you read page eight, then you already know what’s coming.
Because the pins securing our mechanical disks come in contact with the cage, NZXT's attempt to dampen vibration doesn't work at all. Closing the front of the case exacerbates the problem by turning the entire chassis into a sound box resonating with the hard drive vibration. It's very unfortunate that closing the Phantom's drive door makes the problem worse, since you would expect the exact opposite to happen.
Our fingers are crossed that improvements NZXT says it made to the trays helps alleviate this to some degree.
We recorded the video’s audio track using a specialized sound box microphone.