Thermal results
System specification
| HEXUS chassis test equipment specification | |
|---|---|
| Motherboard | EVGA 780i SLI FTW |
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 3.00GHz, 1,333MHz FSB |
| Memory | 4GB (2 x 2GB) Corsair DDR2 PC8500 |
| Memory timings and speed | 5-5-5-18 2T @ 1,066MHz |
| Graphics card | BFG GeForce GTX 260 OCX MaxCore |
| Power supply | Dark Power PRO 850W |
| Hard drive | Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 160GB |
| Optical drive | Sony SATA DVD-RW |
To get an all-round feel for a chassis' cooling ability, we record the chassis' ambient internal temperature, along with the temperatures of the CPU and GPU. To get an idea of how the Silverstone Raven RV02 compares, we also housed our test equipment in a Corsair Obsidian Series 800D, a Cooler Master HAF 922 and a SilverStone Fortress - all of which underwent identical tests. The SilverStone Raven RV02 was equipped with its four default fans set to run at 100 per cent, but no additional cooling was installed.
Readers should be aware that ambient room temperature is susceptible to change, and was recorded for each chassis as follows prior to testing:
Silverstone Raven RV02 -
ambient room temperature 23.8°C
Corsair Obsidian Series 800D - ambient room temperature 25.3°C
Cooler Master HAF 922 - ambient room temperature 25.3°C
SilverStone Fortress - ambient room temperature 21.3°C
Readers should also note that the Corsair Obsidian Series 800D is a full-tower chassis, and consequently not immediately comparable to the other chassis here.
Thermal results
To get started, we booted the systems and let them idle for 15 minutes before taking the following readings:
[graph 2969]
Once the difference in ambient temperature has been taken into account, there's barely anything to separate the performance of the Raven RV02 from the competition.
If you put the normal variances aside, then the SilverStone Raven RV02 would only come in third place for the CPU and chassis temperatures, but would manage a first place in terms of the GPU temps.
To make things a little more interesting, we stress the system by running three instances of Prime95 along with 3DMark06 at 1,920x1,200 4xAA 16xAF. After a minute, we observe the following readings:
[graph 2971]
The same is true here, too. The little difference between the performance of the Raven RV02 and the competition is nullified by variability in the test equipment.
Once again, putting variances in the equipment aside, the Raven RV02 would come first for both GPU and chassis temperatures, and second in terms of CPU temps.
Making the systems beg for mercy, we continue to run Prime95 and 3DMark06 for an hour. Here's what we see after the stress test:
[graph 2972]
Unlike the previous two sets of results, it's clear to see a winner here, even allowing for test variances. Sure, the CPU and chassis thermals are still within the variances of our equipment, but the thermal advantage of the Raven RV02's design is clear to see on the GPU temperatures.
Letting the system idle for a minute, and we see how well each chassis manages to cool down.
[graph 2973]
Nothing particularly impressive to note about the Raven RV02's thermal performance here.
In stark contrast to the one-hour-load test results, the Raven RV02's GPU thermal performance isn't clearly better than the SilverStone Fortress'.
Overall then, the SilverStone Raven RV02 delivers decent, but not outstanding, thermal performance in all areas, with the exception of the GPU under sustained load. Here the Raven RV02 has a marked advantage over its competitors, and the stack-effect cooling appears to be superior in this scenario.
When the three 180mm fans attached to the fan controller are set to low speed, the system is pretty quiet. Turn the fans up to high and it's obviously louder when idling and pretty noisy when under load. Most of the noise appears to be come from the top and rear of the chassis.