Thermal Performance
Due to similar characteristics we decided to pitch the iTower 930 up against the recently reviewed Thermaltake Aguila chassis.
Between our tests of the Aguila and the iTower 930 there was a variance of 2 degrees in the ambient temperature. This is important to mention given that the difference between the two chassis, were on average, two degrees per reading. The postive aspect for the iTower 930 was that, although its readings were taken two degrees higher, it actually returned temperatures two degrees below the Aguila. A pretty decent performance overall then from the iTower 930, especially in the PSU area.
Under load was a different story, with the machines being much more evenly matched it revealed an apparent airflow problem with the iTower 930. The only fan at the front of the chassis is the one within the HDD cowling, extracting hot air from the drives directly over the back of the GPU, and our readings reflected this problem quite clearly with a three-degree gap over the Aguila.
In fact all the internal readings we took on the iTower 930 seemed to indicate the flow of air has issues, with high readings from the case, rear exhaust and GPU – most notably though, a 6- versus 10-degree jump in the power supply area was of concern.