Review: Zalman H1

by Parm Mann on 3 October 2014, 14:00

Tags: Zalman (090120.KQ)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qacjtr

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Test Methodology

Zalman H1 Specification

Form Factor Full Tower
Motherboard Support E-ATX, ATX, Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX
Dimensions (H x W x D) 551mm x 237mm x 569mm
Drive Bays Front 3 x 5.25in
Internal 7 x 2.5/3.5in (3 hot-swap)
Cooling Front 200mm LED Fan x 1 (Blue LED Fan included)
Rear 120mm Fan x 1 (Fan included)
Top 120mm Fan Vent x 2 (Fans included)
Internal 120mm Fan Mount (Fan optional)
Radiator Support Top 240mm / 280mm
Expansion Slots 9
I/O Panel 2 x USB 2.0
2 x USB 3.0
Headphone and Mic
Three-Mode Fan Controller
Temperature Display
Multi-channel Fan Control
Power Supply Standard ATX (not included)
Clearances Heatsink 160mm
PSU 200mm
Graphics 350mm
UK Price £99.95

Test System Configuration

Motherboard Asus Sabertooth Z77
CPU Intel Core i5-3570K @ 4.4GHz
CPU Cooler Arctic Cooling Freezer 13
Memory G.Skill Ripjaws-X 8GB (F3-12800CL7D-8GBXH)
Memory Speed and Timings 1,600MHz, 7-8-7-24-2N
Graphics Cards 2x Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 OC in CrossFireX
Storage 120GB SanDisk Extreme SSD
Optical Drive Pioneer DVR-S19LBK DVD Writer
Power Supply Corsair HX1050W
Monitor Philips Brilliance 272P (2,560x1,440)

Our Z77 test platform consists of an ASUS Sabertooth motherboard, an Intel Core i5-3570K processor overclocked to a modest 4.4GHz, an Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 cooler, 8GB of high-performance G.Skill Ripjaws-X memory and two factory-overclocked Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 OC graphics cards in a CrossFireX configuration.

To find out how well the chassis can cool this particular setup, we record the CPU temperature during a 15-minute stint of the Prime95 small-FFT stress test. In order to provide a stabilised reading we then calculate an average temperature across all cores from the last five minutes of testing.

To get an idea of GPU cooling performance, we then record the highest GPU temperature after 15 minutes of running Aliens vs. Predator with maximum image-quality settings at 1080p. Last but not least, we also measure chassis noise by using a PCE-318 noise meter to take readings when idle and while running Aliens vs. Predator.

All chassis are tested only with the standard manufacturer-supplied fans (any/all of which are set to 'silent' in the Asus BIOS or low-speed using a fan controller if present), and to take into account the fluctuating ambient temperature, our graphs depict both actual and delta temperature - the latter is the actual CPU/GPU temperature minus the ambient. For the record, room temperature while testing today's chassis was recorded as 22.1ºC.