Thermal Performance
Before we go into the thermal performance we just need to advise you of an update to our thermal testing kit. It's now equipped with an Intel D975XBX motherboard and the aforementioned Corsair HX620W PSU. All other components remain the same.Here, then, is the kit we used for testing the NZXT Zero:
| HEXUS Chassis test equipment specification | |
|---|---|
| Motherboard | Intel D975XBX |
| Processor | Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 840 (3.2GHz, Smithfield core) |
| Memory | 2GiB (2 x 1GiB) OCZ DDR2 PC4200 Value Pro Dual-Channel |
| Graphic Card | ASUSTek GeForce 6800 256MiB Ultra PCIe |
| Power Supply | Corsair HX620W |
| Hard Drive | Seagate Barracuda 160GB SATA2 |
| Optical Drive | Pioneer 110 DVD Re-Writer |
Looking at the thermal performance of the Zero we can see that its size is put to good use, with good, if wind-tunnel-like, internal cooling. The rise in temperatures from our tests, between idle and load, were minimal from ambient readings, but that's to be expected given the size and airflow present in the chassis .
It did cool well, obviously, but that was only accomplished by producing excessive noise from the fans with, in the main, the four 120mm ones mounted on the side panel producing the most aural irritation.