Specification and Test Methodology
Fractal Design Core 2500 Specification |
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| Motherboard Compatibility | Mini-ITX, Micro-ATX, ATX | |
| Drive Bays | External 5.25in x2 Internal 2.5/3.5in x4 Internal 2.5in x1 |
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| Expansion Slots | 7 | |
| Cooling System | Front: 2x 120/140mm (1x 120mm 1,200RPM fan included) Rear: 1x 120mm (1x 120mm 1,200RPM fan included) Top: 2x 120/140mm Bottom: 1x 120/140mm Side: 1x 140mm Integrated three-way fan controller |
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| Radiator Support | Front: 240mm or 280mm Top: 240mm Rear: 120mm |
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| Clearance | Graphics Cards: 380mm CPU Cooler: 162mm Power Supply: 155mm when using bottom fan location Cable Management: 13.5mm - 18.5mm |
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| I/O Ports | 1x Audio 1x Mic 2x USB 3.0 |
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| Dimensions (W x H x D) | 195mm x 431mm x 450mm | |
| Weight | 5.7kg | |
Test System Configuration |
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|---|---|---|
| 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 | |
| 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. 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 19.4ºC.