Review: Quiet PC Nofan A890S Silent Desktop

by Parm Mann on 23 November 2017, 12:00

Tags: Quiet PC, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), Palit

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qadnvt

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Test Methodology

Comparison Systems - Part One

System Name Asus ROG G20CI Asus ROG GR8 II Corsair One Pro Cyberpower Infinity X77 Titanium MSI Trident 3 Arctic PC Specialist Apollo Zen
CPU Intel Core i7-7700 Intel Core i7-7700 Intel Core i7-7700K Intel Core i7-7700K Intel Core i7-7700 AMD Ryzen 5 1600X
Overclocked No No Yes Yes No No
Max Turbo Frequency 4.2GHz 4.2GHz 4.5GHz 4.7GHz 4.2GHz 4.0GHz
CPU Cores / Threads 4 / 8 4 / 8 4 / 8 4 / 8 4 / 8 6 / 12
CPU TDP 65W 65W 91W 91W 65W 95W
CPU Cooler Asus ROG G20CI Asus ROG GR8 II Corsair One Cooler Master MasterLiquid 120 MSI Trident 3 Cooler Master Hyper 212X
Motherboard Asus ROG G20CI Asus ROG GR8 II MSI Z270I Growler MSI Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon MSI MS-B9061 Asus Prime B350-Plus
Memory 16GB DDR4 (1x16GB) 16GB DDR4 (2x8GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 (2x8GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 (2x8GB) SK hynix 16GB DDR4 (2x8GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 (2x8GB)
Memory Speed 17-17-17-39-2T @ 2,400MHz 17-17-17-39-2T @ 2,400MHz 16-16-16-36-2T @ 2,400MHz 15-17-17-35-2T @ 3,000MHz 17-17-17-39-2T @ 2,400MHz 15-15-15-51-1T @ 2,133MHz
Graphics Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 3GB MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Seahawk 8GB MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti SeaHawk 11GB MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Aero ITX 8GB XFX Radeon RX 570 RS Black Edition 4GB
Primary Storage Device 512GB SanDisk X400 SSD 256GB Intel 535 Series SSD 960GB Corsair Force Series LE 16GB Intel Optane Memory Accelerator 256GB Intel 600p Series SSD 250GB WD Blue SSD
Second Storage Device 2TB Seagate Barracuda HDD - - 3TB Seagate Barracuda HDD 1TB Hitachi Travelstar HDD 1TB Seagate Barracuda HDD
Optical Drive DVD Writer - - DVD Writer - -
PSU Asus ROG G20CI (230W + 180W, external) Delta Electronics (230W, external) Corsair SFX 400 Gold (400W, internal) Cooler Master MasterWatt Lite (600W, internal) Delta Electronics (330W, external) Corsair VS550 (550W, internal)
Chassis Asus ROG G20CI Asus ROG GR8 II Corsair One Cooler Master MasterCase Pro 5 Nvidia Edition MSI Trident 3 PCS SR-620
Operating System Windows 10 (64-bit) Windows 10 (64-bit) Windows 10 (64-bit) Windows 10 (64-bit) Windows 10 (64-bit) Windows 10 (64-bit)
Warranty One year One year Two years (parts and labour, to an authorised centre - Scan in the UK) Three years (one-month collect-and-return, two-year parts, three-year labour) Two years (on-site collect and return) Three years (one-month collect-and-return, one-year parts, three-year labour)
Date Reviewed April 2017 February 2017 March 2017 June 2017 April 2017 June 2017
Cost As Reviewed £2,100 TBC £2,269 £1,999 £1,799 £949

Comparison Systems - Part Two

System Name Quiet PC Nofan A890S Silent Desktop Scan 3XS Carbon Fluid Xp Scan 3XS Vengeance Ti Scan 3XS Z270 Vengeance SLI Scan 3XS Z370 Vengeance Q Scan 3XS Z370 Vengeance Ti
CPU Intel Core i7-8700K Intel Core i9-7900X Intel Core i7-7700K Intel Core i7-7700K Intel Core i5-8600K Intel Core i7-8700K
Overclocked No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Max Turbo Frequency 4.7GHz 4.6GHz 4.8GHz 5.0GHz 4.8GHz 5.0GHz
CPU Cores / Threads 6 / 12 10 / 20 4 / 8 4 / 8 6 / 6 6 / 12
CPU TDP 95W 140W 91W 91W 95W 95W
CPU Cooler Nofan CR-95C Black Pearl IcePipe EK Liquid Loop Corsair Hydro Series H100i v2 Corsair Hydro Series H100i Noctua NH-D15S Fractal Design Celsius S24
Motherboard Asus Prime Z370-A Asus RoG Strix X299-E Gaming Asus RoG Strix Z270H Gaming Asus RoG Strix Z270E Gaming Asus RoG Strix Z370-H Gaming Asus RoG Strix Z370-F Gaming
Memory Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 (2x8GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB DDR4 (4x8GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 (2x8GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 (2x8GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 (2x8GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 (2x8GB)
Memory Speed 14-16-16-31-2T @ 2,400MHz 16-18-18-36-2T @ 3,200MHz 15-17-17-35-2T @ 3,000MHz 15-17-17-35-2T @ 3,000MHz 15-17-17-35-2T @ 3,000MHz 15-17-17-35-2T @ 3,000MHz
Graphics Palit GeForce GTX 1050 Ti KalmX 4GB Nvidia Titan Xp 12GB EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB Founders Edition 2x Asus GeForce GTX 1080 Strix Advanced 8GB in SLI MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Ti Gaming 8GB EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti SC2 iCX 11GB
Primary Storage Device 250GB Samsung 960 Evo SSD 512GB Samsung 960 Pro SSD 512GB Intel 600p Series SSD 512GB Samsung SM951 SSD 250GB Samsung 960 Evo SSD 500GB Samsung 960 Evo SSD
Second Storage Device - 2TB Seagate Barracuda HDD 2TB Seagate Barracuda HDD 2TB WD Blue HDD 2TB WD Blue HDD 2TB Seagate Barracuda HDD
Optical Drive - - - - - -
PSU Nofan P-500A Silent (500W, internal) Corsair RM650X (650W, internal) Corsair CX550M (550W, internal) Corsair RM750i (750W, internal) Corsair RM650X (650W, internal) Corsair RM650X (650W, internal)
Chassis Jonsbo UMX4 Zone Black Window Fractal Design Define S Corsair Crystal Series 460X RGB Corsair Crystal Series 570X RGB Fractal Design Define C Fractal Design Meshify C
Operating System Windows 10 (64-bit) Windows 10 (64-bit) Windows 10 (64-bit) Windows 10 (64-bit) Windows 10 (64-bit) Windows 10 (64-bit)
Warranty Two years (parts, labour and collect-and-return) Three years (first year onsite, second and third year return-to-base with parts and labour) Three years (first year onsite, second year return-to-base with parts and labour, third year return-to-base with labour only) Three years (first year onsite, second year return-to-base with parts and labour, third year return-to-base with labour only) Three years (first year onsite, second and third year return-to-base with parts and labour) Three years (first year onsite, second and third year return-to-base with parts and labour)
Date Reviewed November 2017 August 2017 March 2017 January 2017 November 2017 October 2017
Cost As Reviewed £1,770 £4,000 £2,100 £3,000 £1,700 £2,300

CPU and Storage Benchmarks

HEXUS PiFast Our number-crunching PiFast test is used to benchmark the computational power of each system's CPU.
Cinebench Using Cinebench's multi-CPU render, this cross-platform benchmark stresses as many cores as possible.
HandBrake Free-to-use video encoder that stresses all CPU cores.

Memory and Storage Benchmarks

AIDA64 Benchmark that analyses memory bandwidth and latency.
CrystalDiskMark Popular free-to-use storage benchmark, used to gauge sequential performance and aggregated 4K QD32 speeds.

Gaming Benchmarks

3DMark DX11, run at the Firestrike default test.
Gaming A selection of modern titles are tested at various resolutions.

Miscellaneous Benchmarks

Power Consumption Noted for system idling, under HandBrake video-transcoding load, and while gaming.
Temperature Noted for CPU idling, under HandBrake video-transcoding load, and while gaming.