Noise and Thermal Testing, Stock

When I did get the Rosewill Thor v2 up and running, I had fairly high hopes. I'm a major proponent of side intake fans, and the bigger the better. While the ventilation may at least superficially suggest a louder case, I've found that the vastly improved airflow usually negates it. I tested the Thor v2 with its fan controllers at both their highest and lowest settings; for other cases that have fan controllers, I included the most balanced results from their testing.

In the metrics that count, Rosewill's enclosure comes out swinging, offering some of the lowest temperatures we've ever measured. This is also one of the first cases I've seen where there's a very measurable difference in thermal performance between high and low fan settings, but even the low setting puts in a respectable showing.

That low setting isn't just fairly cool; it's quiet, too. The series of giant 230mm fans apparently move quite a bit of air without making much of a racket. From the looks of it, the Thor v2 has a healthy amount of thermal headroom, so let's test it with our overclocked settings.

Testing Methodology Noise and Thermal Testing, Overclocked
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  • black44dog - Friday, September 7, 2012 - link

    I know this is an old article.. But i wanted to let everyone know the updates this Case has gotten since the article has been written.

    I just put together my Rosewill Thor v2 case with these parts:

    Asus Sabertooth Z77 mobo
    Intel Core i5 3570k
    g-skill 16mb ram x2 8gig chips
    CM Hyper Evo 212 CPU Cooler
    LG Blu-ray burner
    OCZ Vertex 4 128gig SSD
    EVGA GeForce GTX660 TI 2GB

    I purchased the case for 103.99 on newegg last week. It was on sale for 129.99 plus had a 20% off promo code.

    The USB 3.0 pass through no longer exists. They replaced it with an ACTUAL USB3.0 Connector to the motherboard header. HUGE upgrade there..

    The grommets are still flaky.. not a big deal.

    Everything fit perfectly and looks amazing with the Sabertooth's Thermal Armor.

    Hope this helps others looking into reviews for this case.
  • Horrabin - Saturday, January 12, 2013 - link

    with the original V2 I've had for close to a year has been entirely positive. I consider this to be the best case I've ever used for a build in its price range (and one or two more "upscale" in the past). I really like all the the ports for cable management (aside from the grommets, as has been mentioned). I have 2 graphics cards, 6 HD, a DVD burner, a card reader, and an add-on 3.5 USB3 front panel that came with my motherboard, and still have plenty of room unimpeded by the usual cable spaghetti if I want to add anything else, although I'm pretty maxed out of stuff I'd want to put in. Since this fits (barely) under my table I keep the top grille open so the cat's not a problem... I actually like the back-routed USB3 setup. The onboard header is used for the add-on unit, which gives me 4 front USB3 ports. I did notice from the beginning that the fan control system didn't seem to do much about noise levels, but I'm not that bothered by fan noise anyway. The stock fans included with the case provide enough cooling and airflow, with the cables all tucked away behind the motherboard, to keep all my temps generally in the low 30's at idle and about 15 degrees higher when I'm running games (Crysis, Rage, FC3, Borderlands 1 & 2,etc). The CoolerMaster Hyper 212 cpu cooler fits with room to spare. Asrock 990FX Extreme 4 with Vishera 6-core, 16GB GSkill 1866, and dual AMD 5775 cards (those are somewhat dated, but enough in CrossFire for me on my budget). I would buy this case again for any other full-tower system I'd want to build.
  • jlpurvis - Monday, March 11, 2013 - link

    I just received y Thor V2 in the mail last week, and it is a very solid, good case. Just a heads up, they did replace the USB 3.0 connector with an internal motherboard header, so I don't have to hook it up in the back, but directly onto the motherboard. Also, the rubber grommets feel very secure, and the fan knobs don't feel clunky, or loose. I believe they fixed your biggest complaints about the case.
  • PA Systems1 - Sunday, June 23, 2013 - link

    I've just purchased this case from Newegg. Bought it for its size and cooling capabilities. I do have one question that the article doesn't seem to answer. If the front USB cables do not connect to the USB 3.0 headers on the mobo how are they connected to the system and powered? Before reading this article mentioning that I thought I would absolutely need a mobo with USB 3.0 internal headers. To be honest I haven't looked inside it YET because the other parts to my new build are waiting on price drops from Newegg. It could be a slow process but this case and some other components came on Newegg as deals first.
  • frostshoxx - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link

    Where exactly is the reset button? I can only find the power button.

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