BitFenix Ronin Case Review
by Dustin Sklavos on July 22, 2013 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- bitfenix
- ATX
Testing Methodology
For testing full ATX cases, we use the following standardized testbed in stock and overclocked configurations to get a feel for how well the case handles heat and noise.
| ATX Test Configuration | |
| CPU |
Intel Core i7-2700K (95W TDP, tested at stock speed and overclocked to 4.3GHz @ 1.38V) |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD4H |
| Graphics Card |
ASUS GeForce GTX 560 Ti DCII TOP (tested at stock speed and overclocked to 1GHz/overvolted to 1.13V) 2x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 in SLI (full fat testing only) |
| Memory | 2x2GB Crucial Ballistix Smart Tracer DDR3-1600 |
| Drives |
Kingston SSDNow V+ 100 64GB SSD Samsung 5.25" BD-ROM/DVDRW Drive 3x HGST DeskStar 3TB 7200-RPM HDD |
| CPU Cooler | Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo with Cooler Master ThermalFusion 400 |
| Power Supply | SilverStone Strider Plus 1000W 80 Plus Silver |
Each case is tested in a stock configuration and an overclocked configuration that generates substantially more heat (and thus may produce more noise). The system is powered on and left idle for fifteen minutes, the thermal and acoustic results recorded, and then stressed by running seven threads in Prime95 (in-place large FFTs) on the CPU and OC Scanner (maximum load) on the GPU. At the end of fiteen minutes, thermal and acoustic results are recorded. This is done for the stock settings and for the overclock, and if the enclosure has a fan controller, these tests are repeated for each setting. Ambient temperature is also measured after the fifteen idle minutes but before the stress test and used to calculate the final reported results.
For the "full fat" testbed, the GTX 560 Ti is swapped out for a pair of GTX 580s, and three hard disks are added to fill out the case.
Thank You!
Before moving on, we'd like to thank the following vendors for providing us with the hardware used in our testbed.
- Thank you to Puget Systems for providing us with the Intel Core i7-2700K.
- Thank you to Gigabyte for providing us with the GA-Z77X-UD4H motherboard.
- Thank you to Crucial for providing us with the Ballistix Smart Tracer memory.
- Thank you to Cooler Master for providing us with the Hyper 212 Evo heatsink and fan unit.
- Thank you to Kingston for providing us with the SSDNow V+ 100 SSD.
- Thank you to CyberPower for providing us with the Samsung BD-ROM/DVD+/-RW drive.
- Thank you to HGST for providing us with the trio of hard drives.
- And thank you to SilverStone for providing us with the power supply.
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kmmatney - Tuesday, July 23, 2013 - link
I agree. I have a factory overclocked video card, and a "reasonably" overclocked i5, and I get plenty of cooling with a single, slow 120mm fan. While my case just has 2 120mm fans, I only use one, and keep the other unused for a spare (and to keep the system extremely quiet). I will say the price is a little high for this case, though. I think anyone buying this case would be using a single video card, so it would be more useful to test with that.twtech - Monday, July 22, 2013 - link
As soon as I saw what the inside of it looked like, I knew the cooling was going to suffer. There's no room for airflow. I wonder what the thermals would be like with just one graphics card.DanNeely - Monday, July 22, 2013 - link
The standard test is done with a single 560. Only the full fat has dual GPUs (580s).GprophetB - Monday, July 22, 2013 - link
THE BOWL IS BACKHisDivineOrder - Monday, July 22, 2013 - link
This is them creating a slightly more expensive case to sell the other cases. They make this product to hit those people who look at $99 or greater cases. Then anyone who reads a review sees they should go back to the more prevalent, cheaper cases, which they do.It's like advertisement for the entire brand because everytime someone goes to read about this product as it's in the running, they're going to see someone saying, "Hey, go check out Shinobi instead."
Bam, Shinobi sells. It's savvy.
fluxtatic - Tuesday, July 23, 2013 - link
Reminds me of some of the Dell Optiplexes at work. That's not a good thing.ShieTar - Tuesday, July 23, 2013 - link
Can anybody explain to me why Bitfenix would not include 2 140mm fans for the top slots? They do include them for the Shinobi XXL, and they do a great job of moving alot of air through the case, especially when combined with both front and bottom intakes. So why skip the 5 bucks on fan cost, and cripple the case in the process? Do they just expect everybody to buy their own fans anyways?Minion4Hire - Tuesday, July 23, 2013 - link
Dustin, I'm very confused. You're recommending the Shinobi over the Ronin solely because it's cheaper? But the Shinobi's thermal performance isn't really much better. It's only advantage is a 120mm side mount. If someone intends on installing two beefy graphics cards as you've done here (which you did not do in the Shinobi review) I can't imagine they're going to have a much better time in the default configuration which is otherwise identical to the Ronin.The Ronin looks like a prettier Shinobi. I just don't feel it's a fair performance comparison to make when you tested the Shinobi with only a single GPU. If anything I would think - assuming only one GPU - that the Ronin would perfom similarly to its spiritual predecessor.
samsp99 - Wednesday, July 24, 2013 - link
Looking at the photo above, I thought it was of smoke showing the airflow in the case. Which makes me think - hey how about doing photo's of the airflow, particularly for cases with a window.werver - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
I was very suprised about the difference in test results of the Ronin between Anandtech.com and Computerbase.de. They write: "Bitfenix succeeded to get a very good balance between noise levels and temperature". How is such a difference possible?