The Riotoro Prism CR1280 Case Review

Test setup

Professional testing requires the emulation of real-world situations but with repeatable results; thus, a perfectly controllable test setup and environment are required, especially for comparable results. Testing the thermal performance of any case with a typical real-world setup technically limits the comparability of the results to this setup alone, as an active system interacts with its environment and the change of a single component would alter myriads of variables. As such, we developed synthetic loads that emulate the thermal output of real systems, which however are passive, steady and quantifiable. As such, the thermal testing now displays the thermal capabilities of the case alone, as if it would have to deal with the entire thermal load by itself, regardless of the system that would be installed inside it. Laboratory data loggers are being used to monitor the PT100 sensors and control the safety relays, which are fully accessible via our custom software. Three such loads have been developed; the ATX version simulates a 200W CPU, 50W VRM, 30W RAM and 4 × 120W GPU card thermal load. Finally, three 3.5" HDD dummy loads have also been created, with each of them converting 30 W of electrical power to thermal, bringing the total thermal load of the ATX test setup up to 850 Watts. As such, the thermal load is immense and only the best of cases will be able to handle it for more than a few minutes, we are also performing a test with a thermal load of 400W, with all of the aforementioned components except the HDD drives at about 42% power, which is more suitable for the majority of cases.

Thermal testing has been performed with all of the case's stock fan operating at maximum speed. Noise testing has been performed with a background noise level of 30.4dB(A). Advanced noise testing is also being performed, in order to assess the ability of the case to dampen the noise of the components installed inside it. This includes the installation of two noise-generating sources (strong fans) inside the case, one positioned approximately over the first expansion slot and one over the CPU area, which generate ≈ 44.2 dB(A) when unobstructed. During the advanced noise test, all stock cooling options of the case are entirely disabled.

Results and discussion

Considering the size and design of the Riotoro Prism CR1280, its thermal performance was foreseeable, yielding results very close to other similarly sized designs. Using the stock cooling fans, the Prism CR1280 performs slightly worse than the Phanteks Enthoo Pro and the Corsair Graphite 760T. However, the stock cooling fans of both of these cases are superior to those of the Prism CR1280, as the company strangely installed 120 mm fans only. Therefore, the Prism CR1280 is not thermally inferior as a case design, but the significantly lower airflow of the stock cooling fans does not allow it to properly compete with many rivaling offerings.

The use of 120 mm fans has another side effect - noise. With its fans at their maximum speed, the Prism CR1280 is a loud case, with our instruments reading 40.9 dB(A) coming from the stock fans alone. Although this is not a very bad result, it will be annoying for a very significant percentage of users. We generally like to see figures below 38 dB(A) here, which is an audible but generally comfortable result. With the speed of the fans reduced down to 50% though, the Prism CR1280 does turn silent, with a reading of just 33.2 dB(A). This indicates that the bulk of the noise does not come from the engines of the fans themselves, but it is aerodynamic noise, a side effect of trying to push a lot of air through a limited radius. Larger fans would help dramatically, as they would maintain the same airflow at much lower noise levels.

With so many vents and openings, the Prism CR1280 is clearly not a case designed to dampen the noise generated by the system. Our second test using the dummy test source held no surprises either, as the sound dampening capabilities of the Prism CR1280 were proven to be very low. The sound pressure generated by our dummy noise source was reduced by just 1.4 dB(A), from 44.2 dB(A) to 42.8 dB(A). This is a very small difference, indiscernible for a human ear.