BitFenix Shinobi: The Budget Ninja
by Dustin Sklavos on June 22, 2011 12:45 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- mid-tower
- bitfenix
- shinobi
Noise and Thermal Testing, Overclocked
When we apply the overclocked settings to our testbed, though, we start to separate the men from the boys. The juicy overclock applied to the processor and RAM produces a substantially greater amount of heat and draws far more power, forcing the enclosures to work that much harder and in some cases revealing thermal limitations for the cases.
Uh oh. In its stock configuration the Shinobi's cooling system starts running into problems. While the In-Win BUC's ventilation and the Antec Sonata IV's smart thermal design are able to keep the CPU running at a fairly reasonable temperature given the overclock, the CPU starts to creep close to the unhealthy 90C threshold in the Shinobi, with only the H2 delivering worse performance. Everything runs pretty toasty in the Shinobi, even the SSD. That SSD temperature is still well within spec, but the drive does suffer for having to be mounted in a 5.25" bay with no real ventilation as opposed to the other enclosures.
There's a bright side to this story, though: the Shinobi is a touch quieter than the In-Win BUC and only slightly louder than the H2. So while the fans inside the Sonata IV have to work double-time (and you can really hear it), the Shinobi's two included fans are able to at least keep things running quietly. The thermal results aren't anywhere close to ideal, but at least the Shinobi isn't particularly loud. There's a trade-off being made.
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superpenguino - Tuesday, August 16, 2011 - link
I formally second this proposal.StevePeters - Wednesday, June 22, 2011 - link
After going back and re-reading the In-Win BUC review I saw that it had an additional case fan. For the temperature results to be meaningful I really think a 'case as supplied' and a 'case with a standard fan configuration' is needed.After the praise for the ease of the build with BitFenix, I really do not understand why you needed to disadvantage their thermals as you did. I would really like to see bast configuration, not worst configuration comparisions for the results to be useful.
Dustin Sklavos - Wednesday, June 22, 2011 - link
The BUC has an additional case fan that ships WITH the case. It comes with two mounted and then they give you a third one that you can mount anywhere.cjs150 - Wednesday, June 22, 2011 - link
By Fractal Designs Midi/Min arc admittedly at a higher price pointSpending a bit extra on a case pays dividends.
After saying that I like Betfenix. More competition in case design is a good thing
Zoomer - Wednesday, June 22, 2011 - link
Any idea how thick the steel panels are? Comments on structural stability / solidity?I hope the rubbery plastic doesn't make it hard to clean dust off it.
JohnMD1022 - Wednesday, June 22, 2011 - link
I can't understand the use of such photos when a few seconds work would make them viewable.I used PhotoShop Elements 2.0,
To see what the interior of this case actually looks like, here's the result of less than 15 seconds with the Brightness/Contrast variables:
http://www.picpaste.com/s-internal-1-ridRiit0.jpg
maxg - Tuesday, June 28, 2011 - link
More like a lousy computer monitor... Your display must be getting old or not set up properly. The article's photos look just fine on all three of my displays, and your "fixed" version, umm, well, just looks bright and grey with poor contrast.DaveSimmons - Wednesday, June 22, 2011 - link
I'd really like to see an update where you show the noise and temperature when the HDD is placed more sensibly.Mumrik - Wednesday, June 22, 2011 - link
It looks horribly cheap in these pictures and I hate all these half-assed windows we're seing lately, but at least it got the drive bays right. Three 5.25" bays should be three times as many as most need and eight 3½" bays is awesome. So many higher end cases only have six or less.Dustin Sklavos - Thursday, June 23, 2011 - link
Honestly the texture of the plastic used for the build really needs to be seen in person to be appreciated. I've seen cheap-looking cases, and the Shinobi isn't one.