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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7Enigma - Thursday, June 23, 2011 - link
I have to agree with the other comments. Testing a worst-case scenario is extremely useful, but for a very small percentage of the target market at this budget level. There has to also be a test done at a more reasonable build configuration. I think reasonable build in this day and age is 1 SSD drive (boot), 1 large mechanical HDD (storage), and one optical drive. I'd wager >80% of the potential buyers of this case have that (or less with only a single large mechanical HDD) to install. Seriously man there are 8 drive bays! Very few if anyone is going to use 6, let alone all 8.I get it, it's extra work to retest with a slightly different configuration, but I believe to only test in worst case it unfairly showed this product that otherwise seems to be a great value for the money. So here is my recommendation:
-Standard testing (as mentioned above: 1 GPU, 1SSD, 1 HDD, 1 optical drive)
-Torture testing (2 GPU's in SLI/Xfire, 1 SSD, X HDD, 2 optical drives), where X is the number to fill the drive bays for the particular case.
For the torture test you HAVE TO ACTUALLY FILL THE BAYS! Just placing a few components in the worst airflow locations isn't accurately showing how the case behaves in a full build, it artificially kind of mimics what *might* happen, but isn't a real representation.
Please consider my comments and I want to clarify that I thought your review was fantastic. I just want to see the testing a bit more complete.
Cheers.
bhima - Thursday, June 23, 2011 - link
Pretty darn nice noise levels. I wonder how this stacks up to an Antec 900. I still think you need to review the Antec 900 since its possibly the most popular case designed and it has been copied by most of the other vendors.MeanBruce - Thursday, June 23, 2011 - link
If I was 15 years old, this would be my case of choice, how stupid, at least Bitfenix is finding their market.inspire2 - Friday, June 24, 2011 - link
The case looks good. The $70 price point is pretty competitive these days. It might be interesting to do a case roundup.I'd probably still lean towards the CM HAF 912 in this price range. This is at least a nice looking alternative.
cakeab - Sunday, June 26, 2011 - link
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benn - Wednesday, February 20, 2013 - link
I have been looking at this case and does anyone know if it will fit the h100i without moding the case using the fans as an intake?