BitFenix Prodigy Review: The Affordable Performable Mini-ITX
by Dustin Sklavos on June 1, 2012 1:55 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Mini ITX
- bitfenix
Noise and Thermal Testing
At the risk of spoiling the results (much like Anand loves to do), let me just say the BitFenix Prodigy performed well. Really well. Going into testing I wasn't entirely sure how it would handle given the substantial ventilation, but the Prodigy's performance, at least with our integrated GPU testbed, was pretty stellar. Testing was done with an ambient temperature of ~22C.
While the SSD's temperature isn't best in class, it's not bad by any stretch of the imagination. The CPU's thermals are quite good, though, especially considering the Prodigy is competing with the more expensive SilverStone FT03 Mini. The FT03 Mini's cooling design centered around a single 140mm fan is brutally efficient.
Notice that the heatsink fan isn't working as hard in the Prodigy, though. This could arguably be chalked up to the difference in ambient temperatures at testing, and certainly the FT03 Mini is no slouch, but there's much more ventilation around the CPU in the Prodigy than there is in the FT03 Mini and our results on the next page will show that it produces a measurable effect.
Most impressively, the Prodigy is incredibly quiet even under load, hitting the noise floor of our sound meter. To my ears I could detect a minor difference in fan noise between idle and load, but the Prodigy is really a remarkably good citizen when it comes to noise.
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B3an - Saturday, June 2, 2012 - link
LOL! Thats exactly what i'm talking about. Thats one seriously ugly case, but SO many PC cases often look like that.piroroadkill - Friday, June 1, 2012 - link
Very nice. I love the idea of a small machine being very powerful, yet fully DIY and standard. Lovely case..EnzoFX - Friday, June 1, 2012 - link
No pics with the card installed?This case's basic design is one I've been asking for a long time now. Glad someone finally did it. The great price just throws it over the top. Wish there was a silver version =P.
Dustin Sklavos - Friday, June 1, 2012 - link
Unfortunately, only black and white versions. :| It really is an awesome case, though.Daller - Friday, June 1, 2012 - link
I wish some of these "bigger" ITX cases would be tested with proper hardware.This case is obviously designed with bigger tower coolers in mind. Shove an i7-3770K in there at 4.5 GHz and a high-end GPU instead of this mainstream stuff.
A SFX powersupply in a case designed for ATX PSU - who on earth would ever do that?
'nuff said.
Daller - Friday, June 1, 2012 - link
They got the idea:http://www.caseking.de/shop/catalog/images/product...
Menty - Friday, June 1, 2012 - link
"A SFX powersupply in a case designed for ATX PSU - who on earth would ever do that?"Someone who was unable to fit in an ATX PSU, as is the case here? :P
Daller - Friday, June 1, 2012 - link
He tried with a modular PSU - they require more space. High quality non-modular PSU are readily available - and better than any SFX unit i know of.xbournex - Friday, June 1, 2012 - link
160mm PSU's will fit. As with all PSU's, each company will use different thickness cables. Some will use thin black cables with no color, some will use sleeving bundled together to make huge inflexible cables.DragonMantis - Friday, June 1, 2012 - link
Does installing the dedicated GPU require removal of the middle drive cage? How long a card can be accommodated?