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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SquareOFortune - Sunday, June 3, 2012 - link
Where on earth could they ever have gotten the inspiration for that external design? ;)Mumrik - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
Finally an ITX case that comes loaded with storage bays. That means it has some pretty great NAS/server potential for a lot of people. I'd really like to have seen it tested with those bays filled with 3½" HDDs.araczynski - Tuesday, June 5, 2012 - link
we just threw out a bunch of ancient apple towers that looked like this.little late to the game?
SeanFL - Friday, June 8, 2012 - link
Just realized this case is about the same size as the mini atx builds I've done.Here's a m-itx that is really small if needed. built it a few times, it works well.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
GED2 - Thursday, July 26, 2012 - link
Did you find the Easter Egg they left in the case that enables you to have BOTH a full-size GPU AND the middle bay for a total of seven drives?http://www.tonymacx86.com/user-builds/60362-geds-p...
Narg - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
Love this case. If they made it for Micro ATX I'd be all over it! ITX still doesn't fill the needs for my computer. But Micro ATX is perfect. Anyone know of a similar case in the Micro ATX sizes?n13L5 - Sunday, August 26, 2012 - link
For one thing, it looks like a cheap copy of an old power mac.For another, I can't understand how they can be so wasteful with space for an mITX case.
A counter productive box, I can find ATX cases that take up less room...
jansteytt - Sunday, September 23, 2012 - link
HardwareDufus,Want a 23 liter case that is 22x30x34 cm? Want 5 or more 120mm+ case fans? 1000 watt power supply? Full sized CPU cooler? And Narg wants a mATX case. Perhaps smaller than the BitFenix. Room for three 3.5 in and four 2.5" drives? Both prayers have been answered.
The Silverstone SG09 has been released in Japan. Supposed to be $99. in the USA, where it will be released in October. But costs $125 in Japan now. I was inspired by HardwareDufus and tempted to mod one of my Shuttle form factor cases (yes, the "S" in SFF was originally "Shuttle), but Silverstone has ticked every box except price. But the extra fans make it worthwhile for me; especially since fans can be ADDED!! The low temps may not be optimal for your hard drives, but everything else will rejoice.
And did I mention, room for full sized cards?
I don't need one, but I will buy one at $99.00
BlueReason - Tuesday, September 24, 2013 - link
Not sure if this was pointed out yet, but it appears you accidentally forgot to change the details when you copied and pasted the first paragraph of the Testing Methodology section, as it seems to be from the review of a different case.