Testing Methodology

For testing Micro-ATX and full ATX cases, we use the following standardized testbed in stock and overclocked configurations to get a feel for how well the case handles heat and noise.

ATX Test Configuration
CPU Intel Core i7-2700K
(95W TDP, tested at stock speed and overclocked to 4.3GHz @ 1.38V)
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3
Graphics Card ASUS GeForce GTX 560 Ti DCII TOP
(tested at stock speed and overclocked to 1GHz/overvolted to 1.13V)
Memory 2x2GB Crucial Ballistix Smart Tracer DDR3-1600
Drives Kingston SSDNow V+ 100 64GB SSD
Samsung 5.25" BD-ROM/DVDRW Drive
CPU Cooler Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo with Cooler Master ThermalFusion 400
Power Supply SilverStone Strider Plus 750W 80 Plus Silver

Each case is tested in a stock configuration and an overclocked configuration that generates substantially more heat (and thus may produce more noise). The system is powered on and left idle for fifteen minutes, the thermal and acoustic results recorded, and then stressed by running seven threads in Prime95 (in-place large FFTs) on the CPU and OC Scanner (maximum load) on the GPU. At the end of fiteen minutes, thermal and acoustic results are recorded. This is done for the stock settings and for the overclock, and if the enclosure has a fan controller, these tests are repeated for each setting. Ambient temperature is also measured after the fifteen idle minutes but before the stress test and used to calculate the final reported results.

Thank You!

Before moving on, we'd like to thank the following vendors for providing us with the hardware used in our testbed.

Assembling the Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 Noise and Thermal Testing, Stock
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  • charliem76 - Thursday, March 28, 2013 - link

    Glad to know I'm not the only one reviving an old thread.

    I'd love to see a temp/sound test with all the fan bays filled with the largest size they hold, on low.
    From what I see, it has 7 fan slots, and ships with 3, according to newegg, so that's how I assume you tested it.
  • Deders - Saturday, February 22, 2014 - link

    You can remove the top 2 drive bays and slot one of them in the space on the bottom between the PSU and the fixed drivebay, leaving 2 thirds of one fan to cool the closest drives and 1 and 1 thirds worth of direct airflow towards the GPU and CPU. It makes a huge difference.
  • emperius - Saturday, July 6, 2013 - link

    quietpcusa.com has the Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 in stock as of this comment for $100.
  • emperius - Wednesday, July 24, 2013 - link

    Scratch that. UK QuietPC.com has them but beware of outrageous shipping.
  • randl - Friday, November 29, 2013 - link

    All well and good. I bought the case and this may be also a nitpick, however, most Motherboards these days come with Molex fan plugs for intelligent fan control and this case comes with old-type 3 wire fan plugs which defeats the purpose. In addition, if you buy adapters (only from England so far), this case is no longer competitive. It also comes with a "Molex to Power adapter" which doesn't seem to plug in anywhere (as far as I could tell). The whole "fan" power up thing is flaky at best.

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