Fractal Design Core 1000: How Little is Too Little
by Dustin Sklavos on April 13, 2012 11:35 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- MicroATX
- Mini-Tower
- Fractal Design
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 |
| Accessories | Corsair Link |
| 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.
We try to maintain an ambient testing temperature of between 22C and 24C. Non-thermal test results aren't going to be directly comparable to the finest decimal point, but should be roughly comparable and give a broader idea of how the enclosure performs.
Thank You!
Before moving on, we'd like to thank the following vendors for providing us with the hardware used in our testbed.
- Thank you to Puget Systems for providing us with the Intel Core i7-2700K.
- Thank you to Gigabyte for providing us with the GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 motherboard.
- Thank you to Crucial for providing us with the Ballistix Smart Tracer memory.
- Thank you to Corsair for providing us with the Corsair Link kit.
- Thank you to Cooler Master for providing us with the Hyper 212 Evo heatsink and fan unit.
- Thank you to Kingston for providing us with the SSDNow V+ 100 SSD.
- Thank you to CyberPower for providing us with the Samsung BD-ROM/DVD+/-RW drive.
- And thank you to SilverStone for providing us with the power supply.
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StevoLincolnite - Friday, April 13, 2012 - link
Seems black is the new beige these days. :(Belard - Friday, April 13, 2012 - link
I thought it was the "new beige" 10 years ago.I've been using silver and white cases for years... I've never owned a black case for my main desktop.
Sabresiberian - Saturday, April 14, 2012 - link
Hmm, no, beige was still the most common case color for a person building their own a decade ago.Black is better for 2 reasons, in my opinion; it fades from view better if it's a background piece of hardware you don't care to look at anyway, and, particularly if it's plastic, doesn't develop that old look beige does.
My least favorite is silver paint or poorly finished aluminum; they seems to look the worst over time (again, my preference, it may not be yours :) ).
;)
vol7ron - Sunday, April 15, 2012 - link
Yeah I had Black 10+ years ago, moved to silver 6 years ago, next one will either be a two-tone white/silver, or wood (veneer).stephenbrooks - Saturday, April 14, 2012 - link
You'd prefer this was beige?jaydee - Friday, April 13, 2012 - link
I don't see any exposed USB or headphone/mic ports on the top or front of this case, but they're listed in the spec sheet. Where are they?Light65 - Friday, April 13, 2012 - link
It's on the right hand side of the case... click on the right side of the case and you should see it up front...jaydee - Friday, April 13, 2012 - link
I see it now. Kind of an odd place to put them...MonkeyPaw - Friday, April 13, 2012 - link
Yeah, I saw this case at Microcenter. It's a nice case, but the side ports are a terrible idea. I'd rather they go top mounted on a mATX. Otherwise it seemed like a very solid build.Azuredragoon - Friday, April 13, 2012 - link
Haha, this is hilarious, but that's the exact spot I need my ports with the way my table is set up