Rosewill Thor v2: The God of Cooling and Silence?
by Dustin Sklavos on August 24, 2011 2:15 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Full-Tower
- Rosewill
Testing Methodology
For testing 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.
| Full ATX Test Configuration | |
| CPU |
Intel Core i7-875K (95W TDP, tested at stock speed and overclocked to 3.8GHz @ 1.38V) |
| Motherboard | ASUS P7P55D-E Pro |
| Graphics Card | Zotac NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (244W TDP) |
| Memory | 2x2GB Crucial Ballistix Smart Tracer DDR3-1600 |
| Drives |
Kingston SSDNow V+ 100 64GB SSD Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gbps Samsung 5.25" BD-ROM/DVDRW Drive |
| CPU Cooler | Zalman CNPS9900 MAX with Cooler Master ThermalFusion 400 |
| Power Supply | SilverStone Strider Gold 750W 80 Plus Gold |
A refresher on how we test:
Acoustic testing is standardized on a foot from the front of the case, using the Extech SL10 with an ambient noise floor of ~32dB. For reference, that's what my silent apartment measures with nothing running, testing acoustics in the dead of night (usually between 1am and 3am). A lot of us sit about a foot away from our computers, so this should be a fairly accurate representation of the kind of noise the case generates, and it's close enough to get noise levels that should register above ambient.
Thermal testing is run with the computer having idled at the desktop for fifteen minutes, and again with the computer running both Furmark (where applicable) and Prime95 (less one thread when a GPU is being used) for fifteen minutes. I've found that leaving one thread open in Prime95 allows the processor to heat up enough while making sure Furmark isn't CPU-limited. We're using the thermal diodes included with the hardware to keep everything standardized, and ambient testing temperature is always between 71F and 74F. Processor temperatures reported are the average of the CPU cores.
For more details on how we arrived at this testbed, you can check out our introductory passage in the review for the IN-WIN BUC.
Last but not least, we'd also like to thank the vendors who made our testbed possible:
Thank You!
We have some thanks in order before we press on:
- Thank you to Crucial for providing us with the Ballistix Smart Tracer memory we used to add memory thermals to our testing.
- Thank you to Zalman for providing us with the CNPS9900 MAX heatsink and fan unit we used.
- Thank you to Kingston for providing us with the SSDNow V+ 100 SSD.
- Thank you to CyberPower for providing us with the Western Digital Caviar Black hard drive, Intel Core i7-875K processor, ASUS P7P55D-E Pro motherboard, and Samsung BD-ROM/DVD+/-RW drive.
- And thank you to SilverStone for providing us with the power supply.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
35 Comments
View All Comments
bobbyh - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - link
Great review, I might have to pick one of these up for a new build.And first!
piroroadkill - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - link
It gives you the option to disconnect the top fan and close the top vents, which is actually important for some people - if you own a cat, it'll love sitting on the top of your warm PC. Top vents aren't always a blessing.piroroadkill - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - link
Oh, that's not even to mention the possibility of spilling beer into it.Blaze-Senpai - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - link
Could always install one of those 40mm server fans and rev it past 9000, if that don't scare your cat then somethings wrong :3Can I get one in literally half the size though? I only want a Micro ATX build s:
Dustin Sklavos - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - link
Surprisingly I have yet to see my cat perch on top of my FT02. She mostly settles for perching on the subwoofer or the scanner.OwnedKThxBye - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - link
I also think being able to close the top vent is a great feature. Will be looking at this case when building the next system.Typo on page 3: "I wound up either accidentally or deliberately popped them out"
Great Review!
jonup - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - link
I cant agree more with you. Disconnecting the fan and closing the vents is what I would do. I might even put some sound dampening material undernit it. From my experience with mini P180 are horrible for acoustics - I can hear the airflow from every single fan inside my case.jonup - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - link
"From my experience with mini P180 are horrible for acoustics "should read:
"From my experience with mini P180 "top vents" are horrible for acoustics "
Mitch101 - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - link
Lots of cat owners here. Anyone for dog slobber in the top?mooseunc - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - link
It could also be so that you can close the vents when powered off to prevent dust or the aforementioned pet hair/liquids/etc from getting inside. Sure it might be cool if they auto opened when powered on, like some sort of jet exhaust, but it's only cool until it breaks.