System setup and thermal performance
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 @ 3.00GHz, stock cooler
• Motherboard: Abit I90HD
• HDD: Seagate ST3320620AS
• VGA: Nvidia 7900GS
• PSU: Hiper Type-M 630W
In order to test the thermal performance of the case, we took temperature measurements while the system was powered and working placed on its motherboard box and then compared them with the readings we got when the system was installed inside the case, fully assembled. We used two external thermal sensors to take readings from the video card (back of the chipset) and ambient temperature. The chipset and CPU temperature readings are taken from the motherboard sensors. Finally, the hard disk drive temperature reading is taken from the internal HDD sensor, via the speedfan utility.
Idle readings were taken after the system was left at the windows desktop for 10 minutes. Load readings were taken after running Prime 95 and PcMark05 concurrently for one hour. All of the case fans are running normally at full speed.
| |
CPU |
Chipset |
Video Card |
HDD |
Ambient |
Idle |
Load |
Idle |
Load |
Idle |
Load |
Idle |
Load |
Idle |
Load |
| No case |
34 |
61 |
36 |
50 |
40 |
48 |
40 |
49 |
19 |
19 |
| NZXT Hush |
38 |
65 |
39 |
57 |
42 |
53 |
36 |
42 |
22 |
24 |
The thermal performance of the NZXT Hush is not breathtaking, but it is relatively good. It seems that the sound dampening material makes little difference to thermal performance, as the Hush can easily compete with most ATX cases.
The acoustic performance of the Hush is excellent; the fans are extremely quiet and the sound dampening material does a good job of reducing the noise caused by other components. Even with the stock Intel cooler, the whiny 7900GS cooler and our overclocked CPU, the system was remarkably quiet.
