Review: Corsair 3500X aRGB

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Tests

Tests

Airflow :

Additional ventilation comes in the form of two fans. The first, a Fractal Design Silent Series, is mounted at the rear for extraction. The second is a red Thermaltake Riing 14 mounted at the bottom, in front of the power supply cover.

CPU airflow, original ventilation then completed:

Let’s start with the temperature of our CPU. We’ll keep the front panel and the top of our test case. Let’s see if the airflow is sufficient to have an influence on the cooling of the Core i5 14600KF.

Température i5 14600KF

 

As you can see, Corsair’s case is very efficient when it comes to cooling our Core i5 14600KF. In fact, it is ahead of all its competitors with its default ventilation, which takes the form of three 120 mm fans mounted on the sides.

However, the addition of fans didn’t seriously improve the temperatures of our processor. At least, not in the layout we’ve chosen.

Original CPU airflow without front panel or top:

In order to ascertain the limiting factor in the story (and just how limiting), we remove the steel side panel as well as the top of the case. The aim here is to show the raw performance of the integrated ventilation..

températures Core i5 14600KF sans façade

Removing the various panels likely to obstruct the airflow reduces the temperatures obtained on our processor… Not by much, admittedly, but still. At full speed, the delta drops from 55°C to 53.2°C, while the impact is even more limited at low speeds.

GPU airflow, original ventilation then completed:

We repeat the operation, but with measurements taken on the graphics card. Here, we’re testing with the original ventilation and then with the added ventilation.

températures RTX 3050

Once again, our graphics card is well cooled with the default ventilation. As it stands, the 3500X aRGB is one of the best cases in our comparison, especially at low speeds.

The addition of a fan at the bottom of the case will save a few precious degrees. Coming from the bottom of the 3500X aRGB, the airflow directly blows on the graphics card, which is beneficial as we can see.

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Original GPU airflow without front panel or top:

We’ll run the same test again, but with the front panel and top panel removed. Let’s see how this affects the card temperatures.

Températures RTX 3050 sans façade

By removing the panels in front of the fans, the temperature gains are still minimal, as you can see. At low speed, the delta is only improved by 1°C compared with around 2°C at full speed. It’s fair to say that the fans can express themselves fully… Unless the components only benefit moderately from their airflow given their position in this model.

Insulation:

Here, we’re simply measuring the noise emitted by our configuration when the CPU cooling and GPU fan are cranked high.

Isolation

In terms of sound insulation, the case does pretty well, as you can see. In fact, it offers insulation halfway between a Dark Base 701 White and the bare configuration.

Original fan noise:

This time, we measured the noise emitted by the case’s original fan. To do this, the configuration is run in idle mode ( CPU and GPU fans at minimum) while the readings are taken successively at 5V, 8V and 12V on the case fan.

Bruit

 

Ouch, ouch, ouch, if the thermal performance is good, it’s not the case for the noise pollution, which is very, very pronounced. As you can see, it’s an ear-splitter with its full and mid-range ventilation, while the fans remain audible at low speeds. Even though it comes with blowers, you’ll have to regulate them aggressively via your motherboard’s BIOS.

To sum up:

While from a thermal point of view the 3500X aRGB holds its own, it’s on the noise front that it will disappoint. Clearly, if you like silence, opt for the model without a fan and buy yours separately… Unless you’re very aggressive about regulating them in your BIOS.