Tests
Tests
Airflow:
The additional ventilation takes the form of a Fractal Silent Series R2 fan placed at the back in extraction and a Riing 14 also positioned in extraction at the top.
CPU airflow, original ventilation then completed :
We start first with the temperature of our CPU. We keep the front and the upper part of our test case. Let’s see if the airflow is sufficient for the good cooling of the Ryzen 7 1700X.
As far as the temperature of our CPU is concerned, clearly, there is nothing to worry about since the case does a good job with our Ryzen 7 1700X. As we can see, at low RPM, our CPU is kept under 63°C. It won’t even exceed 60°C with the case’s fans on full blast.
Obviously, adding ventilation does not bring much more since we measure 0.1°C better.
CPU airflow original ventilation without front panel or top :
In order to ascertain the limiting factor in the story (and how much), we remove the top as well as the front of the case. The goal here is to show the raw performance of the integrated ventilation.
Still, for our processor, the glass front remains somewhat limiting, but by a large margin. We notice a slight gain at full speed: about 6°C against 9.5°C at low speed. However, compared to other cases, this is not much, especially at high speed.
GPU airflow, original ventilation then completed:
We repeat the operation, but with measurements made on the graphics card. Here, we test with original ventilation and completed ventilation.
Inside this H5 Elite, our graphics card stays properly cooled with 77°C when the fan is running at full speed. At low speed, the temperature rises to 85°C, but this is not particularly worrying. Compared to other cases with solid or glass fronts, we can say that this model does better. Of course, the H510 Flow and H7 Flow have lower temperatures, but their perforated front panel allows for better breathability.
On the other hand, the fact of improving the extraction of the hot air allows to gain 4°C on our graphic card. Maybe there will be some work to do on this when purchasing.
GPU airflow original ventilation without front panel or top:
We redo the same test, but remove the front panel and the top of the case. Let’s see how this will affect the temperatures of the card.
Without the glass front panel, we notice that the front fans can fully express themselves. We gain 9°C at full speed against 12°C at low speed. Considering the configuration (glass front), we are quite happy to have a fan at the bottom that directly waters the graphics card.
Insulation:
Here we simply measure the noise emitted by our config when we run the CPU cooling and GPU cooling very fast.
The insulation remains classic with 55.5 dB, we should not expect a model that attenuates noise particularly well. Besides, when faced with a bare configuration, it is better to have a case.
Original fan noise:
This time we measure the noise emitted by the original case ventilation. To do this, the configuration runs in idle ( CPU and GPU ventilation at minimum) while the readings are taken successively in 5V, 8V and 12V on the case ventilation.
Unfortunately, as far as noise is concerned, two 140 mm fans running at 1800 rpm max, it makes some noise. This can also be felt in the sound meter since we read 44 dB! Fortunately, by reducing their speed, we obtain a quite bearable noise level with 37.5 dB at mid-range and 31.5 dB at low speed.
In summary:
When it comes to temperatures, our components don’t suffer particularly, especially our processor. As for the graphics card, fortunately NZXT has positioned an additional fan in the base to generously water it. With the glass front, we imagine that it would have been complicated without it.
As far as noise pollution is concerned, the base fan is still very noisy. The fault lies mainly with the 140 mm fans, which are rather fast. Fortunately, at half speed the noise is perfectly bearable when the fan is inaudible at low speed!
