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Testing a case consists of finding out how the chassis deals with heat generated by the installed components, and how much noise it produces while doing so.
To create excess heat, I ran Prime95 26.6 and 3DMark Fire Strike simultaneously to stress both the CPU and GPU. After 15 minutes, I recorded the maximum temperatures for each component to report here.
To test the Corsair Carbide SPEC-ALPHA, I installed the following components:
- Intel i7-5820K
- MSI X99A SLI Plus Motherboard
- 4x4GB Panram Ninja V 3000MHz DDR4 RAM
- Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1070
- Cooler Master Hyper 212 LED CPU Cooler
- Corsair RM750x Power Supply
- OCZ Trion 150 SSD
Thermal dynamics
As the SPEC-ALPHA includes a fan-controller, I tested with the included fans connected to the controller. I set the controller to run at ‘medium' speed to give a balance of airflow and noise-levels which most users would be happy with.
As you can see, cooling performance is excellent. The two front intake fans provide great airflow to the CPU and GPU, while the rear fan exhausts hot air effectively. The mesh front panel must also help here, as airflow is less restricted than if a solid panel had been used.
Acoustics
Using the ‘medium' fan speed, the 3 case fans are audible, but barely. There is a gentle whirr coming from the case, but it is inoffensive enough to be drowned out by even quiet music. The ‘low' fan speed is effectively silent, but I would avoid the ‘high' setting unless you use a gaming headset, as it is particularly raucous – I would imagine it is running the fans at 100% which is never an ideal situation to be in.
Fugly
nice housing
£80 for this?
Poor cable management, weak cooling options, angular with red accents (ie the standard “gamer” aesthetic, a marmite design to say the least) .
For ~£15 less you can have the NZXT Source 340, which offers a simpler, cleaner look with far better cable routing. If you want a Corsair equivalent, the carbide 270R comes in at the same price as the nzxt option, with similar cable management, a similar look, and even better cooling options, for multiple rad water loops.
Or for £75 is the king of this price range – the Fractal Define S. Excellent cable management, solid build quality, and room for up to a 420mm rad on top (or a 360 if going x120), up to 360mm on the front, a 120mm on the bottom and a 120 or 140mm on the rear.
Not sure what corsair are thinking with this tower, they lose to one of their cheaper cases for functionality (the carbide 270r) and gets demolished at the price point by the define S.
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what would you recommend around those prices for someone who ‘d like to have the possibility to mount at least three 3.5″ mechanical drives without sacrificing quality-usability-neatness
http://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/cases/define-series/define-s
The define S, fits 3x 3.5″ and 2x 2.5, can fit multiple radiators too (should you aio cool your cpu and have a hybrid cooler for your card, along with solid cable management. For me it’s the best case in its price point.
where i stay its price at the moment is more than £85 ( >100 euros ) and that’s a bit over the price range i have in mind.
besides this i am skeptical about the way the drives are mounted. is that convenient ? isn’t a problem that ssd’s are behind the mobo ?
what about CD/DVD drives? Where is the slot for them outside?
there isn’t one