Testing Methodology System Used: Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 3.2Ghz (400x8 and 1.3V)
Memory: Corsair Dominator 2x 2GB PC2-8500 @ 500/1000MHz (2.1V and 5-5-5-15-2T timings)
Motherboard: Gigabyte EP35-DS4 (P35/ICH9 Chipset)
Video Card: HIS Radeon 4870 512MB GDDR5
Optical Disk Drive: Pioneer DVD Writer
Hard Drives: 128GB Patriot Torqx SSD and WD6400AAKS 7200RPM Hard Drive
Heatsink: Thermalright TRUE Black and Scythe S-FLEX 1500RPM fan
Power Supply: Antec Signature Series 650W  - All testing was conducted with an ambient temperature of 19°C and not permitted to deviate beyond +/- 0.5°C.
- Full system load was achieved using a combination of Prime95 v25 and Furmark for 100% CPU and GPU load. Temperature readings were taken after about 30 minutes of full-load testing and stabilization of temperatures. Idle temperature readings were taken after about 30 minutes of inactivity at the Windows desktop.
- C1E and power saving features were disabled in the BIOS.
- GPU fan speed was fixed at 50% using CCC to ensure that fan profiling does not throw off results. CPU fan speed was also fixed at +12V.
- CPU, Motherboard, GPU and HDD temperature readings were taken from CPUID’s HWMonitor 1.15.0. CPU temperature was taken as the “hottest core” as read in HWMonitor from the CPU itself.
- To provide some comparison, we conducted testing in accordance with the above methodology on the recently reviewed Antec P183 as well as a case-less configuration on a “High Speed Tech Station”. The fans were left in their default configurations unless otherwise specified, but the 120mm fan was disconnected from the Tech Station to show a truly ambient environment where only the CPU fan, PSU fan and GPU fans are providing cooling to the system.
Please note that unless otherwise specified, the P183 cooling results are taken with the fans set to “High” and in their factory installed locations.
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