Thermaltake Armor+ MX Mid Tower Case Review

Cooling Performance

Video Cooling Performance

In order to assess and gain insight into the cooling abilities of the huge 23cm case dan as it relates to Graphic Card cooling, we recorded via Ntune the idle temperatures of a 7200GS passively cooled video card with both the case side off, and then with the case side on. We very very impressed with the difference this massive, yet ultra quiet fan can have on a video card and we are happy to report the idle temperatures on the card dropped from 61c with the case side off to 47c with side in place. A 14c drop in temperatures is a clear indication this side fan is as potent a cooling solution as it is colorful. Even if your video card is not passively cooled the above results are a clear indication which this setup will draw in more than enough cool air to keep even the hottest of cards happy.

CPU Cooling Performance

In order to gain a clear understanding of how this system air cooling will perform in real world situations we tested the DuOrb CPU cooler with both the side of the case on and off. To stress the DuOrb as much as possible we used a Q6600 overclocked to 3.0GHz. Recorded temps were as reported via CoreTemp's "Temp Log". Average load temps were taken after 15 minutes of running Prime95 v25.4 “small fft” and are taken directly from CoreTemp’s temperature text file. Excel was used to average the results of all cores. Idle temps were taken 15 minutes after Load testing ceased. All CPU throttling technology was disabled in the BIOS but due to the fact that the DuOrb is a nonPWM fan all CPU fan speed control was not disabled and rather was set to voltage only.

When it was all said and done, with the case side installed and all fans working we able to get an average load temperature of 68.1° Celsius, where as with the case side panel off it was a little over four degrees hotter at 72.3° C. This difference shows the system is more than adequate for home environments as this particular quad does run hot and dumps a fairly significant amount of heat into the surrounding air. If we were to hazard a guess we assume the numerous holes in the top of the case helped a lot of hot air to escape thus keeping the differences to a more moderate level. In the end we would really have liked to have seen a top mounted fan to help suck hot air away from the CPU as it still is not as good as our open bench tests of 66.4° showed in previous review of this DuOrb.