Sunbeam Silent Storm

Testing

Test Setup:

• AMD Sempron 2600+ @ 2.4GHz
• Biostar 6100-M7
• 1GB Corsair Value Select PC3200
• Hitachi 160GB SATA
• MSI 6600GT (long PCB)
• BenQ DQ60 DVDRW
• Antec Smart Power 2.0 400W

As I said before, relocating the components was a very short process. All of the above was moved from a stock Antec SLK3700-BQE case. That case has a 120mm rear exhaust fan only. As I mentioned before, the Silent Storm has three 120mm fans. Let’s see if the other two fans were positioned correctly enough to make a temperature difference.

I tested the temperatures with the following methods:

CPU Idle: Let the system sit for 30 minutes with a maximum CPU utilization of 1-2%.
CPU Load: Run Prime95 for 30 minutes, and record the maximum temperature during that time period.
VGA Idle: Let the GPU sit for 30 minutes under no load.
VGA Load: Run an Age of Empires 3 time demo for 30 minutes and record the maximum temperature during that time period.
Hard Drive Idle: Let the hard drive sit for 30 minutes under any load.
Hard Drive Load: Copy 25GB of data from one folder to the other and record the maximum temperature during that time period.



As you can tell from the above graphs, the Silent Storm is no different than any other case with one 120mm exhaust fan. There were no improvements in temperatures except for the hard drive. There, the silent storm absolutely shined. With the Core fan the temperature dropped 8C! That’s amazing. Even without the Core fan, hard drive temperature dropped 4 degrees Celsius. The Core fan helped circulate the air inside the case. There were a few problems I found though.

First of all, the Core fan cannot cool long video cards. Usually longer cards are the more powerful one, and they need better cooling, but the Core fan cannot be adjusted down there because the cards are too long.

Secondly, the Core fan and bracket make the case very cramped. You have to unscrew and remove the bracket every time you need to install or remove hardware. This might get on your nerves if you're always inside the case.

Lastly, the case was nowhere near silent. Without any background noise (with nobody else home) I could hear the case fans. The Core fan did not only run faster than advertised (1250RPM or 25% faster), but it was also louder, since the sticker on it said 16dB which is silent, while I could hear it with a closed case.