Chieftec BL-01B Case Review

Testing:

To properly test the Chieftec BL-01B computer chassis, I will be testing for both the idle temperatures as well as the full load temperatures on some of the commonly stressed components. All of the idle tests will be measured after the computer has been sitting for 30 minutes with little to 0% CPU usage shown in the Windows Task Manager. For the CPU full load test, I will be running the Prime95 stress tester for a full hour set to a blend mode stressing both the CPU and RAM set at the normal priority. I will be using Real Temp 3.0 to read the CPU temperatures; Chipset full load temperatures will be taken at this time as well using the software included with the MSI Eclipse SLI motherboard.  For a GPU full load, I will be running 3DMark Vantage back to back and reading the temperatures with RivaTuner. The hard drive is going to be stressed by runing a defragment through Windows Vista, maximum temperatures will be displayed through HDTune. All of the below tempeartures are in degrees Celsius.

Testing Setup:

• Processor: Intel i7 920 (Overclocked to 3.00GHz)
• Motherboard: MSI Eclipse SLI
• Memory: Mushkin HP3 12800 7-7-7-20
• Video Card: Nvidia Geforce GTX 260
• Power Supply: Mushkin 800w Modular Power Supply
• Hard Drive: Seagate 1TB SATA
• Optical Drive: Lite-on DVD-RW
• Case: Chieftec BL-01B
• OS: Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit
• Ambient Temperature: 26° Celsius

Comparison Case:

• Case: Chieftec BL-01B
• Case: Thermaltake Armor Extreme Edition
  
  

The Chieftec case was able to keep the temperatures around the same as the Thermaltake at Idle temperatures, even giving the hard drive a lower temperatures when it was Idle. However when there was some stress put on the components and the heat was able to build up inside of the case, however the numbers were still great against the Armor case. There is simply not enough room inside of the BL-01B case to keep the temperatures down any lower. This could be a little bit better if there was a higher RPM fan installed and a few more of them - at least one more to bring in fresh air from outside of the case to help lower the ambient temperatures inside. But overall this is still very impressive given the price tag.