GMC X-7 'X-Station' Review

Testing:

Now that all of my hardware is in the X-7 X-Station, it's time to find out how it performs. In order to test the X-Station's performance, I will be monitoring the load and idle temperatures of my CPU, my HDD, chipset, and my GPU. To record temperatures, I will be using CPUID Hardware Monitor. For those of you that have never used it, it's a temperature monitoring program from the people that create CPU-Z. To put my hardware at load, I will run Prime95 for three hours. To load the GPU, I will play through a few hours of Crysis and record the highest temperature.

Testing System:

• Processor: Intel Core I7 920 (3GHz)
• Motherboard: MSI X58 Platinum
• Memory: Mushkin HP3 12800 7-7-7-20
• Video Card(s): Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2
• Power Supply: TEC 750W
• Hard Drive: 1X Seagate Barracuda 750GB
• OS: Windows Vista Ultimate Edition SP1 64-bit

Comparison Cases:

• Thermaltake XaserVI
• Antec Nine Hundred Two
• Generic Mid Tower Case

I was very impressed with the X-7 X-Station's performance. It was not at all what I was expecting. Both the CPU idle and load temps were almost the same as my full-tower case. The GPU idle temp was the second highest. Much to my surprise however, the X-Station managed to have the lowest GPU load temp. The chipset was a little toasty. Both at idle and load, the X-Station did only 1C better than my generic case. Then again, it did keep my HDD the opposite of toasty. That's right!!! The X-Station kept my HDD way cooler than a full-tower case! I thought that was pretty amazing. Overall, the X-Station performed great as a mid-tower, and that's with my mediocre wire management. Good Job GMC!!!