Test results
There are 7 difference temperatures that can be pulled from the components in this system. The CPU and System temperatures are common to everyone but using the SMART hard drive tools you can pull the drive temperature from most hard drives.
I chose 8 different test "areas" to determine what conditions cause the case any problems.
- 1: Sitting on the floor.
- 2: Sitting on the floor with lower case door open and 3.5" bay covers removed.
- 3: Sitting on the floor with lower case door open and 3.5" bay covers removed, reworked the power and IDE cables to tie them up and make things clean.
- 4: Placed inside a stereo cabinet with the front door closed and lower case door open.
- 5: Placed inside a stereo cabinet with the front door open and lower case door open and 3.5" bay covers removed.
- 6: Placed inside a stereo cabinet with the front door closed and lower case door open and 3.5" bay covers removed.
- 7: Placed inside a stereo cabinet with the front door closed and lower case door closed, middle drive mounted at 1.5" offset back from the front.
*Notes:
Drive 3 did not support temperature monitoring.
X/Y means Idle/Full Load
Drives are listed top to bottom, right drive holder is 1-3, left drive holder is 4-6.
| Test | CPU | System | Drive 1 | Drive 2 | Drive 4 | Drive 5 | Drive 6 | Recommend | Notes |
| 1 | 58/61 | 38/38 | 36/34 | 37/37 | 47/42 | 43/44 | 47/46 | Yes | The CPU was cooler here, but drives were much warmer. |
| 2 | 61/63 | 39/41 | 27/30 | 32/36 | 39/42 | 41/43 | 45/47 | Yes | Removing the front 3.5" drive bay covers helped most of the drive temperatures, except the bottom drives that had little air space above them. |
| 3 | 57/60 | 38/40 | 27/29 | 31/33 | 37/40 | 39/42 | 42/45 | Yes | Reworking the drive cables to keep them away from the side air intakes helped more air pass over the drives. |
| 4 | 59/64 | 38/38 | 35/37 | 37/38 | 46/46 | 42/42 | 47/47 | Yes | Closing the lower drawer really cuts down on the amount of air moving over the drives. |
| 5 | 57/61 | 39/39 | 27/28 | 31/35 | 39/40 | 38/41 | 43/45 | Yes | This was a great surprise, the system being placed in the cabinet and stacked between other AV equipment didn't effect temperatures. |
| 6 | 61/66 | 41/44 | 29/29 | 36/37 | 39/44 | 39/39 | 43/46 | Borderline | Closing the front door of the cabinet caused warmer air to be pulled in from the back of the cabinet were the system vented its hot air. Each cabinet will be different, but if this happens you have to find a way to get non-heated air to the front of the cabinet. These temperatures are not awful, but they are not the coolest I could get. I would leave the cabinet open in this situation. |
| 7 | 59/63 | 38/40 | 37/39 | 38/49 | 39/42 | 41/42 | 40/41 | Yes | Just by mounting the middle drives 1.5" back from the front, the drives with higher temperatures dropped several C. This is because having the middle drive offset allows air to move around all the drives easier. Opening the front bay door also caused the system and CPU temperatures to raise 2-3C, and the drives dropped 5-8C (The hottest being 37C) more so I opted to keep the front door closed for better looks unless I am out of town. This is the best config I could find for running all the hardware, and it cools hardware very well. Having the hottest drives at 42C, system at 39C, and CPU at 63C is very good. |
One day I would like to test a HTPC case being stacked on a shelf with the back of the cabinet closed and the front open. This is what some people are wanting to do but this would require a HTPC case to pull in cold air and vent hot air all out the front for it to work acceptably. I am curious to see which who makes one of these first.
The following graphs are of the CPU and system temperatures in an Antec Overture HTPC (Modified for 2 extra fans) and the SilverStone LC01 as it ships.
Antec Overture (Modified with 2 extra fans)
SilverStone LC01 as ships
You can't help but notice the difference in characteristics between these two HTPC cases. The LC01 CPU stays between 57C and 63C. The Antec Overture stays between 65C and 72C (It was 73C and 81C before the modifications).
It is easy to tell when the LC01 recorded shows during the day as it heats up and cools down fast. The Antec Overture heated quickly and held on to the high temperatures and took much longer to cool back down. The LC01 system temperature did not increase at all, but the Overture did during high load. This means that the LC01 does not have hot air recycling problems like the Overture does.
Noise
I do not have a DBa meter to test sound so I can only compare. Both cases as shipped are very quiet. The LC01 is slightly louder than the Overture, but it is moving quite a bit more CFM. The LC01 uses the circular rod type fan cover were the Overture has a mesh fan cover. The air mesh fan cover on the Overture causes more air turbulence noise but they are both 80mm fans. Comparing the 120mm power supply fan to the Overture 60mm side exhaust fan isn't quite fair. They are about the same loudness but the 120mm fan moves much more air. (The Overture power supply is at the front of its case but you can't hear it's small fan over the other case fans.) Overall I am very happy with the quietness of the LC01 power supply.
The Overture has very thick case shell that blocks most of the internal noise. Hard drive seeking is louder in the LC01 due to it's thin aluminum shell. The Overture also uses rubber grommets for the hard drive mounting to decrease seeking noise.
Since the shipped Overture is not safe to run when it is fully loaded because of heat problems, modifying it for more fans is a must. It is not possible to modify the Overture to cool when it is fully loaded without increasing the noise. When using my Projector to watch movies, the Overture is almost as loud as the projector fan (33DB). In a silent room and only if you are very close to the LC01 can you hear it. Once the projector is turned on you can only faintly hear the hard drives seeking if your sitting right by the LC01.
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