High Performance Gaming on a Budget: Building a Value PC with Cooler Master’s Gladiator 600 Case

The Final Build and the Cooling Test

For our case cooling test, we used AMD’s Phenom 720 X3 which has a stock core speed of 2.8 GHz and which we overclocked to 3.5 GHz.  For this case temperature test, we used our GTX 280 plus a second card – 8800 GTX in Nvidia’s PhysX configuration.  Either video card will heat your case and together they are a real test of a case’s ability to move cooling air past your hardware.  What makes ours far more intense of a test than usual, is that our 8800 GTX is an open cooler design which dumps this mini-furnace’s heat right into your case and further roasts the GTX 280 above it.

Test Configuration – Hardware

• AMD Phenom II 720 X3 (reference 2.8 GHz and overclocked to 3.5 GHz)
  
• Gigabyte MA790X-UD4P (latest BIOS, PCIe 2.0 specification; CrossFire 8x+8x; onboard audio).
• OCZ Fatal1ty 4 GB DDR2-PC8500 RAM (2×2 GB, dual-channel at PC 8500 speeds)
• Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX (768MB, reference clocks)
  
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 (1GB, reference clocks) by BFG Tech
  
• CPU cooler Hyper N212 (supplied by Cooler Master)
  
• 250 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 hard drive
• Philips DVD rewriter
  
• 600 watt power supply (Silent Power 600 M supplied by Cooler Master)
• Gladiator 600 (case supplied by Cooler Master)
• Radio Shack dual digital thermometer
  

For the test, we start out "cold" with the case open

Some small variation is expected

First, we started off with our Gladiator 600 and the hardware cold and compared the ambient temperatures in front of the case with the sensor’s reported temperatures from inside the open case.  A little variation is to be expected as shown above in the images, and we eventually cooled our room down to 70 F for the entire duration of our test.  On the digital thermometer, “outdoor” is the sensor inside the case and “indoor” is our ambient room temperature just outside the case.

Then, with our overclocked CPU and two hot video cards pumping heat into our closed Gladiator 600 case, we registered the maximum temperatures on each sensors – inside vs. outside.  Please note that this test is run with only the Gladiator 600’s two included cooling fans – the exhaust 140 MM fan at the top of the case and the 120 MM intake fan in front with the blue LED.  We had an unusually cool Summer night in our desert location and the ambient temperature hovered steadily around 70 F – plus or minus a couple of tenths.  We positioned our sensor about an inch below the optical drive and a couple of inches above our hard drive as shown in the image below.

We measure the inside case temps near the drives with the case closed

Generally, the inside case temperatures were reporting about mid-80s F while doing normal tasks.  However, what impressed us most, was that the maximum case temperatures were only about +23 F more than ambient “room” temperature at full load – to max out around 93 F.  Inside the Gladiator 600, you can expect the equivalent of a warm Summer day for your hardware – and this is after running many game benchmarks continuously; over-and-over for about an hour!

Maximum temperatures. That blue LED looks good and can also be switched off

Now you must realize that as your ambient temperatures climb, your inside case temperatures will also tend to climb a bit faster. If you want to cool your Gladiator 600 even further for an extreme build, you should probably purchase and add another intake fan balanced with another exhaust fan for intense overclocking, hot dual video card setups, or for a completely loaded case.  Our fan recommendation would be to buy Cooler Master case fans as they are not only inexpensive but very quiet and efficient.