Test Setup
Bringing On The Heat
For 2022, we have updated the Case Review Rig with a 10900K, supported by an MSI Z490 motherboard for ATX case reviews, cooled by a be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 cooler that has a third be quiet! Silent Wings 3 fan installed. This CPU is capable of pulling up to 300W when stressed, though for our purposes it will be limited to 260W for overclocked testing, due to the 250W spec of the Dark Rock Pro 4 CPU cooler and to ensure the longevity of the Case Review Rig.
Remaining is the ASUS ROG Strix 5700XT Gaming, a true beast of a card with an overspec’d power delivery section capable of pulling a sustained 315W while keeping itself under 85c.
Together, these two components allow us to put overclocked loads of around 500W during gaming and around 750W overclocked loads during synthetic testing to really show how well a particular case shines.
Please note that while these are not the most recently released components, they were chosen specifically for their ability to draw power and emit heat when pushed. The intent of this component selection is to provide power draw baselines for readers to compare against other components on the market, regardless of vendor. With respect to the Case Review Rig, the results from The FPS Review case reviews are intended to be brand agnostic.
This means that the results shouldn’t be interpreted primarily as “a 10900K really can draw a lot of heat!”. Obviously, this is a true statement, but we instead ask our readers to try to view the results as “The Montech Air 1000 Lite can handle a combined 260W CPU load and 315W GPU load entirely on air”. This is a case review, not a review of the test rig – the major components used have been previously reviewed by this site.
Notes About Specific Components Used
In addition to the platform update, we’ve included a few additional components. To supplement the fans Montech has pre-installed, one Noctua Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM chromax.Black.swap fan was used on the third front fan position, and two EKWB EK-Vardar X3M 120ER PWM fans were used in the top fan positions. Both of these fan models are capable of running at lower speeds that are inaudible as well as spinning up to over 2,000 RPM and pushing some serious air around, with the EK fans additionally providing RGB lighting.
These fans were chosen so as to show the Montech Air 1000 Lite as well as future cases under review in the best light possible by adding airflow without raising the noise floor of the case. At full tilt, these fans are quieter than the already very quiet be quiet! Silent Wings 3 fans are used on the Dark Rock Pro 4, as these fans must push air through the beefy cooling towers fins, as well as being quieter than the three fans on the ASUS 5700 XT.
For the GPU, a Cooler Master MasterAccessory ARGB 3-Pin GPU Support Bracket was used to keep the rather large and heavy card from sagging. This isn’t a problem with the Air 1000 Lite, but rather due diligence on our part to preserve the longevity of this GPU. Cooler Master’s support bracket also adds RGB lighting functionality.
The RGBeeGees
While Montech’s Air 1000 Lite does not have any native lighting capability aside from the power and HDD lights on the top panel, the FPSR 2022 Case Review Rig does have RGB lighting on the motherboard, GPU, RAM, fans, and GPU support bracket. These will be shown set to all white in the appropriate software suites, defined as #FFFFFF or 255/255/255.
We show lighting inside an otherwise unlit case because we understand that many of our readers are likely to have some component that lights up. Therefore, we do want to show how cases under review could look with such components installed.