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 Noctua 120mm NF-A12x25 fan installed on the back. 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.
Standing in for the ASUS 5700XT is an MSI RX6800 Gaming X Trio. This card pulls about 245W under overclocked load and is even longer at 324mm.
Together, these two components allow us to put overclocked loads of around 500W during gaming and around 750W 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 case can handle a combined 260W CPU load and 250W 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
For the GPU, a CoolerMaster MasterAccessory ARGB 3-Pin GPU Support Bracket was used to keep the rather large and heavy card from sagging. This is due diligence on our part to preserve the longevity of this GPU. Cooler Master’s support bracket also adds RGB lighting.
RGB Lighting
While ADATA XPG Defender does not have any native lighting capability, the FPSR 2022 ATX 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.