Testing Time

We followed our standard case testing methodology, as detailed in our previous heatsink and case testing article, and fitted the usual set of hardware into the Cooler Master Sniper, doing our best to hide and tidy cables to ensure as few airflow restrictions as possible, which in this case proved very difficult indeed. Here's a reminder of the hardware we use.

CPU: Lapped Intel Pentium XE 955 (dual-core, 3.46GHz)
Graphics Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 3850 Ultimate passive cooled
Motherboard: MSI P6N SLI Platinum
RAM: 2x 512MB Corsair XMS2-667
Hard Drive: 1x 250GB Western Digital WD2500 7,200RPM
Heatsink: Asus Silent Square Pro
Power Supply: Xilence XP700 700W PSU

While this isn't representative of current ultra high end hardware, the equipment we use is specifically selected to kick out the maximum amount of heat inside the case, with a passively cooled graphics card and 130W TDP processor at its core to really heat things up and push the case's ability to cope with toasty components to the limit.

In our experience, the CPU stress test is a good test to indicate a case's ability to exhaust hot air and the GPU stress test is a better indicator of a case's intake ability as the GPU is generally further from the exhaust fan and so its operating temperatures rely more on case airflow than exhaust.

As the Sniper comes pre-fitted with an external fan controller, we decided to test the case with the fans running at full speed, half speed and the lowest possible speed, in order to get a full picture of how the chassis will perform under varying conditions. Similar designs from Cooler Master have previously done very well in our thermal testing, with the large 240mm cooling fans doing an admirable job despite their low RPMs. However, the decision to not include a side panel mounted 240mm, which in our experience can have the biggest effect on hardware operating temperatures, could prove to be a problem.