Fractal Design Core 3000 review

January 21, 2013 | 10:05

Tags: #atx #budget #mid-tower-case

Companies: #fractal-design

Fractal Design Core 3000 - Cooling Performance

Our test kit includes an ATI Radeon HD 5870 2GB Eyefinity 6 graphics card and an Intel Core i7-870 CPU, which has been overclocked from 2.93GHz to 3.4GHz using a vcore of 1.305V and a CPU PLL of 1.9V. This is a modest overclock, but our test kit will spend most of its life under high load, so pushing it too far isn't in anybody's interests. More importantly, some poorer-performing cases push the CPU temperature to above 80°C, so even this overclock will prove to be too much for some cases.

The CPU is cooled by a Gelid Tranquillo CPU cooler with a Noctua NF-S12B ULN 120mm fan. The NF-S12B ULN is a low-airflow fan, so it will highlight cases with poor cooling for the CPU. We also locked the fan speed on the graphics card to 30 per cent to prevent the automatic speed control interfering with the results.

We record the temperature of the CPU using RealTemp, noting the temperature of the hottest core, and used GPU-Z to log the temperature of the graphics card. Having recorded the ambient temperature in front of the main air intake of each case, we're then able to calculate the delta T - the difference between the ambient temperature of our lab and the temperature of the hardware. To load the system, we use a combination of the Canyon Flight benchmark in 3DMark06 and the smallfft test in Prime 95.
  • CPU: Intel Core i7-870 CPU overclocked to 3.4GHz
  • Graphics card: ATI Radeon HD 5870 2GB Eyefinity 6
  • Motherboard: Biostar TPower I55
  • RAM: 2 x 2GB OCZ 1,866MHz DDR3
  • Hard drive: 160GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.9
  • Heatsink: Gelid Tranquillo with a Noctua NF-S12B ULN fan
  • Power supply: Seasonic M12D SS-850EM


Case performance - CPU Delta T

Arranged by CPU Delta T

  • SilverStone Temjin TJ11 (Full speed)
  • SilverStone FT02R-W (Full Speed)
  • SilverStone Temjin TJ11 (Minimum Speed)
  • SilverStone FT02R-W (Minimum Speed)
  • Antec Twelve Hundred (Full Speed)
  • SilverStone Raven RV02 (High Speed)
  • Antec One
  • Fractal Design Core 3000 (Maximum Speed)
  • Cooler Master HAF X
  • SilverStone Raven RV02 (Low Speed)
  • NZXT Switch 810
  • NZXT Source 210 Elite
  • NZXT Phantom 820 (Maximum Speed)
  • Cooler Master HAF XM
  • Cooler Master CM 690 II (Full Speed)
  • Antec Twelve Hundred (Minimum Speed)
  • BitFenix Shinobi XL
  • Xigmatek Utgard (Full Speed)
  • Xigmatek Elysium
  • In-Win GRone (Maximum Speed)
  • Corsair 550D (without panels)
  • Fractal Design Core 3000 (Minimum Speed)
  • Fractal Design Define R4 (Full Speed)
  • Cooler Master HAF 912
  • Antec P280 (Maximum speed)
  • Lian Li PC-A76
  • NZXT Phantom 820 (Minimum Speed)
  • Cooler Master CM 690 II (Minimum Speed)
  • Antec P280 (Minimum speed)
  • Xigmatek Midgard II (Maximum Speed; Drive Cage Removed)
  • Xigmatek Utgard (Minimum Speed)
  • Aerocool X-Predator X1 (Maximum Speed)
  • Sharkoon T28
  • In-Win GRone (Minimum Speed)
  • Corsair 550D (with panels)
  • Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 (Maximum Speed; Ventilated)
  • Corsair Carbide 200R
  • CM Storm Scout 2
  • Xigmatek Midgard II (Minimum Speed)
  • Aerocool X-Predator X1 (Minimum Speed)
  • Fractal Design Define R4 (Minimum Speed)
  • Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 (Minimum Speed)
    • 42
    • 37
    • 42
    • 37
    • 43
    • 39
    • 44
    • 37
    • 45
    • 40
    • 47
    • 40
    • 47
    • 43
    • 47
    • 47
    • 48
    • 36
    • 48
    • 40
    • 48
    • 44
    • 48
    • 47
    • 48
    • 49
    • 48
    • 50
    • 49
    • 41
    • 49
    • 43
    • 49
    • 51
    • 50
    • 40
    • 50
    • 40
    • 50
    • 47
    • 51
    • 47
    • 51
    • 49
    • 51
    • 49
    • 52
    • 41
    • 52
    • 45
    • 52
    • 51
    • 52
    • 52
    • 53
    • 44
    • 53
    • 46
    • 53
    • 46
    • 54
    • 42
    • 54
    • 52
    • 55
    • 46
    • 55
    • 50
    • 56
    • 49
    • 56
    • 51
    • 56
    • 58
    • 57
    • 55
    • 58
    • 53
    • 58
    • 56
    • 60
    • 50
    • 63
    • 55
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
°C, lower is better
  • CPU Delta T
  • GPU Delta T

Case performance - GPU Delta T

Arranged by GPU Delta T

  • Cooler Master HAF X
  • SilverStone FT02R-W (Full Speed)
  • SilverStone Temjin TJ11 (Full speed)
  • SilverStone FT02R-W (Minimum Speed)
  • SilverStone Temjin TJ11 (minimum speed)
  • Antec Twelve Hundred (Full Speed)
  • SilverStone Raven RV02 (Full Speed)
  • SilverStone Raven RV02 (Minimum Speed)
  • Xigmatek Utgard (Full Speed)
  • Xigmatek Elysium
  • Cooler Master CM 690 II (Full Speed)
  • Cooler Master HAF 912
  • Xigmatek Utgard (Minimum Speed)
  • Antec One
  • Antec Twelve Hundred (Minimum Speed)
  • NZXT Switch 810
  • Cooler Master CM 690 II (Minimum Speed)
  • Antec P280 (Maximum speed)
  • Antec P280 (Minimum speed)
  • Xigmatek Midgard II (Maximum Speed; Drive Cage Removed)
  • Sharkoon T28
  • Fractal Design Core 3000 (Maximum Speed)
  • NZXT Source 210 Elite
  • In-Win GRone (Maximum Speed)
  • Corsair 550D (without panels)
  • NZXT Phantom 820 (Maximum Speed)
  • Fractal Design Core 3000 (Minimum Speed)
  • Fractal Design Define R4 (Full Speed)
  • Corsair 550D (with panels)
  • Cooler Master HAF XM
  • In-Win GRone (Minimum Speed)
  • Fractal Design Define R4 (Minimum Speed)
  • BitFenix Shinobi XL
  • Lian Li PC-A76
  • Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 (Maximum Speed; Ventilated)
  • NZXT Phantom 820 (Minimum Speed)
  • Aerocool X-Predator X1 (Maximum Speed)
  • Xigmatek Midgard II (Minimum Speed)
  • Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 (Minimum Speed)
  • CM Storm Scout 2
  • Aerocool X-Predator X1 (Minimum Speed)
  • Corsair Carbide 200R
    • 48
    • 36
    • 42
    • 37
    • 42
    • 37
    • 44
    • 37
    • 43
    • 39
    • 45
    • 40
    • 47
    • 40
    • 48
    • 40
    • 50
    • 40
    • 50
    • 40
    • 49
    • 41
    • 52
    • 41
    • 54
    • 42
    • 47
    • 43
    • 49
    • 43
    • 48
    • 44
    • 53
    • 44
    • 52
    • 45
    • 53
    • 46
    • 53
    • 46
    • 55
    • 46
    • 47
    • 47
    • 48
    • 47
    • 50
    • 47
    • 51
    • 47
    • 48
    • 49
    • 51
    • 49
    • 51
    • 49
    • 56
    • 49
    • 48
    • 50
    • 55
    • 50
    • 60
    • 50
    • 49
    • 51
    • 52
    • 51
    • 56
    • 51
    • 52
    • 52
    • 54
    • 52
    • 58
    • 53
    • 63
    • 55
    • 57
    • 55
    • 58
    • 56
    • 56
    • 58
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
°C, lower is better
  • CPU Delta T
  • GPU Delta T

Read our performance analysis on the next page.
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