Performance:
The test system had been living in the
Raidmax Ninja case we reviewed back in October of 2005. The Ninja case had two fans that the F430 does not, one 80mm on the side panel and a 120mm intake fan on the front bezel. In all honesty I expected the temperatures to go up with the system installed in the F430 since it relies on only one 120mm exhaust fan, any fans in your power supply, and the vents in the front bezel, side panel, and the duct that fits over the CPU heat sink. As the charts below will show the CPU temperature remained the same and the case temperatures were only slightly higher.
It should be noted temperature readings were taken in a room with an ambient temperature of 25.6 C and read with a digital temperature probe. CPU load was achieved by running Folding@Home for four hours.
I must say I was both surprised and pleased with the F430's cooling performance. The adjustable air duct for the CPU heat sink was easy to adjust so that it fit right over the fan on the heat sink . It drew enough air through the duct that it would hold a piece of tissue paper to the grill on the outside of the side panel. Although the case temperature was slightly higher than with the previous case, it was still well within what I consider a safe range and the F430 was virtually silent. The only noise I can hear from the case was coming from the aftermarket Iceberg cooler on the Radeon 9500 Pro video card.
Overall the F430 gets a thumbs up in the performance department for providing good cooling with the use of only one fan, one duct, and a couple of vents. Because of the use of only one big low speed fan, the F430 does this cooling in near silence.
