Testing:
The testing of the case will be simple... How warm does the CPU run as compared to the recently reviewed Codegen Group Briza-97 chassis. This system was moved from the Briza-97 to the Swing for this review, so some idle and load temperatures were recorded before and after the move.
Asus' AiBooster was used to monitor the processor temperature while no applications were running (idle), and after 30 loops of the SiSoft Sandra CPU Arithmetic benchmark run in Burn-In Wizard mode (load). An external thermometer was used to monitor the room temperature, which remained a constant 19 degrees Celsius.
The Briza-97 case uses a total of four 80mm fans (1x front intake, 1x side intake, 1x rear exhaust, and 1x top exhaust), and most of the case is covered in perforations. I assumed the fairly solid design of the Thermaltake Swing, coupled with its solitary 120mm exhaust fan, would not be able to compete. Checking out the results below show that my assumptions were incorrect, and that the Swing does offer good cooling, taking two degrees Celsius off both the idle and load conditions).
Get yourself another 120mm fan for the intake, and perhaps an 80mm fan for the side, and the cooling performance will no doubt improve. Although I have not tested the case with an intake 120mm fan, I would recommend adding one for two reasons. One, to get a good push-pull of airflow into the case. And two, to get some air flowing over your hard drives. I have my two 500GB SATA 3Gbps drives down there, and I would be much more confident in a long happy life for them if they had a bit air cooling them. Without an intake fan there, the exhaust fan probably draws most of its air into the case through the open perforations just inches away from it on the side panel. It is the path of least resistance.
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