Thermal Testing:

Using the onboard sensors of the ASUS M4A89GTD Pro/USB3 motherboard, CPU temperatures were monitored with the test system installed in three different mid-tower cases... The Rosewill Ranger, a Zalman Z9 Plus, and a Thermaltake A60. Here we want the system components to be a cool as possible, so the lower values are better.

To evaluate the idle temperature, the system was left sitting at the Windows desktop with nothing running for 60 minutes in a room with an ambient temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit (approximately 21 degrees Celsius). The Rosewill Ranger was 4 degrees warmer than either of the other cases. While 4 degrees Celsius isn't a big difference, when it comes to computers cooler is always better.



To obtain a load, 3DMark Vantage was run three times with the highest settings possible, with the maximum temperature being recorded. The results are similar to the idle temperatures, with 4 degrees Celsius separating the Zalman Z9 and the Thermaltake Armor A60 from the Rosewill Ranger.