| Article Index |
|---|
| Lian Li PC-K8 Case Review |
| The Exterior |
| The Interior |
| Installation |
| The Tests |
| Performance Summary |
| Conclusion |
| All Pages |
Powered On
When powered on the blue LED fan really lights up and brings some positive attention to the front of the case and that grill structure looks like prison bars trying to hold back a beastly fan.
Air Flow Test
Airflow for this case depended entirely upon the front inlet and its 140mm fan and fortunately that big fan drags a large amount of air in.
However this case unfortunately doesn’t have any other air inlet, all components are relying on the single front inlet to pull air to them which mean they are all fighting over a shorter supply of air. At the rear the 120mm pulls the warm air out and not much of it passes through the tiny holes created at the back where the expansion ports are.
From the side you can see that initially, airflow seems fine, but it does becomes apparent that there is a build up of air in the case and although the 140mm is bringing in new air and we can see movement, it’s not enough to force the old air out and that rear 120mm is also struggling to remove the old air as fast as possible. This means that the CPU and GPU are absorbing this slightly older air which is going to increase their heat. Now airflow could be improved by changing to stronger fans or having more inlet/outlet holes but then that pretty well suggests that you will need to use effort and resources to change parts of this case.
Alternatively, this case is supposedly able to take water cooling units, however since I am unable to get one, I won’t be able to do a liquid cooling test, sorry guys.
Temperature test
Ambient temperature was the usual 21?C; I used Bios to read temperature of the CPU and Motherboard while for GPU and HDD I opened the case briefly to point the laser heat reader. I then took 5 temperature readings of each and recorded the highest and lowest to give a general range for each device. Now our temperature questions stand at does the PC-K8 aluminium hybrid make a difference? And does its airflow help the hardware?
Well lets look at some results:
|
Device |
Idle |
Processing |
Max. Operating Temperature |
|
CPU |
48-50?C |
52-57?C |
60.4?C |
|
Motherboard |
30-33?C |
32-35?C |
45?C* |
|
GPU |
39-42?C |
45-47?C |
75?C |
|
HDD |
19-21?C |
20-21?C |
55?C |
*Estimated Value
These temperature results are some proof that the air flow isn’t at the top. The HDD maintained a good temperature level which I believe is because it has a 140mm fan as its neighbour, and both the GPU and CPU were kept in their temperature operating ranges but towards the high end. I believe that the lack of additional intakes and the older air as shown in the smoke test contribute to making this a slightly warmer case and it would appear using aluminium side panels didn’t absorb heat, however all this isn’t a problem for my basic hardware outfit, so a home computer or media centre would live fine, but if someone who is a computer enthusiast with more powerful hardware than what I had tried this case then I’d assume the temperature would start to become an issue. Then again, an enthusiast might turn to liquid cooling.
Sound Test
Looking at the case earlier, there are quite a few things that are equipped to minimise it’s sound output, from the “noisekiller” PSU to the rubber wheels on the HDD, so does it all make a difference?
Well if you put your ear right up next to the front of the case, you’ll find it isn’t too bad, that fan does make a buzz but it averages between 43-47dBA which is reasonably fine. But I don’t really imagine having my ear held up to the front of the case unless I somehow become irrevocably compelled to listen to the sound of a 140mm fan, so lets take a step or so back.
And taking a step back brings the sound into a better view, with the system maintaining around 38dBA. As we loaded a DVD, the DVD drive did its usual buzzing, but we still got less than when next to the system fan, around the 43dBA mark.
And from the side, you barely notice a sound.
