Test setup

Processor Athlon II X3 440 @ 3ghz Motherboard Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H CPU Cooler Cooler Master Hyper TX3 Memory 4GB Corsair 1600MHz DDR3 Graphics Gainward GTX260 Hard Disk Western Digital 250GB SATA PSU Hiper Type-R 580W PSU

I left the PC to idle until the temperature stabilised (usually 10-15 minutes) and then took a reading. Load temperatures were generated using OCCT's CPU stress test which loaded the CPU. GPU loading was done using looped instance of Far Cry 2. In both instances the testing continued until the temperature plateaued.

Temperature results


Temperature

Very impressive although with the airflow on offer not much of a surprise!

Sound

Now let's see how noisy all those fans make the PC-V354. In actual fact the enclosure is quite acceptable @ full tilt. All fans running at 12v are a little intrusive so if you were watching a fairly quiet film it may distract. However, you'd only need the fans running like that if you were stressing the machine by gaming for example. When it needs to be quiet it can be. That speed controller is a godsend in this regard and allows you to throttle the speed (and consequently noise) of the fans.

I found that a little above their lowest setting (perhaps a third on the dial) was perfectly adequate for cooling and virtually silent at the same time.

Another plus point and something I touched on a little while back is that I found no part of the case that resonated or buzzed which is an issue known to plague aluminium cases. I would also say that the rubber feet and mounts peppered throughout the design successfully decoupled vibration generating items.