Aspire X-Navigator: A High End Gaming Chassis
by Purav Sanghani on October 26, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Benchmarking - Sound
The other performance meter when it comes to cases is noise levels. We measure the noise level of the X-Navigator 12" away from the closed chassis with the power supply fan turned off. Take a look at our results.
At 62dBA, the X-Navigator is the loudest case that we have reviewed yet and it is obvious why. When we first powered up the system, we did not connect the 120mm exhaust fan on the side panel to the power supply. Our sound meter reported levels of about 50dBA, which would place it as the fourth loudest case that we have looked at out of the eleven total cases. But when we connected the side panel fan, sound levels jumped to around 62dBA, which did not surprise us at all. All fans ran at full speed and since there were a total of five fans, nothing could dampen the sound produced by them. This is a huge tradeoff to being one of the coolest running cases on our charts.
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LoneWolf15 - Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - link
Looks like an ugly attempt at a premodded case for me. The fan grills are gaudy, and I can't stand front case doors, especially plastic ones. Too much built-in lighting makes this case more blingy than it is useful, and the interchangeable front plastics are all ugly. Give me multiple low-noise 120mm fans over the cooling setup here any day as well. I also don't like clear power supplies; they look good for about two months until dust gets in them, and then they're nasty. To clean them, you'll probably end up voiding the warranty.Thresher - Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - link
That case is fugly.I like the feature set, but I can't stand the "bling" on it. I wish more case manufacturers took Antec's lead and built more cases like the Sonata and Aria.
Entropy531 - Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - link
#9 - They use it so they can get impartial results. If you're comparing apples to oranges, the results aren't very legitimate. They have to use all the same components to get thermal benchmarks. #5 and #10 - I agree.diehlr - Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - link
ugly.shabby - Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - link
Why dont you guys use the psu's that come with the case for testing, you switched to the ocz psu again.Aquila76 - Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - link
#7 - The other HDD bays do have space for a cooling fan, it just isn't included (greenish bracket):http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/cases/aspire/x...
The top 3 are really meant for the External 3.5" drives, so even the bracket isn't included on that one, but you can get a universal one pretty easily if you need it.
MustISO - Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - link
One thing I just can't understand is why there are three, 3 1/2 drive cages and only one of them has a fan. What the hell are they thinking?"Gee, maybe the users only want to cool 3 hard drives, the others can fry!"
Antec does the same thing.
At the very least add 2 additional fan brackets and let the user decide. That should increase the total cost by $2.
Beenthere - Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - link
I definitely wouldn't bring this case home... but different strokes for different folks.skunkbuster - Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - link
i actually think it looks pretty fugly + gaudyLocut0s - Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - link
Scratch that sorry it's much clearer on a 2nd read. If any admin is watching you can delete the past 3 posts by me.