Aspire X-QPack: A Lanparty Dream
by Joshua Buss on July 2, 2005 1:15 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Benchmarking - Sound
One of the biggest complaints with smaller form factor PCs is that a lot of them incorporate the usage of small, whining fans. Luckily we can safely say that the X-QPack does not fit this stereotype. To measure the Aspire enclosure we held a sound pressure level sensor twelve inches away from the closed case with our test bed installed and running. Take a look at the level compared to some of the other cases we have reviewed recently.
44dBa is a fantastic number for a smaller case (though there is still room for improvement). To put the number into perspective, the sound meter actually never dropped below 39dBa just sitting still our test lab, meaning that a computer built in this case could quite well be drowned out entirely by other background noises. In fact, we're quite sure we were mainly hearing the sound of the older hard drive more so than the two fans in the X-QPack. The 120mm's fan noise is much more pleasant too compared to the higher-pitched noise that smaller fans tend to make. If one demands the absolute quietest from their pc though, they could even replace this 120mm fan with a different one, or simply to add a fan controller so they could gain control over how fast the fan spins and further lower the operating noise.
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Questioner - Sunday, July 3, 2005 - link
I have this case with the MSI Radeon Xpress 200 MB with an AMD64 (Venice)3200+, 4 sticks of Geil 512MB PC3200(With Blue heatsinks)ATI 550 Pro TV Tuner card, VIA Vinyl Sound card, 2 Plextor SATA DVD/DVDRW drives, 2 Segate 120GB SATA drives,Mitsume 3.5 floppy drive with built in smart card reader,Gigabyte cpu cooler with blue led fan, blue led SATA power connectors, UV SATA drive cables,Logitech MX 1000 laser mouse, Logisys lighted blue keyboard and Sceptre 19" LCD 12ms. The question about can full sized power supplies be used is yes, only if you use Liteon or Sony optical drives because they are shorter than the other drives. This case is great it is very quiet and cool the motherboard lacks any overclocking options but I was able to push it to 2.2gHz with a software tweak and it was stable and I didn't need any other voltage tweaks to do it. If any one wants pictures of my system I would be glad to show it if I knew how to post pictures on Anandtech, plus my system is alot neater than what the Anand's reveiw looks like because I have alot less cable clutter than Anand's, plus I did a little cable modding to make it look better.at80eighty - Sunday, July 3, 2005 - link
#30 , did you even read my disclaimer?thanx for the answers though :p
bbomb - Sunday, July 3, 2005 - link
How does this case compare to an Antec Aria? Its a pity they didnt compare the two as they are very similiar looking from the outside.IPSecGuy - Sunday, July 3, 2005 - link
Great review - thanks for the in depth info.Just a couple of (hopefully) quick questions;
1 - What MicroATX mobo's would you recommend for this case? I have looked at some Intel 915 foxconn and ASUS mobo's and have also looked at some AMD 939 based MicroATX boards. AMD vs Intel aside, which would be your top pick from each camp? (btw - haven't seen one with SATA-II support, so if you are aware of one let me know)
2 - Assuming that selecting a mATX board with pci-x16 is a given, do you think the PSU included with this case would support a vid-card such as a nVidia 6800GT/Ultra or the newer 7800GTX?
Thanks for your time!
deathwalker - Sunday, July 3, 2005 - link
KristopherKubicki - Sunday, July 3, 2005 - link
Olaf van der Spek: Aren't there like four MicroBTX boards on the whole market? And aren't two of them based on 915G? I'll pass.Kristopher
Gholam - Sunday, July 3, 2005 - link
#29, did you even read the article? This is a case, not an SFF barebone system. It has nothing to do with SATA or SLI. It will accept pretty much any mATX motherboard, which DFI LanParty isn't. Abit is rumored to have a mATX SLI board in the works, but nobody has seen it yet. The PSU can be replaced, but the space is tight, and you'll have to use a short 5.25" drive to leave enough room for it, and fitting a long PSU such as Antec Phantom is out of the question.at80eighty - Sunday, July 3, 2005 - link
utter n00b questions :-1) SATA 2 supported?
2) SLI - capable?
3) Can a mobo like the DFI LanParty fit in this case?
4) Can the PSU be replaced with something like a Antec Neopower?
Appreciate any help :)
Olaf van der Spek - Sunday, July 3, 2005 - link
#25: MicroBTX?vfxraven19 - Sunday, July 3, 2005 - link
I bought this case and love it! I think this is better than the Antec Aria, but the Aria is still a nice case...