Palo Alto Products PA-600 ATX Mid-Tower

In any case, cooling is a very important factor to take into account.  Palo Alto did an outstanding job of cooling the ATCX and its good to know that they did no less with the PA-600.  Since they made use of the same power supply (Delta Electronics DPS200PB-101) there was no difference between the PA-600 and the ATCX in how much air was removed from the case. 

Our test sample came outfitted with a 92 mm secondary fan located adjacent to the power supply that was oriented to channel (exhaust) air out of the case.  The positioning of the fan near the CPU helps remove heat from one of the largest contributors of it to your case, however as we've seen in the past, as long as a case is well designed and your CPU has a good heatsink/fan on it your case has very little to do with the core temperature of your processor. 

There is always the option of placing an intake (or exhaust) fan at the front of the case near the second internal 3.5" drive bay, however that is entirely up to the user to decide upon.

The fan used in the PA-600 was considerably louder than the secondary fan used with the ATCX, making the PA-600 an overall louder case.  This is another disappointment as the ATCX was a very quiet case, something many users often desire but are very rarely blessed with by most manufacturers.  While the PA-600 wasn't the loudest case we've reviewed, it was noticeably louder than the quiet hum of the ATCX. 

Subjectively, like the ATCX, the PA-600 is a quiet case - the plastic side panels really help mute the sound from inside the case. However it is noticeably louder than the ATCX, partially due to the optional 92 mm exhaust fan (right).  Measuring the noise production 10" from the case with our digital sound level meter produced 58dB at the front of the case and 60dB from the rear.