System testing:

Since the intake 120mm fan is not included, the following tests were performed without intake fan. The first series of test was done without the side panel fans. I performed the same exercise using Prime95 for about 30 minutes; play a few sections Far Cry, ran a few laps of Flatout and let the system idle for about 10 minutes on each section. The result was a surprise to me. Please bear in mind the source of temperatures used for comparison:

Ambient temp is maintained at ~22.5 C in all reported test result

MBM5 = CPU load temp
2 temp probes = System high temp
ATI Tool = High video card temp
SpeedFan = HDD temp




The X-Dreamer was rated pretty decent in terms of case ventilation (8 out 10) from THW last year. The Transformer returned a 6°C reduction in CPU load temp without the side panel fans is amazing. I do have to explain the reason behind for not having the side panel fans turned on; a personal reason. I have dog in the house; I put some sort of screen to filter out dog hair in all my system intakes. Hence, I am never a side window fan kind of guy.

The video card temps show no difference between the two cases. While the X-Dream had two 80mm fans blowing to the HDD, the temp holds the same in the Transformer without intake fan installed.

When the side panel fan is activated we see another degree °C lower in CPU temp, while Video card temp now enjoys a 3°C reduction. This is however definitely not without a noise penalty; about 3 dBA increase when measured 18" from front of the case at 51.4 dBA while the noise from the side panel (18" away) registered 54.5 dBA from my digital sound meter.

To further investigate the airflow characteristics I added 2x120mm fans to the case:

HDD temp dropped by 2C as the intake is blowing right on it.

System temp did not decrease; it increased by 3C

CPU temp did not decrease; it increased by 2C

Noise level increases.

This negative impact was created by turbulence from the intake fan blowing through irregular channel by the HDD cage; thereby disturbing the "pulling effect" of the exhaust.

Overall I must say I'm impressed with these temperature results. Before we move on to my final thoughts and conclusion of this review, I want to share the solution I found from keeping dog hair getting into the case via the side panel fans:



Let's wrap things up ->