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Installation
**click to enlarge**
Being a large case, there is plenty of room to
work with. However, you will need to remove the large air duct in order
to install the motherboard. This is very easily done via 4 plastic
locking strips on each end.
**click to enlarge**
The MaxFlow CS-718 features a completely
tool-free design and there are plenty of drive rails included with the case.
**click to enlarge**
If you plan on using a large heat pipe cooler,
forget it. The air duct simply does not provide enough clearance.
I first attempted to install a test board with a super large Thermalright
XP-120 but that was simply too big for this particular case. However,
you can still install a large quality heatsink such as the Alpha shown above
without any issues. The only problem I did have was the location of the
mini fan controller. It is, however, only held by two-sided mounting
tape and can be easily moved to a different spot as I did with this setup.
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**click to enlarge** |
**click to enlarge** |
When powering the case up, you are greeted with
a pleasant blue glow from both the temp LCD display and two large 120mm fans.
The temp display supports readings in both ºC and ºF. The fan controller
itself works rather well and when you turn the large knob to adjust fan speed, the intensity
of the LEDs on the fans are affected as well.
Performance
So how does its unique wind tunnel affect its
overall cooling performance? Let's take a look at the results...
Let's take a quick look at the test system
specs.
| Motherboard: |
SOYO SY-P4VAL |
| CPU: |
Intel P4 2.4GHZ |
| Memory: |
Corsair XMS3200 (1GB) |
| Hard Drive: |
Western Digital Raptor 36GB |
| Video Card: |
ATI Radeon 9600 |
| Optical Drives: |
Lite-ON SOHW-1633s |
Temperatures were recorded both idle and under load. To load the system,
we using Sisoftware's Benchmarking Suite.
| |
Idle
Temp |
Load
Temp |
| CPU Temp |
34ºC |
36ºC |
| Case Temp |
23ºC |
24ºC |
Its cooling performance was indeed impressive.
Case temps were very low and CPU temps stayed way under 40ºC, even under load.
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