Benchmarking
When benchmarking the Xpider II, we test the temperatures of key components including the actual CPU temperature, the actual temperature inside the heatsink, the temperatures of the DDR, Northbridge, Southbridge, HDD, PSU, and the ambient temperature inside the case, all during normal operation. For a system to operate efficiently, the components need to stay at a specified temperature to avoid system crashes, or worse, hardware damage. A well designed case should have an air flow system that is effective in keeping the hottest running components at a constant and stable temperature for optimal performance. During our testing, the PSU and CPU heatsink fans remain on to measure temperatures during normal system operations.AOpen AK86-L |
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We took temperature readings of the components at 10 and 30 minutes of system operation time. When we first tested the Thermaltake Damier V6000A, we found the numbers to be much higher than we expected. We retested and found our results to be much closer to the actual expected numbers. Take a look at how the Chenbro Xpider II compares to the first case tested with our new test bed, the Thermaltake Damier V6000A.
| Chenbro Xpider II | |||||||||
| System On-Time | CPU | Heatsink | HDD | DDR | Northbridge | Southbridge | Power Supply | System Ambient | |
| 10 | 36 | 22.4 | 29.6 | 29.3 | 33.6 | 27.5 | 24.1 | 25.7 | |
| 30 | 45.2 | 29.5 | 31.1 | 30.4 | 34.2 | 28.6 | 26.8 | 26.4 | |
| Thermaltake Damier V6000A | |||||||||
| System On-Time | CPU | Heatsink | HDD | DDR | Northbridge | Southbridge | Power Supply | System Ambient | |
| 10 | 35.2 | 21.6 | 29.1 | 29.1 | 33.5 | 27.1 | 23.8 | 23.2 | |
| 30 | 43.6 | 28.4 | 30.2 | 30.1 | 33.9 | 28.4 | 26.4 | 25.8 | |
Since we retested the Damier, we could compare the temperatures of its benchmarks to those of the Xpider II. From the results, it is obvious that five 80mm fans are better than a 92mm paired with a single 120mm fan. CPU temperature readings were about 1 degree higher on the Xpider at 10 minutes of running time, and close to 2 degrees higher after 30 minutes. The other components followed with only a slight difference in temperature.
Though cooling is a major factor in choosing a good case, noise levels also affect the overall quality of the product. We tested the noise level of the Xpider II about 12" from the sealed case with the power supply and CPU fans turned off to reproduce the noise of the case alone. Since the test bed power supply and CPU heatsink fan were turned off, we were able to compare the Xpider II to the results of previous cases that we have tested.
| Case | dBA |
| Chenbro Xpider II | 45 |
| Thermaltake Damier V6000A | 53 |
| Super Flower X-Mask | 51 |
| Lian Li PC-V1000 | 46 |
| Opus Technologies MT-200 | 56 |
Though the V6000A had five fans, it was much quieter than the VM3000A, which had only four fans. Thermaltake decided to use variable speed fans as well as various models of fans, all having different output ratings with the V6000A instead of using all equally powerful fans throughout the chassis. This variance in output produced less noise, since only certain fans were required to operate at higher speeds than the others.
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masher - Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - link
> with over 700 employees across the world,> Chenbro is one of the biggest manufacturing
> companies in the world.
Haha, what are you smoking? If they had 70,000 employees, they'd be one of the largest manufacturing companies in the world...at 700, they're not even a flyspeck on the map.
Booty - Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - link
Figured I might as well pipe up too - I love hearing about new cases, but really, when you reviewed this, did you actually think anyone out there would like the looks of it? Did YOU like the looks of it? I don't care if the thing has the most spacious and effecient design to date - there's no way in hell I would buy a case that looks like that. Or like the Guardian. I browse through the cases at Newegg and wonder why anyone would buy about half of them - there are so many just plain tacky designs...I'd take a nice simple Antec 3700 over this thing any day of the week. If I hadn't been reading Anandtech for so many years and this was the first review I read off your site, I'd have trouble taking you seriously and might not come back...
Maybe you guys (at AT) just have really bad taste. I look at some of the case choices in the custom-built system guides and wonder why you'd choose those over some other options. In any case, please, please stop wasting resources reviewing junky, ugly cases like this one. Case reviews are good. Ugly case reviews are bad. I don't care if the company sent it to you for free to review or what - you guys have a reputation to uphold.
Oh, and I also agree - if the case comes standard with a power supply, it should be benched/tested with that supply. If you can buy the case without the supply, that's a different story, but test it with the included hardware. If you want to then throw a different PSU/fans/whatever in to try to make the noise comparisons fair, fine... but most people who buy a case aren't just going to gut it - they're going to want to use the goods that came with the chassis.
araczynski - Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - link
reminds me of a similarly named one a month or so ago... don't think its the same company, but obviously this company didn't bother to read this site before just randomly deciding to send their case to be reviewed here.anyway, i would say the only thing missing is a little UV Spider dangling on a thin strand of UV web from inside there, at least then the design would get a smile rather then a cringe out of me.
brian_riendeau - Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - link
I have no idea who some of these case article are targetted at. I do not know anyone that would dare show up to a LAN party with a case that looks like this.Is anyone coming to this site actually interested in a plastic bezel spider case that looks like it belongs to a 5 year old? Why not start reviewing Barbie and Pokemon computer cases too???
Creig - Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - link
I agree with #4. If you swapped out the power supply to equalize noise comparisons, why didn't you swap out the case fans as well? And I don't recall previous video card reviews saying that they swapped out the cooling fan, either.At the very least, do a before/after set of readings so people who are thinking of ordering the case/power supply combo can gauge the difference between the two.
Just an idea.
Aquila76 - Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - link
Why is the market flooded with these "gamer" cases that look like something out of a 70's gay porn movie?Just a thought, but if you spend less time building these atrocities and more time building the cases we do want, you'll actually have better sales which translates to more money, which translates to hooking up with more women (or men, if you like this case), which translates to less time to come up with these hideous designs.
TrogdorJW - Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - link
I'm not at all convinced of the "growing trend" in removable motherboard trays. Yes, they exist, but they're generally only in very expensive cases. I can see where they might be somewhat desirable, but I swap out hardware relatively often and have never felt overly distressed by the lack of a removable motherboard tray. Let's be honest: if you're removing the motherboard, it's going to be something of a pain in the ass with or without the tray. The only thing it helps with would be the installation/removal of a CPU, as getting a CPU out when the motherboard is installed is very difficult.Maybe other people swap CPUs and motherboards frequently, but I usually only do it once or twice a year at most. I can deal with the non-removalbe tray for those times when I do remove the motherboard. A bigger concern for me is the fugly exterior and the LED fans. But I'm not the target market for this case. I believe the target market is kids with purple hair, nose rings, bad vision, and access to mommy and daddy's credit card. ;)
MDE - Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - link
Cable management 101: Don't put the giant ATX cable right next to the CPU heatsink...skunkbuster - Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - link
the message is clear! its DAMN FUGLY!ProphetCHRIS - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link
It comes right after the Guardian in my list of the worst cases ever....