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Benchmarks
I have an AMD Thunderbird 1.2(100) processor that I have had for a couple of years (upgrading soon but that is another article) that, when I first got it, was running on an ASUS A7V133A motherboard. This board would run almost completely stable with a cheap CoolerMaster HSF and completely stable with my MC462A at a speed of 1.33(133). When I upgraded my motherboard to the ABIT KR7A-RAID it wouldn’t even boot at 1.33. I was/am less than impressed with this board. I was never able to make it to 1.4 (133) even with the ASUS board. I left it at the stock voltage as I thought I was already having cooling problems and upping the voltage would just compound matters.
Total number of readouts: 744
CPU Speed: 1336 MHz
Running from: 6/23/2002, 10:54:19 AM
End: 6/23/2002, 12:57:46 PM
After FINALLY being able to overclock back to 1.33(133) I kicked off Prime95 and went out and ran a few errands. Two hours later I came back to find only a 6°C (11°F) temperature difference from idle to full load. I was able to over clock the processor to 1.4(133) and Windows booted and things seemed ok but when I tried to run Prime95 it errored out. I will have to revisit that speed at a later time.
Ed. Note: We were lucky enough to have a second Q-Power to do some additional tests (Thanks Eric!). The test system is as follows...
AMD XP 1900+ (1.596GHz) @ 1.705GHz
MSI KT3 Ultra2
Testing was done with a Swiftech MCX462+. Temperatures are at full load.
At these speeds, it's a tough task keeping temperatures managable, but the Q-Power handles them with aplomb. I'll also have to comment that the unit is a breeze to work with. Noise levels were higher than I expected, but the pitch isn't nearly as high as most high RPM fans I'm used to.
Noise Level
With 4 120mm fans this case isn't silent but with the fans being so large it has a much lower tone than smaller fans. The tone of the fan makes it very easy to tune it out completely. For a noise level comparison it doesn't make a whole lot more noise than that of a refrigerator running. I believe there are also lower RPM fans available the should make this case nearly silent at the expense of great air flow.
Final Words
The Q-Power is a decent setup, but no doubt, a lot of you are probably concerned about the price. The system we reviewed carries a MSRP of 400$. If you were to purchase the watercooling kit, about 205$, and add a case, you may save a bit of change. Swiftech does do a lot of the work for you though, as it's about as easy as installing your hardware, and attaching the cooling materials.
It isn't a quiet case by any stretch of the imagination, but it wasn't terribly loud either. At the expense of airflow, you can replace the 4 fans with ones that are not as noisy.
All in all I am pretty happy with the quality of this setup. I think with a few very minor improvements they could have a real winner on their hands. This system is easy to set up as compared to the Do-It-Yourself kits but could use quite a bit of help in the instructions area. On the up side this case is huge with plenty of room for future mods and upgrades. As for its cooling ability I was very happy—it gave me speeds I couldn’t hope to achieve with air cooling alone.
The Good: Excellent cooling abilities; a must have for hardcore overclocking; tons of space for modding and/or upgrading.
The Bad: Crappy instructions; Pretty basic kit, not much in the way of bells and whistles for the price.
Bottom Line: If I were out shopping for a water cooled case this would definitely be in the top of the heap.
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