System setup and thermal performance:
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750
• Motherboard: Asus P5K3 Deluxe
• HDD: Seagate ST3320620AS
• VGA: Nvidia 7950GT
• PSU: NorthQ Giant Connector 850W
In order to test the thermal performance of the case, we took temperature measurements while the system was powered and working placed on its motherboard box at the desktop and compare them with the readings we got when the system was installed inside the case, fully assembled. We used two external thermal sensors to take readings from the video card (back of the chipset) and ambient temperature. The chipset and CPU temperature readings are taken from the motherboard sensors. Finally, the hard disk drive temperature reading is taken from the internal HDD sensor, via the speedfan utility.
Idle readings were taken after the system was left at the windows desktop for 10 minutes. Load readings were taken after running Prime 95 and PcMark05 concurrently for one hour. Only the stock exhaust 80mm fan of the GMC R-2 Toast is installed.
| |
CPU |
Chipset |
Video card |
Hard disk |
Ambient |
Idle |
Load |
Idle |
Load |
Idle |
Load |
Idle |
Load |
Idle |
Load |
| No case |
41 |
54 |
41 |
50 |
49 |
60 |
46 |
54 |
26 |
26 |
| GMC R-2 Toast |
45 |
61 |
45 |
58 |
55 |
68 |
47 |
56 |
29 |
34 |
While the thermal performance of the GMC R-2 Toast is respectable, it is certainly not on par with high end mid tower cases. The smaller chassis of the R-2 and its single 80mm cooling fan are merely sufficient for a powerful system. Nobody should face a problem with a single PCIe card installed, unless the ambient temperatures are too high. Nevertheless, we recommend installing a second 80mm fan at the rear of the case for additional cooling. The R-2 seems adequate for any single VGA system but it seems unlikely to be able to handle SLI and Crossfire configurations, at least not such configurations with the top grade VGA cards.
