IT168 evaluation center ten years ago, a political scientist predicted that China's accession to the WTO in the fifth year of the start will be more use of foreign-funded enterprise strategy to accelerate China's economic development, the rapid development of the IT industry is not an exception, in the impact of foreign-funded enterprises, state-owned branded products are faced with a serious test of constant innovation is to maintain the combat power to resist foreign products. The only way to resist foreign products. Has always been, the chassis are regarded by consumers as no technical content of the product, review the chassis products twenty years ago, and then take a closer look at the current mainstream products, more than twenty years of change is limited to the appearance, materials and workmanship. Mainstream chassis frame structure and twenty years ago the product is not much difference, is still square box frame, front installation of optical drives, hard disk, after the upper assembly of power supply, after the lower installation of PCI expansion equipment.
The mainstream chassis frame has remained the same for 20 years
The performance duel between traditional and innovative architectures
As the saying goes? The water is not constant, and the soldiers are not always in the same shape. Power supply under the program structure, with the development of the field of chassis, the use of this structure of the product price is increasingly civilian, this kind of new structure in recent years is quite popular with consumers, is it a novel structure to the public to bring the visual impact of the novelty of the table? Or does the power supply down structure really have its unique advantages?
The chassis provides an assembly space for the platform, and a reasonable internal structure can significantly enhance the ventilation and heat dissipation performance of the accessories, while the innovation of the chassis structure will only be improved from the internal heat dissipation as well as the ease of assembly of the accessories, in order to allow consumers to understand more about the pros and cons of the new style of chassis structure, we have used the traditional structure and the power supply under the structure of the two models of chassis for the on-line test, through the detailed comparison to analyze the difference between the two different structures. We analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of the two different configurations by comparing them in detail.
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The ASUS TA-M2
Asus TA-M2
The ASUS TA-M2
In the mainstream market, the ASUS TA-M2 is the most representative of traditional power supply mounting structure, with standard dimensions of 455(L) x 190(W) x 433(H) mm, and the entire chassis is large. From the pictures, we can see that the front panel and side panels of the chassis are designed with dense ventilation holes, due to the fine arrangement of the ventilation holes and the small hole spacing, providing excellent cooling performance and also better isolation of dust from entering the box.
Top vents that resemble an engine's exhaust system
Since CPU heat generally hovers at the top of the chassis, more hot air is drawn in by the power supply fan, a problem that can easily lead to higher internal temperatures and a reduction in the power supply's lifespan. The ASUS TA-M2 is designed with rows of vents at the top to enhance ventilation at the top location of the chassis, and more cool air can effectively reduce the temperature at the top of the chassis, soothing the problem of high power supply temperatures and helping to dissipate CPU heat at the same time.
ASUS TA-M2 internal structure
"ASUS TA-M2 air duct configuration
Front 12cm fan helps hard disk cooling (Click here to view a larger image
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Front 12cm fan is the most direct way to bring a cooler working environment for the hard disk, and the corresponding 12cm fan in the graphics slot position also helps cooling the graphics card to some extent. The 12cm fan in the corresponding graphics slot can also help cool down the graphics card to a certain extent.
The 12cm fan on the back of the case (click here for a larger image
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The rear 12cm fan is mainly used to enhance the airflow, helping to remove hot air from the CPU and peripheral power supply, and is equipped with a rear 12cm fan to alleviate the high temperature problem of the power supply.
The power supply fan just sucks in the hot air from the CPU (click here for a larger view
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Internal airflow diagram of the chassis (click here for a larger view
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"Cooler Pathfinder with lower power supply mounting
Cooler Pathfinder
Cooler Pathfinder
Cooler Pathfinder, which is aimed at the mid-range market, has beautiful lines and a handsome appearance. The full galvanized steel design of the Pathfinder is solid, with an ABS plastic perforated mesh front panel and Intel TAC2.0 specification for the chassis side baffle, which allows for ventilation relative to the CPU and graphics card, and a larger ventilated area that enhances the chassis' heat dissipation capabilities.
The front panel has a perforated mesh design
The front panel of the Cooler Blazer is filled with a large number of ventilation holes, and the perforated mesh at the bottom of the front panel is even more detailed, which is actually equipped with a 12cm fan.
Inside Cooler Blazer
"Cooler Blazer air duct configuration
The front 12cm fan helps to dissipate hard drive heat (click here for a larger version
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The front 12cm fan is the most direct way to bring a cooler working environment for hard drives, and the cooler air that passes through the hard drive bays can enhance the ventilation and convection performance of the chassis to some degree.
Rear 12cm fan (click here for larger image
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From the perspective of Cooler's chassis structure, the rear fan is the only way to remove hot air from the top of the case, and having a rear 12cm fan can bring considerable cooling performance to the CPU.
Power supply vents (click here for a larger image
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Because Cooler's power supply has a bottom-mounted structure, and there is only one solution for mounting the screws, the power supply fan ports have to be downward facing, and the stability of the power supply's internal heat dissipation depends on the environment outside the case, as well as on the space at the bottom of the case in terms of distance from the contact surface.
The Pathfinder's feet are 1.749cm high (click here for a larger image
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The Cooler Pathfinder's feet are about 1.8cm high, which ensures that there's plenty of room for the PSU's intake air to ventilate.
Internal air duct diagram of the chassis (click here for a larger version
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"Introduction to the test platform and details
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"Introduction to the test methodology and details
Our initial intention in conducting this comparison test was to reflect the differences in heat dissipation between the two differently constructed chassis, and for the sake of fairness in the test, the author chose a room with a constant temperature of 26 degrees Celsius, and the two chassis were assembled on the exact same platform. Our testing methodology is as follows: After completing the assembly of the entire machine, we used a combination of OR+Furmark software to run the CPU and graphics card at full speed for 30 minutes, closed all software and waited for 3 minutes to read the current standby temperature, and then ran the machine at full speed for 15 minutes to read the maximum temperature as the full-load temperature.
The temperature measurement methods during the test were: CPU temperature was read by RealTemp software, Northbridge temperature was measured by a thermometer on the Northbridge heatsink, GPU temperature was measured by Rivatuner, and power supply air vent temperature was measured by a thermometer. (The thermometer used is the VICHY DM6803A+, with an accuracy of 0.1°C and a temperature range of -200~1000°C.)
"Editor's note: Since the front fans of the two chassis have almost the same heat dissipation help for the hard disk, the two different structures of the case don't have any effect on the hard disk's temperature, and thus the hard disk's cooling is not included in the current test.
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Results and Summary
"CPU Temperature from Results
The Asus TA-M2's CPU has two auxiliary venting positions (rear 12cm fan and power supply fan), while Cooler Pathfinder's CPU has the only auxiliary venting position (rear 12cm fan), so it represents the top mounted power supply. mounting solution, it makes sense that the ASUS TA-M2 CPU would be cooler.
"North bridge temperature from the results
The north bridge located in the middle of the chassis will affect the stability of the system if it is at high temperatures, from the results, the gap between the two different structures of the chassis is not very large, and the difference between the light load state of 1 degree, the difference between the performance of the full load state of 2 degrees of difference between the ASUS TA-M2 front fan just relative to the north bridge fins of the ? The ground is favorable? The factor is creditable.
"GPU Temperature from Results
Despite the fact that the ASUS TA-M2's front fan is just relative to the graphics card, the actual results show that the full load temperature of the graphics card with the lower power supply scheme is 2 degrees lower than that of the upper power supply scheme, a situation that may have left the group scratching their heads. According to the physics of cold and hot air, the heavier cold air will be placed at the bottom of the case, while the hot air will float at the top of the case. Looking at the internal air duct diagram, the Cooler Pathfinder, with its lower mounted power supply, has more room for the graphics card to sit at the bottom of the case, filling it with more cold air, which is the most critical factor in lowering GPU temperatures.
"From the results of the power supply outlet temperature
From the actual results, the temperature difference between the two different structures of the chassis power supply outlet temperature is up to 11 degrees, which is quite a big temperature difference. As we all know, the internal temperature of the power supply will have a direct impact on its service life, and from the direction of taking care of the power supply, it's definitely the best choice to buy a chassis with a lower-mounted power supply program.
"From the results of the analysis of the lower chassis purchase rules
From the actual test results, the lower power supply program advantages of the performance of the best, so the lower power supply program will replace the upper power supply program to become the future of the mainstream structure of the chassis? From today's development trend, the unified use of lower power supply program is not realistic, because this new structure will have to invest more production costs, and users to buy this type of structure of the chassis to consider a number of issues, the following will be combined with the results of the test and the assembly of the problems encountered, one by one, to explain the purchase of power supply chassis under the attention of the notes.