Gadgetory

there's a new case calling itself high airflow on the market and we all know what happened last time a case did that the Corsair crystal 680 X is the new larger sibling to the two ATX a micro ATX case that we reviewed back in June the similarity and appearance is pretty obvious and coarser has done this multi compartment design before but Corsair has used the past year to make some pretty significant changes the result is something more than just a scaled up to ATX and perhaps closer to a LAN leo 11 dynamic before that this video is brought to you by be quiet and it's straight power 11 series power supplies the straight power 11 PSU is shipped from 450 Watts up to a thousand Watts accommodating most of the gaming PC build requirements you'd encounter and focuses on delivering a higher quality power supply that doesn't sacrifice on efficiency or stability noise is also a heavy point for the straight power 11 using a 135 millimeters silent wayne's 3 fan that can spin as low as 200 rpm for quieter low load operation learn more at the link in the description below this is the corsair 6 ATX it's actually a pretty interesting case and we do like a lot of things about it there are some pretty pretty serious criticisms as well as always but this case strikes a good balance of things it does well and things that it really didn't do well just depending on what angle you're looking at it from so the case itself it's got the basics out of the way it's $250 so it is a very expensive that's us pricing very expensive case it has 4 fans with it we'll talk about all the internals and stuff like that and Patricks build notes momentarily and the thermals but at $250 that's a pretty big wall for a lot of people so instantly narrows the market the case competes them the most directly with something like the cooler master H 500 M that would be the high-end one with either glass or mesh in the front the 200 millimeter a RGB fans we reviewed that previously different models of the c7 hundred piastres from cooler master to some extent the NZXT H 700 I ball though the H 700 can be had for about 150 so quite a bit different in price there and also some of the high-end fan tax cases like the evolve X without the dual system kit that's about $200 so it's in that range that market of cases and the the 680 X here coarser has made some pretty serious improvements over the 280 X now they're different markets ones micro-atx one isn't but the Ches body is pretty similar and because of the history with the corsair ii ATX the company has been able to pick up and improve on something so it's still a case that is fundamentally limited by the style of the front panel which is one of the major defining features of both the 280 x and the 680 X without any serious reworking of a case there's not really a great way to get air past that decorative glass front panel something we'll talk about later but courser did improve if you'd like the height for example here it can go tall you can take these standoffs off tip technically but there's really no reason to do it you just kind of hinder the airflow so it's a bit taller here that's beneficial and other than that this case is really aiming to compete in at least looks and function with the 11 dynamic which is very much the same type of case its dual compartment it is a sort of stout glass tower but the O 11 dynamic comes in at about 130 bucks if you can find it in stock so that is a major downside sold out basically always doesn't include fans but you still include fans with same price for under the price of this case and it is water cooling focused so a few differences between them the Elevens dynamic is a case that takes the the cleverest parts of the 680 acts like putting the power supply and the other components in a separate spacious chamber but avoids the worst part by doing fan mounts on the front instead of the side the six ATX has really spacious kale management area in the back so that's a huge upside coursers done well there to give you all the room you want to work with the power supply the hard drives are compartmentalized in the back side as well and this is just something coursers been doing for years and years now and isn't new so let's go through Paget's build notes hit the thermals and noise section and then talk about the value of the system first is the door which is a step up from the old version instead of for thumb screws the panel is set on hinges and held shot with the magnet this is better-looking and a better functioning option it'd be nice to have a way to lock the door in place even more securely during transportation but that's a minor issue and systems of this size rarely move anyway removing the front panel is a more elaborate process than usual but it's also unnecessary the filter and fans are both mounted on a removable tray and everything else is easily accessible through the side of the case fan trays or radiator brackets or whatever you want to call them are always an improvement and make for easier management and make it quicker to move or mount and dismount multiple fans if for some reason the panel does need to be removed it involves removing three screws from inside the case popping the plastic section off and removing a further four screws from outside the plastic half is held on by metal clips that function the same way as the plastic clips and the 280x but are easier to release despite appearances the glass pane is still not intended to be slid out although it could be freed from its frame by removing many more screws space is plentiful with the power supply drives and cables all stuck into the side compartment which also makes extra room on three sides of the motherboard for large cable cutouts this is especially helpful at the bottom where intake fans could be mounted without a power supply or shroud to get in the way that said cable management could be better there are cable tie points inside the compartment but they're too narrow to easily accept velcro straps the 280x was small enough that just providing a place to stuff the cables was enough but the 680 X deserves a better thought-out solution like some integrated straps or larger loops there are a lot of drive bays but the structures are pretty flimsy and one of the 3.5 inch drive sleds in our sample came loose and shipping not really a big deal but worth note because it's not the most secure in the system they are toolless designs but they could be sturdier no major points off for this one though the top glass panel has an extra layer of standoffs stacked on top so there's an air gap of about 17 millimeters between the glass and the chassis as opposed to about 5 millimeters in the original 280x the standoffs can be shortened to bring the glass closer to the body of the case but there's really no reason to do that the top panel isn't removable as one big section like it wasn't the 280x but that wasn't a helpful feature in the 280x since there was another steel plate underneath so it doesn't count as a downgrade under the glass section of the 680 X's top panel is a large empty gap with fan mounts for 2:120 military or 140 millimeter fans and the filter is packed separately that's a good move when it comes to our testing stock numbers won't be affected by an unnecessary top filter but it's still there if anyone needs it both the front and top filters are simple magnetic mesh rectangles but they're inset into the surface of the case in a way that's more thoughtful than usual both fit flush with their respective fan cages and are sandwiched between them and the chassis the bottom filter is mounted on a plastic frame that ejects from the side of the case on the same side as the glass door so everything that should be easy to access and clean and sit you the 680 X comes with four fans three front intake and one rear exhaust that's plenty and their place where we would have chosen to put them so additional tests were limited to removing the entire front panel and moving the bottom most intake fan underneath the right side of the GPU to see if it would benefit it more although we're splitting the airflow a bit there and hedging our bets with some of it going around the card and up to the cpu we're starting thermals for just the 680 acts now and then we'll add more comparative results momentarily the torture test raised CPU temperature to fifty eight point six degrees Celsius and the stock configuration removing the front panel had a large benefit lowering the sound of fifty point three degrees Celsius over ambient for a reduction of about eight degrees brute-forcing airflow with three intake fans is fine but the case would be much better cooled without a decorative pane of glass suffocating them the filter is even entirely independent of the glass panel so it could be torn out and the case would be just as well filtered and function better that said you can still have your glass and to eat it too or well maybe don't eat the glass but you get the idea a bit more spacing or more even Inlet space across the entire front panel would reduce this Delta meaningfully aesthetics are a valid concern but it's frustrating to see an eight point five degree dip just from removing a completely decorative panel placing the bottom intake fan under the GPU may have helped the CPU temperature a little as well but not outside of the range of variants it would make sense since normally it only lives under the GPU but when it's mounted at the bottom of the case it can blow some of the air up towards the CPU as well so of course there is marketing this as high airflow as they did in their email to us then it is misleading marketing at best this is very much a situation of the age 500p original case where it's called I airflow but it's not comparatively 58 point six degrees Celsius is about as warm as cases get on our chart before they enter runaway thermal territory it's not the worst but it is placed between these silence focused dark Bass Pro 900 and the in wind 303 with half as many fans the similarly late hour 11 dynamic with three fans is ranked high with an impressive forty nine point two degrees Celsius delta T / ambience because Leanne Lee didn't bother trying to draw air through a glass panel and instead provided a mount on the side of the case that didn't technically count as a stock test though since Lee and Lee sent us fans separately and we installed them as we saw fit realistically the 11 dynamic though is cheaper even when adding fans to the cart and can be made to outperform the 680 acts readily although it is smaller than the 680 X while still remaining somewhat compartmentalized depending on what you're going for the 11 dynamic may be the better bet it just depends on if it's got the size and the look that you want compared to other cases the 680 X really isn't impressive out of the box some of this has to do with the fan choice or placement but much of it is that the front panel is a sheet of glass and isn't really spaced out the way it should be by dropping temperatures around 8 degrees the 680 X would land right around where the Corsair at 570 X it's still high up on the charts which is a glass and mesh that uses wide spacing to allow air intakes everywhere moving on to GPU temperatures first with just the 6 ATX GPU delta T or ambient was fifty two point seven degrees during stock torture testing and dropped to fifty one point four degrees with the front panel removed that's much less dramatic of a change than on the CPU but only one of the three fans is pointed at the GPU and freeing up the airflow therefore has less of an impact moving the intake fan below the GPU rather than in front of it actually sort of raised temperature a bit by fifty two point four degrees although it's it's close to variants but not quite this increases because it was positioned in the bottom front area primarily cooling the vrm and then allowing the rest of the air to drift up to the CPU positioning the fan towards the back side more would allow a more direct GPU cool and you're forcing air straight into the GPU core area at that point but it would sacrifice some of the CPU cooling that we were trying to save positioning the fan at the bottom of the case allowed some of the air to split to the CPU as opposed to the bottom front where almost all that goes to the video card the stock GPU temperature is acceptable looking at the comparative chart now around the performance of the H 700 I or the open-air Corp III by thermal take the bottom of the case is one big vent free of PSU clutter and the number of fans that Corsair includes with the case means that one of them is fully dedicated to GPU cooling which is better than most enclosures we review again the 11 dynamic 3 side fan test isn't exactly stock but the result was a few degrees cooler than the 6 ATX GPU temperature during fire strike was 55 point seven degrees over ambient slightly above the torture test that's still near the middle of the comparative chart but on the same level as the lackluster Silverstone PMO to moving multiple intake fans to the bottom of the case are switching entirely to a bottom the top air flow layout would definitely improve GPU thermals but with the glass panel at the front of the case CBO temperatures can't afford to be pushed much higher blender is used for a realistic single component workload in our testing CPU temperature with the blender tests rendering exclusively on the CPU was 40 point seven degrees definitely towards the warm end of the chart and that's pretty high considering we're only running a CPU workload and it's a realistic one at that it shares its space with the stock defined C which comes with fewer fans at two and is also a closed-off case not the measure phi xi dynamic ran at thirty eight point three degrees delta T over ambient with three side fans a smaller gap than in the torture test but still a noticeable one for the GPU rendered evie temperature was twenty seven point seven degrees Celsius over ambience perhaps on the warmer side of average the eleven dynamic did better here again with twenty five point two degrees but there's no meaningful difference between the two they're functionally the same at this point neither GPU nor cv temperatures reached anything close to their maximum but it's good to demonstrate that even without heavy synthetic workloads the hardware is running warmer than it really needs to finally for noise we measured the 680 X at forty two point five DBA it could certainly run quieter with decreased fan speeds but there are four 120 millimeter fans and the large air gaps around the front I'll do very little to muffle the noise generated at Matic speed the trouble with all of this is that the coarser 680 X is not particularly quiet nor particularly effective at cooling which is odd since it is named the 680 X RGB high airflow or at least in the email that was sent to us originally overall then coarser calls this at least in its reviewer material and that it's email a high airflow case and this is something we always we have trouble with because if it's marketed like that and it does count as marketing when you're sending reviewers material that potentially shapes the review and what people say in the reviews if it's marketed as high airflow it better be high airflow and the same is true with be quiet cases for example so it would be quiet the cases are almost always targeted towards being quiet as the name would suggest and so when we review those we talk primarily about noise and about if they can still run at a reasonable temperature it doesn't have to be the best just reasonable while being quieter than the nearby competitors this case isn't going for that angle it's going for cooling but it's not particularly competitive and cooling and also is not competitive in acoustics which makes it really for $250 it's just not good value it's it's poor execution of the high airflow aspect that Corsair has promoted three viewers and so for that we do have to take significant points off because if you're gonna market it as or call it high airflow and it's not high airflow then the case has failed at what it's being marketed for the case itself though it is it is high build quality so we'll give them that it's got good cable management space the compartmentalization for people who like it is great we like these compartmentalized cases because they're sort of fun to work with their bit easier and from a look standpoint it's not bad either there's really functional paneling that's easy to work with so ease of installation features build quality coursers done a good job but hitting the marketing target of high airflow of course there's done frankly a terrible job because with four fans it is not even as good as a lot of the cases on our bench with two fans that are also quieter so it coarser gets it's an F for hitting the marketing deliverables but does okay elsewhere and that just leaves us with price really and to say it flat-out give you a really straightforward answer the O 11 dynamic gets our buy for this you could buy in fact 200 11 dynamics for the price of this case and still have a couple bucks left over for fans after you account for shipping and taxes so for sure if you're looking between the two for some reason if you consider them direct competitors even though the price doesn't really permit it then our choice is the 11 dynamic it's it's just it's cheaper it does similar things it's got really good air flow potential if you use the right fan mounts and you can buy the fans for still combined under the price of this case so that's our go-to for this style of case the 680 X doesn't defend us it's just that at $250 it's it's too expensive for what's going on you can take off the glass front panel that feels a bit odd it seems sort of naked when you do that but as a case still with with the front panel removed cooling is actually acceptable it's pretty good on average it's okay and in the worst cases as opposed to the current configuration where it's a bad in the worst cases and you can get it to acceptable so anyway too expensive for for missing its main marketing target if Corsair hadn't marketed it at high airflow then we could be a bit more lenient there but we have to look at the product or at some level what it's designed to do and it doesn't do what it says it will do but the rest of its okay so just too expensive so that's it for this one thanks for watching subscribe for more as always go to patreon.com/scishow helps out directly or stored on cameras nexus net to pick up a shirt like the one I'm wearing now this is the chalkboard shirt I'll see you all next time