Specification and Test Methodology
NZXT Source 530 Specification |
|
|---|---|
| Materials | Steel and Plastic |
| Available Colours | Matte Black |
| Motherboard Support | ITX, Micro-ATX, ATX, EATX |
| External Optical Bays | 5.25in x 3 |
| Internal Storage Bays | 2.5/3.5in x 6 2.5in x 1 |
| Cooling System | Front 2x140/120mm or 1x200mm Rear 1x140/120mm (1x120mm included) Bottom 2x120mm Top 2x140mm or 3x120mm (1x120mm included) Interior 1x120/140mm |
| Expansion Slots | 8 |
| Max CPU Cooler Height | 183mm |
| Max GPU Length | 282mm (With Cage & Pivot Fan) 310mm (With Cage) 444mm (Without Cage) |
| I/O Panel | USB 3.0 x 2 Mic x 1, Audio x 1 |
| Power Supply Mount | ATX (PSU not included) |
| Dimensions (H x W x L) | 507mm x 235mm x 511mm |
| Weight | 9.2kg |
| Warranty | 2 years |
Test System Configuration |
||
|---|---|---|
| Motherboard | Asus Sabertooth Z77 | |
| CPU | Intel Core i5-3570K @ 4.4GHz | |
| CPU Cooler | Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 | |
| Memory | G.Skill Ripjaws-X 8GB (F3-12800CL7D-8GBXH) | |
| Memory Speed and Timings | 1,600MHz, 7-8-7-24-2N | |
| Graphics Cards | 2x Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 OC in CrossFireX | |
| Storage | 120GB SanDisk Extreme SSD | |
| Optical Drive | Pioneer DVR-S19LBK DVD Writer | |
| Power Supply | Corsair HX1050W | |
| Monitor | Philips Brilliance 272P (2,560x1,440) | |
Our Z77 test platform consists of an ASUS Sabertooth motherboard, an Intel Core i5-3570K processor overclocked to a modest 4.4GHz, an Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 cooler, 8GB of high-performance G.Skill Ripjaws-X memory and two factory-overclocked Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 OC graphics cards in a CrossFireX configuration.
To find out how well the chassis can cool this particular setup, we record the CPU temperature during a 15-minute stint of the Prime95 small-FFT stress test. In order to provide a stabilised reading we then calculate an average temperature across all cores from the last five minutes of testing.
To get an idea of GPU cooling performance, we then record the highest GPU temperature after 15 minutes of running Aliens vs. Predator. Last but not least, we also measure chassis noise by using a PCE-318 noise meter to take readings when idle and while running Aliens vs. Predator.
All chassis are tested only with the standard manufacturer-supplied fans (any/all of which are set to 'silent' in the Asus BIOS or low-speed using a fan controller if present), and to take into account the fluctuating ambient temperature, our graphs depict both actual and delta temperature - the latter is the actual CPU/GPU temperature minus the ambient. For the record, room temperature while testing today's chassis was recorded as 21.1ºC.
