Xigmatek Utgard Case Review

1. Introduction2. The Xigmatek Utgard (External)3. The Xigmatek Utgard (Internal)4. The System Build5. Testing Methodology and Performance Results6. Acoustic Performance7. Closing Thoughts8. View All Pages

For our testing today we are using a Core i7 920 D0 system which we will overclock to 4.1ghz later.

Chassis: Xigmatek Utgard
Processor: Intel Core i7 920 D0
Motherboard: ASRock X58 Extreme 6
Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 13
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tracer (thanks to Crucial as always for this)
Storage: GSkill 60GB Sandforce SSD
Graphics: HD5870 modified Arctic Cooling Accelero XTREME
Power Supply: Thermaltake ToughPower 750W

Windows 7 Ultimate Edition 64bit

Thermal Diodes
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
Digital Sound Level Noise Decibel Meter Style 2

Firstly let us have a look at the chassis design and airflow, as it comes ‘out of the box’.

The Utgard follows a traditional front to rear flow design which has been proven to work well. There are two 120mm fans, one at front acting as an intake with the other at the rear performing duties as an exhaust. The 170mm top mounted fan acts as a vertical exhaust directly in the vicinity of the CPU cooler. We are not using the 120mm and 140mm Noctua fans which we fitted to the side panels for this part of the testing. Fans were set to a mid way point between low and high with the control knobs.

Thanks to the decent airflow from the dual 120 mm and single 170mm fans, the system remains almost at ambient temperatures across all of our diode testing.

Now we want to overclock the 920 D0 to 4.1ghz to see how this will effect not only CPU temperatures, but ambient flow.

Diode 3 & 5 rose a single degree over sustained stress testing and the CPU peaked around 78c.

Now we will add the 120mm and 140 Noctua fans, with the 140mm acting as intake and the 120mm acting as exhaust.

With the extra fans, ambient temperatures in the center and rear of the case dropped by several degrees and this also helped to cool the graphics card and expel radiated heat. Motherboard temperatures also dropped by a couple of degrees. CPU temperatures were basically unaffected.

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