Operation & Final Thoughts

To ensure accurate thermal results, we installed the same hardware in each case in near the aforementioned way. Components included the Asrock Fatal1ty 990FX Professional, Phenom Ii X6 1100T, Prolimatech Megahalems (nosotros took the example door off) in passive mode (i.east. no fan actively dispelling heat), Inno3D GeForce GTX 580 OC, half a dozen Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500GB hard drives, and OCZ's ZX 1000w power supply.

We tested the D-Frame in two different configurations. The ane labeled "In Win D-Frame (120mm fans)" has the four optional 120mm (Silverstone AP121) installed leaving the Prolimatech Megahalems in passive mode, while the other is merely labeled "In Win D-Frame" and has a 120mm fan on the Megahalems heatsink merely no instance fans.

All testing was conducted with an ambience room temperature of 19 to 21 degrees Celsius (66 to 69 Fahrenheit).

The D-Frame performed exceptionally well when fitted with four Silverstone AP121 fans, keeping the Western Digital hard drive at simply 20 degrees or roughly room temperature. The CPU also idled at effectually room temperature while the graphics card ran a little hotter at 29 degrees. These are some of the all-time results nosotros accept seen.

Removing all the 120mm case fans and installing a fan on the Prolimatech Megahalems resulted in considerably higher idle temperatures for the difficult drive and graphics card while the CPU temperature only increased two degrees.

The D-Frame remained quite cool when dealing with the CPU and GPU at full load. With the 120mm chassis fans installed, hard drive temperatures remained at merely 20 degrees and that figure jumped to 26 degrees with only the heatsink fan present.

The CPU temperature was lowest when placing a 120mm fan direct over the heatsink and that isn't specially surprising. Nonetheless, the CPU temperature just increased to 73 degrees while its heatsink was passively cooled.

Final Thoughts

We'll come up right out and say information technology: nosotros generally dislike open-air computer cases. Enclosures such as the Antec LanBoy Air are serious dust magnets and are often louder than traditional solutions. The D-Frame exacerbates those shortcomings by lacking features such equally stock fans and an external storage bay, just we appreciate the additional cooling capabilities, ease of installation and full general showiness of its open-air design, which is the best we've seen and fun enough to work with that we could accept its drawbacks.

Forth with make clean welds and a durable pigment job, the D-Frame comes with two high quality tempered drinking glass side panels that assist justify its $400 request toll. In Win'due south attention to item is excellent all effectually, having included all blackness sleeved cables too as the tools required to build the case. The enclosure's cablevision management setup is commencement course, providing practical means of routing excess wires, while at that place is enough of clearance for components such every bit the ability supply and multiple high-end graphics cards.

In case yous skipped the earlier pages, we should note once again that the D-Frame must be assembled itself before you can install PC hardware and some may view this every bit a negative while enough of others will love it. Although nosotros enjoy playing enthusiast every bit much equally the side by side hardware buff, there's actually no reason why the example couldn't come prebuilt and at the very least In Win could better the assembly instructions. Nonetheless, we managed fine with the company's directions and nosotros presume about others would also.

The bottom line is that we admittedly love the D-Frame and wouldn't hesitate to buy it tomorrow -- if not for its price, which at to the lowest degree makes me recollect twice nigh the competition at the same price range. Anything as unique equally the D-Frame tends to carry some kind of premium and that'due south precisely the state of affairs here. At $400, In Win is offering one of the virtually expensive cases available, out-pricing the Lian Li PC-V2120, Silverstone Temjin TJ07, Cooler Master Cosmos Ii and even the Corsair 900D. The D-Frame is $twenty to $50 more than than those cases while being smaller and having less features.

The option won't exist easy for the average gamer to office with this kind of greenbacks when in that location are many fine choices in the sub-$200 territory, however the D-Frame is definitely the almost unique product among those mentioned and quite possibly the almost appealing for those building a hardcore gaming auto when you consider its respectable cooling performance. If you lot know how to wield a can of compressed air, the D-Frame could be the perfect chassis for your next luxury organization.

Pros: Unique looks set the D-Frame apart. Open-air design performed exceptionally well. DIY'ers will love the fact you lot must assemble it start.

Cons: Relatively feature-less case when compared to the competition. Steep price to ask for a PC case.