Corsair Vengeance C70 Case Review: Going for the Gamers
by Dustin Sklavos on May 17, 2012 5:45 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Corsair
- mid-tower
Noise and Thermal Testing, Overclocked
Going into overclocked testing after seeing the results from the stock tests didn't leave me with much confidence in the Corsair Vengeance C70. Performance is basically on par with the much quieter Obsidian 550D, while Antec's Eleven Hundred is running away with the crown at as much as $40 cheaper. As you'll see, overclocking didn't treat the C70 much better.
At this point Corsair's own Obsidian 550D is basically running away from the C70 at virtually every metric. I expected at least GPU temperatures to do well with an intake fan sitting right behind the video card, but as a whole the C70 just isn't competitive.
There does seem to be one place where the C70 holds an advantage over the 550D, though: fan speed on the CPU. The 550D has virtually no thermal headroom left on the CPU, while the C70 can probably handle just a little bit more. On the GPU side the situation is flipped, though that could also be chalked up to slightly higher ambient temperatures during testing of the C70.
Under load the C70 winds up being the loudest case we've tested, with even Fractal Design's $40 Core 1000 besting it and generally providing a better performance profile overall. Meanwhile the 550D is able to provide comparable (or better) performance at substantially less noise.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
52 Comments
View All Comments
SilthDraeth - Thursday, May 17, 2012 - link
But then again, I am a sucker for that ammo can military green.kyuu - Thursday, May 17, 2012 - link
Pretty sure the "ammo can" was actually the basis for the aesthetics, with the military green, the clips for the side panels, and the handles on top. I actually rather like it as well (though I'd personally probably go with the gunmetal grey instead).The cooling performance is disappointing, unfortunately. However, didn't I see the reviewer state that the ambient temperature was higher than normal, which would skew the results...?
Dustin Sklavos - Thursday, May 17, 2012 - link
Thermal performance is listed as the delta above ambient, so all of the thermal results are adjusted to compensate for differences in ambient temperature.Arghem - Thursday, May 17, 2012 - link
But as the base temperature of the CPU goes up it will draw more current and produce more heat. So making the temperature relative to ambient does not correct for a higher baseline temperature. If this was done in hot conditions then the thermal performance data for the chassis is not accurate relative to other chassis.I realize they are doing as good as they can here but making the temperature relative does not remove bias created by lower or higher environmental temperatures.
JarredWalton - Friday, May 18, 2012 - link
It removes a large portion of the bias. It's not like Dustin is testing at 19C for one case and 30C for another; the temperatures are relatively constant at 23~26C (25.5C for this review). A 2C ambient difference should not create a 5C delta, which is basically what we're seeing with this case.Now, you could stuff more fans into the C70, and that might help. I also think Dustin is right in that the initial positioning of fans is poorly selected -- I'd say at the very front of the drive cages would be better at least. Or you could use a watercooling setup and that would likely help tremendously. The thing is, you can do all those same things with a P280 or Eleven Hundred, and you should still end up with superior results.
kevith - Friday, May 18, 2012 - link
You nailed it!Arghem - Friday, May 18, 2012 - link
Your certainly right that the front fan placement is highly questionable. I wasn't meaning to imply that the higher ambient accounted for the entire difference in thermal performance only a portion of it. And yes probably a small portion in this case.I was just pointing out that presenting the temperature as relative to ambient isn't perfect. It's simply the best that can be done without a perfectly controlled environment.
BMAN61 - Saturday, May 19, 2012 - link
" Or you could use a watercooling setup and that would likely help tremendously."Yes; watercooling any setup vastly improves temperatures, but still requires air cooling to expel air from within the case (via the radiator), and a balanced amount of air coming into the case to create positive air pressure. So if the chassis has dismal airflow; it doesn't matter if you're using water cooling or not, temperatures will still be bad.
Being one that owns a (water cooled) Corsair 700D; I can say that airflow is what has been the problem with many of these cases, the 140mm fans that were shipped with the 700/ 800D cases are all garbage, but neither of these cases had (have) any fan mounts (other than one fan mount on the bottom) to bring fresh air into the chassis.
m0n5t3r - Tuesday, April 30, 2013 - link
Out of the box, yes the cooling performance isn't great. The stock fans really don't contribute in the cooling, they are pretty shitty. But as you can see that is a lot of ventilation and fan mount options.Chaitanya - Thursday, May 17, 2012 - link
I still own a Ammo, I kept it aside just because of the looks were awesome.