Cubitek HPTX ICE Review: How Far Aluminum Can Go
by Dustin Sklavos on May 11, 2012 1:20 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Full-Tower
- Cubitek
- HPTX
Noise and Thermal Testing, Overclocked
Our stock settings are admittedly going to be a bit underwhelming for an enclosure like the Cubitek HPTX ICE, so hopefully when we move to our overclocked testing it will have a chance to redeem itself. Keep in mind that the Antec Eleven Hundred it's essentially butting up against is just a third of the price.
The differences in thermals aren't quite as pronounced under our overclocked load, but they're definitely there. Antec's case still does a substantially better job of keeping the overclocked processor cool, and a slightly better job at keeping the GeForce GTX 560 Ti under control.
Cubitek's enclosure gains some traction once we look at fan speeds, which are basically comparable between the two enclosures. There's definitely some thermal headroom left in the HPTX ICE to eke out some more performance.
The HPTX ICE also doesn't get any louder under our overclocked testing. A large part of that is, I suspect, that the case fans are already drowning out the processor and graphics coolers. That doesn't change the fact that the HPTX ICE is finally beating Antec's case under load.
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colonelclaw - Friday, May 11, 2012 - link
Referring to you photograph of the front of the case http://www.anandtech.com/Gallery/Album/1949#2If I had just spent $359 on anything in the world of computing, and it was put together as poorly as this I would be absolutely horrified. Not one single panel is flush with another and the shut lines are all over the place.
I'm probably overreacting, but to me this looks like a photo of a $50 piece of junk
cjs150 - Friday, May 11, 2012 - link
At least based on your assembly picture:1. Looks like there is room for a thin 240 radiator at the top
2. Drop the drive cages, based on your review is not a loss!, and put a 200x200 radiator up front there is still plenty of space at bottom to resite the hard drives
But at $359 I would not bother, silverstone does it far better
Dustin Sklavos - Friday, May 11, 2012 - link
You can't install a 240mm radiator in the top. The way the two 140mm fan grills are spaced, I think you'd wind up having to modify the case a little to get it into place.cjs150 - Monday, May 14, 2012 - link
A little modification is fine but truthfully I am struggling to think of any reason to buy this case.maybe the smaller versions are better
Flunk - Friday, May 11, 2012 - link
Lian-Li doesn't need steel reinforcement so it is possible to make a good all aluminum case. This just isn't it, and the price is almost 3x what an equivalent Lian-Li would cost.etamin - Friday, May 11, 2012 - link
This is a big assumption to make, but the price and quality of this case makes it seem like the company went way over budget on development and manufacturing costs and is struggling to stay afloat by hoping for inexperienced builders to jump on high price tags.I've seen Cubiteks on SundialMicro for at least a year and the lack of build quality is visible in the stock images. The cases are literally Lian Li and Silverstone knock offs at higher prices. Believe me, I mean no disrespect to the engineers and designers, but this is just the general effect these products give. Cubitek is a pretty new company (started 2010?) and I think it started off too ambitious without a realistic plan.
stren - Friday, May 11, 2012 - link
At this price you're almost into the territory of CaseLabs where you'll get some very well designed cases with some unique features and support for real enthusiast builds. When will anandtech look at them?HexiumVII - Friday, May 11, 2012 - link
Why are all the new cases putting the PS on bottom. You now need 30 inches just to reach the 12v four pin on the top of motherboards.SmCaudata - Saturday, May 12, 2012 - link
So, out of curiosity I searched for the miniITX version and came across this.http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1922/1/
Normally wouldn't link to an outside site, but it was just a fun idea. The small version is actually a decent looking case.
Stas - Tuesday, May 15, 2012 - link
No, thanks. I'll take the Silverstone.