To test the Cyclone 5000, I installed the following system:

• AMD 1,000Mhz T Bird CPU from A-Power
• Abit KT7-RAID motherboard from Abit
• Asus 7100 Geforce 2 MX from Asus
• 128 Meg PC-133 SDRAM from Corsair
• Sound Blaster Live! Value from Creative Labs
• Cyclone 5000 Overclocker's Case from Cooler Guys
• Acer 40X CD ROM 
• Maxtor 30 Gig ATA 100 Hard Drive
• DLink 10/100 NIC
• Some no name floppy drive

The Cyclone 5000 performed as expected, which is to say great. The case never got more than 5C above the room temp. Turning off all the fan increase the case temp by 10C over having all the fans going. 

The side case fans are placed so one is aimed where the CPU would be and one is aimed at the video card. They help provide additional cooling to these two vital components and also provides a form of redundancy should your CPU or video card fan fail. The added cooling help the 1000Mhz AMD Thunderbird run at 1,200Mhz.  Now mind you the CPU can run at 1,200Mhz with the fans turned off but the temp was a little higher than what I was comfortable with.

There is room for improvements. Those perforations above and blow the side fans should be sealed up for better air flow. Also with all five fans going, the unit can get pretty loud. A control panel to switch the fans on and off would have been a nice option. The perfect spot for such a controllers would be the top drive bay since your CD ROM will not fit there most likely.

If you're in the market for a new case for your overclocked system, then I can highly recommend the Cyclone 5000. The asking price of $159.95 is quite reasonable considering the level of performance and workmanship. 

The Cyclone 5000 from the Cooler Guys is the case used in The Tech Zone Millennium system that we're giving away in the new year. What is better than getting a Cyclone 5000 for free? How about having a full 1,000Mhz system installed inside? Find out how you can win this case and the system it houses here.

The Goods

• Good performance
• Nice looking case
• Good airflow management

The Bads

• Quite loud
• Top fan blocks off CD ROM

Rating: 8.5/10

[Page 1] [Page 2] [Page 3] [Home]