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Spire Pininfarina SP-ATX-PALU/S ATX Case Review

Cases & PSU/Cases by piotke @ 2006-08-18

Pininfarina is responsible for the design of some of the world?s most exclusive sports cars including Ferrari. Spire has hired their gifted design team to come up with a computer case which they hope will give them the edge in the heated race between case manufacturers. We take the Pininfarina SP-ATX-PALU/S for a test drive around our noise,temperature and performance track.

Cooling

Cooling

In this section of the review I?ll take a closer look at the cooling aspect. Although the package says the case comes with four fans I only found three of them. All of these fans have a 4-pin molex pass through connector. This way you can connect them directly to your PSU without loosing a connector on the motherboard.

Rear 80 mm case fan ? already installed

The rear 80 mm fan removes the air from inside the case and pushes it to the outside. The rear side of the case has not a regular 80 mm grill but a stylish pattern of pill shaped holes ensure the airflow. Positioned just behind the CPU cooler this should give better thermal results.

Front 120 mm case fan ? already installed

The front 120 mm case fan ensures airflow through the entire case, and cools especially the lower hard disk cage. The front panel has ventilation holes on each side so that air can easily be sucked in. There?s an extra opening on the bottom of the front panel to help draw in fresh air.

Side 80 mm case fan (HDD) ? already installed

A second 80 mm fan in installed on the right side of the second hard disk (and floppy drive) cage. This fan also takes care of the general airflow and supplies extra cooling for the hard disk installed in the middle of the case. When the side panel is closed you see that a pattern of holes with a total diameter of ~80 mm nicely covers the position of the fan.

Side 80 mm case fan (VGA) ? not supplied

As already mentioned on the previous page there is an ?enforce bar? placed in the case from the front to the rear. There is a bracket installed where you can click an extra 80 mm fan in place. This fan isn?t supplied but once installed it should blow fresh air over your VGA card(s). On the outside you can see that also here there are some holes provided for the air intake.

Looking at the left panel from the outside you see a lot of square holes with a total diameter of ~120mm. Inside there?s a little fan duct installed, positioned just above the CPU area.

Near the bottom of both side panels there a strip with additional ventilation holes.

Time for performance testing ->

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