Installing and Testing:
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Installation manual is very good with photos and details for inexperienced computer builders.
You will need to install the motherboard spacers and use the supplied screws to securely lock the motherboard into position.
Installing the VGA is standard using screws and tool. No thumbscrews here.
Installing drives isn’t tool-free at all and you’ll need to do it the old fashion way using screws and tool.
The front bezel has to be removed to install an optical drive.
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The front panel sports a 120 mm fan to bring fresh air to the system, while also blowing it over the hard drives to keep them cool along with the other hardware. It’s a LED fan to help with lighting the chassis in the gamers fashion way.
As you can see with the drive cage, we chosen to have the hard drive and SSD face the front of the chassis, making the cables invisible.
A big issue with cable management was installing the 24-pin ATX motherboard cable, we found it impossible to route and/or to hide it.
For exhausting excess hot air, the Sonex 6010 has a 120 mm fan on the back.
Basically, building the system in the Sonex 6010 was a good experience as the chassis was built with no sharp edges, enough space and long enough I/O wires. However, you should plan the cable routing carefully in advance.
Testing:
Testing the chassis included measuring the temperatures by reading the values in AIDA64 and measuring the temperatures by infrared thermometer. The second part was hearing the level of noise coming out of the fans.
After installation was complete, you can see the results. The wire management solution used in the Sonex 6010 is not top notch but will help to keep the best possible air flow.
Following system was used during the testing:
- Asus P8P67-M Pro mATX
- Intel i5 2500K
- WD Black 1TB
- G.SKill Falcon II SSD 64GB
- Sapphire HD 6450 passive
- OCZ Xstream 500W modular PSU
- DVD-RW
For the performance test, we ran the AIDA64 and FurMark Burn-in tests for over 20 minutes and then ran the system at idle for over 20 minutes.
We let the motherboard control the CPU fan, and the GPU is passive. Two Spire Sonex 6010 chassis fans were connected to 12V and without speed control.
We measured the temperatures finding the hotest spot at the chipset heatsink, CPU heatsink, MOSFETs heatsink surface, DDR heatsink, HDD surface, SDD surface, PSU surface, chassis internal surface and GPU board surface.
Noise levels with the supplied fans are acceptable. The fans were running at maximum speed the whole time at 12 V, and they were audible but not loud.
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