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Titan Robela


Date
: 09/14/05 – 05:46:36 AM

Author
:

Category
: Cases

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer:
Titan Computer Co. Ltd.

Price:
$399USD MSRP

Titan is back on the testing floor here at Overclockers Online for the third time in less than two months. Offering individual component cooling from fans, to HDD coolers, to VGA coolers and CPU coolers, Titan's slogan of 'Running faster is the systems job. Keeping them cooler is our business' most definitely holds true with their ever-expanding line of products. This large and growing cooling component manufacturer based in Taiwan once again appears to have outdone themselves with their latest offering of a complete water cooling solution built into a mid tower case. In the same spirit as the Serina and the Vanessa L-Type, this watercooled case is named after a mythical female warrior, I introduce to you, the Robela.

The Robela offers universal CPU and GPU cooling via a water system that is built right into the door of the case. Two 120mm fans draw air from outside the case over the radiator, which is mounted in the door, into the case aiding in cooling the motherboard and the rest of the components in the case. A 90mm rear exhaust fan and a mount for a top exhaust fan is included to remove the hot air from the system. A front intake fan mount is built into the case offering additional fresh air to aid in the cooling of the system and front mounted hard drives. The case comes complete with everything required for a water cooled system, including their own anti-freeze/anti-rust solution, and even the tool required to secure the tubes in setting the system up. All we will need to provide is some distilled water, so let's get started.

Page 2 : Package

As you might have guessed, a water cooling case with all the components mounted right inside is large and indeed very heavy.

The Robela arrived double boxed to protect the retail package and it showed up in perfect shape. The exterior once again follows the same theme as previous Titan products I have received, the emphasis being on the beautiful character that is created for the products name. The rest of the front side contains a small photo of the actual product combined with the product name, a Titan logo at the top left, and a few of the details in the lower section which I have highlighted in the photo above.

The rear of the box shows an international flavor with a brief description of the Robela being repeated in nine different languages. I have enlarged the English section so we can see exactly what Titan is offering for details. These details will be repeated in the specifications section on the next page.

The ends of the box rely on images to convey the information they offer for potential buyers. On this end, we get a good look at the four different variations of the Robela case that Titan offers. It comes in two different colors, silver and black, and offers the buyer a choice of a metallic ABS plastic front panel or a solid aluminum front panel. Our review sample is clearly marked as the silver model with the plastic front panel. Having reviewed Titans Serina notebook cooling pad and its aluminum top plate, I can only imagine how stunning the aluminum front panel is in either black of silver.

Keeping the theme of 'a photo says a thousand words', the opposite end uses photos to explain the features of the Robela case. The package of the Robela does not get very in depth with specifications about what is inside but it definitely covers the main features that the case offers. I really like the way Titan displays the information and feel it is definitely adequate in allowing potential buyers to make an informed choice in their purchase.

The last thing from the package before opening it up are the two handles on top. This is not the first box that I have received from Titan with these handles. Last time I kind of scoffed at the handles as it really was not necessary, but this time I am definitely thankful as the package weighs in at just over 50lbs. These handles are a must and it is nice to see Titan include them in the package design.

It never ceases to amaze me how a package can come from one end of this planet to the other and show no signs of the long journey, clearly, the above photo shows us how this is possible. Titan has done a wonderful job in securing the Robela inside of her box with thick plush styrofoam that fits the case snuggly inside the box giving the case no chance to move or shift. We can also see the included manual inside of the protective plastic wrapping located at the top.

With the case out of the box and ready for its photo session, we will have a look at the full specifications of all components that make up the Robela on the next page and then get to those exterior photos after that.

Page 3 : Specifications

All the specifications on this page are pulled from the Titan web site.

Model No.
* TWC-A88/AS (Solid silver aluminum front panel)

* TWC-A88/BS (Shiny silver metallic coating on the ABS plastic front panel)

* TWC-A88/AB (Solid black aluminum front panel)
* TWC-A88/BB (Shiny black/silver metallic coating on the ABS plastic front panel)

Features
* Deluxe water cooling chassis
* Excellent heat dissipation for CPU, GPU and inside the case
* CPU : compatible with Intel P3, P4 (Socket 478/775), AMD K7, K8 (Socket 754/939/940)
* GPU : compatible with most ATI and NVIDIA VGA cards
* Easy installation
* Super cooling radiator design with 12cm x 2 silent fans to provide ultimate heat dissipation
* Cool light multi-function LCD panel to monitor the water level, water pump status, fan speed, noise level and temperature
* Alarm for pump failure, fan failure, low water level, and over temperature
* Compatible with Micro ATX, Standard ATX and Extended ATX (Dual CPU) motherboards
* Including tool-free 5.25 and 3.5 device brackets and tool-free PCI slots

The universal nature of this system is quite impressive and I will be testing the GPU mounting abilities as I have a handful of cards lying around to try with the different mounts.

Page 4 : Exterior

We start off the exterior photos with a head on 3/4 full body shot.

Down the front side, we see the makings of the radiator and the door handles. We will look at those later, for now a closer look at the front. The front panel of the Robela is very simple and refined. I was quite surprised at just how comfortable it looks on this case. The metallic finish of the painted plastic panel is more of a mirror than metallic, even with the protective plastic we can see the amazing reflection that it provides.

To show just how much of a mirror it really is, I had to include myself in the photo. This photo does not even do justice to just how nice the finish is on this front panel. It is very hard to believe that this is just a painted plastic piece but as soon as you touch it, there is no doubt that it is plastic. I also think the holes with the mesh behind for an air intake match the rest of the case perfectly and looks really sharp.

Once we open the door, we see that the door opens a full 180 degrees. The backside of the front door is a little bit unfinished, revealing all the screws that mount the front pieces as well as the cable going to the backside of the LCD. A simple panel, that clipped on somehow, covering all that would provide a much more pleasing appearance. The other thing you will notice right away is the lack of covers in all of the 5 optical drive bays. I guess Titan assumes that you will have at least one optical drive to put in that slot. The power and reset buttons are both located here on the inside of the door panel giving the outside a very clean appearance.

Opening the secondary door gives us our first look at the actual structure of the case. The initial impression of this case is that it is extremely solid. The weight alone tells you this but it is also very sturdy and not just heavy. This door only opens 90 degrees, but that is plenty to serve its purpose.

In this close-up of the lower portion, we can see the heavy duty metal hinges used by Titan, as well as the front intake fan. You will notice the sticker on the right is a brief guide to installing an additional 80mm fan. On the left is a large knob. At first, I was unsure what this was but the sticker just below the knob cleared it up rather quickly. This is a lock to secure the side panel from being opened. With its location back here, one can secure all panels on the Robela by locking the front door with the included key.

A single Philips head screw holds the fan mount in place and the filter and cover just snap in place. Any standard 80x80x25mm fan will fit in this slot. We can see through both the doors grills from this angle as well which will actually allow a fan in this location to bring some fresh air in. The air will be fed past the hard drives mounted in the cage seen behind the opening.

This is the only photo we will see from the backside of the Robela case because this is all there is to show. There is absolutely nothing but the smooth silver finish. You can see here the handles for opening both doors and the lock to secure them. The doors click in place and have a good feel to them. When you want to just open the front panel, it opens and a little more force is required to open the rear panel. The hinges hold the door firmly in place through the entire range of motion and overall, the doors are just about as perfect as it gets. I have honestly not come across a door setup that is any better than this one, good job by Titan on a very important but often overlooked part of a case.

Moving around to the rear of the case, my cell phone makes its second appearance here at Overclockers Online in the reflection of the radiator cover. This cover is made out of metal unlike the front panel but looks exactly the same and as you can see provides the same mirror finish. The little container at the top in the middle is the fill spout for the water reservoir. At first I thought the metal handles on the door would be overkill, but when you feel the weight of the door, you are glad they are there. Like the radiator cover, the handles are polished smooth and provide that same fabulous mirror finish.

The top of the case also sports two dimpled handles and once again, the sheer weight of the case calls for them. The exhaust vent and dimpled cover for the additional connections really match the handles well. A simple push on the flap releases it, revealing the USB/1394/Audio connections as shown in the inset image.

The rear of the case is nothing special or different from most cases. The exhaust fan is for a 90mm fan that comes included. You can see this is where Titan has secured the case keys for shipping and inside is one of the two boxes that contain all the accessories tied to the rear expansion slots. There isn't really a lot of room for heat to escape out the back here, so I think the top exhaust vent will be very helpful in reducing case temps.

The last of the exterior to look at is the feet for keeping this heavy beast stable. There are two sets of the same feet in the photo above and if you look closely there are three notches around the black center foot. This will allow you to have the feet pointing forward, backward, or sticking out and lock in those positions. With the case empty I tried the feet in all three positions and the case is stable as can be in any orientation. Let's now remove the two thumbscrews that hold the side panel on and go inside.

Page 5 : Interior

I was quite impressed to see so much stuff secured so well. Nothing is really flailing around loose inside and all accessories, mounting hardware, and cables have a spot where they are secured well.

There are two boxes, one for the watercooling hardware and one for the standard computer case hardware one would expect to come with any case. The top cables coming down from the additional external connections have a small clip on the hard drive cage where they can be secured to keep from running loose anywhere in the case, something I have not seen before but very much welcomed. The hard drive cage itself acts as the housing for the 5.5" and 3.5" tool less device rails during transport. You will also notice around the edge of the case a sequence of little silver pieces with round tips at either end. These are metal and act as a conveyor for sliding the heavy door on and off the case. I must say it is quite a neat idea that was implemented very well. Removing and installing the side panel is remarkably easy with the handles and the case design as it is, all despite its rather heavy weight with the water cooling hardware mounted to it.

A close up of the hard drive cage reveals that it is not removable and the biggest disappointment so far, room for only three hard drives. I was a little shocked at first and upon further inspection became rather confused. The cage itself is raised almost a good inch from the case floor and there is another half-inch of clearance at the top. Why a fourth hard drive slot was not included is far beyond my comprehension. I only have two WD Raptors that I run in a RAID 0 for my system disk but soon they will be replaced with a four drive setup. This case just disabled my ability to run that four drive setup in the Robela. Aside from the drive cage itself we also get a close up of that cable clip on the left and near the top of the hard drive cage, tucked behind the leading edge of the case, we can see the lock that holds the door in place when activated from behind the second door in front.

Just above the hard drive cage is the optical device tower with the two floppy drive slots just below. An impressive five drive bays are provided but once again, sacrificing one of these for an additional hard drive slot would have been very much appreciated. We also get a good close-up in this photo of the metal roller clips I mentioned earlier that assist in sliding the door on and off. The in-set image just shows the little sticker of the installation instructions for the various drives using the tool-less rails.

At the rear of the case, we can see just how important tidiness is to Titan; I thank them for doing this. The cable coming from the fan and the intrusion detection switch are routed to the front via clips to secure them to the edge and out of the way. The tool-less concept is carried over from the front to the back with the plastic mount for the rear exhaust fan and the tool free PCI expansion slots. The little things just keep adding up in this case as well. Near the top there is a small ledge riveted to the very strong and sturdy motherboard mounting tray to aid in holding up your power supply unit. This could have easily been left out but Titan didn't, they included understanding that PSUs are just getting bigger and larger requiring additional support like this.

As mentioned, the top of the case provides external access to additional USB 2.0 connections as well as audio and 1394 connections. There is also another tool-less 80mm fan mount but does not come with a fan. I really like the mounts Titan has used here as the fans fit securely in place but are very easy to put in and take out. The inset image shows the cable ends that come down from above and you can see they are not only labeled on the connector itself, but also with a little tag just before the actual connector.

The small stickers on the interior of the Robela are abundant and quite appreciated. This one provides reference for the various motherboard mounts and corresponding holes for the standoffs. The case came with six standoffs already screwed in for an ATX motherboard but not the required nine. During installation I will go over this in more detail.

Having looked at the entire interior of the case, we will now turn our attention to that side door panel that houses the most important function of the Robela – the water cooling system. To sum up this application I would have to call it neat, tidy, very well presented and designed even better. The chains at the bottom are secured to small clips at the edge of the case floor to ensure you do not pull the door off further than the cooling tubes reach once installed, clearly they are removable.

With the decorative covers and fans removed, we can see an exposed radiator core of 15 rows. At the top is the small reservoir with the pump located inside. The two circuit boards at the top are what powers the sensors and triggers the alarms that are displayed on the front panel LCD. In the lower right is the input and output connections which will lead to the CPU and GPU cooling blocks. The water comes in at the bottom of the radiator and is pushed through the core back up to the reservoir where it then gets sent back to the water blocks.

Details of the pump can be viewed in the specifications page and you can see that the system is tested prior to leaving Titan as there is some left over cooling solution in the reservoir. All tube connections are secured with circlips that insure they do not come loose from the fittings.

This is the small switch at the rear of the case that was exposed once we removed the side panel. This is an intrusion detection switch that will sound an alarm should the door be opened when plugged into a supporting motherboard.

The last of the interior contents have been pulled out and spread across my photo table like thanksgiving dinner.

These are the contents of the other box that was secured to the interior of the case. It includes the CPU and GPU waterblocks including all the mounting hardware, 8 RAM heatsinks for your video card memory, tubes and additional hardware for connecting those tubes to the radiator and waterblocks, a tool to remove and install the circlips, anti-freeze/anti-rust solution, and a 4-Pin molex cable extension to ensure you can power the front panel LCD. Really, Titan has thought of absolutely everything, including a large amount of their quality Nano Blue thermal paste. They have even numbered every bag so it is easy to match every piece with the list in the manual.

It looks like it is now time to get some components installed and begin leak testing before finishing up the installation and doing some testing to see how well the Robela cools the CPU, GPU and how cool the rest of the case and components will be.

Page 6 : Installation

Before actually getting to installing the components that I will be using for testing, I wanted to see if the new MGE Magnum I just finished reviewing would fit in the case with the top exhaust vent.

The other case I have reviewed here at Overclockers Online, the Aspire X-Cruiser had it's top exhaust hole to close to the rear of the case so any PSU bigger than the standard generic size would not allow for installation of a fan. Titan obviously thought of this as there is plenty of room for the large Magnum.

There was an issue with the top left screw hole not lining up, but the radiator fits in the cutout without modification and with the added support on the backside of the frame, the PSU is very secure with only the three screws being used.

With the Magnum test fitted, I removed it and installed my Enermax Noisetaker 420W as it tends to generate a little more heat than the Magnum. This gives a better test to the cooling abilities of the Robela. I have also finished installing the rest of the standoffs required to mount the motherboard. I only used four screw standoffs at each corner and used the little screw-less type that come with the case in the other five positions.

The next step before installing the motherboard is to pop in the rear I/O panel. The panel that comes with the motherboard fits perfectly and clicked in place with ease. With that done it's time to get the motherboard mounted.

As you can see the case is absolutely huge and gives plenty of room for the motherboard; the rear fan did not need to be removed and installing the motherboard was a piece of cake. Having the five screw-less standoffs that almost clip the motherboard in place made it really quick and they seem to hold the motherboard quite well. The four screws at the corners are ample to hold the motherboard in place.

With any watercooling setup, you want to leak test the system before actually putting the waterblocks on any components and the Robela is no different. In the manual Titan even states that at least a 24 hour leak test be performed outside of the case before installing the waterblocks. So at this point, we have enough hardware to get the leak test running and it was time to connect the waterblocks to the system with the included tubes and fill it with distilled water.

As you can see, the setup of the tubing is very straight forward. We simply hook the 'Out' to one side of the CPU waterblock and then connect the other side to the one side of the GPU waterblock. From there the other side from the GPU gets connected back to the radiators 'In' connection and this completes the system. The tubes have metal couplers and it's as simple as finger tightening them to the waterblocks and radiator connections. The whole process takes about two minutes.

With everything hooked up, the two bottles of antifreeze/anti-rust solution gets dumped into the radiators fill plug and the system is then filled with distilled water. The little squeeze bottles make it very easy to pour the solution in. I just poured the distilled water into a clean glass and used one of the bottles to suck it out of there and dump into the reservoir. The instructions walk you through every step of the way and at this point they instruct us to lay the door flat to run the system and remove any air bubbles and then top off the reservoir.

Within a couple minutes and a few bottles of distilled water added with the system running, I had no visible bubbles in the system and I could just hurry up and wait. The flow indicator churning away meant I had good water flow and it looked like everything had gone as planned. I left the case door off and sitting beside the computer with the waterblocks on the floor. I ran the system like this for about 48 hours with no drops of water in sight. I noticed that I put about 500ml of distilled water in; with the two bottles of solution, it would still be far less than a liter of liquid in the system.

I was really impressed with how easy and quick the whole process was. Titan has designed this system with the average user in mind and I am confident that anyone who can follow a few simple steps would come up with the same results as I did with nothing more than the manual provided by Titan. With the system running leak free for a couple days, I was confident to attach the waterblocks and begin testing.

The first waterblock I am going to secure is the CPU. I will be using my AMD64 3000+ Winchester for the testing and will need to use the K8 mount. The AMD mounts are very simple as they simply clip onto the existing retaining bracket where as the P4 mounts have their own backing plates and need to be screwed down.

Before mounting the waterblock, I cleaned the extremely smooth and polished surface. The inset photo above illustrates the mirror finish on the contact surface. You can also see that I have attached the thermal probe to the underside of the waterblock as per Titan's instructions with the included tape.

The waterblock will only sit in one orientation with the retaining clip and I happened to have the locking lever at the top, so this is how the water block will sit. In the manual, there is no mention of a proper orientation so I am assuming that either way is fine. One thing the manual could do is offer more specific details such as this to instill confidence in the user. Installation is just a matter of placing the water block down on the CPU, then attaching the clip to the plastic retainer and locking it in place.

Before securing the GPU waterblock to the Aopen 7800GTX video card that I would be using for testing, I test fitted the waterblock to the three video cards I had laying around. It just so happened to turn out that these three video cards each used one of the three mounting brackets.

I was presented with a small surprise once removing the GPU waterblock after the test fittings to clean the surface before mating it to the 7800GTX for installation.

The face of the waterblock is obviously very soft as it was imprinted with the ATI logo as well as both NVIDIA logos from the 6600 and 7800 cards. I did not even tighten the brackets down that secure the waterblock to the GPU but it still took an impression. Obviously the thermal paste should fill this when mounted so it should not effect the ability to draw heat out of the GPU but it still shows that the copper waterblocks are a little bit soft so be careful with them.

I once again used the Titan provided Nano Blue thermal paste and secured the memory heatsinks as well. With everything in place and the GPU waterblock cleaned off I mounted the waterblock to the 7800GTX and installed it into the machine.

The tool free PCI expansion slots work really well. You simply lift the lever up, slide the pin out and install the card. There is lot's of room to work the card in place and once it's seated properly in its slot, we just slide the pin back in and close the lever. The whole process went as smoothly as advertised. I tried all three video cards I had and a couple PCI cards. Every one of them installed flawlessly with ease.

I will be running my two WD Raptors in a RAID 0 for testing, so those need to be installed first. To install, we simply clip the two tool-less brackets, one to each side, and slide the drive into the cage until it clicks. Very much the same like any tool-less design. The inset image above shows the drive with the mount clips and then the left side displays one drive half installed and the right shows both drives completely installed. To remove, a simple pinch of the two ends will release the drive and it can be slid out.

The floppy drives are installed with screws and no tool-less clips so I won't bother getting into that. The 5.5" drives do have tool-less clips as seen in the interior photos.

To mount optical drives we simply clip the brackets on and slide the drive in. The fit is really good and lines up well with the door openings. To remove the drive, it's the same as the hard drives, a pinch of the clips and it slides right out. Once again, this system works flawlessly on the Robela with no problems encountered during the process. The fit of the bezel around the optical devices is quite good and there is no rubbing at all.

The final steps of installation are just hooking up the USB and front audio connections. With the diagram we are provided by Titan that process is painless. Before mounting the door and sliding it in place, the connections for the fans and pump assembly on the door had to be hooked up to the front circuit board. The board accepts a 4-Pin molex connection to provide power to the rear exhaust fan, door assembly, and front panel LCD. It is not very securely mounted and when plugging in the connection I felt like it was going to break a number of times.

This is a photo of the case with everything installed and hooked up as it will be for testing. With the limited airflow going through the case, I didn't even bother trying to manage the cables. You can also see that my two IDE hard drives have no where to go with only three slots in the hard drive cage so I had one mounted in the bottom floppy bay and the other just sitting on the bottom of the optical drive tower.

Page 7 : Testing & Performance

The following components were used in testing the Titan Robela…

To test the thermal capabilities of the Robela system, I used Prime95 to stress the CPU and RAM in torture test blend mode and I also ran the system in a continuous loop of 3DMark 05 to stress the GPU and CPU at the same time. I started out with 3 hours of Prime95 and at the 3 hour mark recorded the values given by SpeedFan, as well as the LCD on the Robela that was receiving its reading from the temperature probe on the underside of the waterblock. I then closed down Prime95 and opened 3DMark 05 and ran that in a continuous loop for another 3 hours and recorded the maximum temperature of the GPU as recorded by Rivatuner in the charts below. During the first 3 hours, I had an audio program running in the background pulling music from the two IDE drives randomly to simulate normal activity on them instead of them just sitting idle.

At the end of these back to back 3 hour tests I let the system idle for 3 hours with nothing more than the background processes of Windows and SpeedFan running and recorded the idle values at the end of that time period once again with SpeedFan, the LCD, and Rivatuner for the GPU.

I also used the Ultra Fan Commander to monitor temperatures of the case, the probe was taped to the top of the case behind the exhaust vent, and the temperature of the lower WD Raptor used for testing. The temperatures from those probes were collected at the 6 hour mark, for the load readings, and then again at the end of the idle period at the 9 hour mark.

There were four states in which the testing was completed…

The first was with just the included fans on their self controlled low setting, these results can be seen plotted on the charts below in red.

I then jimmy-rigged a way to test the system with the Robela controlled fans on high by putting the temperature probe in a cup of boiling water. The water was kept above 40C through the entire 9 hours, for both load and idle results, to keep the fans on high. I have not boiled so much water in my entire life combined as I did on these days alone. These results are plotted in blue on the charts.

The next round was ran with an additional pair of 80mm Coolermaster fans in the front mount and the top exhaust mount. The green on the charts is indicative of the results from this set.

The last run of testing was with the two 120mm fans turned off, removed from the radiator, and only the 90mm fan in the rear exhaust slot and one 80mm Coolermaster fan in the front slot. Both of these fans were plugged into the front control panel and being powered in the same manner as the original stock test with the 80mm fan taking the place of the 120mm radiator fans. The results are in yellow.

Here are the results:

The idle results give the first indication of what type of cooling the Robela will be able to provide to the set of components used in testing. The numbers I want to highlight are the ones were the effect of having the radiator fans on high speed. The motherboard temp reading dropped 4 degrees and the hard drive readings dropped an average 4-5 degrees with the radiator fans running at 2100RPM, as opposed to the 1200RPM that they run at on the low setting. The dBa increase read by the meter inside the case only showed a 4dBa increase and outside the case the noise was noticeable but still very acceptable. The CPU temperature didn't move much during any state of fan activity and this indicates that the water systems cooling capabilities are maximized without effect from the fans.

Again, under load we see a similar pattern but the high speed of the radiator fans do lower the CPU temperature by 4 degrees. You can also see that having the radiator fans turned off really didn't have much effect on the CPU and GPU temperatures. The biggest difference, both at idle and under load, is the effect that adding a front mount 80mm fan had. Lowering the temperature of the WD Raptor by a stunning 15 degrees makes this addition necessary for anyone running this case and something that Titan should have included in the package. I think the benefits of the radiator fans is not nearly enough to have them running. The ideal setup was that of the yellow bar, with the rear 90mm fan and a front mounted 80mm fan. The case is completely silent with this setup and the cooling capabilities are equal or better than with the two 120mm fans churning away.

The last numbers I want to point out are the GPU numbers under load. The Robela did a remarkable job keeping the GPU cool even during a 3 hour torture test. The maximum temperature of
49C
is just ridiculous for a 7800GTX. The stock cooling on the Aopen 7800GTX keeps the temperature around 75C when being stressed. This is a
huge drop of 25C
under load and about 10C at idle. Unfortunately this did not allow me to overclock the 7800GTX anymore as it appears that the Aeolus 7800GTX, from Aopen, comes with ample cooling to maximize the capabilities of the card, regardless it is still an impressive temperature drop.

With the performance testing out of the way, we can turn our attentions to the other features of the Titan Robela such as the functionality of the external connections and the front panel LCD. The photo above shows off the beautiful soft blue that the LCD glows and in a dark room it pretty much lights it up. So much so that if you have your case in the same room that you sleep in, it might be too bright. An option to turn the display off or down would be very much welcomed.

The purpose of the LCD is that to display the RPM of the radiator fans and the rear exhaust fan. It also provides us with a temperature reading of the thermal probe that is attached to the underside of the CPU, and a decibel reading of the interior of the case.

The one disappointing aspect of the LCD is the inability to manually control the fan speeds, although the benefit of having the fans running faster is not what I expected. You can set a temperature through the LCD panel that will trigger the system to increase to 'high speed' mode and turn the radiator fans up to 2100RPM from their 'low' setting of 1200RPM. The only problem is that the minimum for this action is 40C. As you saw from the temperature probe reading in the charts above, that temp was never close to being attained when placed on the CPU waterblock as advised in the manual. Even if the temperature probe on the underside of the CPU attained 40C, the alarm goes off for 10 seconds when it makes this transition. I put the temperature probe in boiling water to make this happen and I must say that it is beyond annoying to hear and I would not tolerate it if the temperature crossed over 40C and then dropped back down only to cross 40C and sound the alarm again throughout the day. This would drive someone mad, so even if the system was setup to work correctly it would be very frustrating listening to this alarm every now and then.

I went so far as to unplug the fan connections from the control board in the front of the system to hook them up in-line with the Ultra Fan Commander to control their speed, but when you do this the alarm goes off for 10 seconds. It is bad enough that the system beeps once when powered on, but to have to listen to the alarm for 10 seconds every time you power on or restart the system is rather frustrating and again, the ability to turn off the alarms would be priceless. What I eventually did was unplug the radiator fans completely, as they showed very little benefit to my setup, and plugged the front fan into the front panel controller thus eliminating the 10 second alarm because it was not detecting fan activity.

The final job of the LCD is to display the water level in the system and whether or not the pump is still functioning. The water level indicator works really well as you can see the indicator drops down a notch when the door is laid on its side so it's easy to keep an eye on that. The pump function is displayed on the right and as long as that is spinning your all set. I unplugged the cable that provides this function and the alarm sounded immediately. In fact, the alarm does not stop when the display does not detect any pump function. This, in my opinion, is the only worthwhile alarm to have and was glad to see it functioning correctly. Water pump failure can mean system failure shortly afterwards, so this alarm is definitely welcomed.

The last bit of the Robela to test was the external USB 2.0 connections and audio connections at the top of the case. I really like the placement up here as opposed to the side or front as it allows me to easily access them with the case on the floor sitting beside my desk. I tested my USB card reader in the top ports with HD Tach:

As you can see there is absolutely no loss in performance from that of a direct connection into the motherboards rear USB ports. An external hard drive would be a better test as the read/write capabilities of the CF card I was using are limited to 10MB read and 9MB write which were both achieved in the testing. The audio was actually clear through these connections when most cases I have found to have noise on the audio line at the external connections. The microphone input never registered any noise either when I did a few test recordings and sounded as good as it did when plugged into the rear ports on the motherboard. I unfortunately do not have any 1394 devices so I was unable to test that port.

I would also like to mention that the water pump could not be heard throughout testing. In order to know it was working you had to either look at the flow indicator, put your ear right up against the door, or put your hand over the part of the door that the pump is mounted to feel the slight vibration. This will wrap up the testing and all that is left is my final thoughts. You can read those on the last page in my conclusion.

Page 8 : Conclusion

With the Robela, I was torn to come up with a final statement. The water cooling abilities of the Robela are decent but certainly not impressive. The GPU runs quite a bit cooler but I was not able to overclock the video card anymore when cooled by the Robela so again, no real benefit is achieved due to the limitations of the 7800GTX. The case is ultra quiet with just the supplied fans but the lack of a front fan cooling the hard drives hurts them tremendously, as seen in testing by more than a 15 degree drop when one was added. In my opinion, this is a must so the user will need to purchase an additional fan for this. The top exhaust vent is pretty much useless with a fan as most of the air is blocked and it actually ends up blowing the hot air back into the case more than it exhausts it, so leaving that slot empty is probably the best choice.

The tool free design of the PCI and drive mounts works perfectly as do all 'extremities' of the Robela. The door system is quite solid, that front grill looks amazing, the handles are great, and the case itself is rock solid and as sturdy as a house. Of course there are some drawbacks of these positives. The three available slots for hard drives are really inadequate and a fourth is almost required. With that solid sturdy frame comes weight in which the handles are required but this I can accept because your not going to be moving this type of case around anyway.

If I was running a system that was not overclocked and looking for a case that would run almost silently, then the Robela would be a very good choice. Heck, even with an overclocked setup the Robela system would be acceptable as it runs the CPU only a few degrees higher than a large aftermarket cooler, without any of the extra noise associated with that type of cooler. By unplugging the radiator fans and using an 80mm fan in the front, the case functioned quite well and could not be heard from around the corner 5 feet away. The Robela, however, will not allow you to reach the lofty overclocking results that many associate with watercooling. The Robela is basically a silent case solution that is very simple and straight forward to setup requiring nothing more than basic computer hardware knowledge.

Advantages:

• Near silent operation
• Stunningly beautiful
• Simple to setup

  Disadvantages:

• Average CPU cooling ability
• As big as a mobile home
• 3 Hard drive slots
• Too many alarms…not enough control

  Overclockers Online would like to once again thank Titan for providing the Robela sample for this review.