Aerocool DS-230

[testman78]

Introduction

With a long history of creating some fantastic chassis, Aerocool are always a welcome site here at Xtremesystems.org. Sure, we love our flagship models with crazy spec and price tags, but every now and then, a down to Earth and affordable product is just as good, especially given that these are the products people are more likely to actually invest in for their own system.After the great success of the Dead Silence series with its DS Cube, DS 200, and the DS case fans, a new member joins the award winning high-end product line.Aerocool is back on Xtremesystems.org once again and today, we'll be taking a look at their mid-tower, the Aerocool DS-230. Theres a big market for affordable cases with great amounts of component compatibility and the DS-230 certainly ticks a lot of the right boxes. You'll find it capable of housing a high-end gaming system, some water cooling, long graphics cards, and much more and that's sure to make it appeal to a wide range of system builders, especially given its affordable price.The chassis features a new LED illumination with seven colors and three lighting modes (always on, breathing or pulsating) to choose from.



As you can see from the specifications below, the DS-230 is pretty well equipped. It has room for an ATX motherboard,room for extra long graphics cards,room for big cpu coolers,seven expansion slots and a good amount of storage bays.




Packaging & Contents

The DS-230 arrived inside a plain cardboard box with a product drawing at the front right next to the company logo, color and available features.The rear is pretty much identical to the front.



The features list is printed on both sides in 11 languages.



Case is well protected and even though we can see that box got hit couple of times then inside all is perfectly fine.The tower is wrapped inside a plastic bag and placed between two Styrofoam spacers.



Below you can see photo of installation guide. It's a must to add installation guide and general product description to the products sold in many countries ( especially in Europe ). Even though barely anyone is using it, it can be helpful for some users. Especially those who are building their first computer can have some questions and answers will find in the installation guide.



Contained inside the box are some cable ties and a plastic bag with all the necessary screws and standoffs.




A Closer Look-Inside

The case measures 475 x 230 x 478mm (HxWxD), and when empty it weighs 8.2 kg.The main part of the chassis looks to be floating above the base.You don't get a window in the main panel, however some attention has been paid to cosmetic appeal.



The front panel has a really nice design to it, with two tall cut-outs for airflow to the front fans.



The front is made of plastic, which has been processed by Aerocool to remind you of brushed aluminum.There is no room for optical drives.



The top panel is equipped with two layers of noise cancelling materials.The magnetic plate,is practical when you need a low noise environment.



Remove this plate, and you'll find plenty of additional fan/radiator mounting options.



Front I/O consists of two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, the usual pair of headphone jacks, and buttons to control power and lighting.With the two buttons next to the power button, the entire lighting of the DS 230 can be controlled.You can select between 3 lighting modes: On, Off, Breathing.Available are seven colors: blue, green,red, orange, purple, cyan, white and PWM.The latter is used for automatic LED control based on the fan speeds.



Around the back, you'll find the rear 120mm fan mount. There's seven expansion slots available, each fitted with a reusable ventilated cover(more than enough room here for a multi-GPU configuration).



The bottom of the chassis houses the PSU and there's even a small slide-out dust filter for quick and easy maintainance.



Dead Silence logo just on the underside.



The base has some large feet, which gives it great stability and some firm rubber grips that will help prevent it sliding around your floor, but also eat up a few (if any) vibrations from your system.




A Closer Look-Inside

Both side panels(0.7mm thick steel) are equipped with two layers of noise cancelling materials.



The powder black paint job of the exterior continues throughout too, giving the whole thing a uniform appearance.



There's also a lot of cable routing holes and cut-outs to help keep things neat and tidy.



To help with that cable management, there are loads of handy cable tie loops, as well as cable ties in the box, so getting a clean-looking build should be fairly straight forward.



The interior has an PSU shroud.The chamber length is 22.5 cm, so that it will be sufficient for most modern PSU models.



There's no bays in the mid-section, allowing a huge amount of room for a graphics card.Even the biggest GPU on the market should fit with ease.We can see the mountings for two 2.5-inch drives.



There are some screw holes on the backplate, allowing you to directly screw a pair of 2.5″ drives.



The motherboard back plate features a good size CPU cooler mounting cut-out.



There are quite a few cables for the front panel floating around and that is due to the chassis featuring a lot of ports.



Chamber position at the back of the case with two 3.5-inch Drive Bay.



The drive trays are also tool-free so you just have to remove the brackets from the sides, mount the drive and then place them back in(2.5" Disks need screws for installation).



There's just enough room at the top for a 240/280mm AIO cooler,or you can fit 2 x 120mm fans if you felt the need.



In the back, a pre-installed 120mm Aerocool fan, which comes fitted with both 3-pin PWM and a Molex power connector for maximum compatibility.



There's a huge amount of space behind the motherboard.



Another 2.5″ drive bay is found right behind the motherboard, giving you even more room for storage drives.



To improve the performance of the fans Aerocool added integrated PWM fan controller with LED effect, which supports up to 6 fans and is based on the signal from the motherboard.



To enable it, you have to connect a PWM fan to a specific port on the fan controller hub, and after that the color will change depending on the duty cycle of the fan. It will start at green when the fan is running slowly, then move to blue, white, orange, and finally red when the fans are running at full speed. It draws the PWM signal from your motherboard, and the lighting can be disabled or set to breathing mode.



To the lower part we see the PSU area.The base has an perforated area,for the fan of the power supply.At the bottom, you'll find a pair of rubber pads for the PSU mount, and the option to mount the PSU normal or inverted.



The front of the case easily pops off by pulling from the bottom.



The front panel can be removed to reveal spots for dual 140mm or 3x120mm fans and the cover also features a dust filter.



The front of the case itself is compatible with water cooling systems which feature an 240mm radiator.




Installation and Finished looks

Usually I use this area to quickly place hardware components inside a case to showcase what you can expect in terms of interior space.The first thing we are going to install is our motherboard.



We can install probably all available ATX motherboards from ITX to ATX.



The power supply sides in from the side of the case and easy mounts.It is screwed to the rear panel.



Hard drives are next.



2.5-inch installation requires 4 screws.



I had not problem getting our graphics card installed. You actually have room for graphics cards up to 413mm(Without front fan).The cable routing hole for the graphics card is perfectly placed for the PCI-Express power connectors.



You can also see I was able to install my Thermalright True 140 Direct CPU cooler easily because of the large CPU cutout.



The chassis has lighting at the top and bottom of the front panel, and the base of the case also has a top-down glow. Under normal operation, you can choose from red, green, blue, orange, magenta, light blue or white lighting, but there is also a special PWM mode.Here we can see the chassis unusual styling and integrated LED strips. The product's lighting adds a more exuberant touch and allows you to modify the appearance.



The bottom has a RGB LED ambient lighting.




Test System & Methology


Processor: Intel i7 4770K @ 4.2GHz (1.1v)
CPU Cooling: Thermaltake NiC C4
Motherboard: MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 Series 16GB 2400MHz
Video Card: NVIDIA Geforce GTX 770 Reference Model
PSU: Thermaltake Smart 750W
Hard Drive: OCZ Vector 120GB SSD
Optical Drive: DVD-ROM
OS: Windows 7 Pro 64-bit SP2





Software:

CPUID HW Monitor 1.23
CPUID CPU-Z 1.65
Prime95 v27.1
Furmark 1.11.0

I am testing the Aerocool DS-230 performance as follows:

Room temperature is kept at 22C throughout my tests.
The CPU Fan is set to 100% to eliminate inconsistencies as a result of PWM control.
Idle temperatures are obtained after booting the PC and idling on the desktop for 30 minutes.
CPU load temperatures are obtained after running Prime95′s Small FTTs test for 15 minutes.
GPU load temperatures are obtained after running Furmark's Burn-In Test for 15 minutes.


Temperature

The Aerocool DS-230 preformed great in all three categories.Overall I am pleased with the temps using what came with the chassis.




Noise Level

The aim with DS-230 is to reduce as much noise emitted from the internal components as possible. All of the panels are closed off and have insulation to assist with this and we can confirm that DS-230 is indeed a very quiet case, the noise levels are barely audible even with fan set to 100%.




Conclusion

Aerocool has delivered a solid case in the DS-230.The case is made of a 0.7mm thick steel body, plastic panels and a entirely painted in black and that also includes the interior.The case is made to be compatible with motherboards according to the ATX / micro ATX / mini-ITX standards and standard ATX power supply located on the bottom panel. The chassis can accommodate up to two 2.5-inch and three 3.5-inch drives as well as graphics cards that measure up to 413 mm in length, and CPU coolers that don't exceed 170 mm in height.The top panel, as well as the two side panels, is equipped with two layers of noise cancelling materials.Despite being a silence-optimized case, it doesn't lack for space in the cooling department. If you're feeling lavish, you can populate the front with three 120 mm or two 140 mm fans, two 120 or 140 mm fans at the top, and one rear 120 mm fan. As standard kit, Aerocool includes a single 120 mm PWM fan.As a nice touch DS230 provides led lighting and the choice to select from 7LED colors & 3 Lighting modes, which include ON mode, Breath mode and OFF mode.The system's chassis opts for a power supply cover which hides excess cabling and allows for a neater finish. Unfortunately, this cover plate isn't removable which complicates the initial build process slightly. On another note, the case has a generous amount of cable management holes, drive caddy mounts and incorporates RGB lighting via a stealth control panel.



When looking for a budget chassis, you're often more motivated by the price than anything else. You need something on that budget and you'll just have to get the best spec you can hope for. Thankfully, we've got companies like Aerocool that are pushing the limits of what you can get for so little. The Aero DS-230 at $98 ticks virtually every box for a mid-to-high budget gaming PC build, offering up room for a high-end GPU, water cooling support, good airflow, cable routing, a decent amount of storage drives and more. Then we've got nice little bonuses like the magnetic dust filter on the top panel.There is only one fan pre-installed, which is a shame at this price point, but chances are that most people spending in this region will be investing in after-market fans anyway.Aerocools DS-230 is a perfect choice for those who want high-end build quality and features, but want to take a break from the usual big names in the industry. If you want something competitive that stands out from the crowd, then you'll be very happy with what this chassis has to offer.