Enclosure Brand New Lazer 3D LZX-10 - 10 Liter Case

[Mark13]

I conducted additional testing with the Lazer 3D LZX-10 PC Case with downdraft cooler - Thermalright AXP120-x67 with Noctua A12x25 fan and Thermalright TL-C120 Pro-G x 25mm fan. This is the configuration shown in the last 3 photos. The Arctic P14 as front exhaust fan is very quiet even at full RPM and is drawing considerable air from the GPU being mounted so far to the left front of the case. CPU fan was run at 100% PWM for all tests. Case fans were at 100% PWM front and 50% PWM rear except for 3rd column where speeds were reduced to check temperatures at lower fan speeds. 37% PWM was the slowest the rear Noctua A9x25 Cromax would spin. You will note a greater difference between the fully vented and GPU vents only top panel versus the earlier tests conducted with a tower cooler. The temperatures between the two tests are not directly comparable as two different CPU's were used. This test does indicate that a downdraft cooler has a greater benefit from the fully vented top case panel than a tower cooler configuration. I wanted to compare the Thermalright 120x25mm fan to the Noctua A12x25 as the frame of the Thermalright appears more like an airflow fan with a less focused airflow, but with the fan blades more similar to an air pressure focused fan. And of course it nicely matches the gray case.

Aorus B550 ITX MB; Ryzen 7 4750G; 32 GB Corsair LPX 3200 RAM; Metal block over NVMe drive not installed;
PNY RTX 3060 Graphics Card – Self Regulated
Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Paste
Rear Intake – Front Exhaust
CPU-Z Stress Test & Unigine Valley Ultra Settings for 10 minutes

Room Temp 21C;
Temp Sensor TZ10 read 16.8C on all test runs;

CPUID HWMonitor Readings:

CPU Cooler​	Front Exhaust & Rear Intake Fans​	Front Exhaust & Rear Intake Fans​	Front Exhaust & Rear Intake Fans​	Front Exhaust & Rear Intake Fans​
GPU​	Thermalright AXP120-x67​	Thermalright AXP120-x67​	Thermalright AXP120-x67​	Thermalright AXP120-x67​
Case Top Panel​	PNY RTX 3060​	PNY RTX 3060​	PNY RTX 3060​	PNY RTX 3060​
Case Front Panel​	Fully Vented​	GPU Only Vents​	Fully Vented​	Fully Vented​
CPU Cooler Fan​	10 Slots​	10 Slots​	10 Slots​	10 Slots​
Front Case Fan​	Noctua A12x25​	Noctua A12x25​	Noctua A12x25​	Thermalright TL-C120Pro-G 25mm​
Rear Case Fan​	Arctic P14​	Arctic P14​	Arctic P14 – 50% PWM​	Arctic P14​
Temp Sensor 0 Max​	Noctua A9x25 – 50% PWM​	Noctua A9x25 – 50% PWM​	Noctua A9x25 – 37% PWM​	Noctua A9x25 – 50% PWM​
Temp Sensor 1 Max​	44​	46​	47​	44​
Temp Sensor 2 CPU Max​	42​	45​	44​	40​
Temp Sensor 3 PCI Max​	70​	72​	74​	70​
Temp Sensor 4 Max​	21​	21​	21​	21​
Temp Sensor 5 Max​	43​	46​	45​	41​
CPU Fan Max RPM​	43​	45​	46​	43​
Front Case Fan Max RPM​	2064​	2076​	2045​	1859​
Rear Case Fan Max RPM​	1726​	1726​	1004​	1708​
CPU Pkg Max Temp​	1328​	1178​	868​	1128​
CPU Pkg Max Wattage​	70.6​	72.8​	74.1​	70​
NVMe Top 970 Evo+ Temp​	75.3​	73.8​	75.44​	76.29​
NVMe Bottom​	44​	45​	46​	43​
GPU Max Temp​	N/A​	N/A​	N/A​	N/A​
GPU Hot Spot Max Temp​	70.7​	71.7​	71.9​	70.8​
GPU Max Wattage​	82​	83.5​	84.2​	81.9​
GPU Fan Max RPM​	147.96​	152.19​	153.19​	157.26​
​	1619​	1637​	1703​	1596​

 

[Mark13]

I wanted to test out air flow through the LZX-10 case - front to back and back to front with a downdraft cooler to determine the best cooling performance configuration.
I used the Noctua L9x76 (L9x65 with A9x25 Fan) cooler as it runs a bit warmer than larger coolers and it also does not intrude into the space of the 24 pin MB connector where my thick EVGA PSU cables can get in the way and push against the front case fan.
I used my testing rig:
Aorus B550 ITX MB; Ryzen 7 4750G; 32 GB Corsair LPX 3200 RAM; Metal block over NVMe drive not installed;
PNY RTX 3060 Graphics Card – Self Regulated
Noctua L9x76 (L9x65 with A9x25 Fan)
Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Paste
All fans at 100% PWM unless otherwise noted; Phanteks T30 set to advanced mode
CPU-Z Stress Test & Unigine Valley Ultra Settings for 10 minutes

Room Temp 21C;
Temp Sensor TZ10 read 16.8C on all test runs;
I installed the case fans in 6 different configurations:
4 with front intake & rear exhaust at 100% PWM:
120mm Arctic P12 intake fan with 10 slot front panel
140mm Arctic P14 intake fan with 10 slot front panel
140mm Arctic P14 intake fan with 14 slot front panel; also at 60% PWM & rear Noctua A9x25 exhaust fan at 50% PWM
140mm Arctic P14 intake fan with cyclone front panel

2 with front exhaust & rear intake at 100% PWM:
120mm Arctic P12 fan with 10 slot front panel
140mm Arctic P14 fan with 14 slot panel

After earlier suggestions I obtained some spacers & longer mounting screws to reduce the noise on the intake side of both the front & rear fans. There is space in the front of the case to use 5mm spacers with 25mm thick fans that substantially reduced their noise level and eliminated the whine at higher fan speeds. On the rear 92x25mm fan there was space for 10mm spacers that reduced the intake noise almost completely. You can see the spacers mounted on the newly uploaded front case fan photos.

Summary:
The reversed back to front air flow provides substantially cooler and quieter operation and is the preferred configuration.
The reverse flow P12 at slightly higher RPM cooled better than the reverse flow P14.
With front intake, the 14 slot front panel provided only a 1 degree C cooling improvement over the standard 10 slot panel on 2 MB sensors with no improvement in CPU temp.
Using 5mm spacers on the front intake fan with the slotted front panel eliminated the whine and reduced the overall fan noise to about the same level as the cyclone vented front panel.

I will have to repeat this same testing with a tower cooler.


CPUID HWMonitor Readings:

​	Front Intake Rear Exhaust​	Front Exhaust Rear Intake​	Front Intake Rear Exhaust​	Front Exhaust Rear Intake​	Front Intake Rear Exhaust​	Front Intake Rear Exhaust​	Front Intake Rear Exhaust​
CPU Cooler​	Noctua L9x76​	Noctua L9x76​	Noctua L9x76​	Noctua L9x76​	Noctua L9x76​	Noctua L9x76​	Noctua L9x76​
GPU​	PNY RTX 3060​	PNY RTX 3060​	PNY RTX 3060​	PNY RTX 3060​	PNY RTX 3060​	PNY RTX 3060​	PNY RTX 3060​
Case Top Panel​	Fully Vented​	Fully Vented​	Fully Vented​	Fully Vented​	Fully Vented​	Fully Vented​	Fully Vented​
Case Front Panel​	10 Slots​	10 Slots​	14 Slots​	14 Slots​	10 Slots​	Cyclone​	14 Slots​
CPU Cooler Fan​	Noctua A9x25​	Noctua A9x25 ​	Noctua A9x25​	Noctua A9x25 ​	Noctua A9x25​	Noctua A9x25​	Noctua A9x25​
Front Case Fan​	Arctic P12​	Arctic P12​	Arctic P14​	Arctic P14​	Arctic P14​	Arctic P14​	Arctic P14 – 60%​
Rear Case Fan​	Noctua A9x25​	Noctua A9x25 ​	Noctua A9x25​	Noctua A9x25 ​	Noctua A9x25​	Noctua A9x25​	Noctua A9x25 – 50%​
Temp Sensor 0 Max​	48​	44​	47​	45​	47​	47​	49​
Temp Sensor 1 Max​	47​	43​	45​	44​	46​	46​	48​
Temp Sensor 2 CPU Max​	77​	76​	77​	77​	77​	77​	78​
Temp Sensor 3 PCI Max​	21​	21​	21​	21​	21​	21​	21​
Temp Sensor 4 Max​	47​	43​	46​	44​	47​	46​	48​
Temp Sensor 5 Max​	47​	45​	46​	46​	47​	46​	48​
CPU Fan Max RPM​	1880​	1906​	1950​	1901​	1962​	1956​	1997​
Front Case Fan Max RPM​	1928​	1912​	1704​	1700​	1708​	1726​	60% - 1184​
Rear Case Fan Max RPM​	2070​	1997​	2039​	2002​	2064​	2051​	50% - 1175​
CPU Pkg Max Temp​	77.8​	76​	77​	77.4​	77.8​	77.3​	78.3​
CPU Pkg Max Wattage​	74.7​	75.56​	74.2​	73.77​	74.78​	75.12​	74.58​
NVMe Top 970 Evo+ Temp​	46​	45​	45​	45​	46​	45​	48​
NVMe Bottom​	N/A​	N/A​	N/A​	N/A​	N/A​	N/A​	N/A​
GPU Max Temp​	72.3​	71.9​	72.7​	71.5​	72.9​	72.8​	73.5​
GPU Hot Spot Max Temp​	84.3​	83.3​	84.7​	83.7​	85​	85​	85.3​
GPU Max Wattage​	154.89​	153.05​	153.88​	155.13​	150.63​	153.4​	153.87​
GPU Fan Max RPM​	1698​	1617​	1723​	1655​	1747​	1786​	1791​

 

[Mark13]

I was finally able to conduct some additional reverse airflow case testing. My delay was caused by intermittent power connection stoppages that I was finally able to track down to the EVGA 24 pin power cable. The cable is a bit too long for such a small case and the mesh sleeve made the cable too stiff to bend without applying pressure to the connector at the motherboard causing random disconnections. This was noted on 2 different motherboards, 3 different power supplies and multiple cables. After cutting away the sleeve the individual cables could be formed into shape within the case without pressure on the cable connection. Ideally custom cables should be used.

Bottom line: Reverse airflow is the quieter & cooler way to go with both tower or downdraft CPU coolers in this case. Extremely quiet operation, no whine at any fan speed. Additional front fan slots (14 vs 10) and fully slotted vs GPU only top panel slots makes only a small difference as noted below. 8mm spacers on the intake side of the 92x25mm fan were enough to minimize any intake noise. There was no real noise difference between the 10 and 14 slot front exhaust panels.

Lazer 3D LZX-10 PC Case
Aorus B550 ITX MB; Ryzen 7 5700G; 32 GB Corsair LPX 3200 RAM; Metal block over NVMe drive not installed;
Evga 3060Ti XC Graphics Card – Self Regulated
Thermalright Silver Soul 135
Rear 92 mm intake with 8mm spacers in front of fan, Front Exhaust
Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Paste

CPU-Z Stress Test & Unigine Valley Ultra Settings for 10 minutes

Room Temp 21C;
Temp Sensor TZ10 read 16.8C on all test runs;

CPUID HWMonitor Reading:

​	Rear Intake Front Exhaust​	Rear Intake Front Exhaust	Rear Intake Front Exhaust	Rear Intake Front Exhaust
CPU Cooler​	Thermalright SS 135​	Thermalright SS 135​	Thermalright SS 135​	Thermalright SS 135​
GPU​	Evga 3060Ti XC​	Evga 3060Ti XC​	Evga 3060Ti XC​	Evga 3060Ti XC​
Case Top Panel​	Fully Vented​	GPU Vents Only​	Fully Vented​	GPU Vents Only​
Case Front Panel​	14 Slots​	14 Slots​	10 Slots​	10 Slots​
CPU Cooler Fan​	TL-D12 Pro-G​	TL-D12 Pro-G​	TL-D12 Pro-G​	TL-D12 Pro-G​
Front Case Fan​	TL-C14X​	TL-C14X​	TL-C14X​	TL-C14X​
Rear Case Fan​	Noctua A9x25​	Noctua A9x25​	Noctua A9x25​	Noctua A9x25​
Temp Sensor 0 Max​	47​	47​	49​	49​
Temp Sensor 1 Max​	43​	43​	45​	45​
Temp Sensor 2 CPU Max​	68​	69​	69​	70​
Temp Sensor 3 PCI Max​	21​	21​	21​	21​
Temp Sensor 4 Max​	44​	48​	46​	45​
Temp Sensor 5 Max​	48​	49​	50​	50​
CPU Fan Max RPM​	1890​	1912​	1896​	1896​
Front Case Fan Max RPM​	1762​	1757​	1744​	1739​
Rear Case Fan Max RPM​	1991​	2014​	2002​	2008​
CPU Pkg Max Temp​	68.3​	69.5​	69.6​	70.1​
CPU Pkg Max Wattage​	61.09​	61.38​	61.14​	61.38​
NVMe Top 980 Pro Temp​	43​	44​	44​	45​
NVMe Bottom 970 Evo+ Temp​	50​	50​	51​	51​
GPU Max Temp​	65.1​	64.8​	66.5​	66.2​
GPU Hot Spot Max Temp​	76.1​	76​	78​	77.4​
GPU Max Wattage​	194.59​	194.68​	192.73​	196.31​
GPU Fan Max RPM​	1884 / 1880​	2126 / 2126​	1940 / 1940​	1926 / 1929​

 

[Mark13]

As the LZX-10 can mount one 140mm or 120mm fan or two 120mm front fans if a shorter ITX length graphics card and no front/side IO is installed, I thought it would be worthwhile to determine if dual 120mm fans offered any cooling advantage versus a single 140mm fan.

From earlier testing I determined that a reversed, back to front airflow produced the quietest results. Instead of a rear intake fan, I mounted a second Noctua A9x25 fan to the rear of the cooler. This placed the back fan 12mm from the rear case intake. About one third of the fan sat above the cooler fins to clear the rear IO cover. The standard 10 slot front panel and the fully vented top panel was used for all testing. I did obtain some wire fan grills as the intake side of the front fan is close to the 24 pin motherboard connector.

Summary of observations:
The Arctic P14 fan was very quiet even at full RPM with no resonances noted.
The Thermalright C14 fan moves more air but with more noise from additional air movement that was not annoying.
Dual Arctic P12’s produced a bit more noise with a slight hum.
Dual Thermalright C12 Pro G fans moved lots of air with a slight hum and produced a pulsing noise at high RPM.
Dual Scythe Kaze Flax Black fans also moved a lot of air while being slightly quieter than the Thermalright C12’s and also producing a slight pulsing noise.
A single Noctua A12x25 was slightly louder than the Arctic P14 with no unpleasant additional noises.
A single Arctic P12 is slightly nosier than the Noctua A12x25.

The Arctic fans seems to harmonize very well with the acrylic case. The case material seems to eliminate the resonances that occur with these fans in stamped steel cases.

The high airflow dual fan installations – Thermalright G12 Pro GX and Scythe Kaze Flex Black introduce a pulsing at high RPM along with considerable air movement noise.

There is no large temperature difference between the single and dual fan installations. A single Arctic P14 is the easiest and quietest solution.

CPUID HWMonitor Readings:

Front Case Fan​	Arctic P14​	Thermalright TL-CX14X​	Dual Arctic P12’s​	Dual Thermalright C12 Pro GX​	Dual Scythe Kaze Flex Black​	Noctua A12x25​	Phanteks T30​	Arctic P12​
Temp Sensor 0 Max​	51​	50​	49​	48​	49​	49​	49​	50​
Temp Sensor 1 Max​	44​	43​	44​	43​	44​	43​	43​	44​
Temp Sensor 2 CPU Max​	71​	71​	71​	70​	71​	70​	71​	71​
Temp Sensor 3 PCI Max​	21​	21​	21​	21​	21​	21​	21​	21​
Temp Sensor 4 Max​	45​	45​	45​	44​	45​	45​	44​	45​
Temp Sensor 5 Max​	47​	47​	47​	45​	47​	46​	45​	47​
CPU Fan Max RPM​	1973​	2057​	2051​	2039​	2045​	2051​	2051​	1973​
Front Case Fan Max RPM​	1666​	1762​	1849​	1962​	1591​	2020​	1973​	1839​
CPU Pkg Max Temp​	71.5​	71​	71​	70.4​	71.3​	70.8​	71​	71​
CPU Pkg Max Wattage​	75.2​	74.96​	75.43​	75.05​	75.17​	75.15​	76.59​	74.99​
NVMe Top 980 Pro Temp​	48​	48​	48​	47​	48​	47​	47​	48​
GPU Max Temp​	71.5​	72.5​	71.1​	70.3​	70.4​	71.7​	72.2​	71.7​
GPU Hot Spot Max Temp​	83.9​	84.7​	83.4​	82.5​	82.8​	84.3​	84.5​	84.1​
GPU Max Wattage​	153.86​	153.92​	152.88​	153.82​	153.03​	152.14​	157.51​	152.7​
GPU Fan Max RPM​	1626​	1720​	1588​	1548​	1553​	1643​	1670​	1662​

 

[Mark13]

The first part of this testing was simply to determine the difference in cooling performance between a single 140mm and dual 120mm fans. The Arctic P12 and the Thermalright C12 Pro G were chosen as they had the same fan blade and frame design as their 140mm versions. After this initial testing, I felt I gave short shrift to the two 120mm airflow fans – the Thermalright C12 Pro G and the Scythe Kaze Flex Black. I went back and conducted the same tests using single fans and added them to the testing results.

The Thermalright C12 is silent at 50% PWM – 1188 RPM. At 66% PWM – 1418 RPM there was moderate noise. Above 76% PWM – 1541 RPM the fan noise begins to take on a hard edge that gradually increases above that. The C12 is noisier than the Noctua A12x25 at 100% PWM.
The Scythe Kaze Flex Black is silent at 50% PWM – 972 RPM. 70% PWM – 1285 RPM seemed to be the sweet spot for this fan in terms of noise in this installation. Above 80% PWM a slight hum is added to its noise component that continues to 100%.
The Arctic P12 has a slight but distinct whine at RPM exceeding 80%. There is no such whine in the P14.
The Phanteks T30 is slightly noisier than the Noctua A12x25 at 100% PWM in performance mode – 1973 RPM.
All of my noise impressions are with the fans installed in the LZX-10 as exhausting out the front of the case.

CPUID HWMonitor Readings:

Front Case Fan​	Arctic P14​	Thermalright TL-CX14X​	Dual Arctic P12’s​	Dual Thermalright C12 Pro GX​	Dual Scythe Kaze Flex Black​	Noctua A12x25​	Phanteks T30​	Arctic P12​	Thermalright C12 Pro GX​	Scythe Kaze Flex Black​
Temp Sensor 0 Max​	51​	50​	49​	48​	49​	49​	49​	50​	49​	51​
Temp Sensor 1 Max​	44​	43​	44​	43​	44​	43​	43​	44​	43​	45​
Temp Sensor 2 CPU Max​	71​	71​	71​	70​	71​	70​	71​	71​	70​	71​
Temp Sensor 3 PCI Max​	21​	21​	21​	21​	21​	21​	21​	21​	21​	21​
Temp Sensor 4 Max​	45​	45​	45​	44​	45​	45​	44​	45​	44​	46​
Temp Sensor 5 Max​	47​	47​	47​	45​	47​	46​	45​	47​	46​	47​
CPU Fan Max RPM​	1973​	2057​	2051​	2039​	2045​	2051​	2051​	1973​	1956​	1967​
Front Case Fan Max RPM​	1666​	1762​	1849​	1962​	1591​	2020​	1973​	1839​	1896​	1638​
CPU Pkg Max Temp​	71.5​	71​	71​	70.4​	71.3​	70.8​	71​	71​	70.5​	71.8​
CPU Pkg Max Wattage​	75.2​	74.96​	75.43​	75.05​	75.17​	75.15​	76.59​	74.99​	80.21​	75.12​
NVMe Top 980 Pro Temp​	48​	48​	48​	47​	48​	47​	47​	48​	48​	49​
GPU Max Temp​	71.5​	72.5​	71.1​	70.3​	70.4​	71.7​	72.2​	71.7​	71.3​	72.2​
GPU Hot Spot Max Temp​	83.9​	84.7​	83.4​	82.5​	82.8​	84.3​	84.5​	84.1​	83.7​	84.4​
GPU Max Wattage​	153.86​	153.92​	152.88​	153.82​	153.03​	152.14​	157.51​	152.7​	155.42​	152.97​
GPU Fan Max RPM​	1626​	1720​	1588​	1548​	1553​	1643​	1670​	1662​	1637​	1694​

 

[Mark13]

I decided to conduct a different sort of test comparing cases instead of the components within them – the Lazer 3D LZX-10 at 10 liters, to the Sliger S610 at 13.3 liters. All internal components – complete motherboard assembly, graphics card, power supply and case fan were switched between cases. A Noctua D9L CPU cooler was used with two Noctua A9x25 fans attached. The rear fan had to be mounted high up on fin stack with about one third of the fan set above the cooler fins to clear the rear IO cover. The only change between the cases was reversing all three fans’ air intake direction as the airflow in the LZX-10 was back to front while on the S610 it was front to back. The order of the two CPU cooler fans (center and IO panel) was maintained. A single case fan, the Thermalright C12 Pro GX was placed as a front exhaust fan in the LZX-10, and as a middle case fan directly in line with the CPU with 20mm clearance to the rear of the front facing PSU. The wire fan grill on the 120mm case fan, necessary on the LZX-10, was left in place in the S610 although no longer necessary, to not alter the fan’s performance characteristics. A more complete description of this S610 case fan placement was discussed by me at https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/sliger-s610-air-cooling-case-options.17844/ the bottom front fan was not installed for this test.

The LZX-10 was equipped with the fully ventilated top panel and the standard 10 slot front panel. The Sliger S610 had all ventilated panels – both side panels were the newer full length ventilated panels.

Two runs in each configuration were conducted – the first with 100% fan speed on all three fans, and the second with the CPU fans allowed to auto adjust with the case fan set at 66% (2/3rds) PWM.

The CPU temperatures were 2-3C higher in the S610. Not surprising as the LZX-10 is in-taking outside air from the rear of the case while the S620 is in-taking air from inside the case. The S610 reduced the NVMe drive temperature by 6C at 100% PWM with its direct airflow over the motherboard.

The Sliger S610 of course has more internal volume for additional fans to be installed to further reduce temperatures but that would prevent this direct comparison.

I hope you find this useful.


CPUID HWMonitor Readings:

Case​	Lazer LZX-10​	Sliger S610​	Lazer LZX-10​	Sliger S610​
Case Fan PWM​	100%​	100%​	66%​	66%​
Temp Sensor 0 Max​	47​	46​	48​	49​
Temp Sensor 1 Max​	43​	43​	44​	43​
Temp Sensor 2 CPU Max​	69​	72​	70​	72​
Temp Sensor 3 PCI Max​	21​	21​	21​	21​
Temp Sensor 4 Max​	44​	43​	45​	43​
Temp Sensor 5 Max​	47​	46​	47​	47​
CPU Fan Max RPM​	2051​	2057​	2051​	1950​
Case Fan Max RPM​	1906​	1912​	1442​	1430​
CPU Pkg Max Temp​	69.8​	72.9​	70.5​	72​
CPU Pkg Max Wattage​	75.08​	75.25​	78.22​	74.77​
NVMe Top 980 Pro Temp​	47​	41​	48​	45​
GPU Max Temp​	63​	67​	64​	64.8​
GPU Hot Spot Max Temp​	74.4​	77.9​	75.1​	76.3​
GPU Max Wattage​	175.83​	178.84​	176.31​	179.27​
GPU Fan Max RPM​	1791-1787​	1957-1954​	1826-1832​	1866-1869​

 

[K888D]

Thanks for posting this comparison, great results for both cases! Also have to give a shoutout to the EVGA 3060, I use this card as well in my own personal rig, they've done a great job with the thermals and fan noise for such a small card.