Performance
Winter has kicked in and, right on cue, there's a problem with our heating system. Readers should note that the 330R was tested in a particularly cool ambient environment of 17.1ºC. The actual recorded CPU and GPU temperatures are therefore understandably low, but it's the delta temperature that tells us the 330R is a capable performer.
As is the case with most sound-damped enclosures, you do lose some performance compared to open-air designs. It's worth noting, however, that our dual Radeon HD 7950 OC graphics cards still ran well within their limits. The 330R may not compete with the airflow monsters of this world, but it's more than capable of dealing with high-end rigs in its default configuration. As it turns out, performance is not too dissimilar to the rival Define R4.
For some - ourselves included - the performance trade-off is warranted by the lower operating noise. Our test platform is such that you notice the sound-proofing most when idle - it's tough to mask the noise of dual Radeons running full chat - and, depending on components used, users should be able to put together 330R builds that are barely audible.
