Thermal performance
Compared with the recently-reviewed Stacker 830 from Cooler Master, the Armor LCS started to show some weaknesses at idle. Whilst the CPU reading was a whole 4 degrees less than the Stacker 830, it did highlight problems elsewhere in the chassis.
The two readings that concerned us most were the GPU and motherboard temperatures: 3 degrees above the Stacker 830 on the GPU was just the start of it.
A 10-degree swing between the Stacker 830 and the Armor LCS is no accident, with very little airflow from the front fans reaching the internal components of the Armor LCS, it was bound to cause problems.
As it was, these readings were a little concerning but would things improve under load?
Under load it got worse for the motherboard readings, with a 14-degree gap appearing compared to the Stacker 830. A bit alarming, in all honesty, and definitely something Thermaltake needs to take a look at.
There was some very good news from the load readings though, with the CPU load temperature increasing by just 4-degrees compared to the whopping 16-degree difference to the Stacker 830. Watercooling works!
