Page 12 (Conclusions)
The Verdict
Well, I have to say that I am mighty impressed with what Gigabyte managed to produce here. I won't use the word revolutionary as I do believe there're some aspects that need to be improved, but I'd definitely would like to use the word inspiring to type the 3D Mercury.
In the opening of this article I explained you that this is a mainstream product, and I do mean that. See overall performance of the water-cooling is good, but not for the enthusiast audience. Quite frankly the Achilles heel of this product is it's water-cooling. It could have been a tad better in two ways. The first being it's actual cooling. One of the most important components in a water-cooling setup is the radiator. Gigabyte is making the use of very small one. And it's limiting the performance significantly. They know it, as they put two fans on there to give it additional airflow. Unfortunately it's not that simple. You can put 6 wheels under a car, but it's won't make you go any faster. See the problem is simple, before the water can be cooled down more sufficiently it has left the radiator already. So while overall performance is good, it's definitely something that could have been a tad better, I am nitpicking a little though.
The second reason why people buy a water-cooled product are related to the fact that it can be a very quiet methodology to cool down PC components. Now I have to say .. the pump is just loud. It's likely resonating through the chassis or something. So that was a tad disappointing. Then the product at LOW settings, while cooling okay, is already noticeable in terms of noise levels. Ad MID settings it's very apparent, and at HIGH .. well .. the setting HIGH is just not doable. Again, this is related to that radiator. A bigger radiator would have required less fans or these fans rotating at a lower RPM. These are pretty much my only two concerns for the product, but it will keep the enthusiast audience away from it.
The design of the chassis is short from stunning, everything has been though well-through. I mean, simple things like a flow-control meter in eye-sight that's just brilliant stuff. Also things like the fact you can see how full the water-reservoir is is great. And hey.. if you forget about it and the water-level is too low.. the chassis will start to beep so you'll be warned. Simple stuff, but brilliant to see features. Also, you can make that quick pit stop by refilling the reservoir with coolant at the top of the case.
The quality of components used is great, when you dissect the product as we did you'll notice the intense amount of detail that went into it. Everything is assembled professional, precisely and with detail.
The inside of the casing is very spacious you have plenty of room to work with as they made the actual chassis a tad longer, all the components like splitter valves are positioned in such a manner that they will not interfere for example SLI graphics cards, everything has been well thought through. The optical and HDD drivers can be inserted into the case with ease. a DVD-ROM for example, just slide i in and secure it by sliding a retention clip, brilliant stuff. The same goes for the HHDs, clip-on some retention clips, slide them in and they are secure. Even the add-on cards like soundcard, graphics or physics cards are mounted secure with the help of a retention clip. Seriously there's just nothing wrong with the inside of the chassis, including the fans at the back and front which provide great thermals inside the chassis to cool down the rest of the components.
The outside of the casing is made out of brushed aluminum, not only a great light-weight product to work with, it has the functionality of cooling the PC as well. Obviously you can get two colors, Silver and Black, and it surely dos look stunning. Now if all that wasn't enough, and you don't like the side-window .. you can take it out and mount a mesh window in there, which comes as mandatory supply. Again, brilliant.
Editor (Ant) - One of the bigger points that has been touched on already is the setup. Anyone whose put watercooling in their system would have spent many hours (including several tool changes on the Dremmel!), to have a system up and running in 1hr or less is superb. Editor (Hilbert) - Correct, keep in mind that everything is preinstalled, no risk of messing up connections, tubing and thus setup. You'll be building for roughly half an hour and then will be good to go.
Aesthetics then, not only did the casing have to be very functional and effective; the product needed to be sexy to the eyes as well. By using a kickass chassis design, blue coolant through the transparent tubing and water-block, blue LEDs on the fans and CPU fan and blue LEDs all over the chassis the casing is getting that aesthetically pleasing look and feel.
Now the price on this chassis (complete with water-cooling and everything mentioned in this review) is steep. Expect prices of roughly 450 EUR, which is a stack-load of money, surely a little more expensive than really needed. But granted, you'll receive an exceptionally well designed chassis, pre-modified and fitted with everything.
The water-cooling itself is not in the level of high-end performance cooling, yet for a nice overclock and surely for generic usage is very effective. We are granting this chassis an editor's choice award for fantastic design, aesthetics and decent cooling performance. If Gigabyte can focus on a better radiator for the next design and maybe get the noise levels a tad better, perhaps then they'll receive our Best Hardware award which is the biggest achievement a manufacturer can get from Guru3D.com; regardless of this ... the 3D Mercury is a very respectable product and beyond doubt comes highly recommended.
Special thanks go out to Dollarshops.eu for providing this review sample.
Product: 3D Mercury chassis
Company: Gigabyte
Info: websiteDealer (EU): Dollarshops.eu
You can purchase the case for $379.99 in the USA.
