Testing the Sharkoon Rebel C50 – how much hardware fits into a case for around 100 euros?

1 - Introduction and technical data 2 - Look and feel - Unboxing 3 - Standard-PC build 4 - NZXT N7 B650E mainboard in detail 5 - Kingston Fury Beast 6 - Seasonic Focus GX1000 7 - Alphacool custom PC build 8 - Temperatures and noise 9 - Summary and conclusion

Stress test

By stress test, I always mean 30 minutes of Cinebench R23 and Furmark. This is a very good way of checking whether the cooling is right and how loud the system gets. I tried out a few fan setups with the system. The first test looked like this:

On the one hand, this was the first burn-in regarding thermal paste, getting air out of the water circuit etc. and on the other hand, to check how loud the system gets at a fixed speed of approx. 1,000 rpm on all fans.

Well, 36 dB (A) is not bad. My goal was to get below 30 dB (A), then the device won’t show anything.

These are now the settings in the NZXT CAM software. Everything is controlled via the GPU temperature. Using the custom water cooling via the CPU is virtually pointless. The little bit of waste heat leaves the water cooling completely cold. The CPU runs with PBO 2 (Curved Optimizer all core negative: 30)

If I move my measuring device 50 cm away from the housing, I don’t measure anything. So I put it directly on top.

Directly above the upper 280 mm radiator, I get 35 dB (A). With a sitting distance of > 50 cm, you basically hear nothing from the system. Since most people usually wear a headset when gaming, I turn the fans and pump up a little higher.

All fans have the same fan curve – different absolute values. From 65 degrees GPU temperature, the fans go on the radiators: the 140 mm approx. 900, the 120 mm approx. 950 rpm and the rest rotate at approx. 800 rpm. The pump goes up to max. 2860 rpm.

And this is what it looks like when you let the PC work properly. The CPU stays just below 94 degrees and the GPU is dilly-dallying around at max. 70 degrees. Maximum delta between avg. GPU temp. and hotspot = 17 Kelvin. And the volume?

33 dB (A) unter Volllast

Direkt über dem Radiator

Ich weiß, so soll man nicht messen, aber ist doch interessant

Ca. 35 cm über dem Gehäuse

The first thing you hear under load is when the pump goes from 2000 to 2800 rpm. It’s not loud, but you can hear the difference. From 65 degrees GPU temperature you can hear the wind noise of the fans – especially the 140 mm fan at the top. I can tell you, yes you can hear it, but it’s as far away from LOUD as the moon is from the earth.

What happens if you turn the fans up to full – you mean like this?

That’s really loud and annoying! The temperatures when gaming, surely some people would like to know? Depending on the game, it’s around 65-68 degrees on the GPU and the CPU fluctuates significantly more between 60 and 70 degrees. What are the SSDs doing?

Temperaturen der SSDs

HP FX900 Pro Gen4 x4

Crucial P5 Plus Gen4 x4

Crucial P5 Plus Gen4 x2

The temperatures are basically ok. I’m worried about the Crucial P5 Plus, which is already 73 degrees after just one run (1 GB 5x). NZXT really needs to use the covers of the two lower SSDs as a cooling surface, as I already mentioned.

Interim conclusion custom water cooling

The Alphacool water cooling system is convincing across the board. All products are of high quality, the threads run without jamming – I had nothing to complain about. You can also see the quality to some extent from the fact that I have installed a lot of extensions and connectors. These are all potential leakage points – but everything is tight. Even if you have to spend a lot of money, it’s worth it. You can use the components for years. If you change the hardware, everything can basically stay the same. Only the GPU block needs to be replaced.

Have I achieved my goals?

1. That anyone can rebuild it without having to modify the housing.

You don’t have to modify anything on the Sharkoon Rebel C50. Anyone can build a loop like this at home, so there’s no need to worry. Check for leaks and nothing will happen! If the cooling surface is too small for you, you can easily fit a 360 mm at the back. Paired with a 280 mm radiator at the top, you have enough surface area for a Ryzen 7950X and an RTX 4090.

2. To create a very visually appealing PC – which will of course be as RGB-tastic as possible.

In my opinion, the custom wakool from Alphacool really sets off the look of the Rebel C50, including the rest of the hardware. A dream come true for fans of RGB-ism, isn’t it?

3. To work with the smallest possible cooling surface so that the temperatures are ok, but the volume (with my measuring device) is best not measurable at all.

I was able to bring the volume below measurable in idle mode. Under load, I managed a good balancing act so that the temperatures are completely uncritical and the volume remains very pleasant at 33 dB (A). This shows that you can really cool things down with a “small” cooling surface. If you turn up the fans, this loop can do even more. If you normalize this to a sound pressure level of 37 – 38 dB (A), then the GPU will find itself in the 60 degree range. You can do this, but you don’t have to…

The system draws an average of 475 watts under full load. The peak power (spikes) will be around 650 watts (estimated). An 850 watt power supply is basically sufficient. Depending on what kind of CPU – GPU combination you have or would like to have in the future. Then we’re already done for today…

If your jaw is still hanging open in disbelief, you can watch the short video. We dive into the open case at idle. Click here: IMG_0573