Cougar MX440-A vs Fractal Design Pop Silentcomputed

Datasheet figures next to each other, and the airflow balance, pressure verdict and case air heating that the fans in each box compute to behind that case's own front. Calculated with the CaseFlow model, not measured.

Side by side

Cougar MX440-AFractal Design Pop Silent
FormMid TowerATX
Volume46.0 L46.3 L
Dimensions424 × 215 × 505 mm474 × 215 × 454 mm
Frontsolid solid or glass frontsolid solid or glass front
Fan mountsfront 3 × 120/140, top 2 × 120, rear 1 × 120/140front 2 × 120/140, rear 1 × 120
Radiator supportfront 360 mm, top 240 mm, rear 140 mmfront 280 mm, rear 120 mm
Dust filters–psu
GPU length320 mm380 mm
Cooler height170 mm170 mm
Stock fans1 × stock fan (front)2 × Aspect 12 (front), 1 × Aspect 12 (rear)
Stock airflow, max rpm–65 in / 49 out CFM
Stock pressure verdictstock fans named but no datasheet - nothing computedpositive, worst case included
Case air at 290 W–+8.2 K
Stock fan noise–38.0 dB(A)
All mounts, reference fans130 in / 172 out CFM 3 / 3 mounts87 in / 53 out CFM 2 / 1 mounts

With a reference pressure-optimized fan on every mount the MX440-A moves more air. The stock fans of the MX440-A are named without figures behind them, so its stock columns stay empty. The pressure verdict describes the stock fan set, not the case: stronger or extra intake fans in the free mounts, or slower exhaust fans, turn a negative balance positive.

MX440-A — mounts and stock fans

TOPBOTTOMREARFRONT · solid

Pop Silent — mounts and stock fans

TOPBOTTOMREARFRONT · solid

Case air heating with the stock fans — computed

0 5 10 15 0 100 200 300 400 450 W GPU (open cooler) + 40 W board Pop Silent K case air above room

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How these numbers are computed

Each stock fan contributes CFMmax · derate · rpm/rpmmax behind its wall's mounting class: filtered mesh front and side mounts as dust filter, bottom as floor + filter, top and rear as open grille, solid and glass fronts as side-slit intake at roughly half of a mesh front. Front, bottom and side blow in; top and rear blow out.

MountingAirflow bladesPressure-optimized
Open grille0.88 (0.80–0.95)0.88 (0.80–0.95)
Dust filter0.70 (0.60–0.80)0.78 (0.70–0.86)
Floor + filter0.64 (0.52–0.74)0.72 (0.62–0.80)
Solid or glass front0.50 (0.40–0.62)0.58 (0.48–0.68)

Worst case sums intake at the low end of each band and exhaust at the high end; positive there means positive regardless of how the estimates fall. Case air: ΔT = 3.1 · W / throughput (m³/h), with an open-cooler GPU putting its full board power into the case air plus board, RAM and drives. Capacity puts a reference pressure-optimized fan on every mount at max rpm — 120 mm 60 CFM, 140 mm 75 CFM — a generic good fan, not a product.

Mount counts, radiator support and clearances are datasheet figures. Nothing here is measured; the same model runs in CaseFlow.