The biggest advantage, but at the same time the biggest disadvantage of the DeepCool FC120 fan are its long and overall large blades, whose area exceeds that of competing models. Among illuminated fans, this one represents one of the most efficient solutions with ARGB LEDs, in optimal conditions. However, it is important to notice its downsides, which are a side effect of the chosen rotor design. Read more “DeepCool FC120: Big ARGB blades in a “small” cross-section”
The successor to the SSD cooler, which didn’t have much competition in its price range. That’s one way to introduce the Gecko Pro, which is a bit more expensive, but also more refined (in terms of mounting as well). And it also has a distinctive feature that clearly distinguishes it from other coolers – the fins are not longitudinal (as is common), but in width. The price to cooling performance ratio is again excellent. Read more “Akasa Gecko Pro: An SSD cooler with a “different” orientation”
Nvidia DLSS 3 support has been added to Microsoft Flight Simulator in the latest update. This bypasses CPU limits and allows running at triple-digit fps thanks to “frame generation” techniques. Flying is now more comfortable, smoother, although there is one rather significant limitation – you need to own one of the graphics cards with an Ada Lovelace GPU. Older GeForce RTX generations unfortunately don’t support DLSS 3. Read more “DLSS 3 and frame generation minitest in MS Flight Simulator”
Wondering how the Gentle Typhoon D1225C, the originator of the efficiently shaped rotor, is stacking up against much newer fans today? Very well. Outside the band of the most intense vibrations with annoying resonant frequencies, even from today’s perspective this fan has a top performance-to-noise ratio. In some ways it is even still unsurpassed, and the designers of the time built on strong physical foundations. Read more “Nidec Servo Gentle Typhoon D1225C won’t lose to just any”
From Olympus back to ordinary mortals. Though the GeForce RTX 4080s are quite a bit weaker than the RTX 4090s, they’re also significantly more power-efficient and cheaper. And their performance still exceeds the top models of previous generations of Nvidia and AMD gaming GPUs. In addition, MSI’s most powerful model – the Suprim X – pushes the GPU clock speeds very high, while efficiency is still top-notch. Read more “MSI RTX 4080 16GB Suprim X: Ada Lovelace with GPU near 3 GHz”
The latest hardware from the Swedish company is a case for Mini-ITX boards. However, thanks to the sensible interior layout, it is also possible to mount larger components. Their cooling is taken care of by the ubiquitous perforation of the outer plates and two 140 mm fans. With or without them? You’ll have to decide what you want to cool more effectively. We measured four different scenarios in our tests. Read more “Fractal Design Ridge: A small puzzle for adults”
The topic of “undersized” 12VHPWR power connectors for GeForce RTX 4090 is very popular lately. However, it will not apply to the more low-power RTX 4080 graphics cards. Before a complete analysis of MSI’s model – Suprim X – we first focused on the temperature of its 16-pin, and it must be said that everything is alright, with a large temperature headroom. Here, in short, the state of the matter will not change. Read more “Tested: 12VHPWR adapter on the RTX 4080 Suprim X won’t melt”
With motherboards, we don’t like to write about “gaming” hardware. They usually have virtually no effect on gaming performance. In this case, however, there is something to the marketing slogan, although not for free, and in some cases the higher performance is paid for by higher power draw in games. However, there are naturally more reasons to care about or, on the contrary, to avoid the Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite AX. Read more “Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite AX: “Optimized for gaming””
The Czech company Axagon has a lot of SSD coolers with attractive designs. You can see this at a glance – a monolithic, well-articulated heatsink always works. You can’t “go wrong” there. We’ll go through all available variants of Axagon coolers in our tests, but we’ll start with the one this company started with. The CLR-M2 has been enjoying user favor for a long time and in the tests we will find out if rightfully so. Read more “Axagon CLR-M2: Large surface area (fins) with low height”
New motherboards for Intel Raptor Lake processors are again a bit more expensive in the same class than the previous generation Z690, but they are also better equipped. This also applies to the ROG Strix Z790-E Gaming WiFi, which now has more M.2 slots than SATA ports. What’s also neater is the mechanism for removing graphics cards from underneath the big tower coolers and overclocking the CPU using machine learning. That’s also an option. Read more “Even more features. Asus ROG Strix Z790-E Gaming WiFi test”
We come to the analysis of a fan that even if it dates back to cooling prehistory, many manufacturers are only now discovering the aerodynamic qualities of its design. Although the Gentle Typhoon is a great inspiration to many manufacturers (including Noctua), it does have one weakness. And a rather fundamental one. It is very high, excessive vibrations, which we will unusually devote a separate test to. Read more “Gentle Typhoon’s high vibrations resemble SilverStone’s sins”
Monitors usually offer a very similar and rather unremarkable design in black or grey. Gaming models are trying to break out of this stereotype, with various red elements or RGB lighting. However, the world of professional monitors is virtually black and white, and MSI thought it would bring some colour to this environment, and not a grey one, but an “Ultramarine” one at that. That’s a colour particularly associated with Renaissance artwork. Read more “Bit of a “different” monitor. MSI Modern MD272QP Ultramarine”
Large diagonal monitors are slowly but surely starting to catch on with more users, and the recent rise in popularity is no doubt mainly due to the boom of more OLED models. However, these aren’t the only option and you’ll find a number of IPS and VA models on the market, including the G4380UHSU from iiyama. This gaming monitor is based on a 42″ fast (144Hz) 4K panel. Price? 650 EUR. Read more “Iiyama G-Master G4380UHSU: A monitor as big as a TV”
While modern processors offer high performance, this is inevitably linked to the need for highly effective cooling. So I’m always happy to welcome a cooler on the market with the promise of high effectiveness at an interesting price. One of them is the AK620, which represents the top of DeepCool’s range. It offers a modern design, an attractive price tag and the potential to cool even high-end processors. So we’ll see how well it performs in our stress tests. Read more “DeepCool AK620 – Solid dual-tower cooler for a good price”
With the addition of the Shadow Wings 2 tests, you now have a full overview of the features of all unlit BeQuiet! fans in 120 mm format. Shadow Wings 2 is between Silent Wings 3 and Pure Wings 2 in terms of both price and design. In terms of efficiency, they are closer to the more expensive Silent Wings 3 and in certain situations they give top-notch results. Given the lower price, this can be a very attractive option, but there are some things to look out for. Read more “BeQuiet! Shadow Wings 2 (BL085): A cheaper option”
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