Aquarium or terrarium? In short, a proper glass (panoramic?) case with a good view of the components. It is not only the appearance that is supposed to be “attractive”, but also the abundant options for cooling, or rather installation of liquid coolers. And reconfiguring the system fans can also make sense with the DeepCool CH780. We chart the differences in the comparison tests as well. Read more “DeepCool CH780: Wide viewing angles at the core”
It’s the fastest Core i3 yet, but it’s also the hungriest. The 14100F’s (Raptor Lake Refresh) biggest competition in its own ranks is in the form of older models (13100F and 12100F). These are a bit slower, but lower-power. The “better” choice depends on what holds more weight on your scales. Maybe it will be that record-breaking speed? In this class (Core i3), power consumption is always relatively low. Read more “Intel Core i3-14100F: Four cores whipped to the max”
Buying a network card is in some cases a more elegant option than replacing the entire motherboard. For such situations, Axagon has an on-PCI Express card 2.5-gigabit one in the form of the PCEE-G25, for example, for home users. We’ve subjected it to a great deal of comparison with integrated adapters. And before you get into it, one question: Can you estimate how much power such a simpler network card might consume? Read more “Axagon PCEE-G25 vs. 20+ iLAN on motherboards”
Among RTX 4060 Ti graphics cards, Asus has multi-functional designs with an M.2 slot for NVMe SSDs. These, unlike other models, don’t waste the potential of the PCI Express ×16 interface so significantly. To evaluate this design, partial results from motherboard tests are now extremely useful. Those results that relate to the M.2 slot speeds and the efficiency of SSD coolers. After all, the Asus Dual RTX 4060 Ti SSD also competes in both disciplines. Read more “Rare host: How does an SSD work in the Asus Dual RTX 4060 Ti?”
The GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Ventus 3X graphics card came out with a BIOS that MSI (and even Nvidia) wasn’t happy with. After the second revision, there is the third, the last revision of the BIOS. This one increases the power limit to allow higher GPU clock speeds to be achieved. However, this comes at the cost of a bit lower power efficiency. To update or not to update? That’s for everyone to decide for themselves, if they get the chance. Read more “The Ventus 3X (RTX 4070 TiS) case: Final vs. original VBIOS”
One of the negatives of Intel Arc graphics cards is their high idle power consumption. Competing solutions from a similar class are, in short, significantly less power hungry. To some extent, the consumption of Arc graphics cards can also be reduced in a very simple way. However, the latter also brings unwanted side effects that are not convenient in common practice and the whole thing is likely to be discarded because of them. Read more “Arc A580’s “Power Saving Mode” doesn’t bring only benefits”
AMD and Nvidia let the cheap graphics card segment “deteriorate” so much that Intel took advantage of it quite elegantly. The latest Arc A580 in the Sparkle (Orc) design has a lot of imperfections that you might not get over, but at the same time it has settled into the top spot when it comes to price/performance ratio in gaming. With this primacy, it profiles itself as one of the leading adepts into low-budget builds. Read more “Best price/gaming performance ratio? Sparkle Arc A580 Orc”
I will start this year’s cooler tests with a real treat. I’ve prepared a review of the Dark Rock Elite cooler, the absolute top of BeQuiet!’s range. This is a premium cooler offering very high performance at low noise levels thanks to its sophisticated design in combination with high-end fans. I’m very curious to see how it performs compared to the high-end coolers I’ve had the opportunity to test over the past year. Read more “BeQuiet! Dark Rock Elite – The new king of coolers?”
The new RTX 4080 in the Super variant attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7900 XTX) fiercely in every way. Their advance is not only due to faster GPUs (versus the non-Super RTX 4080), but also for higher memory bandwidth. Of all the GeForces built on Nvidia’s Ada Lovelace architecture, the latter is the highest on the RTX 4080 Super. On top of that, the RTX 4080 Super in the tested Aorus Master 16G variant is a truly extreme graphics card. Read more “Aorus RTX 4080 Super Master 16G: A problem for the RX 7900 XTX”
Higher GPU clock speeds and double the memory. These are the parameters that characterize the Radeon RX 7600 XT compared to the non-XT model (RX 7600). At the same time, it is a very affordable solution attractive for users prioritizing large video memory, even with a relatively weaker GPU (it doesn’t matter that much…). In our tests, we’ll break down how Sapphire’s design – the RX 7600 XT Pulse – fares in games and beyond. Read more “Sapphire RX 7600 XT Pulse or the cheapest 16 GB graphics card”
The biggest hardware changes compared to non-Super cards concern the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super. What’s different is the GPU, the amount of GDDR6X memory or the width of the memory bus. We have the RTX 4070 Ti Super in one of the cheapest non-reference designs, the Ventus 3X, for analysis and it will be about “reputation repair” as well. MSI has tarnished it a bit in this line of graphics cards in the past, but now it’s a very attractive solution. Read more “MSI RTX 4070 Ti Super 16G Ventus 3X: Big cooler w/o a markup”
The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA. Read more “RTX 4070 Super FE gigatest: RX 7800 XT challenged at its own game”
Also on the list of lower-power Intel Raptor Lake Refresh processors with 65W TDP is the Core i5-14400F. That is, a model that, mainly because of its attractive price-performance ratio, often ends up in lower-budget PC builds. In the 14th generation, Intel sped up the single-core boost and also E cores. And there are more changes in the small details. For example, the fact that different steppings built on different silicon are again common in e-stores. Read more “Intel Core i5-14400F – refresh in the most popular range”
A concept in which an LCP impeller and ARGB LEDs meet is particularly rare. But it has enormous potential for achieving top-notch results. That is, as long as everything fits together optimally and there are no weak spots somewhere that increase the noise level. There are still a few things to tweak with the MagFlow ARGB fan, but already now, in its current form, it is a premium fan, and not only among lighted models. Read more “Seasonic MagFlow ARGB: Lighting with LCP? The right way”
There aren’t many 140mm fans that are more popular than the NF-A14 (PWM). This Noctua model has maintained that for a long time, for over a decade. In the meantime, naturally, a host of newer competing solutions have come along, and the question is how Noctua’s still-flagship 140mm fan will hold up against them in the present day. By analyzing the NF-A14, we’ll also shorten a bit the interminable wait for its successor. Read more “Noctua NF-A14 PWM: Relevant even after a decade”
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