The culmination of our trilogy of tests of Arctic’s 140mm fans is here. With the P14 Max, the designers have worked on improvements that change both the acoustic properties and performance of the fan. The main new feature, the hoop, allows for, among other things, a significant speed increase, due to which this fan can have a really high airflow. On the other hand, fans of extra low speeds will not be too pleased. Read more “Arctic P14 Max: The best yet? Well, it depends…”
Longer life in exchange for more noise? These are also some of the agenda items we’ll cover in our comparison of the Arctic P14 CO fan with the fluid bearing variant (P14). These are actually the main points. In any case, the ball bearings in the more expensive variant of these fans also have specific features that can be easily observed and distinguished even in normal, “home” use. Read more “Arctic P14 PWM PST CO or ball vs. fluid bearings”
What is fascinating about the Arctic P14 is the particularly high contrast of price to (cooling) efficiency. These fans are among the cheapest, while at the same time achieving top results with respect to all 140 mm fans in terms of airflow per unit of noise. And that’s even through obstacles. Arctic has made almost the maximum out of the funds available to produce the fan, and it is definitely worth it. Read more “Arctic P14 PWM PST: Unbeatable in its segment”
The Silent Wings (Pro) 4 represent the pinnacle of computer fan range. The non-Pro variants stand out especially in system positions and are not well suited for radiators. This is by design and in line with the sort of “micro-segmentation” of BeQuiet. In a white design, like the one tested, it will be quite difficult to find other 140 mm fans that are quieter at comparable airflow. Read more “BeQuiet! Silent Wings 4 (BL117): A white choice for your case”
The cheapest 140mm fan we’ve tested so far beats even significantly more expensive 120mm models at comparable noise levels. That’s because of the use of a larger cross-sectional area, as well as the efficient impeller geometry that the Stratus 140 PWM definitely has. “Cheap” fan doesn’t necessarily mean “weak”, though of course there are some compromises based on more limited manufacturing resources than with more expensive fans. Read more “Endorfy Stratus 140 PWM: Low price, high efficiency”
Some really attractive things are often overlooked or given less attention than they deserve, for various reasons. This is somewhat the case with the technically remarkable fan from PCCooler CPS – the F5 R120. This 120 mm fan with its features is in the company of the most prominent names, although it has its weaknesses as well. These may or may not interest you either. It depends on the use case. Read more “PCCooler CPS F5 R120 BK: Mid-range attacking the top”
Today marks the launch of a new version of the popular Endorfy Fera 5 cooler, with the Black attribute. The name suggests that this cooler has a matte black finish, which will be appreciated especially by fans of minimalist PC builds. Of course, it will have to be tested whether this finish has a negative effect on cooling efficiency or whether there is any deterioration in acoustics. So let’s venture into the dark future of Endorfy coolers together. Read more “Endorfy Fera 5 Black – Bestseller on the way to darkness”
One of the most revered SSD coolers ever. With the CLR-M2XT, Axagon opted for a transverse fin layout, which makes this cooler different from all the others (within Axagon). The fins are naturally shorter and there is less surface area per one, but again there are more of them and to achieve the highest cooling performance the designers tried to work well with the height as well. But, again, in a way to maintain as much compatibility as possible. Read more “Axagon CLR-M2XT. With 40 fins for powerful SSDs”
Relative to computing (or gaming) performance, it has the lowest power consumption at factory settings. And the ROG Strix Z790-A Gaming WiFi II also sits among the more modern motherboards available for the Intel LGA 1700 platform. It’s already from the “second wave”, where network connectivity has been upgraded (to WiFi 7) and for example the support for DIMM Flex, useful for memory with extremely high bandwidth, is also new. Read more “ROG Strix Z790-A Gaming WiFi II: Not only the most efficient”
Sometimes people say that today’s games don’t measure up to the old ones and don’t offer much besides visuals. But what if modern visuals could be added to classic games that are even twenty years old? NVIDIA’s RTX Remix technology (or software) is supposed to do just that, making it relatively easy to add better graphics to even very old games using a mod – including raytracing effects and things like DLSS or DLAA. Let’s see how it works. Read more “Ray tracing for old games: NVIDIA RTX Remix tested”
The SSD cooler database finally adds SSD temperature results without a cooler. These show to what extent a cooler is beneficial, or by how much it knocks down controller and memory temperatures. Some really significantly, for others it’s worse. There are more reasons for this, but the important thing is to have a check on what is happening and under what circumstances. You might end up using an alternative cooler instead of the motherboard one. Read more “Detailed analysis: How much SSD coolers lower temperatures”
In the tests, we looked at a Mini-ITX motherboard. A warning finger is usually put over this format in connection with powerful CPUs, but often unjustifiably. This would be the case even with one of the cheapest models for the LGA 1700 platform – the B760I Aorus Pro DDR4. The “cut off” is mainly things you may not need, for example because a larger number of slots not only won’t be used, but also doesn’t fit into the vision of a space-saving PC build. Read more “Gigabyte B760I Aorus Pro DDR4: Small, powerful, attractively priced”
I probably don’t need to introduce EK Water Blocks here. It produces high-end components for water loops and for the last few years it has been using its experience in this field in designing AIO coolers as well. The EK-Nucleus CR360 Lux represents the top of the current range and will impress you above all with its clean and elegant design. With good test results, one can expect an attractive ratio of price, quality and efficiency, considering its price. Read more “EK-Nucleus CR360 Lux White – Simply gorgeous liquid cooler”
Why put connectors from the front of the motherboard when they can be from the back? This is what Asus and other manufacturers are thinking with boards with, say, an inverted connector layout. The TUF B760M-BTF WiFi (D4) model has all connectors moved from front to back. This, with the current trend of glass side panels, mainly contributes to a nicer look. But we’ll also be interested in other, measurable things as part of our analysis. Read more “Asus TUF B760M-BTF WiFi D4: All connectors out of sight”
Alan Wake II is the first game to support Nvidia DLSS 3.5 from the start. In addition to the technological aspect, there is also the high popularity among gamers. This gives us the basic reasons to take a close look at the performance under different settings. In diving in with the gaming performance, we will be interested not only in the visual side, but also the power consumption. Not just of the graphics card, but the CPU as well. Read more “Nvidia DLSS (3.5) in Alan Wake II. When does the game run best?”
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