With the RS Max fans, Corsair is aiming really high. Across the most popular 120 and 140mm formats, it has incorporated technically what should define perhaps the most efficient fans of their kind. Especially when it comes to the 140mm variant. It too is 30mm thick, which combined with the curved LCP blades makes it a theoretical favorite to win many “first places”. Read more “Corsair RS Max: Fans that can rise to the top”
The design details here not only look fascinating, they really are. That is, except for one “little thing” that makes the MagFlow 1225 PWM unable to play an equal game with the top 120mm fans, even though it seemingly has all the prerequisites to do so. But at least the Seasonic fan has the added value of a very convenient installation: magnet here, magnet there, no cables in sight. Read more “Seasonic MagFlow 1225 PWM, the “King of Controversy””
Just recently, information surfaced online about a new AMD processor with Zen 4 architecture that could be the most affordable model yet on the AM5 platform – the Ryzen 5 7500F, which would be a six-core with disabled graphics that, at a low enough price, could be the answer to Intel’s popular Core i5-13400F. But it looks like, as with the Ryzen 5 5600X3D, we won’t be able to get our hands on it, at least not for now. Read more “Ryzen 5 7500F will launch at the end of July, but only in China”
Phanteks returned to its Enthoo Pro 2 case and tweaked a few things within the internal layout that will appeal especially to the server clientele. Key among them is support for larger motherboards with multiple PCIe slots, while still keeping the same case volume. Because of the assumption of high power draw of such a build, the cooling options are also more intensive, and for greater reliability there is again the possibility of installing server grade PSUs. Read more “More heat, more cooling. The Enthoo Pro 2 server edition is out”
There are currently news about AMD releasing the Ryzen 5 7500F CP as a cheaper alternative to the 7600 hexacore, but there’d also big news in the Intel camp – the first processor from Raptor Lake Refresh generation, which is expected to come in Fall. Info about the Core i7-14700K has now leaked. This tier of CPUs was already attractive in the previous generations, and now it’s getting bigger with more cores added. Read more “Raptor Lake Refresh: Core i7-14700K has 20 cores, benchmarks leak”
It was recently revealed that Intel will end the distinctive “Core iNumber” CPU branding that has served it since the groundbreaking Nehalem architecture. But it might also abandon a much more important constant that came with these processors: the ability to process two threads one a big core known as Hyper Threading or HT technology (which originated in Pentium 4, but it was only after its return in Nehalem that it really shone). Read more “Intel Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake CPUs will reportedly drop HT”
Perhaps the boldest dual-tower cooler design in a decade is becoming a retail market reality. We’ve already written about the preparations for the Assassin IV, but now we have more details, there’s even a test sample in our editorial office already. Let’s pass the wait for the test results by philosophising about not all the elements that can positively or negatively shape cooling efficiency. Read more “DeepCool Assassin IV cooler officially. Tests are close”
The most popular Ryzen 7000 with 3D V-cache obliterates competition in its targeted environment. Intel doesn’t measure up to the Ryzen 7 7800X3D in a comparable price range in terms of speed, and even if someone disregards price and sees the Core i9-13900K(S) as a an apt competitor, when comparing power draw, everyone’s appetite for Intel will go away. Their efficiency is… incomparable, as each is at a different end of the spectrum. Read more “Ryzen 7 7800X3D: Ahead of Core i9 for gaming at 40% power draw”
One of the youngest “brands” or series of Scythe coolers – Fuma – is growing with a new model. The Fuma 3 builds on its predecessors with a dual-tower heatsink design, and hopefully with even higher cooling efficiency. Dimensions haven’t changed much between generations, but some fins have grown and weight has increased. Regarding this cooler, Scythe is talking about a new flagship with aerodynamic optimizations. Read more “Third time’s the charm? Scythe has the Fuma 3 CPU cooler”
There’s more and more graphics cards that don’t use the full width of PCI Express ×16 slot and run with just eight lanes to cut GPU die area and cost. This usually renders the remaining eight lanes useless, but Asus has now come up with an idea to make them useful. They still won’t be usable for the graphics card itself, but at least they’ll find some use. It could come in handy on A620 boards with a shortage of M.2 slots, for example. Read more “Asus puts M.2 SSD on GeForce RTX 4060 Ti to make use of PCIe ×16”
Many like to diss Intel for hybrid processors but leaks has long been showing that AMD is also preparing their own take on it – the “LITTLE Phoenix” or Phoenix2 APU, to be used in cheaper mobile Ryzen 7000 SKUs. Phoenix2 is to feature Zen 4 big cores and Zen 4c as little cores, which is a compact redesign recently introduced in servers. Now this hybrid SoC has indeed appeared and AMD has officially confirmed it on their website. Read more “AMD quietly launches big.LITTLE, Zen 4c-based Phoenix2 confirmed”
The AMD B650E chipset is a compromise solution to some extent, but the ASRock Taichi motherboard that is based on it makes an ultimate impression. And it’s not just a “feel”, it really is that… The VRM of the CPU didn’t fit in our thermal image with the standard procedure. There are a few quirks and things that you might find it worth tweaking, but those are usually related to other things, like the more modest chipset features. Read more “ASRock B650E Taichi motherboard – breaker of several records”
AMD is reportedly going release a new AM4 processor after more than a year, a cheaper derivative of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D called Ryzen 5 5600X3D, which would include the game-boosting 3D V-Cache, but with only six cores. Initially, there were some doubts, but it looks like it is real. Its release and availability in the US is already confirmed to be due this week. It’s less clear for the rest of the world, however. Read more “Ryzen 5 5600X3D launches this week, but exclusively in the U.S.”
Here and there we come across the opinion that it is advisable to test fans in real life conditions, which we can easily refute. At the same time, we understand that a layman can best identify with the differences in component temperatures that arise precisely due to different fan airflows. To help you see the correlations of such tests with results from “unnatural” environments, here’s something we remembered. Read more “In vivo fan tests: 14 models in system positions”
If you bought the P14 Slim PWM PST some time ago (and by that I mean earlier this year), its design differs from its current form. And quite significantly so. It is in fact that it has quietly advanced to the second revision. But it did so so quietly that many, including us, missed it. What are the changes and how do you identify the new version so that you don’t order the older, inferior one? Read more “Arctic tweaked the P14 Slim PWM PST fan, but didn’t mention it”
The small pause in fan testing is coming to an end. The next period will be highly active in this respect. And not only in terms of the standard tests you are used to. These will be interspersed with unusual thematic analyses from areas that historically no one has paid much attention to. Everything will be written simply, poignantly, in a popular way, and eventually, at the finish line of the first stage, we’ll create a dense encyclopedia as well. Read more “The kickoff fan season will culminate with an encyclopedia”
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