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”
Fractal Design has apparently decided to roll out all of their cases in smaller designs as well. The latest in compact designs is the Define 7 Mini, which fits a Micro ATX motherboard. Even though the dimensions have shrunk, they haven’t cut corners in other ways and this new case maintains a high quality standard. The kind of quality we are used to with Define series cases. Read more “Fractal Design Define 7 Mini: Even the soundproof case now smaller”
Noctua has quietly, almost secretly, added a new package of NT-H1 thermal paste with the additional designation SW. These are the initials of the English words spatula and wipes. It is with this accessory that the NT-H1 SW pack is supplemented. And in particular, the addition of the spatula raises the question of whether Noctua has revised the recommended technique in applying thermal paste. Read more “Commentary: Is adding a spatula to the Noctua NT-H1 useful?”
Although AMD’s new desktop processors with Zen 4 architecture and the new AM5 platform seem to be very close with release probably less than two months away, the company managed to keep the specs under wraps. It’s not completely leak-proof though. The company’s own website actually revealed information about the models coming out in the first wave of new processors. There’s four of them, one being somewhat of a surprise. Read more “AMD has self-leaked Ryzen 7000 models. Cheaper 7700X octa-core?”
Few fans can wow us at first glance the way the Alucia SC12 from Akasa has done. Its build looks quite compelling in this price range. However, on a second look after detailed testing comes some sobering. But even though the high (even exorbitantly high) expectations have not been met, in some aspects the Alucia SC12 beats attractive, similarly cheap competitors in some situations. Read more “Akasa Alucia SC12: Efficient shapes vs. soft material”
There have been multiple reports about Chinese company Glenfly, which is one of the Chinese projects seeking to produce a local GPUs that would not come from abroad. It has now officially revealed the Glenfly Arise GT-10C0, its first discrete graphics card, including full specifications. Seems like it’s probably coming soon and will be an important complement to alternative Chinese CPUs like Loongson that can’t power PCs without a GPU. Read more “China has its own GPU: the Glenfly Arise GT-10C0 from Zhaoxin”
More information is gradually coming in on Intel’s first generation of discrete gaming GPUs, the Arc graphics cards. Intel recently revealed the performance of Arc A750, said to outperform GeForce RTX 3060 cards. It won’t be the fastest SKU, now Intel began showcasing the more powerful A770 model. We now have more detail, and it seems that A770 won’t push the performance as high above the A750 card as we had hoped. Read more “Five Intel Arc GPUs coming: A750 with 448 EUs is close to A770”
The hunch that BeQuiet! couldn’t be this wrong was correct after all and now we have to tuck our tails between our legs. The original headline still stands, so “Don’t swap corners on Silent Wings (Pro) 4! You’d get worse results”, but it’s a little different than how we originally presented it. There has in fact been a mix-up of corners and now we’ll settle everything. We apologize to you, our readers, and to BeQuiet! for the original interpretation. Read more “Re-test of Silent Wings Pro 4 mounting corners. It makes sense now”
Intel will release a new generation of server processors this year codenamed “Sapphire Rapids”. These will introduce support for PCI Express 5.0, DDR5 memory and, most importantly, a new high-performance CPU architecture derived from the successful Alder Lake processors. But Sapphire Rapids CPUs are also heading to workstations and high-end desktops, and now the specs for these desktop models have been leaked. Read more “Intel Sapphire Rapids HEDT processor SKUs leaked: up to 56 cores”
This didn’t work out for BeQuiet!. The supplied mounting corners for specific uses don’t work as promised. Instead of increasing the static pressure as advertised, the corners on radiators even decrease the static pressure and thus the cooling performance. And even the case mountings, which are supposed to eliminate vibration, don’t make much sense on the Silent Wings (Pro) 4 design. The whole thing seems somehow… half-baked. Read more “Don’t swap corners on Silent Wings (Pro) 4! You’d get worse results”
Although we have taken a break from the pandemic for a few months, the home office trend is not likely to go away any time soon. Regardless of whether you work from home or an office, the need for online meetings continues to grow, and everyone is familiar with the hassle of setting up cameras and speakers before a call. But what if everything you needed was part of the monitor and you could also conveniently unlock your computer with your face? Read more “Philips 27E1N5600HE: A monitor can be “all-in-one” too”
And we come to the finale, in which we’ll look at the extremely popular line graphs that express the relationship between airflow and static pressure. These present, in a sophisticated and seemingly credible way, which fan will be more effective in which environment. As it happens, however, it is mainly a marketing tool rather than something useful that can really be relied upon. Read more “Static pressure vs. airflow, part 3/3: P/Q curves are misleading”
Prices for Nvidia’s high-end GeForce RTX 3090 Ti GPU started to drop last week. Reports are coming in that Nvidia is also discounting a number of other models as well, and developments in e-tailers seem to confirm this. So it’s looking more and more like the the rumours of large Ampere cards excess stock aren’t completely off the mark. The discounts are probably an attempt to get rid of these GPUs before the next generation arrives. Read more “Nvidia cuts GPU prices, for RTX 3080 12GB and higher cards”
All the secrets around the BeQuiet! Silent Wings (Pro) 4 are over and the detailed analyses of the sub-features begin. And it’s great that we can be a part of it. This is, after all, without a doubt, the biggest “cooling” event of the year, and it’s spicier than we thought. The new BeQuiet! fans may be the absolute top of the line, but they haven’t avoided certain imperfections that you have to take into account. Read more “Silent Wings Pro 4 (BL098) in-depth review: Hard BeQuiet! KO”
Just when it seems that the pointlessness of some things must have gone through the roof, along comes SWAFAN 12/14 RGB. We can’t put it any other way, Thermaltake is taking advantage of the fact that casual users don’t know how a fan works. After all, paying for two rotors is a better “bargain” than having to orient one as you need it. At least if they didn’t have the same performance characteristics… That’s not how elite companies are built. Read more “Thermaltake: Rotate a fan? Nah, replace the rotor!”
Thermalright fans have been somewhat overshadowed by great heatsink throughout this company’s history. For a long time, even relatively high minimum speeds were awkward. These have now been tamed for most current models and the X-Silent 120 has a superbly low top speed as well. This is the “slowest” fan we have tested to date. With a price of under five euros, it also ranks among the cheapest you can buy. Read more “Thermalright X-Silent 120: Quiet operation for a bargain”
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