What’s the best position for your M.2 SSD?

Graphics card can significantly contribute to cooling of SSD that are installed next to it. However, there’s a very thin line between helping and limiting. Let’s see when your graphics card can be a saviour for your SSD and when it’s an oppressor. As a bonus, we compared the cooling performance with and without the criticised MSI M.2 shield. Read more “What’s the best position for your M.2 SSD?” »

Shuttle XPC X50V6: silent AIO barebone for less than 400 eur

There are not many cheap high-quality computers out there, so the design of XPC X50 is quite a pleasant surprise. It offers a lot of attractive features: display, robust mobile body, dust and liquid resistance, passive function, and the economical Kaby Lake. Shuttle managed to elegantly combine all of it into one handy device. Read more “Shuttle XPC X50V6: silent AIO barebone for less than 400 eur” »

A homemade solution for undesirable HDD noise

The golden era of HDDs is already gone, and we still haven’t seen any real solution for one of their basic problems. A mounting system that would absorbs undesirable vibrations. The difference in noise levels can be significant. We’ve created just the thing to find out whether it’s even possible to get rid of those vibrations completely. Read more “A homemade solution for undesirable HDD noise” »

Test of six HDDs from WD: which colour is for you?

What disk is best for an office work, photos, videos, operating systems, games, and for demanding servers? And is the Red really well designed for network storage? You can find out in this practical comparison of the performance, consumption, and noise levels of each model from WD. The differences are significant and the results surprising. Green, blue, red, purple, black, or gold? Read more “Test of six HDDs from WD: which colour is for you?” »

How can a pressure of a cooler affect its cooling performance?

One of the things that make testing of CPU coolers interesting is that you can never know how will a particular cooler perform. There are too many variables that affect the results. Such as the pressure on the processor, for example. We‘ve tried to find out what a weaker assembly system can cause, but also whether it pays off to cross the safe threshold. Read more “How can a pressure of a cooler affect its cooling performance?” »

Reeven Okeanos: effective “slim” dual tower

We already know that the biggest weakness of the cooler are fans. So, we replaced them with reference models and observed the difference. This led to a remarkable comparison of Okeanos and Noctua NH-D15 heatsinks. And there are few surprises even in modes without the same fans. Let’s take a look at how Okreanos manages to cool the area around the socket, and what it really can do in passive mode. Read more “Reeven Okeanos: effective “slim” dual tower” »

D15 is elite, but there’s a room for improvement

The ideal CPU cooler should not be bigger than a matchbox, and it should handle 500 W processor without making a sound. However, this is a sci-fi, so we will have to rely on conventional solutions. Although Noctua NH-D15 is in many ways unusual, it is remarkable to see how its original elements affect the effectiveness. Read more “D15 is elite, but there’s a room for improvement” »

Shuttle NC03U5: Core i5 in a case smaller than one liter

A powerful energy-efficient processor makes this barebone optimal for a more demanding office or for multimedia. Its format is minimalistic, which in other words always means a challenge that is often accompanied by various compromises. Nearly hundreds of measurements can tell you more about how the Taiwanese manufacturer managed to create simple but effective design. We also included tests without a fan. Read more “Shuttle NC03U5: Core i5 in a case smaller than one liter” »

Arctic Freezer 33 face-to-face with SilentiumPC Fera 3 v2 (bonus)

Cooling the processor is one thing, but cooling its power supply circuit is another. How will the coolers handle this task? We specially focused on testing the heatsinks with Noctua reference fans. Notably, the weird Freezer had some real difficulties. We know where the problem is. We made some tests without fans too, and on this occasion we decided to include top-notch passive cooler Zalman FX70. Read more “Arctic Freezer 33 face-to-face with SilentiumPC Fera 3 v2 (bonus)” »

Arctic Freezer 33 face-to-face with SilentiumPC Fera 3 v2

With the i/A32 cooler series, Arctic made a really good impression and created a decent opponent for the excellent Fera 3. In the meantime, Swiss have strengthened their ranks and advanced to battle with Freezer 33. However, the expected drama with fight for every detail did not happen. Because of a design mistake of one of the players, the winner is quite dominant under standard circumstances. Read more “Arctic Freezer 33 face-to-face with SilentiumPC Fera 3 v2” »

Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra vs. Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut

Coollaboratory is well known among the hardware enthusiasts, mainly thanks to its liquid metals. The model with higher thermal conductivity, Liquid Ultra, is commonly preferred with high power consumption chips since their default compounds are usually of lower quality. To find out whether CLU still pays off, we put it to the ring with an opponent from the Thermal Grizzly workshop, and with Core i5-7600K as the referee. Read more “Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra vs. Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut” »

Operation Kaby Lake: 24 ways to cool the chip

Is it enough to replace the default paste, or should you consider an uncompromising solution like a liquid metal? Does it pay off to try your luck and experiment with on-die cooling? You will find the results of tests of all relevant combinations in this article. We also monitored how can the behaviour of a liquid cooler and a traditional air cooler affect the performance. Read more “Operation Kaby Lake: 24 ways to cool the chip” »

Test of 27 thermal compounds, part 2

The second round will be especially interesting for people who want to find the best solution for a standard use. The winner is a big surprise. Gelid, Noctua, Phobya, Reeven, SilentiumPC, Thermal Grizzly or Zalman? We can give away that it is not an expected favourite this time. We enjoyed a nice competition in the middle category, where it takes a lot to keep making a difference. We also tested OEM paste from Scythe as a bonus. Read more “Test of 27 thermal compounds, part 2” »