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<p class="subtitle"><font size="2">This review is going to reveal how efficient the fourth revision of a famous Japanese cooler turned out to be. We are going to put the new Scythe Ninja 2 (SCNJ-2000) to the test !<br />
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<a href="http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/scythe-ninja2.html">Read more...</a></font></p>
<p class="subtitle"><font size="2">Lenovo ThinkVision L220x is an almost unique monitor for two reasons. Its 22-inch screen supports 1920x1200 resolution and is built using S-PVA matrix with remarkable viewing angles.<br />
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<a href="http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/monitors/display/lenovo-thinkvision-l220x.html">Read more...</a></font> </p>
We just reviewed the CyberPower Gamer Xtreme XI system with a 4.0GHz QX9770 and SLI GTX 280s that comes in an NZXT Khaos case. We thought it would be good to provide a separate look at the case since it has some cool features and looks quite nice. The Khaos case has been available for several weeks now. It is a full-tower offering a lot of space, with five 5.25" drive bays and eight 3.5" drive bays for hard drives. The front has two large 120mm fans preinstalled. In the top-back are two additional 120mm fans that will provide additional airflow to the CPU area, one venting upwards and the other blowing out the back.
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Today we are going to talk about three cooling solutions from the budget market segment: TITAN TTC-NK64TZ/PW (BX), TITAN TTC-NK34TZ-RF (BX) and Thermaltake TMG i1.
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<p><font size="2">Silverstone is a familiar name in our PSU testing facilities, and today we will be looking at the fifth power supply from Silverstone. It is also the second fanless power supply we've reviewed, following the </font><font size="2">Amacrox Calmer 560</font><font size="2">. Silverstone has left a consistently good impression with high quality and very good results, and the 700W Decathlon was especially impressive with its near-silent performance. Obviously, we're going to get true silence today since the Nightjar doesn't have a fan. The cooling is done with high efficiency large heatsink sitting on top of the power supply. The market for these power supplies is somewhat limited, since airflow is vital to modern PC systems. Using a power supply that doesn't contribute at all to system cooling - and in fact can do the exact opposite - typically causes issues with temperatures.<br />
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To avoid more serious cooling problems, fanless power supplies are generally limited to lower power ratings, such as the 450W model we're reviewing today. This also makes sense considering any system with need for more power will have high-end graphics cards and processors that run noisy fans. The usefulness of a fanless power supply is thus very limited, or at best it's a way to reduce (but not fully eliminate) noise. The market where they make the most sense is for HTPCs. They need to run as quietly as possible since they are in the same room where you want to watch your favorite movies. They also don't need a ton of power (usually) since most of the components are relatively low power - all you need is a moderate CPU and a GPU with H.264 decoding support (which you can now get with certain IGPs). We already tested a fanless power supplies with a peak output of 560W, but 400W will be just fine for all but the most demanding HTPCs. </font><font size="2"><em>(Ed: So Anand's monster with 20TB of storage or whatever doesn't qualify?)<br />
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The label indicates a peak output of 450W, which as mentioned should be the maximum this sort of power supply needs to offer. We also find an intelligent setup within the lower voltage rails. The 3.3V and 5V rails are rated at only 22A for the 3.3V rail and 15A for the 5V rail. Together they can still supply 130W, which is sufficient for modern systems. The single 12V rail is rated at 35A, which makes us wonder if anyone cares about ATX safety regulations.<br />
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</em><a href="http://www.anandtech.com/casecoolingpsus/showdoc.aspx?i=3386">Read more...</a></font></p>
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We would like to offer you a long anticipated review of IFX-14 air cooler and a very unexpected review of HR-01 X server heatsink all in one article. Read our review for details on these two cooling solutions from Thermalright.
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We've looked at a number of systems here at AnandTech, from entry level up to high-end Triple SLI gaming rigs. Our latest entrant is a decked out gaming system from CyberPower. First let's take a brief look at the company, and then delve into performance.
CyberPower - Overview
CyberPower is an old face in the PC market (remember the old Computer Shopper ads?) and is generally known for their relatively low price premiums. They're based out of California, as so many PC suppliers are, and describe themselves as follows:
CyberPower Inc. was founded with two simple goals in mind. It is to provide our customers with both personalized cutting edge technology at wholesale prices and an extensive range of technological support. By being the manufacturer and the distributor, we are dedicated to meet your personalized desires with the highest performance for all your gaming and digital media solutions.
Assisting our customers through the technological transition, we are committed to provide the best prices for all computing needs. When it comes to value, CyberPower Inc. leaves the competitors behind. Our computer systems are assembled carefully, rigorously tested and built to last for the long run. If you are looking for a wide selection of products, customization, and excellent technological services at the best available prices, CyberPower is your ultimate choice!
CyberPower claims to compete on price, selection, and support. Realistically, one of those will be the primary differentiator. With those claims in mind, let's examine the website and ordering process.
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Lighting the Flame
Back in March, we reviewed what has to be regarded as one of the most well-balanced and affordable gaming notebooks we have ever seen. The Gateway P-6831 FX offered very good gaming performance, keeping pace with some of the heavy hitting boutique laptop vendors. The truly impressive aspect was that Gateway managed to ship all of this in a notebook that cost only $1300.
Their approach was to mass produce a notebook that offered one of the slower Core 2 Duo processors paired up with one of the fastest mobile GPUs. With most games still bottlenecked by graphics performance - particularly on laptops - this was a great move. Sure, a little bit more CPU power would have been nice (and the follow-up P-6860 did increase the CPU from the T5450 to the T5550), but otherwise the P-6831 FX was an excellent design. Besides, if you really wanted CPU performance, you could always go out and purchase your own T8300 and still come out with a total cost much lower than the competition. The result was that we gave to 6831 our Gold Editors' Choice award.
If there was one serious problem with the P-6831, it was availability. That particular model was only available through Best Buy, and while there appeared to be a reasonable number of laptops at launch, the favorable press and amazing price quickly made it difficult to find any in stock. One alternative was to simply shop online and purchase a similarly configured notebook from Gateway, and although the price was a few hundred dollars more you also got some upgrades. TigerDirect.com also carries many Gateway notebooks, including the P-173X FX for $1350, which bumps the processor up to a T7500.
Six months later, Gateway and Best Buy are teaming up again with an upgraded version of the P-6831. We are still working on a larger laptop roundup, but we felt it would be beneficial to alert our readers to the availability of this amazing value sooner rather than later. We will have additional details as part of the roundup; for now, we present some initial benchmark results and an overview of the upgrades.
Today we are going to talk about three cooling solutions that might of interest to those who care most about the size of their CPU cooler, but do not care about the price. We will review solutions from Noctua, Thermalright and Zalman.
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Many casual computer users might not be familiar with the name FSP Group (aka Fotron Source), but their power supplies are found in many PC systems from major system integrators. They come to you with bearing other names such as Zalman, OCZ, or be quiet!, but the actual products are produced by FSP. FSP is one of the largest manufacturers of power supplies in the world. I have been to their Taiwanese headquarters several times when I was living in Taiwan back in 2002. The large complex in Tao Yuan is a little outside of Taipei and houses research equipment most techies can only dream of using. The equipment includes an anechoic room and a setup to test electromagnetic interferences.
FSP sent us several of their units that we will be reviewing shortly, beginning today with the Epsilon 600W 80Plus power supply. FSP Group sells power supplies to many of the familiar names in the PSU market, and they also sell them direct under their own two brand names: FSP and Amacrox. We have already reviewed two Amacrox power supplies, but now we'll be looking at a couple FSPs models. The FSP products come with a blue exterior to separate them from other companies. As one of the largest quality PSU manufacturers, one can expect to find only the best components in their own products.
This power supply design first became famous about two years ago, when FSP partnered with a large number of companies and released numerous slightly tweaked models all based off the same basic topology. Today FSP's market share has decreased, with other ODM competitors like Channel Well Technology (CWT) getting the design wins. We hope that FSP is working on some newer models, as competition is always welcome. be quiet! released a very nice FSP-built model last year that delivered efficiency of up to 88%, a design we haven't seen elsewhere, so they certainly have the capacity to produce some very good PSUs. We saw the same topology at the CES booth earlier this year, but it wasn't at their CeBIT booth. We can only guess what happened to that design - perhaps it was simply too expensive to be practical - but it never really made it to the mass production stage.
The Epsilon comes with four 18A 12V rails, which is a good start. The 3.3V rail delivers up to 36A and the 5V rail 30A. The combined power for both the smaller rails shows is 155W, while the combined power for the 12V rails remains unknown since FSP shows 575W together with the maximum of 155W for the both smaller rails. We could hazard a guess of 420W, but that's more of a worst-case scenario. Worth noting is that the Epsilon 80Plus 600W is not the same as the Epsilon FX600-GLN, which many mistakenly assume. The 80Plus certification immediately indicates that this version is a more energy efficiency revision, although it seems to only be available in Europe right now.
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