Today we are going to talk about five monitors from Dell on e-IPS matrix ranging from 21.5 inches to 30 inches in size. These products boast excellent viewing angles, great functionality, less than 10 ms response time and quite affordable prices.
Antec seems content to continue releasing non-modular products, and like the larger HCG-750, the HCG-520 comes with 80 Plus Bronze certification. We have already tested the 750W version, so it will be interesting to compare the two units and see what other changes are in store beyond the rated power output.
The delivery contents are identical to the 750W version. There is one manual, some screws, and a power cord. In contrast to the HCG-750, the 520W model only has a 3-year warranty (instead of five) and there aren't quite as many cables and connectors. The case is 160mm long, so it is also much shorter than its big brother.
The 520W unit can theoretically draw up to 8A from the power grid (115VAC), and it delivers up to 40A on the single +12V rail. The maximum output from 12V is thus 480W if you don't stress the other rails, which are both rated at 24A. Together, 3.3V and 5V can deliver an additional 130W, which is more than enough for a system with modern components such as SSDs. By way of comparison, the HCG 750W has four 12V rails that can deliver up to 40A, along with a more powerful standby rail.
The packaging lists OCP, OVP, SCP, and OPP safety features, so the power supply should be safe. Interesting to note is that UVP isn't listed. The PWM/PFC IC has it's own under voltage protection while the PS223 IC delivers this feature on all outputs; Antec could benefit from listing these additional features on their homepage. Anyway, let's find out if the PSU itself needs to be improved.
Apple offers two iMacs: a 21.5-inch and a 27-inch model. Just like Apple's notebook strategy, the iMacs are fairly similar in terms of components but primarily differ in screen size/resolution. Of course the larger the screen the higher the likelihood that you'll be doing more with your iMac and thus Apple offers some faster component options in the 27-inch models.
When we saw the NZXT H2's prototype at CES, we were impressed. The case isn't just unusually austere for NZXT, it's genuinely attractive and feature rich. More than that, it's a case designed with silence in mind for the crowd not willing to pony up for bigger, badder cases like SilverStone's Raven series or Antec's P183. With even the updated Sonata IV sporting a daunting $169 asking price, could the NZXT H2 be the silent case frugal builders have been waiting for ?
Without a doubt, the NZXT H2 (vowels need not apply) is a fairly attractive piece of kit. As an enthusiast I personally tend towards more modest looking enclosures like this one, so it's nice to see this kind of design trickling down. The H2 has an MSRP of just $99 and comes in white and black models; I really like the white one (just because a computer's white doesn't mean it wishes it was sporting an Apple logo), but the black one is certainly appealing too. But more than color, the H2 offers a lot of features for the frugal builder's dollar.
Everything new is well forgotten old – this could be a good description of how Noiseblocker NB-TwinTec came into this world.
At first glance Crucial Ballistix Smart Tracer is regular DDR3-1600 SDRAM. However, as soon as you install it into your system and power on, you immediately understand how wrong your first impression was. It not only glows during work, but also comes with special system monitoring software.
Today we are going to talk about the cooling efficiency and acoustic performance of the two new processor coolers from two different manufacturers. They have similar design and comparable price tag.
This mainboard is targeted for those users who do not deal with any overclocking and prefer to have their systems run in nominal mode with the default settings. In this case the functionality of the Intel P67 Express chipset has been extended with a number of additional controllers delivering USB 3.0, PATA and eSATA support. Plus, the price of this product is really attractive.
Each of us at least once in our lives thought while driving a car or even operating a kitchen appliance: imagine how good it could be if it had more power. Now let’s move to the world of computer electronics: are you happy with your Radeon HD 6970? This is a truly respectful product, but is it powerful enough to deliver you the performance you need? And what if we added a Radeon HD 6990 to that ?
NVIDIA’s GF104 and GF114 GPUs have been a solid success for the company so far. 10 months after GF104 launched the GTX 460 series, NVIDIA has slowly been supplementing and replacing their former $200 king. In January we saw the launch of the GF114 based GTX 560 Ti, which gave us our first look at what a fully enabled GF1x4 GPU could do. However the GTX 560 Ti was positioned above the GTX 460 series in both performance and price, so it was more an addition to their lineup than a replacement for GTX 460.
With each GF11x GPU effectively being a half-step above its GF10x predecessor, NVIDIA’s replacement strategy has been to split a 400 series card’s original market between two GF11x GPUs. For the GTX 460, on the low-end this was partially split off into the GTX 550 Ti, which came fairly close to the GTX 460 768MB’s performance. The GTX 460 1GB has remained in place however, and today NVIDIA is finally starting to change that with the GeForce GTX 560. Based upon the same GF114 GPU as the GTX 560 Ti, the GTX 560 will be the GTX 460 1GB’s eventual high-end successor and NVIDIA’s new $200 card.