For a long time I had resisted converting my DVD and Blu-Ray disks into any other format because I didn’t want to lose any quality. I had lived by this rule for a long time, and thankfully companies like QNAP and Thecus came to my storage rescue. However, the day has come where the cost of storing all the extra garbage that comes along with these movies has opened my eyes to benefits conversions. With that, I have began converting my movie collection to a format that allows me to lose all the excess fat, but keep my movie loss-less. Read More…
It has been a few months since I last visited with a GlacialTech offering and when they asked me to take a look at the Siberia Cooler, I was hopeful. Hopeful that they would be able to win on all fronts this time. The Siberia aims at a different target than the Alaska did, the Siberia is designed for quiet cooling, lots of cooling, but uses a design that is no taller than the Nexus FLC-3000 R2. Horizontal heatsinks are perfect for applications where height is not an option, such as home theater PC's. Siberia is cold, let's see if this cooler cools.
I have always considered Thermaltake to be one of the premier manufacturers of cases and cooling products; even though I haven't always been a fan of all of their products. With the loud design of many products entering the market today, it seems that there has been a lack of balance between the design and the function, whereas the function doesn't say as much about the performance as the appearance does. Thermaltake thinks they can regain some of my confidence by enticing me, the enthusiast, with a CPU cooler that claims it can do the job and looks like it should be able to without the zany design elements some have chosen to opt for over functionality.
Some people like quiet computing, others like the wind tunnel experience. Personally, I fall somewhere in the middle. The winding hum of fans whisking air through my rig is calming for me; much like vacuums to a baby. However, I am not the norm, oddly. Many of today's users seem to look towards a peaceful experience in front of the keyboard instead of the days when we thought having a computer that sounded like a hovercraft was cool. A few companies have made a name for themselves by offering peripherals and devices that marry performance with peace and quiet. Nexus thinks they have the proper balance with their new FLC-3000 (R2).
For a long time, I was a cooling enthusiast; it was water or nothing. However, as improvements have been made over the last few years, the idea of air cooling has become an attractive option. The days of drilling holes in my case for mounting radiators and clumsy water pump configurations have gone out the window. Although nothing looks as cool as a water cooled rig, it is troublesome to maintain, a bear to move to a new case, and it can get expensive. Stock heatsinks have come a long way too and, with their improvements, other manufacturers have stepped up their game. GlacialTech has an inclination that the Alaska can find itself a home in our bench rig. Let's see if that assumption is correct.
Until recently, I have never really been a huge fan of laptops. I am given one for my company, but until I decided to get married I had no reason to be in the living room. Now that my time can't be dedicated to being in my office on my desktop PC, a laptop has become a necessity. Although they are named laptops, few of us actually put them on our laps. The reasons for this vary as much as the reasons for purchasing one in the first place. My reason is simple... THAT THING GETS HOT! Spire has suggested that getting a laptop cooling product to keep my precious little laptop cool. Enter the Spire PacificBreeze II - SP302AP-B. Read More...
At 4 in the morning, most people are sleeping; not me. I am sitting in front of my test rig testing the cpu cooling solution you are about to read about. Spire has been filling their portfolio with new products on a consistent basis and has decided to throw this one our way. Spire left me hanging with the DiamondCool unit; let's see if they can win me back with the VertiCool II.
The VertiCool II doesn't seem on paper like much of a champion. Sporting a measly 25.88 CFM at 2300 rpms and running out only 19 dBA this thing is quiet and doesn't appear to be much of a contender. This unit measures 95mm long, 65mm wide and 100mm tall. That makes it nearly the size of the AC Freezer 64 Pro. Read More...
So you think you have it all figured out. You bought your AMD 64 and you have your system all rigged up. You are playing your games, checking your email, surfing the net, and doing your "thing" without any consideration for what is in store for you. It's nice and cool out, the heat hasn't really struck yet and keeping your processor cool is the last thing on your mind. These days it seems like people are very interested in companies that think outside the box. Today, we will be looking at a heatsink designed for the box! Spire thinks they have a product here that will steal your stock heatsink's position in your system. Enter the Spire SP741B3-U DiamondCool II.
Heatsinks are a crazy bunch of products... just like any other product in the industry, each item has its genre. Some products are designed for the enthusiast, some are for the overclocker, some for the normal user, and some are designed for the fat wallet. This one will not take a huge chunk of change out of your pocket, but it will make an impression on it. Let's see if it stands up to its $36.00 (estimated) street value. Remember, the stock heatsink is free when you buy your RETAIL processor. Read More...
Every time I sit down with a new piece of hardware, I think how things have changed. When I got my 400 GB hard drive, I thought long and hard about my massive 10 GB Quantum Bigfoot. When I got my DVD Burner, I thought long and hard about my 1x CD Burner. When I got my 3700+ San Diego CPU, I thought long and hard about my 486 DX33. Today, I am thinking long and hard about my Alpha PAL8045 and my Swiftech MCX462+ while I am looking at this Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro. Things have certainly changed.
When I was using those monsters, I never cared about the hissing sound my Delta Screamer made, I never cared about the amount of lift my Vantec Tornado provided. I just wanted a cool processor. Enter the Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro. Read More...
I can remember the days when I would have to find the biggest, baddest, most expensive heat sink on the market to cool my overclocked CPU. It's amazing how things change. I went from the guy with the loudest computer, to the guy with the green glowing water cooled computer. My days of obnoxiously loud fans like the Tornados and the Delta screamers were numbered.
I no longer consider myself conventional in the sense of cooling. I have converted from air to water in my main rig, but still keep my server air cooled. Since my server hasn't made the switch yet, and I am enjoying the quiet much more than I used to; practical, inexpensive, and quiet is what I now look for in a cooling solution. Enter the Speeze EE475B13 Copper Snake III. Read More...
Along about the middle of last year Thermalright introduced the SLK-800 heatsink for socket 370/462 motherboards. The result was a resounding success. The SLK-800 found itself perched atop the food chain for aftermarket cooling on those steaming Athlons. Praises were heaped upon it like roses on Miss America. So, it's been well over six months since it was introduced, why subject us to another review? Well, for two reasons actually. One, some folks have just discovered Motherboard Monitor and realized they could fry two eggs and a slab of bacon on their CPU. Two, just like when shopping for a vehicle, you need to read the reports of how well they hold up after initial manufacture. Besides, with the passage of time, the price of this unit has come down to a very affordable level for the novice. Read More...
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