Tech News
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Introducing the Thermalright AXP-100RH and the Silver Arrow ITX-R
Introducing the AXP-100RH and the Silver Arrow ITX-R
With the AXP-100RH we present a slightly higher version of the popular HTPC cooler to match the AXP-100H Muscle. We would also like to use the opportunity to introduce the Silver Arrow ITX-R, which will become available at the beginning of March.
The AXP-100RH has been designed for users who are looking for maximum cooling capacity at minimal dimensions. The adjustment in height became necessary to match the higher VRM cooler of the most recent ASUS “Republic of Gamers” MAXIMUS motherboard series.
The black and red design of the original AXP-100R was meant as a homage to the “Republic of Gamers” series. In order to use the cooler on the new Mini-ITX motherboards, the height was increased by 7 mm. With its 51 mm (65 mm with the fan), it is the perfect cooler for compact home theater/multimedia systems or minimalistic work stations with a limited height.
The AXP-100RH is equipped with six 6 mm heatpipes, finished with high-end heatpipe caps. The cooler uses the well-known T-shaped “down draft” design, in which the air flow is directed perpendicular to the mainboard, which allows the cooling of the surrounding motherboard components at the same time. Included is the well-known TY 100R fan.
The included „Enhanced Fan Mount“ of the AXP-100RH allows maximum flexibility when installing fan, in order to make best use of the available space in HTC-cases. In addition, the “Enhanced Fan Mount” allows the easy installation of larger fans with 120 mm mounting holes (like the TY 147B) on the cooler.
The Silver Arrow ITX-R succeeds the Silver Arrow ITX and is much more compact than its predecessor. The twin-tower cooler impresses with its reduced dimensions and fits in a lot more Mini-ITX cases, but will also excel on Micro-ATX or ATX systems.
An eye catcher is without a doubt the black high-gloss nickel plating of the heatsink, which in combination with the black and red TY-129 fan underlines the high-quality processing. The fan is installed between the two cooling towers, in order to avoid collisions with RAM modules or VRM coolers.
The cooler comes with six powerful 6 mm copper heatpipes. They are tightly integrated into the nickel-plated cooper base, to allow the most effective heat dissipation. The included TY 129 PWM-fan rotates between 300 and 1,300 rpm. This means during standard operation the fan is virtually unnoticeable from the outside. The air flow of the silent optimized fans ranges from 21.9 and 94.8 m³/h, at a noise level between 21 and 33 dB(A).
The AXP-100RH and the Silver Arrow ITX-R come with the latest universal mounting kit, which allows the installation of the cooler on all current Intel- and AMD-CPU’s. Both coolers are explicitly compatible to the new AM4 processors from AMD.
The AXP-100RH is now available in stores; the Silver Arrow ITX-R will be available from the beginning of March. The MSRP of both models can be found below among the specifications at the end of this press release.
Specifications Silver Arrow ITX-R- Length: 153 mm (m. Lüfter)
- Width: 103 mm (m. Lüfter)
- Height: 150 mm (m. Lüfter)
- Weight: 660 g (m. Lüfter)
- Fan dimensions: 130 x 130 x 25 mm
- Material: Hybrid
- Fan speed: 300 - 1,300 rpm
- Airflow: 21.9 - 94.8 m³/h
- Noise: 21 - 33 dB(A)
- Connector: 4 Pin PWM
- Heatpipes: 6 x 6 mm
- Max. cooling capacity: 280 Watt
- Code: 814256001175
- Order number: 100700417
- Manufacturer number: Silver Arrow ITX-R
- MSRP: 74.99€ incl. 19% VAT
Product pictures can be downloaded here. -
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 AORUS 8G Xtreme review
The next big eSports gaming brand is here complete with triple fan heatsinks, RGB lighting and a name you can bring home to your mother.
We review the new GeForce GTX 1080 AORUS Xtreme 8G from Gigabyte, and heck yeah this is not your regular one. Meet the all custom, cooled and tweaked Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 AORUS Xtreme Edition. We'll heck out the new 8 GB beast fitted with a massive and impressive three slot cooler, extra RGB LED functionality and sexy clock frequencies.
I'm not sure about sexy clock frequencies but the cooler design is spot on.
Maybe I'll get one for review before the next big chip gets released. Only 4 months till Computex afterall.
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MSI X99A Tomahawk Motherboard Review @ ThinkComputers
There are some really cool motherboards out there and in the X99 generation I have been able to review boards from EVGA, MSI and Gigabyte and while I love what Gigabyte does my favorates boil down to the EVGA X99 Classified, MSI X99A Godlike, and MSI X99A Tomahawk.
Why so much MSI? Simply put, good package with some great features. Oh and tasteful RGB lighting.
MSI introduced their Arsenal Gaming line not to long ago. The way it sits in their product stack is that you have Enthusiast Gaming, Performance Gaming, Arsenal Gaming, and then their Pro Series. Arsenal Gaming is positioned to give users many great gaming features, but at a good price as well. Today we are checking out the X99A Tomahawk, which offers a nice matte black PCB with black and grey accents. The board has three PCI-Express 3.0 x4 slots, an M.2 32 GB/s slot, a U.2 32 GB/s port, dual Intel LAN ports, USB 3.2 gen 2, and MSI’s Audio Boost 3. Does the X99A Tomahawk have what it takes to make it into your X99 build? Read on as we take a look…
Seems the ThinkComputers grew lkes it as well.
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Creative Sound BlasterX Katana Review @ Vortez
One of the cool products I personally saw at CES 2017 was the Katana sound bar from Creative. Big sound from a small package with many iRoar features built in.
Soundbars are a popular choice among many people looking for a high quality speaker system that is also compact. As a sub-market, gamers end up having to wade through the many offerings out there in the wide world, yet may be unsure of what it is they want or need. So the 'gaming' soundbar became a thing. Our first outing with such a product was with the Razer Leviathan, and now we get to take a look at the Sound BlasterX Katana from Creative.
The thing with sound bars is not so much how good or bad they sound but the form factor and how it works with your PC setup. Some of us have dual and triple monitors and might want more sound separation.
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This Company Went From 'Game Over' to Gaming Industry Power Player
They say it is all about finding your niche or, in the case of PC hardware you need to diversify and capitolize on the markets that are making money. Gaming and enthusiast PCs are hot right now so why not take advantage.
To understand how the company made its pivot, first let's look at its trajectory. MSI was founded in 1986 with a focus on designing and manufacturing motherboards for computers. Having gone public two years later, the company's next big moves came in 2003 and 2008 when it began selling branded notebooks and netbooks, respectively. At its height during those years, MSI's revenue hit $3.1 billion (U.S. dollars) in 2008.
When I started Ninjalane.com MSI wasn't a huge player in the motherboard market, they had products out there but nothing really stood out and then, overnight it seems, MSI changed and created silos of specialization. Of course, I cared more about the OC line then gaming but that started a trend that has steamrolled ever since.
Unlike consumer PC owners, customers in the gaming world typically demand high-performance devices to help enhance their game play--and they're willing to pay extra for them. While sales of traditional PCs have been slow or trending downward, high-end gaming PC sales are thriving. Specifically, the global gaming hardware market continues to grow and is expected to reach $140 billion by 2019. That's billion, with a "b."
Interest in gaming hardware has been driven in part by the immense global popularity of eSports. With major events including the International and the League of Legends World Championship, revenues from the eSports industry were expected to reach almost $500 million last year, up more than 50 percent from 2015.This is a key part of the entrepreneur.com article, It will be the enthusaists that dominate the custom PC market and is something I have said time and time again. Personally I'm looking forward to the future of the PC, even if Intel and Microsoft want to kill it off.
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Throwback Time: Chaintech Zenith ZNF3-150 Motherboard
Back in the early 2000’s AMD was on top of the performance world with a very highly sought after CPU that was not only inexpensive but, fast and loved to overclock. This trifecta was further enhanced by NVidia and their launch into building chipsets along with top notch GPUs.
To enhance performance and make motherboard production cheaper AMD launched the Athlon64 processor platform and things have changed forever. The new processor combined a CPU with a Memory Controller allowing for better performance and lower latency. It also allowed companies like NVidia to develop single chip motherboard solutions and concentrate on connectivity over raw performance.
In this Throwback Thursday I give you the Chaintech Zenith ZNF3-150. This is an NVidia based motherboard using the new nForce3 chipset designed for Athlon64 754pin processors.
As you can see the motherboard is very colorful with bright orange expansion slots, purple caps and a very large VRM cooler that is not only covered in a gold shield but features an actively cooled heatsink called RadEX. The small fan vented out the back of the I/O panel and seemed excessive at the time considering it was only 4 phases. Of course to keep with the gold theme a small decorative cover can be found on the MCP heatsink and all of the I/O sockets are covered in gold as well.
At the bottom of the motherboard you’ll find a short expansion socket which is a dedicated audio port for the CMC (Chaintech Multimedia Card). This was a genius onboard audio solution which was way ahead of its time.
The Chaintech Zenith ZNF3-150 might not have been a very popular motherboard of the era but remains as one of the few boards to really push the limit and deliver a complete solution instead of just a bare motherboard.
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BitFenix Shogun Chassis Review
Shogun is the master.
Sorry, couldn't resist. Extra points if you know what movie that is from and even more points if you have ever watched it.
We review one of the better looking chassis I have seen in a while, the new BitFenix Shogun, a product series that is designed for the enthusiast crowd, loaded with features and really nice looks. Yes, with nice aesthetics and yes, it has been fitted with tempered glass. And that does make this chassis look very special. Wanna have a peek?
Personally I'm like, uhh meh for the Shogun. It is def not the master of all computer cases. Granted, that's a worst-case scenario. The meh might in fact be very localised and limited to merely our own galaxy.
Oh snap, another movie quote!, this time one about things being bad!
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Arctic Freezer i32 Semi Passive CPU Cooler Review @ Hardware Slave
I'm not really a fan of the Arctic brand of CPU coolers. They cool pretty well and have a nice white and black color theme but the mounting hardware is way bad. By the looks of it they have improved things a little.
Our first CPU cooler review of 2017 and it’s the Arctic Freezer i32. The Arctic Freezer i32 is based on the Arctic Freezer i30, but Arctic state the i32 has several feature improvements that boost performance and reduce noise. Arctic have been around the PC and system builder’s scene for a very long time. In fact, we use Arctic MX2 for all our CPU cooler reviews just because we have used Arctic thermal paste for a very long time and trust it. We know what it is capable of and we know they know their thermal paste.
The tower is a four heatpipe cooler design with stagared pipes for better cooling and a rather dense fin array. Cooling should be pretty good with this configuration and might be why they call it Semi Passive or, that could just be marketing speak for "the fan spins so slow it might as well not be there"
Do check out the review and start on the second page if you want to see photos.
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Introducing the EVGA CLC 120/280 Liquid Coolers
February 1st, 2017 – The EVGA Closed Loop CPU Cooler (CLC) 120 and 280 have arrived. These new liquid coolers from EVGA give you incredible performance, low noise, robust software controls and RGB lighting.
Built to Perform
New cooling block offers improved flowrate and heat transfer surface area for incredible cooling efficiency.Sync with your EVGA GeForce GTX Graphics Card*
Link up your EVGA CLC cooler with select EVGA graphics cards, and match the colors directly from software. One button to control both RGB LED’s! Color profiles even save to firmware.* Available on select graphics cards.
New EVGA Fans
These fans are built for superior cooling and lower noise. The curved housing reduces noise level and unique blade design offers incredible cooling performance. Teflon Nano Bearings ensure a long lifespan.
EVGA Flow Control Software (Coming Soon)
This EVGA software gives you full control over your EVGA CLC Liquid Cooler including, fanspeed/curve, RGB lighting, Pump Control, Profiles and more! Also, the fan settings and lighting save to firmware meaning you can set and forget.FREE AM4 Bracket (Coming Soon)
The EVGA CLC coolers are available immediately at a US MSRP of $89.99 for the CLC 120 and $129.99 for the CLC 280. Learn more at: http://www.evga.com/articles/01081/evga-clc-liquid-cpu-cooler/About EVGA
EVGA is the #1 NVIDIA authorized partner in channel sales throughout North America and Latin America and a leading Power Supply Manufacturer. Based on the philosophy of intelligent innovation, market knowledge, and the real time operation, EVGA continues to identify the need in the market place and providing the solution to that need. By offering product differentiation, 24/7 tech support, a 90 day Step-Up program, and other customer focused programs, EVGA is a clear leader in all categories: etail, retail, distribution, and system integration. With headquarters in Brea, CA, EVGA’s global coverage includes EVGA GmbH in Munich, EVGA LATAM in Miami, and EVGA Hong Kong. For further information online about EVGA, visit: www.evga.com -
Gaming hardware needs to grow up @ PCGamer
I'm not going to say that this is a proper response to the current state of PC hardware but, this is a proper response, at least to a certain degree.
Much like the author of this piece at PCGamer, I have been around PC hardware for a long time. I remember when desktop cases were "the thing" and how most people wanted more drives because more drives meant more storage options. (oh and by "more drives" I mean external drives, like floppy drives)
The author tells it straight though, the PC market is on a decline and companies are scrambling to find ways to make their products sell. Often that means adding gold or, as we have seen this season, adding RGB lights just to appease the one region of the world still buying PC hardware.
Don't get me started with RGB lighting. It's everywhere I look and it seems like we're on a path to no return. Speakers are lit, keyboards are lit, motherboards are lit, RAM is lit, headsets are lit—everything is lit. One day I'm going to have a damn seizure. Heck, even "gaming" chairs are starting to feature RGB lighting.
Admittedly there are folks who light up their rigs tastefully, and they do look great. But when did insane designs and RGB equate to gaming? Are manufacturers telling us that in order to perform well in a game we have to have RGB lighting and that whatever products we buy have to have fins and jagged edges? Why can't a gaming product be simple, effective, and perform well? Does the computer case I use need to have flaps, fins and bulges to convey that the size of my "e-peen" is substantial? Does RGB lighting deliver a higher chance of a stable overclock? Give me a break.
The author brings up a good point though. We don't need all of this BUT, we need something, a spark to bring the PC back from the dead.
A Reason
We as hardware enthusiasts need to spread the word that having a custom PC is cool again. I will be the first to admit that I think the current direction is counterproductive but will say the Asian marketing engine is fierce. I mean, if a single region can sway 90% of the hardware makers to do "something" and do that something "together” that is telling me two things. First that there is hope for the future of the enthusiast PC, and Second that most everyone has run out of ideas and need people help define the future.
