Creating a perfect cooling setup is often all about the cooler, chassis and fans with users spending a great deal of money to not only acquire high end heatsinks and thermal designs but also to keep the noise levels down. The little things, such as thermal paste, are often wrongly overlooked. The contact between the CPU and base of the CPU cooler is a very important one and so the right paste is a must have to ensure that heat is effectively transferred from one to the other and also to fill up ay grooves in the cooler’s base (often found with H.D.T. technology).
Arctic Cooling are a specialist when it comes to cooling and their latest two thermal compounds, aptly named ARCTIC MX-2 and ARCTIC MX-3, aim to achieve great performance at a reasonable price. Let’s take a closer look…
Category Archives: Reviews
Arctic Cooling ARCTIC MX-2 & MX-3 Thermal Paste Review
October 7, 2009 – 6:01 pm
Evercool Buffalo HPFI-10025 CPU Cooler Review
October 5, 2009 – 6:54 pm
Evercool has a vast array of thermal solutions incorporating both air and water methods for numerous different components. Their CPU cooling solutions especially include a variety of different fin and heatpipe architectures compatible with most current sockets.
The Evercool Buffalo, from the LGA775 range, is a newer design that utilises a copper base, a 10cm pre-installed fan and an easy installation method. As a more mainstream cooler compared to the HPK-10025EA, some decent cooling is expected too so let’s see what it can offer…
ThermoLab BARAM CPU Cooler Review
September 20, 2009 – 9:50 pm
A lot has been made of the high TDP’s of Intel’s i7 range of processors, only surpassed by the 140W TDP of AMD’s Phenom II X4 965 BE, requiring more cooling especially when at overclocked settings. In terms of air cooling, many of the smaller designs just can’t cope with the heat demands of the i7’s and so the larger heatsinks with more fins, surface area and heat pipes have been left to fight it out to see which cooler performs best.
ThermoLAB, a Korean company, have created the BARAM – a huge aluminium heatsink with a very particular fin structure. But how will it contend with many of the other top air CPU coolers? Let’s take a look…
Speedlink Base Line USB Keyboard Review
September 11, 2009 – 11:35 am
Input devices are essential to the running of every single PC out there – after all they allow the user to control their processes and applications; a good mouse and keyboard are invaluable and can make working or gaming much easier. One such company which has a good track record in the peripheral industry is Speedlink and they are renowned for producing top quality products at a range of price levels that can suit a specific user’s needs. With a large number of keyboards already available, Speedlink have created the Base Line – a keyboard designed with the economic crisis in mind sporting a very reasonable price tag. We’ve seen brilliant things from Speedlink in the past, so let’s see how this latest product shapes up…
Eagle Arion ET-AR302-BK 2.0 Soundstage Speakers Review
September 9, 2009 – 10:05 am
After reviewing Eagle Tech’s affordable 2.1 speaker setup, they sent us over another speaker set for review – the ET-AR302-BK. In keeping with the theme of the other Eagle Tech speakers they promise decent sound quality at a very reasonable price. At just the $20 mark, this 2.0 set is hardly going to break the bank but how do they shape up in terms of performance and sound quality? Let’s take a better look…
OCZ Behemoth Review
September 7, 2009 – 9:32 pm
Gaming grade peripherals have always been the crème de la crème when it comes to mice, keyboards, etc. But is there that much of a difference to be had between different peripheral manufacturers? There are a few things which are apparent even before testing – aesthetics and price. So let’s take a look at one competitor, the OCZ Behemoth.
Cooler Master Hyper N520 CPU Cooler Review
September 4, 2009 – 2:18 pm
With the tower format cooler generally accepted as the best current heatsink design architecture, the variations are often with the base, heatpipes and fan configurations. Previous Cooler Master designs such as the V8 and V10 are pretty extreme with additional heatsinks sprouting from all parts making them into monster coolers.
Although this cooler may resemble a basic heatpipe cooler, CM has gone down a different route in making it unique. The Hyper N520 not only has a dual fan configuration but the fans are also slightly offset supposedly to ensure the air is “accelerated” through heatsink. So where about does this cooler fit into Cooler Master’s ranges?
Well, the V8 and V10 coolers are very high end and with specific coolers such as the Hyper TX3 for the new Intel i5 processors, Cooler Master appear to have slotted the N520 into the all round category with it being compatible with an array of different processors. Enough said for the moment, let’s take a better look at the product in question before unleashing it on our test rig.
Evercool HPK-10025EA Review
September 1, 2009 – 5:39 pm
Evercool, a company which specialise in the cooling market, provide our latest CPU cooler sample to pit it wits against our i7 rig. The cooler in question with its low profile architecture is designed to suit HTPCs and small cases. Named the HPK-10025EA, this cooler is solely Intel orientated for both LGA775 and LGA1366 sockets but how well can it contend with the high 130W TDP of the i7 920 processor.
Many larger designs have come unstuck so how will the HPK-10025EA fare? Let’s take a look…
Antec Mini P180
August 27, 2009 – 2:13 pm
Antec’s Performance One chassis range has evolved greatly over the years from the original P180 which has then taken on a series of updates, revisions and improvements with the latest edition being the P183.
Due to these cases being compatible with all form factor motherboards up to and including ATX, the chassis are understandably large and spacious. With this in mind, Antec created the mini P180 aimed at the more niche market – users with micro-ATX rigs.
Featuring a similar, yet smaller, layout to the larger chassis’ in the range, the mini P180 is marketed as being an excellent gaming enclosure as well as easy to transport. On paper everything sounds rosy so let’s see how it shapes up as we look a little closer….
Noctua NH-U9B Review
August 18, 2009 – 10:14 pm
In the thermal solutions market, the name Noctua is a highly respected one that is synonymous with a very high build quality and great performance. Their product base is fairly limited though with a total of three different heatsinks but when you can produce products such as the NH-U12P and NH-C12P, you don’t exactly need a huge selection.
Noctua’s flagship model, the NH-U12P is known throughout the industry and with the addition of an LGA1366 mounting kit; it’s moved onto the i7 scene. Perhaps the one downfall of this product is its size and this is where, the third heatsink comes into its own. The NH-U9B, effectively the baby brother of the larger NH-U12P, features the same 4 dual heatpipes but is a much smaller heatsink utilised the 92mm NF-B9 fan. But, how much cooling potential will the heatsink lose in its slimmed down version, let’s take a look…