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XSPC AX Radiator Desk Stand Review
One of the biggest limiting factors in what you can do with watercooling is how much room you have in your case. With so much equipment to pack in for watercooling alone, space ends up being one of the chief concerns for builders and modders. And the single biggest limiting factor: how much radiator one can fit. Radiators are large, bulky, and inflexible in how they need to be installed. This can easily lead to the builder having to sacrifice cooling surface for space. There is a solution to this problem though; external radiator stands. And if you have chosen to use XSPC’s AX series of radiators, then you’re in luck. Today we will be looking at the AX Radiator Desk Stand from XSPC.
http://www.thinkcomputers.org/xspc-ax-radiator-desk-stand-review/
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Win a NZXT Phantom 630 Case!
It is summer time and it is the perfect time to give you, our readers some free hardware! We have teamed up with our friends at NZXT to give away a brand new NZXT Phantom 630 Case! This Ultra Tower not only looks good it has room for quite a lot inside like long graphics cards, XL-ATX Motherboards, 8 hard drives and a lot of watercooling! Like many of our contests we will be running this one on Facebook and it is extremely easy to enter!
http://www.thinkcomputers.org/win-a-nzxt-phantom-630-case/
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Case Mod Friday: ReactorMod
Welcome to another Case Mod Friday showcase! This week we have a builders ReactorMod build. Here is what he had to say about it: It's a modded Chieftec BX-03 case. I wanted to make it look like it's quite old and kinda shabby. I was thinking about this build for quite a long time, so I managed to collect some cool stuff that I've found on a nearby scrap yard (e.g. switch or steel sheet that I used to make the radiator cover). I also used some spare parts that I had lying around.
http://www.thinkcomputers.org/case-mod-friday-reactormod/
http://www.thinkcomputers.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/front2.jpg
Enermax Triathlor FC 550W Power Supply Review
Enermax is a brand whose strong product is their power supplies, especially when it comes to the high-end spectrum. Their Platimax and MAXREVO units are some of the best out there. But these units are not cheap in terms of cost. Enermax knows not everyone has a ton of cash to throw at a new power supply so they have created the Triathlor series of power supplies. There are actually the Triathlor and Triathlor FC units. The Triathlor units are lower wattage and non-modular and the Triathlor FC units are higher wattage and are modular. Today we are checking out the Triathlor FC 550W unit which is 80PLUS Bronze certified and offers quiet operation.
http://www.thinkcomputers.org/enermax-triathlor-fc-550w-power-supply-review/
http://www.thinkcomputers.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/front1.jpg
SilverStone ARM22SC ARM Two Dual LCD Monitor Mount Review
We mainly know SilverStone for their cases and for good reason, they are high quality and look great. What if SilverStone took that same quality and put it into a LCD monitor mount? Then you would have what we are reviewing today which is the ARM Two ARM22SC dual LCD Monitor Mount from SilverStone. LCD arms are a great addition to any computer setup, especially if you are using a multi-monitor system. The ARM22SC is constructed with robust aluminum alloy and steel so this is a heavy duty piece of hardware. It will support two displays with VESA mounts. Read on as we get this installed and see how it transforms our desk.
http://www.thinkcomputers.org/silverstone-arm22sc-arm-two-dual-lcd-monitor-mount-review/
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Win a Pivos XIOS DS Media Player!
Pivos is a company we have been working with lately and they make some pretty cool little media players. We have already reviewed their XIOS DS media player and it is a very unique device. Pivos was nice enough to give us one to give away to our readers! Just like all of our contests this one is very easy to enter and we will be running it on Facebook? So what are you doing get out there and get your entry in!
http://www.thinkcomputers.org/win-a-pivos-xios-ds-media-player/
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Case Mod Friday: Black and White
Welcome to another Case Mod Friday showcase! This week we have Christian Black and White build. Here is what he had to say about it: Well this is the first time I do something like this, and it really is interesting the world of case modding the project is BLACK AND WHITE and really was a design chosen because I began to paint the cabinet only and one thing leads to another as in all cases and was thinking of some ideas for covers.
http://www.thinkcomputers.org/case-mod-friday-black-and-white/
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The History Of The Hard Drive
In 1953, engineers in IBM's California-based laboratory invented the very first hard drive. Since that first disk drive, technological advances have been made at an astonishing rate, with data capacity increasing and size and price decreasing exponentially, year on year. 60 years on, the hard drives of today are unrecognizable from the first models, which took up an entire room. Hard drives today are measured in terms of gigabytes and terabytes, rather than megabytes-an amount of data that would have been almost unimaginable in the early history of computers. Here we take a look back at the evolution of the hard drive as it grew from 5MB to 4TB.
http://www.thinkcomputers.org/the-history-of-the-hard-drive/
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Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11 Review
Lenovo has been making headlines with their IdeaPad Yoga. It is a tablet convertible that can be used as a laptop as well. There are 11-inch and 13-inch models. While the larger 13-inch model has the choice of Intel Core processors, the 11-inch does not and is rather powered by the NVIDIA Tegra 3 platform. Today we will be taking a look at that unit which does offer a very sleek and slim design, responsive 11.6-inch touchscreen, Lenovo’s patent-pending hinge design that allows the screen to flip completely over and it is running Windows RT. Let’s check it out!
http://www.thinkcomputers.org/lenovo-ideapad-yoga-11-review/
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Case Mod Friday: ViRoiD
Welcome to another Case Mod Friday showcase! This week we have Ben's ViRoiD build. Here is what he had to say about it: Pictures speak louder than words. Getting a 690 to fit in a prodigy is not a big deal until you start thinking about watercooling it, and a cpu, and ram. I wanted a color that matched the p8z77-i, and blue was the ticket. The orange case was chosen because of its location opposite of blue on the color wheel. Modding the front of the case to fit the 200mm rad was fun, plus it gave me some extra materials to make some psu covers with.
http://www.thinkcomputers.org/case-mod-friday-viroid/

Cooler Master TPC 812 CPU Cooler Review

Testing
The test rig consists of the following parts:

Processor: Intel Core i5 2500K
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 EVO
Video Card: SPARKLE Calibre Series X480 GeForce GTX 480
Memory: Corsair Vengence 8 GB @ 1600mhz
Power Supply: High Power Astro PT 700w
Storage: 250 GB SATA II Drive
Cooling: Cooler Master TPC 812
Case: Antec 900

Testing was done using Intel Burn Test (IBT) with the AVX instruction set.  The reason to use this instead of Prime95 with this setup is that it pushes an i5 2500K a whole lot harder giving us a better sense of load temps.  All of the testing was done at the high memory setting for a single pass.  While this in no way would qualify the chip as stable when overclocking, it gives us a realistic idea of what temps it will be hitting.

First though I did some testing with the stock Intel cooler, at the stock motherboard settings, in the test rig with results as follows:

Ambient temps: 18.89C/66F
Idle temps: 27.25C/81.05F core average
IBT temps: 69.25C/156.65F core average

Next I ran the TPC 812 through the same test at the same motherboard settings:

Ambient temps: 20C/68F
Idle temps: 28.5C/83.3F core average
IBT temps: 47.25C/117.05 core average

Cooler Master TPC 812 CPU Cooler

These are very similar temperatures with stock setting being used to other coolers we’ve tested.  And it’s worth noting that they are much better than the stock cooler temps.

Now to take the CPU on a little overclocking voyage to put the cooler through it’s paces.  This is after all what Cooler Master claims it is designed for.

Ambient temps: 20C/68F
Max overclock: 4.7 ghz/1.464V vCore
IBT temps: 77C/170.6F core average (This average included 81C on a core as well as 80C on another which put a quick end to the session.)

Cooler Master TPC 812 CPU Cooler Cooler Master TPC 812 CPU Cooler

I have to say this was very disappointing. For a cooler that claims to be the cream of the crop for overclocking, the TPC 812 fell short.  When attempting to match the 4.8ghz that I would consider a good overclock it was pushing over 85C while running IBT.  That is simply unacceptable and I had to bump it back down.

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  • JohnW
    Your cooling reviews are terribly inconsistent.

    It is voltage that increases heat not clock speed. You’re running 1.48v, of course its going to run very hot. In other reviews you only go to 1.43v maximum.

    This cooler seems on par with others you’ve claimed are very good but this one is very disappointing?

  • Derrick
    JohnW,

    First, thanks for taking reading my review.

    I’m sure you are aware that overclocking is not an exact science. Aside from locking in a set of parameters and simply swapping out the cooler for every review, (which is not possible since I have other aspects of each coolers performance to test) I simply can not make everything perfectly the same. I do use as many of the same settings as I can (saved in bios profiles), but ultimately still have to play with voltages to get a stable overclock.

    While I admit this is not laboratory perfect I do feel it is a very strong representation of real life.

    Specifically to this cooler it actually took 1.464v under load to achieve the overclock. Performance and other factors combined, this cooler was not up to par with many others that I’ve tested.

    Thank you for your interest!