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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.

Reeven Kelveros RC-1202 CPU Cooler Review

Installation
So lets get this stealthy looking cooler installed and see how well it drops temps.  The instructions are pretty good, and the method for install is slightly unique, I would suggest following them fairly closely.

Reeven Kelveros RC-1202 CPU Cooler

First thing flip the cooler over and set it on your work surface top down and peel off the protective sticker.  As you can see the base is pretty well machined.  Of course this is direct contact, so there are gaps on the base surface.  This is about as good as it gets for perfect contact on this type of cooler.

Reeven Kelveros RC-1202 CPU Cooler

Putting together the clips for attaching the heatsink to the backplate reminded me of building with an old Erector set, it’s also the reason for the smaller screwdriver.

Reeven Kelveros RC-1202 CPU Cooler

The design is sort of clever actually.  You simply attach the ends to the clip, with one of the small screws.  Insert the screw at the correct hole to match your socket type, in this case 1155.  Then you attach the assembled clip to the base.  Make sure you are checking your screws.  There are two different lengths.  The shorter ones attach the ends to the clip, and the longer attach the clip to the base.

Reeven Kelveros RC-1202 CPU Cooler Reeven Kelveros RC-1202 CPU Cooler

Next you want to put the mounting screws through the correct holes in the backplate.  The holes are clearly marked on the backplate for socket type which is convenient.  You want to do this so you can get everything lined up correctly.

Reeven Kelveros RC-1202 CPU Cooler

As you can see the backplate is two straight pieces connected at the middle with a screw.  This allows you to easily adjust the backplate to your hole locations, very nice.

At this point you will want to apply your thermal paste.  It is recommended that with a direct contact base design that you put some on the heatsink as well as the CPU lid.  I recommend that you put a bit on the heatsink base, then take a plastic card (think credit card etc.) that you won’t necessarily need again and spread the paste across the heasink surface.  Essentially you are trying to fill the gaps somewhat.  I suggest leaving the bit on the CPU in a drop in the middle.

Here is where the install process goes south.  Take the heatsink and line it up with the screws through the backplate.  When you think it is close enough press it firmly onto the CPU.  Now you have to attach those screws into the mounting clip ends from behind the motherboard.  This is not clever.  As you can imagine, you will have to keep the coolers base pressed firmly onto the CPU, keep the mounting bracket from falling out, and try to use a screwdriver to turn the screws into place.  Oh did I mention the  small screws yet?  Well these are small, and small screws have small threads, and small threads need to be lined up perfectly or they bind as they go in, so be careful.

Once you get each screw started move onto the others until all four are started.  Then in a cross pattern tighten them down to ensure you have an even contact with CPU.

Reeven Kelveros RC-1202 CPU Cooler

With the cooler in place attach the PWM plug to the CPU_FAN header on the motherboard.  You will also install the fan controller into an open expansion slot at the back of your case.  The wires are not terribly long, you will want to use a slot near to the cooler.

Reeven Kelveros RC-1202 CPU Cooler Reeven Kelveros RC-1202 CPU Cooler

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