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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.

Staff

Bob Buskirk

Bob Buskirk

Position: Founder, Webmaster, Editor-in-Chief
Concentration: Displays, SSD’s, Laptops & Full Systems
E-mail: bbuskirk@thinkcomputers.org
Age: 27
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Background: About 10 years of computer experience. Been messing around with electronics since I was 5, got into computers when I was in highschool, been modding them ever since then. Very interested in how things work and their design.
Hobbies: Computers, gaming, modding, movies, anime, hockey, music
Links: Blog | Facebook | View Posts

Colin Dean

Colin Dean

Position: Staff Writer
Concentration: Networking, Power Supplies, Linux
E-mail: cdean@thinkcomputers.org
Age: 26
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Background: I started out on a Commodore 64 my mother brought home from school and eventually moved up to an Apple IIe, then a Mac Performa 600, then 6320, then a Compaq 5000T, then a Sager 5680, then a few custom-built high-performance rigs. I hold a B.S. in computer science from Westminster College (PA) and minor in writing with a focus on journalism, as well as a M.S. in business education from Robert Morris University.
Hobbies: Programming, punditry, languages (computer–PHP, Scheme, and Smalltalk are my favorites–and spoken–I speak English fluently and know enough Esperanto, German, and Spanish to get me in trouble), journalism, web design, cooking
Links: CAD.cx | View Posts

Jack Wager

Jack Wager

Position: Staff Writer
Concentration: Peripherals, Gaming, Consoles
E-mail: jack@thinkcomputers.org
Age: 26
Location: San Diego, CA
Background: Got my first computer when I was 8 and have been addicted ever since. Persuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, an avid gamer, tech nerd and internet addict.
Hobbies: Wasting time on the internet, playing games (XBOX360), programming, DJ’ing, learning new technology and anything to do with really fast cars.
Links: View Posts

Nik Parenti

Nik Parenti

Position: Staff Writer
Concentration: Gaming Products
E-mail: nparenti@pittco.org
Age: 25
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Background: I’ve been reviewing PC products from the age of 14 when I built my first rig. Those reviews may not have been for a website but my friends who were also into PC’s heard plenty of them. I started writing for Thinkcomputers a couple years ago with a focus on mobile products. Recently I’ve made the shift to PC gaming periphials and I’ve never looked back.
Hobbies: Gaming, building computers, hanging with my girlfriend, hockey, football.
Links: CST | View Posts

Adam Wilson

Adam Wilson

Position: Staff Writer
Concentration: Power Supplies, Mainstream Socket Motherboards, Enthusiast Products
Age: 24
Location: Grand Rapids, MI
Background: My dad was always into tech. He owned a Mattel Intellivision, which introduced me to games; a CDTV, which introduced me to keyboard+mouse computing, and was always creating over-the-top sound systems that would push the boundaries for the given time. I always found the things he brought home with him to be fascinating. My first real computer was a Windows 95 prebuilt that my sister bought, along with AOL as an ISP. I initially spent time exploring the internet, but found myself learning CSS and HTML as a hobby and building websites for school friends whilst occasionally helping my school out building sites for whatever purpose they needed.

As I hit 14, I became interested in how this stuff all works at a technical level; learning all I could about computer hardware, and I’ve followed it ever since. Sometimes my interests wander into other tech areas like handheld devices, but in the end my main passion always lies with what can go inside that box you call a desktop. Over the years, I’ve built and maintained numerous machines; for myself, family, friends, and on occasion people who were willing to pay me to do it. I’ve become a fully-fledged PC enthusiast with dabblings in anything from custom cases or case mods, to overclocking with extreme cooling methods.. No components submersed in non-conductive oil yet.. but who knows for the future?
Hobbies: Computers, video games, case modding, writing, good booze, hiking, quad bikes, jetskis, snowmobiles.
Links: View Posts

Mark Howland

Mark Howland

Position: Staff Writer
Concentration: Social Media, Systems, Gaming
E-mail: marklive@thinkcomputers.org
Age: 27
Location: Austin, TX
Background: Hardcore techy, as soon as I can walk and understand the concept of buttons, I would be pushing them. I love new tech, and all upcoming tech. I’m also a hardcore gamer, play games weekly.
Hobbies: Computers, tech, movies, hockey, gaming
Links: View Posts

Non-Active Staff

Frank Stroupe

Frank Stroupe

Position: Staff Writer
Concentration: Motherboards, Memory, Video Cards
E-mail: fstroupe@thinkcomputers.org
Age: 51
Location: NE Mississippi
Background: first operated a computer during a basic programming course I took in college in the mid-1970s. The computer used IBM punch cards (do not spindle, fold, or mutilate). After owning a couple of early console games, in 1986 I purchased my first PC, sporting an 8088 processor, 256K of memory, and no hard drive. Around that time I first saw Windows 1.0…I thought it was silly and would never fly.

For the next 16 years I was a software kind of guy, but in early 2002 I decided to do my first build, a Socket A with an Abit NF7-S mobo…and never looked back. About a year later I became a reviewer for The Overclock Intelligence Agency. I joined the ThinkComputers staff in May 2007, and am currently the motherboard/memory reviewer…though I help Bob out wherever I can.

Though my first computer experience was programming, I don’t do any, I’m mostly into hardware, Photoshop, digital multitrack recording, and I dabble in HTML and CSS.
Hobbies: music (listening and creating), history, genealogy, vacuum tube electronics
Links: Blog | View Posts