Aside from clean stable power, which is the core issue of any power supply, Kingwin also delivers a quiet unit. The soft hum of the Mach 1 immediately disappears if your ear moves more than a foot away. I went so far as to blow a hair dryer on the unit to artificially get the fan's sensor to speed the fan up and still got quiet operation. Very impressive.
Externally, the first thing that comes to mind about the Cosmos is its rather gigantic dimensions. At 266mm (width) x 598mm (height), the Cosmos is by far the largest PC case I’ve ever reviewed. Not only is this case huge, but it’s also very heavy too. I’ve never struggled to take photos of a product before, and I was sweating after having to move this beast around.
Many companies, including Abit, has known for quite some time that HTPC systems of all kinds would soon be out there for the choosing. It's no surprise to see Abit systems paired up with many HTPC systems when you are configuring your components through E-tailers and Retailers alike. Abit has a new and aggressive look to their new flagship HTPC motherboard; the Fatality F-190HD.
The Koolance system on the top is the INX-720BK drop-in kit. This kit includes a radiator, 2 120mm fans, pump, and the reservoir all in one. The system fits perfectly inside of the P180 and actually the P180 is one of only a few cases this system can be installed in because it takes up the top half of the case where the power supply would be. The power supply is mounted on the bottom in the P180 case.
This is the Thermaltake LanBox HT we reviewed not so long ago here at Xtreme, this was chosen as it already uses a 2 way mirror on the front VFD so we thought we would continue that onto the side panel. So the first thing to do was to strip down the case and cut the side out with our trusty tools.
Since most PSU's now offer active power factor correction as a basic feature, it is rare to find a product that still uses the input voltage switch. There was a brief delay with this review when I first received the GlacialPower GP-PS550BP 550W ATX PSU because of the input voltage switch. As you can see from the image above, this unit shipped with the input voltage moved to the 230V selection. In eight years of system building, this was the first time I had ever received a PSU with the input set to anything other than 115V, so you might understand my confusion when the test system would start but not enter POST.
There's not much else to say about the Magic Drawers, except that they're made out of the tough, softer plastic polypropylene (you can tell by the feel, but also more accurately by the resin identification code [well, sure, if you don't want to do it the interesting way... -Dan]), rather than the cheap, ever-so-crackable polystyrene that's used for normal CD jewel cases.
When you first look at the Freezone it looks like your self-contained watercooling setup, however its actually a "water chiller", and uses "environmentally friendly coolant" to quickly remove heat more effectively than air or water can, all without any risk of condensation. All this comes pre-assembled and installs easily inside of your case, so there is no need to have hoses running out the back of your pc like with traditional watercooling solutions. The Freezone is also completely maintenance free so you will never have to worry about your fluid levels, you can just install the Freezone and forget about it.
Back in February of this year, we took a look at the AMD 690 series chipset and praised it for its affordability, power efficiency, and strong performance relative to its competition. AMD has since taken the 690 series chipset and optimized it further through some BIOS and software level enhancements that result in marked performance gains in a number of situations and also introduce some new features. We've got a motherboard from Gigabyte on the test bed that feature the latest updates and thought we'd compare its performance to the unaltered board we evaluated when the chipset was first introduced to see just how much the platform's performance has changed. Head on over to the site and take a look…
DFI built its "overclocker's paradise" image on its LanParty motherboard series, but Infinity brand has never been lacking in that department either; the only difference was the amount of bundled content and a few BIOS options. This time, it's the same old situation. The AWARD BIOS itself is something with enough reputation by itself, but just to make sure, we'll say it - it's top-class.
